Phronesis

2008 random forward thoughts

It's been an exhilarating and exhausting year. My biggest takeaway is that I can't do everything.

Well, I guess I could, but what's the point?

This year:

• Do less, do it better.
• Say no.
• More writing.
• More reading, cooking and gardening.

Reading and doing things online gives you the wrong idea. Most people are still struggling with skype and think that discussion forums are communities of practice.

I notice that I'm using many more Mac apps than free, Web2.0 ones .. what's my lesson in that?

My dance is in the interface between what's happening and what's possible - and both are equally flavourful ingredients in the stew of life and learning. My focus will be on the design of that interface. Let's see!

Smoothing the interface between face-to-face and online worlds

It's frustrating being around face-to-face people for too long. Same-time, same-place routines make me feel like a guinea-pig in a cage. Every now and then I turn on the computer, catching glimpses of the beckoning sounds and smells of the park while I'm stuck inside.

Christmas is great, but I can't wait to go home and play Big Universe.

And my main New Year's Resolution is going to be finding ways to more smoothly integrate the two .

Death . a celebration of life!

A friend just got a phone call from the doctor. The treatment for her advanced brain tumor has been successful. It has disappeared. Completely.

The news is almost too big to take in. The doctor rang on a Saturday evening because it was important that she knew.

We never talk about death. But it's part of our life. And our learning.

We die. That's important.

And it's not.

A lifestyle that fits you

The minimum wage in Portugal goes up to 426 euros a month in January making a post about lifestyle seem a luxury and, paradoxically, an essential. But I got thinking about it after reading Lee Le Fever talking Learning the Independent Lifestyle.

The only time I ever had a regular office-hours routine was back in 1981 (+/-) when I did a work-placement in Miss Selfridge. Since then I've been independent or worked in Higher Education.

Being independent, and loving what I do, I've always exaggerated my  working  hours - with the last ten years verging on the crazy (especially on the computer) as I focused on work in the morning, afternoon, night and weekend. And in the spaces in between.

But I always have the intention of taking at least a day off during the week to compensate. I imagined that I could go to the beach or to the shops when everyone else was at work. Or lie in bed until midday and work until 5 in the morning. Of course, that never happened!

More recently, as I've got better at building in time- away- from- the- computer and thought more about my quality of life, I've come to accept that I have a more healthy rhythm if I keep "normal" hours - with waking and food routines, shopping and days off within the same range as "everyone else" and with the day-off during the week being a choice rather than a routine. I also find that I operate better with a regular schedule of meetings and events.  I'm puzzled why that should be.

I think it's because I'm not very good at taking time off and it's too easy to give up the day-off during the week, if someone wants a meeting or if there are things on the to-do list. Perhaps regular routines also give a structure to the disorientation of traveling.

I also that it could be a survival strategy for overload. There  is so much of everything now - so many emails, so much information, so many projects and things to do, that being able to leave the structure of life (9 - 5, weekends ...etc) to something else, leaves me the freedom to do what I want within that structure. It's enough to know that I can extend and alter the schedule if I choose to, while in the meantime I find myself with more freedom if I play inside and extend an existing lifestyle rather than creating a new one.

Funny that!

Asynchronous time is not free

"Dear Beverly

I know you are very busy, so for that reason we can communicate through new new tools and electronic means.

Yours"

It serves me right. I find that as I try to reframe people's expectations about how much time I can invest in a project or a new set of relationships I get an increasing number of replies guiding me towards making better use of new online tools that will help us develop our communication.

Dear friends

The busier I am the more I rely on synchronous discussions and thinking on my feet. Asynchronous conversations are a luxury I no longer have. Furthermore, asynchronous time is time.

Gasp.
Did I really say that?

Could do better

The question of is it possible to blog AND work and have a life seems .... well, out of range.

That I'm not blogging can't be right. At the same time taking my first two-days-away-from-work-all-year seemed like a step in the right direction. But it left me with so much outstanding stuff that I had to wonder if it was worth it.

What is the correct ratio - between work: life: blog and other...?

Feeling stressed?

This will help. Click on it - you can have as many as you like.

 

How to reduce your to-do list

A friend passed on a tip from his father when I expressed my anxiety about the number of overdue items on my to-do list which threaten to overwhelm me.

He said you have three shelves: one for things that time will resolve, so you don't need to worry about them.  Another shelf is for things which are urgent. If they are urgent you don't need to worry, because people will bug you about them and then you can respond. You can then put the rest in order and deal only with them.

I'm going to try it.

In the meantime my Console is recording crashes every few seconds. Does anyone know if I should be worrying...?

Sex on my sleeve - or a public pastiche

I would like to imagine myself as someone who regularly listens to podcasts by Violet Blue about open source sex, but I'm not. Although I've got subscriptions to three podcasts my total podcast listening time in 12months clocks up to about ten minutes.

But I wasn't thinking of writing about my disconnect with podcasting, I was thinking of how I think my Skype mood message during all last night might have been ""Open source sex 52 - Violet Blue". I had downloaded MacBreak ("the first hi-def IPTV show all about the  Mac") which went into my podcasts in iTunes and fell asleep as the podcasts probably continued. My forgotten subscription to Violet Blue was the last in the list and stayed in my Skype mood message for colleagues in US to view my listening all night - and clients in Europe as they turned on their computers this morning for work.

(And some people on my skype list still think that I manually type in the mood message ...)

In my multimodal, multi-tasking life I find myself writing skype messages in the wrong text box, sending emails to the wrong people, copy-pasting wrong bits into wrong places ... a public pastiche of different parts of me appearing in unlikely places and re-creating a person that I am (not).

Is it just me or is it time to take a break?

What every woman should know about blogging

Just in case you don't keep up with Blogzira and were thinking of keeping or maintaining a blog: