Better than month 1. Only XE this month.

My first week I got a reminder to spend some time on XE, so I watched a couple modules of Jonathan Kehayias’s Pluralsight course.  A lot of review, but I thought I’d start with the basics and Jon knows more about this than anyone I know.

I spent a few days going through this. Some at my desk, but more while riding a stationary bike. This gave me the chance to actually sit and watch without being distracted by other items on the computer.

I got through about a third of the course, but I still have more to watch. I also took about an hour in two sessions to practice a few of the items, explore how XE is setup and build some questions for SQLServerCentral. This allowed me to feel good about the process.

Disruptions

The first couple weeks of February were good here. Unfortunately things didn’t continue. I had travel the last week of Feb and a number of meetings that required prep and I got off track in working through XE.

Even today, as Mar starts, I have missed an hour or learning time.

On the plus side, I did take 3 days of vacation in Feb, which took away work and learning time, but allowed me to recharge a bit. I’ll continue that a bit in March, so it’s possible that I might not quite get what I want here, especially as I have a number of weekend commitments this month.

This is a good lesson, allowing me to realize that I can’t count on adding to my busy schedule without having to make hard choices. Learning has been one of those lower priority items, though I am trying to continue growing in this area.