Kicking it in 2013: Part 2

Herewith my second goal post of 2013. (Part 1: goals one - five)

um, another goal post

Goal six - not worry about what Mr Phil Jewitt calls 'life leak'

I've written before about not really minding the increasingly blurry lines between personal and work. Recent frustrations on the work front made me re-evaluate that a bit. I was getting to the point where I did just want to do my day and forget all about work immediately on leaving the building. Couldn't do it though. I get inspiration for what I do at work from all sorts of places. Stuff I do out of work develops me as a person, which in turn, makes me more effective at work. It's not for everyone, but it works for me and I'm not going to worry about it.

Was just about to hit the publish button when someone tweeted a link to this post by Gareth Morgan, Assistant Chief Constable Local Policing for Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police. Go and read it, I'll wait 'till you get back. Good stuff, eh?

Goal seven - do some stuff I'm scared off

Probably not lava surfing or shark wrestling, but I do want to venture out of my comfort zone a bit more. An example is video. I hate - absolutely loathe - being filmed and I've no desire to be behind the camera. But, video is such an important medium for so much of what I do, I really, really, need to make an effort with it. T'other 'alf is a film-maker and it seems a shame not to take advantage of his expertise! 

Audio comes into this category as well. Never really got into podcasts and the sound of my recorded voice makes me squirm. But, like video, there may be occasions when it's the most appropriate medium of communication for what I'm trying to do/audience I'm trying to reach.

Goal eight - be more adventurous with my shoe wearing

bought myself these for Christmas :)

I've been seeing the word 'empathy' all over the place recently. I particularly like this post: 'Fitness trainer gains and loses 70 pounds in 1 year - on purpose'. 

I think I'm generally a nice person. I try to see all sides of an issue. But it is easier to be empathic towards those people whose ideas agree with mine. This one is kinda related to goal three. Some of those occasions where I've not communicated as well as I'd liked may have been down to a lack of empathy on my part. True empathy means learning to put aside a life time of cultural conditioning. That takes a lot of practice. If you're lacking in empathy, you're likely to misread what is transpiring in a situation and misunderstand the intentions of others. So, it's about asking 'am I saying or doing it in a way in which the other person will be most responsive to hearing and listening to me?'

Goal nine - finish stuff

I'm notoriously bad at starting stuff but not following through. Blog posts, projects, conversations get started but flounder and don't go anywhere. That's fine up to a point - a lot of the stuff that doesn't get finished probably doesn't deserve to be - but it's not a very efficient use of my time. When something piques my interest, I should be asking myself 'can really I add something here?'. If not, I should - as Jeff Jarvis would say - 'do what you do best and link to the rest' and maybe tweet a link and move on.

Goal ten - to be confirmed

Open to suggestions... ;)

Kicking it in 2013: Part 1

Never one to miss a bandwagon, I thought I'd get my blog back on with some goal setting. Goals, not resolutions, mind. Important distinction :) I wouldn't normally bother. For me, the 1 January thing usually feels a bit arbitrary (eg for work purposes, the start of the new financial year can be a more appropriate time to review and re-evaluate). But I do have lots of new stuff kicking off right about now, so it works for me this year. So here are some things I'd like to get a handle on in 2013:

Murrayfield: where my favourite goal posts of 2012 could be found :)

Goal one - be more organised

This is not a 'nice to have', it's an absolute necessity. I mentioned in my last post that 2013 was going to be a bit busy. Well, when I wrote that post I didn't know that I'd also be kicking off an MSc in Elearning (soon to be renamed 'Digital Education') this month. I used to be really good at organising my time. I worked full time while I studied for my LIS post-grad and also held down a part-time job. And I can't remember my social life suffering much. That was all down to time management*. Not sure what happened, but it's something I've got very lax about over recent years. Stuff has still got done - but I'm not sure quite how in some cases.

I'm aware that 'be more organised' is a bit vague (and about as far from being SMART as one could possibly get). I need to think it through a bit more (see goal four). Probably warrants a blog post all of it's own.

Goal two - knock my social media use into shape

Part of succeeding with goal numero uno, I think, will involve more focused use of social media. Erika Anderson - reacting to J. Maureen Henderson‘s recent post on Forbes, three reasons you should quit social media - lists three pretty sensible ways to do that:

1. Make social media serve you: decide what you want to get out of social media and use it only for that purpose.
2. Guard against zoning out: if you’re using social media for hours of daily pacification, you should probably turn off the computer and do something else!
3. Vet new tools before putting them in your toolkit.

I think I'm already pretty good at 1 and 3, but 2 is an issue for me.

Goal three - don't take things so personally

I kinda like this from Tony Dowling: "Everyone lies, everyone has an agenda and, ultimately, everyone will disappoint you" [the whole post: These things I know, is worth a read]. A bit harsh maybe, but managing your expectations of people allows you to deal with them better. Being aware that everything has a background and context, should enable me to be more open to the opportunities that present themselves, and more wary of potential slip ups. This is also about remembering that 'message transmitted is not necessarily the same as message received'! I need to ensure that the people I'm talking to (in whatever context) know what I'm talking about. I don't think I've been as good at that as I could be. There's also an element of being better at taking responsibility for myself and my actions. It's not someone else’s fault that I've failed at something. That one single thought can be so destructive. 

Goal four - make time for thinking things through

Another pearl of wisdom from Tony Dowling: "The only truth you can achieve is truth you achieve through intellectualisation". This one is inspired by a post from Phil Jewitt. I've had an ongoing struggle with being reflective (see previous blog posts :)). But, as Phil says: "you can’t do more with less. You can be smarter with less and do less better, but more for less just won’t go. Thing is, if you keep piling it on there is less doing time, but more importantly less thinking time; mistakes are made, things get forgotten, stuff won’t happen". If that means actually 'doing' less, then so be it.

Reflection is part of the assessment criteria for my course, so that's another reason to be giving it some serious attention! 

Goal five - begin designing my life

Know where I am, where I want to be and how I'm going to get there. There probably needs to be a plan. And bench marking and plotting of improvements and such. The new job is partly about using design thinking to make my organisation more creative and innovative and, inspired by this post from Tim Brown, I can see where it might help at a more personal level: "We can have a sense of purpose without deluding ourselves that we can predict every outcome in advance, for this is the space of creativity. We can blur the distinction between the final product and the creative process that got us there. We can learn how to take joy in the things we create. We can work within the constraints of our own natures—and still be agile, build capabilities, iterate. We can conduct experiments, make discoveries, change our perspectives."

OK, I'm going to stop there. I think there are additional goals I want to add, but, with goal one in mind, I allocated myself a specific amount of time to write this post and I'm now out of time. Hence this is 'part one'.


* I got by on a lot less sleep back then. That may also have helped...

Getting back on board the blogging bus

I've had a rather frustrating couple of years on the professional front. The details aren't really important, suffice to say, there's been a lot of 'dealing' with disappointment. The last six months in particular have been a bit grim, a knock on effect being the almost complete drying up of my social media activity.

But things are looking up. I'm about to start a - potentially very exciting - new job and I'm feeling more positive generally. So, I'm easing myself back into Twitter and I'm hoping to get properly back on the blogging bus in the new year. I haven't had 'the talk' with my new line manager yet, so I don't know how much I'll be able to say about what I'm doing. [NB. This is not about abandoning #jfdi! It's not about asking permission, more about starting off on the right footing. :)] I'm fairly confident that the nature of the post means that the team will be keen for me to share. Watch this space!

In the meantime, my 'extra-curricular' activities are bubbling away nicely. Here's some stuff that's happening:

• Me and t'other Scottish Public Sector Digital Group ladies are planning some activities for next year that'll knock yer socks off! Join the Knowledge Hub group (if you've not aleady) to get advance notice of events, etc.You'll also get lots of other Scottish public sector digital news, views and other good stuff. For free!

• TeacampScotland is taking a well earned break over the holidays, but should be back in February with renewed tea-fueled vigour (and possibly a shiny new interwebz gizmo).

• Tonight (10 December) I'm heading to Spoon Cafe for a meeting of prospective social media 'surgeons' to talk about getting social media surgeries up and running in Edinburgh early in the new year. If you're interested, please come along.

• I've submitted an abstract for the 'Beyond Information Matters' theme at the Umbrella 2013 Conference, which takes place in Manchester in July. My proposed paper picks up on what I'd hoped to present at last year's Online Conference, but didn't, cos I was unable to attend.

• Chandos Publishing have approached me about writing a book for them. I have some ideas and am chatting to a few folk about collaborative works. But, if there's a information science/management/literacy book that you think needs written, please let me know!

• And last, but by no means least, I'm having conversations with folks that will hopefully result in one or more 'Camps' taking place in Scotland next year. 

Hopefully that'll keep me out of trouble for the foreseeable future!