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>

For Those Who Are an Overnight Success and For Those Who Aren’t a Video Series From Chris Brogan

November 13, 2009 · Posted in Innovation, Reputation, Time Management, Video · View Comments

These videos are from Chris Brogan’s Over Night Success Series. There are 9 videos total covering topics such as Grinding vs Clocking – Time and the Overnight Success, Pity Party, Small Talk is Big, Belief Systems, The Competition, What it Takes, No Excuses & A Call to Arms. These videos are great even if you aren’t an over night success, even if you aren’t a success.

These 3 are my favorite (although it was hard to pick)

Take time off – I’ve said it before you need your down time but I’m always happy to point out when others say the same thing. :-)

Don’t believe the hype – I included this one because Chris says – by over night success I mean 10 years of hard work.

Here’s another bag of money – on excuses. We all make excuses that become between us and our goals. Decide what your priorities are. Stop making excuses.

Tags: <.success, belief, beliefs, competition, excuses, grinding, hard work, Innovation, pity party, Reputation, Time Management, time off, Video, work, working>

Your Inbox Is Not a To-do List

August 3, 2009 · Posted in Time Management · View Comments

I’ve been talking and thinking about time management a lot lately (the fabulous Brenda Hough and I are doing a prefconference workshop about it at Internet Librarian) so when I saw this from Zen Habits I knew I had to share it

Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List: a very brief summary

You can’t change the subject lines
There might be multiple actions in each email
You can’t re-order the emails (usually)
You can’t prioritize your to-dos
An email inbox contains distractions

Go read the whole thing for explanations and suggestions on tools to use for a to-do lists.

Tags: <action, list, productivity, tasks, Time Management, to do, work>

What can you accomplish in 1 week of Web2.0?

February 23, 2009 · Posted in Time Management, Web 2.0 · View Comments

Nina Smith created this awesome graphic to go with her post How much time does Web 2.0 take? One of the most common questions or protests new comers to web 2.0 have is about time. Nina shows how much you can accomplish based on your time commitment. She’s broken it down nicely in the blog post, too.