I haven’t abandoned this, make no mistake. The new company line has been taking over my time. I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts between products, marketing opportunities, and which direction to take the business now. As you might imagine all of these things can add up very fast and without my trusty notebook I might forget more than a few ideas.

Yesterday I had a chance to get back into the trenches of the new work though, which is great. Every time I actually get to produce something I get empowered and motivated to keep going. The master plan keeps growing without end (good thing?), but what it really comes down to is each product I design, produce, and add to the inventory.

This upcoming weekend I get to hit the streets and try marketing in person on a very small level. Time will tell what comes of it, but I’m hopeful.

I have a Prosper update coming up in a few days, was going to include it here but the site is currently down for maintenance.  :\

This is hardly personal finance related, but it is a new goal I have come up with as well as getting a few of my friends interested. During a football game this weekend, one of the announcers said that one of the players had done over 100,000 push-ups over the past year in training. That is a sick amount of push-ups and I’m in no shape to get near that number. Instead I have come up with a personal goal of completing 10,000 between Sept. 1, 2008 and Sept 1, 2009. I am using google docs to keep track of my progress and have added the goal to my list. I know its only a measly 29 push-ups a day, every day, for a year. Even so, its additional physical training I wouldn’t do otherwise and its a goal on the lighter side of things.

If you would like to join in the challenge, I would be happy to add you to the spreadsheet and make you a collaborator on the document.

This week my new tools and supplies have come in, so it has been a very exciting week. I keep catching myself from getting ahead of myself in all of the possible plans. Part of me wants to rush out and buy tons of supplies and set up websites etc. That would probably just result in me ending up with a bunch of unnecessary stuff lying around, which completely negates how I have been pushing myself to live and in this case, work.

For now I need to take my time and really understand what it is I am doing and learn some new software. Tonight was the first test and it was a moderate success. I can tell I already have a lot to learn but am also excited that I have the chance. Once I feel comfortable enough about what I am doing and really plan to start selling, I will have more detailed and *revealing* announcement.

This goes with what I have said before about doing your research before you rush into things. Taking the time to make a smart decision can create a higher chance of success and reduce decision remorse.

After spending some time looking around and doing some research I think I am on the path to add a new wing to Sprocketbox Ltd Co. I don’t want to promise anything yet but currently I’m developing a plan and gathering a list of materials I will need before I get started. I don’t have any plans for the new addition to become some end-all get-rich plan, but I think it will be fun and possibly semi-profitable. More details to come you can be sure, for now I need to get back to my R&D.

Over the past weekend I ventured into the darker corners of my home to review a large amount of “stuff” I wasn’t using. I had been moving and shuffling these same boxes around for a few years, always planning to “get to it later.” Today was the day to open them up and discover what “treasures” lay inside.

I used a basic criteria for deciding to keep an item:

1. Have I used this in the last year?
2. Do I have an immediate use for it now?
3. Is this valuable monetarily and easily re-sold?

If I answered yes to any of these questions, the item remained. If not, into the pile it went. Using this strategy, I was able to remove three large boxes full of junk from my home. The most common items were small useless trinkets, notes from college (that I’ve never looked at since), and packaging from electronics I’ve bought.

Other notable positives from the work:

• Extra storage space in guest room closet.
• Found a complete Dremel tool in box I bought 4 years ago.
• Decided to sell my old TV and VCR on craigslist for a small profit.

After this experience, I think I should do this more often. Is once a year enough to remove all of the junk we accumulate?