Inbox Zero

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It has taken a few hours, but as of this moment, I am at Inbox Zero!

I am a strong advocate of keeping my Inbox small, but this week, in the insanity of the pre-back-to-school frenzy, things had gotten a little out of hand.  This morning, I have answered about 60 messages and added about 25 to-do items to my Tasks in Outlook.   Needless to say, I have a busy few days ahead of me, but at least now I have a consolidated list of what needs to happen.

If you are interested in some of how I make GTD work electronically, please read my previous post on that topic.

What does reaching Inbox Zero mean for me?  Basically, it means that I have mostly climbed out of a hole in which about 80 different things were crowding my mind.  I need to buy a birthday gift for my husband.  My boss needs a document prepped.  The agenda for the meeting needs to be online.  Can we do dinner on Thursday?  Each of these individual items is small, but the overall effect is a maelstrom of mental energy being sucked into an endless loop of gotta’s.  Gotta send that message.  Gotta return that call.  Gotta order that book.  This kind of thing can really knock your tech life balance out of whack (Note: This post is part of a previous blog entitled “Tech Life Balance.”).  Inbox Zero mean that I’ve started the approach back to centered.

The next week is full of excitement and constant motion.  We launch the new web page.  We train the faculty on the new system.  We discuss books, policies, and teaching ideas.  I’ll have a lot to do and even with GTD, a mind like water, and a great support network, I’ll feel like I need to bend the laws of physics to get it done.  I’ll be challenged to keep the tech life balance this week.  Soon I’ll dive in to tackling those to do’s.  But right now, I gotta stop for lunch.

Systems and Choices

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This has been a long and tricky week.  The week included gathering and manipulating upload data from 3 sources for a web upload, three full days of software training, three 4:45 p.m. conference calls with our web project manager, the “soft launch” or our website, and all of the usual business of a technology department with a one-to-one tablet program when school starts in three weeks.  I’m glad to have arrived at Saturday morning and to be sitting with my laptop and coffee to write a post.

In three days of training on our new databases and beginning to see how our new website will work, I’m realizing that I will have to make many choices in the coming week.  As the “Director of Technology and Information Systems,” I will need to determine how data is stored, used, and shared within our new database, new website, and existing systems.  With three systems for calendaring and resource reservation, which is best to use?  With two ways to display homework assignments for students and parents, which is best to use? How is it best to tie class wikis to our web systems?

I generally like this kind of challenge.  I enjoy figuring out the logistic of a project and designing systems to manage processes and data.  But, I must confess that this many choices needing to be made in a single week is enough to make one feel overwhelmed.   What to do?  Where to start?  GTD.

If I am to accomplish these tasks, as well as prepare for the training I will teach in 10 days, registration of students in 15 days, and the classes I will begin teaching in 21 days, I must remember to stay calm and return to GTD.  Today, I will probably not make any progress that appears to be directly related to these projects.  As you remember, the title of this blog is “tech life balance” and today is a “life” day (Note: This post is from a previous blog entitled “Tech Life Balance.”).  Instead of spending the day with my computer, I will buy groceries, get a haircut, have lunch with my parents to plan their remodeling project, do laundry, watch a movie with my husband, and outline these projects.  Tomorrow, I dive in, but I’ll have a plan.

David Allen suggests a weekly review and I must confess that I haven’t done one for several weeks.  I have over due items on my to do list and several lists scribbled here and there.  Today, I will consolidate, give myself new due dates, figure out what others on my team can do, and add to my list those items that will help me end next week with a plan for how my school will most efficiently utilize the tools they now have.

I hope that next Saturday morning, I’ll have had another busy, but productive week and that I’ll be enjoying a cup of coffee while I plan the weekend and the week of faculty orientation.  Enjoy your Saturday – I’m off to get a haircut!

Copyright Confusion Conquered

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Teaching concepts of copyright and fair use to teens – or anyone – has been a challenge for me for years.  I’m not sure why. Perhaps because it is complicated or because no one really every wants to hear that they can’t do something that they want to do.  Perhaps because I didn’t understand it well enough myself to explain it to others.  In any case, with multimedia projects on the rise, I wanted to be sure that I taught my twelve tablet campers how to stay within the bounds of copyright as we learned how to edit images, create slide shows, and use Premier.  I also wanted to keep in mind my vow to find ways to let students discover things on their own.   The lesson outlined below was by far the most successful one that I’ve ever used and took approximately 45 minutes.

Students will need internet access.

Step One: Independent Exploration: Using Specified sites to answer questions.

  • Students should visit

  • The should jot answers to the following questions.  I had them use OneNote on their new tablets to do this as practice with OneNote, but paper will also work fine.

    • When is something copyrighted?

    • Do you own the copyright on anything?

    • If something is on the Internet, does that mean you can always use it?

    • Read the following scenarios and decide if taking the action described is allowed by copyright laws and fair use guidelines.

      • Making a copy of a CD for a friend.

      • Using pictures you took on a family trip to Washington, D.C. in a school project.

      • Using images of three paintings by Monet in a school project.

      • Using a whole song by your favorite singer in a slide show for class.

      • Writing a parody of a song from your favorite band.

Step Two: Discussion

    Discuss each scenario taking time to explain fair use and public domain.

Step Three: How to find things you are allowed to use – Creative Commons

Step Three – Use it.

  • Give students a specific multimedia task that requires a particular type of license and have them find media that meets their needs:
    • A picture that can be used, unedited, in a presentation.
    • A picture that can be edited and used.
    • A video that can be edited as part of a video project.

We did this lesson on Wednesday, and followed it by using various media that fit the licensing needs to complete multimedia projects.  Students seemed to have a clear grasp on how to locate public domain and creative commons usable media and to understand the limitations and opportunities of fair use, as well as why it is important.

Finally.

Back to School Preview

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This year, my school is doing its first every “Tablet Jump Start Camp.”  I’m spending each morning this week with twelve new students going over the finer points of using different capabilities of their new Lenovo X200 tablets.  Additionally I get to answer their questions about our school.  So far it has been fun, and educational for me as well as my students.

One thing that I’ve learned about myself is that I’m very accustomed to the rhythms of the school year.  I am not used to teaching in July and while I’m enjoying teaching, I find that changing gears after the end of the half-day camp is slow and difficult.  During the school year, I can jump between classes, administrative duties, and home life moment to moment.  This week, it takes me almost an hour to get my bearings and get in gear for the afternoon of summer projects like our web site and database launches.

In my last post, “Don’t Panic,” I felt calm and ready to deal with the masses of upcoming projects and deadlines.  I’m still feeling pretty prepared, but I feel myself slipping into the trap of floating in that not-quite-caught-up area.  I spent a few years there, so it feels familiar, like a pair of jeans that don’t quite fit anymore, but that you remember fondly and try to wear anyway.

I don’t want to settle into the complacency and spend the next month preparing for school with slightly elevated blood pressure and four different to do lists floating in tote bags and under stacks on my desk.  So, tonight has been catch up night.  My inbox is down to 8 (it’s not zero, but I’ll take it).  My to do list is up to date and all in Outlook.  I still have a few things to do, but I’m in a better spot.

Now, if anyone can suggest a good site to explain electronic fair use to teenagers, send it on!

Don’t Panic

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“Don’t Panic” appears on the front of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the book of the same name, a balm to soothe the hysterical intergalactic traveler.  Once, trapped in a walk-in freezer at work, I read Don’t Panic” in big red letters – right beside incomprehensible instructions on how to escape the icy prison.  I think that it is key to note at this point that the words “Don’t Panic” have no meaning when you are locked in a walk in freezer at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon.  You become very certain that you are going to die, cold and alone, surrounded by many frozen lab samples.  Finally, in Disney’s Toy Story (an excellent film), at one point, Buzz tells Woody that this is no time to panic. Woody replies that “this is the perfect time to panic.”

Today, right now seems like the perfect time to panic.  My team must process 75 computers in 4 days.  Two new databases launch on Thursday.  A new website launch depends on a successful database launch.  On Sunday, we change mail servers and domain names and must embark on a process of migrating over 100 users.  Then, teachers must be trained on new systems.  Tablets must be distributed.  Over 1000 people must be given log-ins.  I must prepare to teach a new subject.

But, strangely, there is no panic.  I have GTD – I know exactly what needs to be done and by when (learn more about my GTD systems).  There is a plan and when the unexpected happens, we alter the plan and keep going.  David Allen uses the phrase “mind like water” to describe a state in which an event affects you like a stone affects a glassy-smooth pond.  There are a few ripples and then the system returns to equilibrium. At present, my mind is like water; still, calm, and ready to absorb any change that comes my way.

Now, I just have to stay this way until Labor Day.