Jason M. Hanley :: Custom Software Developer

I’m sure everyone noticed the large span of blank time during the summer MBA term with no postings. Well, I’m all done now and have the MBA, as well as a PMP (Project Management Professional) designation. With how busy I’ve been over the past year, I thought it would be appropriate to post the following story, which has been around the net in various forms for quite a while. I found this one at http://blog.thylmann.net/2003/10/there_is_always.html.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up the remaining space. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous ‘yes’.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the space between the sand particles. The students laughed.

Now, said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. ”
“The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favourite passions - things that if everything else were lost, and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff.

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out to dinner. Go out with friends. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the washing. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers.”

Tonight I looked over my calendar and tried to take stock of everything I have coming up as the term draws to a close over the next month. It seems that over the next 3 weeks, I have 7 reports, 6 presentations, 6 assignments, 2 final exams, as well as numerous meetings to make these all happen.

I feel like most of the projects have been well organized and are coming along well. There’s a whole lot of work that needs to get done, but I’m feeling much healthier and I think I will have the energy to make it through it.

That being said, I will probably be around ready to collapse by mid-April. But it’ll feel good to have everything done.

Well, so much for regular updates to the blog. It’s getting on towards two months since my last entry. I guess that reflects how busy things have been this term. Haven’t had much time to think about blogging.

February went by in the blink of an eye, as usual. I managed to get all my deliverables in before my Reading Week trip to Cancun. The trip was absolutely great: Lots of relaxing during the day and partying at night. The weather was awesome, with beautiful sunny highs around 30 and breezy and cool in the evening with lows around 20. I think I need to make a tropical trip a yearly event in mid-winter. It is so nice to get away from the dismal lack of sunlight and cold weather, even if for only a week.

As all good things, the trip came to an end, and things went sharply downhill. I’d had a slight cough the last day in Mexico, and didn’t really think much of it, until I started getting a fever on the plane ride home. By the time I arrived back in Waterloo, I had a full-on fever, chills, congestion and what turned out to be a pretty horrible flu. The night of my return, I passed out and slept almost straight for 20 hours. When I did finally get up out of bed again, I still had the fever and chills and felt pretty much like I was going to die.

Eventually the fever broke, and I was just starting to feel somewhat alive again when the cough came back with a vengeance. I was getting worse and worse and I knew I would have to get myself to the doctor’s. So on Friday my roommate and I went to the walk-in clinic. She was also really sick. We both ended up getting antibiotics. By Sunday the antibiotics had started doing their job and I was feeling a lot better. It’s now Tuesday, and I’m still coughing a little bit, but feeling much more alive. Which is a good thing, considering I now have to catch up from the week I was out for. Luckily there wasn’t too much due last week. I did miss a midterm, however, and the mark will be allocated to my final exam, putting a lot more pressure on the tail end of the course.

All in all, things are going ok, and I think I should be able to keep up with the hectic pace that March will bring with it, now that I’m feeling healthy again.

And perhaps I’ll even manage to write another blog entry before the end of term

I was kind of hoping this term would be a little lighter and let me focus on things like job searching and perhaps even take a short vacation. Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I only have 18 hours of actual classes (compared to 30 last term), but I failed to consider the group meetings and other projects I’m involved with.

On top of six classes (four of which have major group projects), I have a major group consulting project, a not-for-profit group project. And of course, I’ve volunteered to be the project leader / coordinator in most of the groups.

In my spare time, I’m captaining an intramural volleyball team, doing a research assistantship, and entering a business plan competition alongside a classmate called Launchpad 50K. For good measure, I’ve thrown in a software consulting contract for a previous customer that I just couldn’t say no to.

Up until recently I’ve been cutting back on non-essentials like eating and sleeping to keep up with the pace, but now I’m starting to get things organized and under control.

So please forgive me if I’m a little slow getting back to you this term. I assure you I will, in time! It just might not be until mid-February, when we have the Reading Week break…

It’s that time again.. My first class of the new term is tonight, and I can’t help but feeling that this semester is going to be very different than the previous one. Last term I had classes from 8:30 – 4:00 every day. This term, most of my classes are in the afternoon and evening. This seems to fit better with my natural sleep cycle My brain doesn’t tend to function very well before 10:00am.

Also, now that I’ve finished the eight core classes, I was able to focus in and choose six courses that are of great interest to me – two entrepreneurial, two marketing and two communications classes. On top of everything I learned last term, I think these will go a long way towards my long-term goal of working in upper management at a technology firm.