Alanz Eyes

Yawn…

May 5th, 2004 - Posted by Alan Howard

I'm tired.

I've been tired a lot lately, of evenings when I get home. It's because work has been so full-on in relation to the number of calls I've had to take, and the workload that's increased. It's all since I got back from my holidays.

They moved people to different groups, trying to create a more streamlined approach within the helpdesk, and putting the better people with the harder clients - those who are high-volume callers, usually with the hardest problems.

I guess I should feel happy about being put into that group, as it means they think I'm one of the 'better people'. I just wish that wasn't the case, and I wouldn't be as tired… *sigh*

I had a job interview yesterday for a job within Computerland, but in a different area. The role is to help develop and implement a new technology called Sharepoint Services, and to create documentation for it, and then to teach people at Computerland branches around the country on how to use it all. It's a two- to three-month secondment, and at the end of it, I'd go back to the normal job I'd do, but with extra skills that can be put to use as a support resource for Sharepoint. The possibility exists that the role could continue longer, depending on how the development and implementation turns out.

Put simply, Sharepoin Services allow better communication resourcing and teamwork within the organisation, by having a more streamlined approach to document sharing and corporate/client information. I think I did ok with the interview yesterday, but I'll find out either at the end of this week, or early next week. Wish me luck.

My budgeting is getting serious, as I rearrange it to drop down on unnecessary costs. I've been doing it for the past month now, and it's allowed me to see where my bad spending habits have been, and work at controlling them.

As I see what I'm spending in various areas, I can budget for those costs in future weeks, or decide that I really don't need to be spending so much on it, and budget accordingly.

I was downloading some professional personal budgets yesterday, and playing around with them in Excel, but I've found that they just aren't as effective as what I've created for myself. I did the same with Microsoft Money on the weekend, that I borrowed and installed from 'Princess'. It's all very nice and snazzy, but it just doesn't give me all the information I need on one spreadsheet, right in front of me.

Basically, I've set up my budget to take into account all income, and all expenses. I've set it up on a fortnightly basis, budgeting for each pay period. After the past two pay periods, I've now set it into two columns for future budgeting. One column is 'budgeted', the other column is 'actual'. I've got the 'budgeted' column organised for the next 7 months, until the end of the year. All I have to do now is make sure the 'actual' matches or is less than what I budget, and I'll be happy.

'Princess' was impressed with how I've set it up, and last weekend I helped her set up her own budget using my spreadsheet. She hates me now, 'cause she's discovered she can't buy as many clothes as she thought she could.

Hehehe

Entry Filed under: Pre-2006