Time Off for Reflection, Regrouping and Prioritizing

December 18, 2009 · Posted in Blogging, Chit Chat, Thinking Outloud, Time Management · View Comments

candles 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

Tags: down time, priorities, reflection, regrouping, Time Management, time off, vacation

Voting is Open for the 2009 Edublog Awards – Go Vote!

December 11, 2009 · Posted in Chit Chat · View Comments

Voting ends Wednesday December 18th. Yes even you library people. You’ll find some great new blogs to read and trust me there are names in there you’ll recognize!

The Edublog Award Categories….

Tags: awards, blogs, edublog awards, education, Librarians, Libraries, Twitter

My Nominations for the 2009 Edublog Awards

December 4, 2009 · Posted in Chit Chat · View Comments

My Nominations for The 2009 Edublog Awards are:

Best individual tweeter – Marianne Lenox and her blog
Best new blog - Emergent by Design by Venessa Miemis
Best resource sharing blog – Librarian in Black
Best librarian / library blog – The Unquiet Librarian by Buffy Hamilton

Deadlines for nominations is Tuesday 8 December! Then the voting begins, ending Wednesday 16 December! Award Ceremony: Friday 18. So make your nominations today! PS there are more categories than I listed.

Found out about the Awards on Information Wants to Be Free

Tags: awards, blogs, edublog awards, education, Librarians, Libraries, Twitter

On Weakness: Identify, Cope, Accept Mistakes Will Happen, Acknowledge, Correct, Apologize, Learn and Move On.

November 12, 2009 · Posted in Blogging, Chit Chat · View Comments

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?

Tags: error, errors, mistake, mistakes, spellcheck, spelling, weakness, weaknesses