Friday, November 7, 2008

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming

The one thing I am hearing from the libraries at the moment, is that motivation is a problem. In particular, the following two issues:

1. "I am just not getting into it/I don't have time."

My advice to you is to do SOMETHING Web2.0 every day. That's where to get started. If you read one blog, check your Facebook/MySpace account, upload one photograph, post one blog yourself, look at Flickr or YouTube, answer one question on Answerboards, edit/read the wiki once... any of these things, once per day, every day will get you kicked off. You will find yourself finding information or tools to help you get into 23 Things and that will save you time in the long term. I promise you, if you start with one small step each and every day, before long it will become automatic and it will grow. Commit yourself to one Web2.0 interaction every single day.

2. "I just don't know what to say on my blog."

This one is easy. Open up your blog post box, and start typing, about anything. Or put a video/photo/link in it that interests you and then start talking about it. Just start typing. You can always edit it before you hit "post" and once you start, you've got over the toughest part. If you think of things you could post on your blog at other times of the day, scribble them on a post-it note or in your diary, and save it for later. That's what I did with the quote in my blog post today (http://kathx23.blogspot.com/). I read a groovy quote yesterday, I copied and pasted it into an empty email and sent it to myself for "later". I do that with all sorts of things, pictures, videos, links to cool stuff, you name it. I jot it down or email it to myself and save it for when I can sit down and blog. And there is a really good book in our collection by Margaret Mason called "Nobody Wants to Know What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog." I really encourage you to borrow it and have a look. It's lovely and simple, fun and really helpful when the inspiration just won't come. I just randomly open a page and use the idea that I land on.

The main thing is to keep going with 23 Things. As the great wise fish Dory in Finding Nemo says, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."



(She speaks whale you know).

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Keep 'em moving! You're doing great, like a determined heeler nipping at the heels of reluctant sheep!

Sleepydumpling said...

Somebody's gotta keep up the momentum!

Jo said...

Kathryn Greenhill says to try for 15 minutes a day in this great presentation. The program is so worthwhile and has the ability to revitalise the way we 'think' and 'do' libraries.

http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/09/11/finding-time-and-reasons-to-learn-about-emerging-technologies/

tubetrain08 said...

Oh Kath - you're just so inspiring. I've just taken time out today to catch up with my google reader. (over 1000+) The beauty of finishing the modules is that now I can enjoy all the wonderful rss feeds, websites, photos and blogs discovered along the way. Just reading everbody's blogs and discovering sites I'd never thought of visiting is re-motivating me. It's quite a treat. So far this morning I've discovered new genealogy sites from "I'm Sailing", a free gifs site from "Christy" and looked at beautiful photos of "Lydia's Little Adventures". The 23 Things Blogs are becoming more interesting than the web itself. Well must keep skimming through my "googlereader". Ciao