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After Action Report, Monday, 3/4/2019

I have found that writing a daily after action report is an incredibly valuable way to improve how I approach each day. The way I break the after action report down is into four major sections: Planned Actions, Actual Outcomes, Deviations, and Lessons Learned. Planned Actions describes the planned action for the day. Actual Outcomes describes what actually transpired throughout the day. Deviations describes WHY and HOW the Planned Actions and Actual Outcomes differed, because it means that my plans weren't carried out how I envisioned them and it's important to try and understand why that happened so I can, ideally, prevent my plans from getting derailed again in the future. Lessons Learned describes what lessons I can take away from the day.

I believe that when writing any piece of reflection that attention to detail and honesty are the two most important things to abide by. I will do my best to exemplify those two qualities here.

Planned Actions

The planned actions to be carried out on Monday, 3/4/2019 were conceived at around 8pm on Sunday, 3/3/2019. They were roughly outlined on a piece of college ruled paper in one of my old battered college class notebooks. I posted the plan onto Facebook at roughly the same time the plan was conceived. The plan will be recanted here, for completeness's sake:

  1. 4:30am: Up. Gym.
  2. 5:30am: You know the routine. Breakfast, S.S.S.
  3. 6:18am: Out the door and at the bust stop.
  4. 7:00am: Work!
  1. 3:35: On bus. No overworking!!
  2. 4pm: Home. Food, laundry, fun business.
  3. 5-7pm: Reading or Writing.
  4. 7-8:30pm: Wind down. No screens before bed.

Actual Outcomes

  1. I awoke at 4:32 on Monday, 3/4/2019, as evidenced by my watch and the meta-data attached to this image. watch
  2. I had arranged my workout clothes by my bed the night before so they were near enough for me to throw them on, lace up my shoes, and head to the gym in short order.
  3. I attacked my workout. Today's workout comes from a program called Athlean-X, and, with no more than 30 seconds of rest in between exercises, consisted of the following routine:
  1. I finished my workout at 5:11am as evidenced by the meta-data attached to a douchey selfie I took at this time. what_a_douche
  2. I S.S.S'd, which stands for Shit, Showered, and Shaved but really that's just shorthand for showering, brushing my teeth, shaving, getting dressed, putting in my contact lens, strapping my watch on, lathering my sexy beard with oil, etc.
  3. I packed my work stuff into my bag which includes two books, About Face by David Hackworth and 12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson, and my work laptop, notebook, and pens.
  4. I headed out the door at 6:18am and arrived at my bus stop at 6:22am as evidenced by the meta-data attached to the photo below. I always give those two American flags a nod before stepping onto the bus to express my gratitude for our great nation. bus_stop
  5. The bus arrived on time at 6:28am. I said good morning to the bus driver and found my spot. Usually I'll allow myself to take a short nap on the 30 minute ride to work or I'll stare out the window. This particular morning I was in a contemplative mood so I posted this short observation to Facebook at 6:49am.
  6. At 7am I arrived at my desk and arranged my things. I Ran down for coffee at Starbuck's like the basic bitch that I am.
  7. 7:30-9:30am: I worked a piece of a project for my job.
  8. 9:30-11:45am: I worked on completing a piece of a different project for my job.
  9. Lunch at 11:45am. I had an scrambled egg wrap with all sorts of good shit in it and a chocolate milk too.
  10. 12:30pm-3:15pm: Worked on work.
  11. 3:15-3:25pm: Gathered up my stuff in preparation of getting on the bus.
  12. At 3:30pm I boarded the bus home.
  13. 3:35-4pm: I bullshitted with the bus driver on the whole ride home. He likes mixing cock-tails, his new truck, and talking about haunted houses.
  14. 4-5:45pm: I made two bun-less burgers and had a bowl of kale with no dressing.
  15. 5:45-6pm: Headed out the door to attend part of a University of Minnesota Alumni meeting since I am contemplating getting a master's degree there.
  16. At 6:10pm I arrived at the "Barcamp" meeting at Fulton Beer, located at 414 6th Ave N.
  17. I ate some free food (nacho themed buffet), drank a free beer, watched a presentation on giving presentations, and then got bored, gave away my 2nd drink ticket to someone and left.
  18. At 7:30pm I arrived back on my apartment and sat down to start writing this report.
  19. Quit writing this after action report at 9:40pm.

Deviations

  1. I estimate I probably looked at my phone 40 times for an average of 10 seconds each time which means I wasted 40 * 10 = 400 seconds = 6 and 2/3 minutes on looking at my phone at work. That is probably a, ahem, "optimistic" estimate, however.
  2. My plan to do things at home today didn't pan out because I had decided that it would be a good idea for me check out what vibes the graduated Alumni of the MSSE (Master's of Science in Software Engineering) program at the University of Minnesota would give off. The truth is I wasn't that impressed but I'm too tired to finish this reflection and give my full and honest thoughts on the matter at the moment.
  3. Speaking of that, I massively underestimated the time it would take to write this after action report. I should've been in bed by 8:30pm according to my plan but it's 9:30pm and I'm still chugging along. Other than those three deviations, I stayed pretty tried and true to my plans for the most part. Today was a pretty solid day as far as sticking to the plan.

Lessons Learned

  1. If I'm going to write an after action report at the end of the day I need to schedule it into my plan so I'm not up past my bed-time writing sloppy slosh like this. I broke my rule of no screens before bed because of this lack of planning.
  2. Nerds make me cringe but the free beer made the "Barcamp" worth it.