Time Off for Reflection, Regrouping and Prioritizing
I am taking the next two weeks off. Your regularly scheduled blog posts will resume on January 4th 2010. Why?
The short version – It’s the holidays, things are slow and it’s always good to take a break.
The long version – I need time to regroup and realign my priorities. Lately I’ve been scrambling like mad to keep up, I feel like I’m letting everyone around me down, including me. There are emails I haven’t returned, emails I haven’t written. I feel disconnected from my friends on Twitter and Facebook. Work takes up a large part of my personal time. I’m beginning to feel a little dazed and confused, like I’ll never be caught up. This is a red flag for me, time to take two steps back and regroup. I was already considering it when I downloaded What Matters Now from Seth’s blog. As I read through it this week so many passages struck a chord, professionally and personally. It confirmed what I was already thinking, I need to pause and regroup.
I am publicly declaring my holiday for two reason, the first so regular readers will know I haven’t disappeared, I haven’t run out of things to say (never!) and I will be back. Second, publically declaring it will help me stick to my plan, I’m not going anywhere so nothing external will change, but I need to slow down and take a breathe. That means no feedreader (and when I get back they ALL get marked as read), a more personal focus on Twitter and Facebook. It will be hard not to click on links posted by others so I may have to give up Twitter too. Disconnecting will be hard, but I also know how much I need it. The end of the year is a perfect time for reflection and regrouping, though I don’t do New Years resolutions.
So what will I be doing? reflecting, prioritizing, hopefully recharging, clearing my head, goal setting, deciding on boundaries and limits, reading, writing and thinking. So I leave you with these things to ponder for the next two weeks between turkey and presents and confetti and champagne
From What Matters Now:
- “…constantly we fear we are not doing enough.”- Ease, Elizabeth Gilbert
- “The echo chamber we’re building is getting larger and louder.” – Connected, Howard Mann
- “Leadership is more than influence. It is about reminding people of what it is we are trying to build – and why it matters.” – Vision, Michael Hyatt
- “Be honest, be authentic, and speak from your passion.” – Speaking, Mark Hurst
- “Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do.” – Poker, Tony Hsiech
- “…the ability to draw lines and boundaries within which we protect and preserve the mental and emotional space to do our work and to be true to ourselves.” Tough-mindedness, Steven Pressfield
- ” You are immortal. The result of everything you do today will last forever.” Forever, Piers Fawkes
- “What IS working, today, and how can we do more of it?” Change, Chip and Dan Heath
- “Forget about working on your weakness -> focus on supporting your strengths.” Most, William C. Taylor
From elsewhere
- Want to Innovate? Stop Working So Hard
- 11 Refreshing Ways to Bring Out the Awesomeness in Life
- How To Level Up
- Coding Simplicity: How to Avoid Feature Creep in Your Life
- How To Focus On What Truly Matters
- Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
On Weakness: Identify, Cope, Accept Mistakes Will Happen, Acknowledge, Correct, Apologize, Learn and Move On.
CC image used courtesy of tv on Flickr
Yesterday morning I stood in front of a group of people and told them to admit their weaknesses, which of course has me thinking about mine. I did this during a time management workshop, so the example I be used for myself is how bad my memory is and how I cope with that. Tuesday another of mine was brought to light on this blog so what better place to admit it than here? (Don’t worry this isn’t going to become a tell-all platform for my over-indulgences in coffee and chocolate. )
I can’t spell. Well clearly I’m capable of writing, but I am not good at spelling. I’m sure my grade school teachers and my Mother would be horrified to hear me publicly admit it. If it weren’t for spell check built into word processors and many web browsers I’d be in real trouble. I often look up words, both in a dictionary and in a thesaurus (ok and Google). It’s also very common for me to leave out words or not notice when a correctly spelled word is not correctly used. No I don’t make the there their they’re error, but I might not notice that I’ve used you instead of your. I will never be an editor or a proof reader. I am deeply envious of friends who’s undergraduate degrees are English, their skill and comfort with language is amazing to me.
What should have been a happy occurrence for me, the retweeting of my blog post, instead felt like public humiliation. As soon as I’d posted it to Twitter I saw the error (seeing it in a different context did it I think) I corrected the title (but I couldn’t correct the permalink or the links wouldn’t work, so permanent reminder) Every time someone retweeted it without correcting the You to Your, I cringed.
The point about admitting your weaknesses is it allows you to take steps to correct or compensate for them. When I write for my library I have a proof reader, almost every time. If I’m writing a paper or putting together a presentation, I get a proof reader. When I’m commenting online I try to reread very carefully before hitting publish, it doesn’t always work. When it comes to this blog it’s a little harder to find a proof reader in a timely manner. Instead I try to write all of my posts at least a day before and reread in the morning (I found 7 errors this morning). I also proof read them in the “preview” mode somehow this helps errors stand out. Errors still happen.
What do I do when I still make a mistake? I cringe, acknowledge it, correct it immediately, hope no one thinks less for me for it, vow to do better next time and move on. It also seems to make me more tolerant of this type of mistake in others (misspell my name and it’s a whole different story). I think the correct way to handle them is to politely and kindly point them out, allow them to be corrected and move on. The end.
So that’s my approach: identify your weaknesses, cope with it, accept mistakes will happen anyway, acknowledge them when they do, correct them, apologize if necessary, learn from what happened (just because you acknowledge doesn’t mean you stop trying to improve) and move on.
What is your approach? We all have weaknesses, what are yours? How do you handle them?
Put Down the Phone and Pay Attention
CC image courtesy of Lights Out Photos on flickr
Last week I (and many others) spent a lot of time documenting the Internet Librarian conference, photos, tweets, blog posts, facebook updates. Did the act of digitally documenting the events change anything? Did the process of lifestreaming change my (and others) behavior, perception of what was happening and memories of it. Will we remember it better or worse?
A recent article from CNN Do digital diaries mess up your brain? looks at the effects of lifestreaming. Just knowing others are watching you may change the types of experiences you choose to have, from books to movies to where you eat and what you wear.
“If we have experiences with an eye toward the expectation that in the next five minutes, we’re going to tweet them, we may choose difference experiences to have, ones that we can talk about rather than ones we have an interest in,” he said.
It also detaches you from what’s happening at the moment. If you’re focused on tweeting what’s happening, you’re not fully engage in what’s happening.
But recording everything you do takes people out of the “here and now,” psychologists say. Constant documenting may make people less thoughtful about and engaged in what they’re doing because they are focused on the recording process, Schwartz said.
What does that do to our actual memories of events? Memories are shaky at best even when you’re completely focused. If you’re only half there, will you remember it later without the aid of digital documentation? What would I rather have a memory of something or documentation of it to prove I was there? What if that documentation goes away?
It makes me think, I do want to be living and experiencing life to the fullest. Does this mean I’ll put down the camera, the cell phone, the laptop? I don’t know. Probably not at conferences, but I’ll be thinking hard about doing it in other areas of my life. What good is lifestreaming an experience if I’m not fully enjoying it?
CLENERT changes its name to LearnRT and gets a new site, what next?
Well, I’ll be blogging for them for starters! Along with the recent name change from CLENE to Learn the decision was made to move to a new site and add more bloggers. I’m thrilled to be included in the number and working with:
- Peter Bromberg
- Maurice Coleman
- Betha Gutsche
- Marianne Lenox
- Bobbi Newman
- Lori Reed
- Paul Signorelli
- Jay Turner
- Stephanie Zimmerman
The new blog/website, ALA Learning, will feature training and learning news, information, best practices and thoughtful discussion.
About the Learn Round Table:
- LearnRT, formerly CLENERT, is the Learning Round Table of the American Library Association.
- LearnRT promotes quality continuing education for all library personnel. We help you NETWORK with other CE providers for the exchange of ideas, concerns and solutions.
- LearnRT serves as your SOURCE for CE assistance, publications, materials, training and activities.
- LearnRT is your ADVOCATE for quality library CE at both the local and national levels.
- More information on the LearnRT
- LearnRT membership is only $20 on top of your regular ALA membership and includes a FREE membership to the American Management Association. More information on LearnRT membership
- Questions? Please contact: info@alalearning.org.
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- Feel free to quote blog posts and link back to the site. Please do not copy my entire post on your site. Thank you
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