Putting in all those extra hours, either from the office or home, isn’t helping you. At least not with creativity, innovation or those ah-ha! moments. Some of our greatest moments of insight happen where we least expect them to. From the Wallstreet Journal: It happened to Archimedes in the bath. To Descartes it took place in bed while watching flies on his ceiling. And to Newton it occurred in an orchard, when he saw an apple fall. From the same article but even more interesting: Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison. Of course it’s not as simple as just lounging about in your robe & fuzzy slippers. You have to prepare in order to enable those insights to happen. From Fast Company: The researchers found support for the idea that blinding insights favor a prepared mind–that is, you’ve got to really internalize the problem at hand if you’re to find any sort of solution. But to actually bring those insights to life, you’ve got to step back. More Readings A Wandering
Posts Tagged ‘ work ’
If you don’t love what you’re doing, do something else.
Last week an MLS student interviewed me for a project. The last part of my reply to her was this: Find a job you love. No one goes into librarianship for the money. We go into it for love. There a plenty of bitter, disenchanted people out there in all professions. If you don’t love what you’re doing, do something else. I think it bears repeating. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend
Your Inbox Is Not a To-do List
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. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend
2nd Annual Library Day in the Life Project
I actually hadn’t planned to keep doing this but when I announced my new job Emily Lloyd left a comment saying she couldn’t wait to read futre day in the life posts from my new position and that planted the seed. Emily’s on hiatus right now but hopefully she’ll particpate again. So I’m back from ALA and it seems like the time is right, so next week July 27th 2009 will start the Second Annual Library Day in the Life Project. What is the Library Day in the Life Project? well it started with this post suggesting that we blog what we do all day at work. Libraries are changing so rapidly and we all know no ones is reading books, despite what the public may think The idea being that you’re sharing an average day, so many of us don’t have an average day though so a lot of people did a week, me included. I maybe just do a day this time though, we’ll see. So how you particpate? Go to the wiki Create a PB Wiki (pbworks?) account (it’s free)! Add your name, your job title (so we can see what you do at a glance) and
Reading
