Information Overload

Help and hope for friends want to cry when they open their inbox, tear their hair out over RSS feeds and throttle the next person who asks them if they are on Twitter.

I only discovered LiB today but have enjoyed what I read. Her point in the presentation about percieved lack of time really struck a chord with me as this seems to be what I am constantly telling colleagues about new tachnology. I really feel that it is not a case of not having the time, but of not using the time well, an hour spent learning how do use an application to do a job more efficiently is a great investment. My browser has a number of neat little bits of software which help me do my job faster and slicker, I've been using Xmarks since it was Foxmarks and it is probably the most useful piece of lit I've ever installed. I like to try out all the functions of new email programmes, new sofware I'm using to check I'm performing the task in the easiest, most efficient way possible. Even something as simple as evaluating your work methods once a month so see where you can make improvements , or using keyboard shortcuts can be a boon. If you've never tried it, hold down Alt and press Tab on a PC. Takes you to another place, can't promise it's a better place, but at least you didn't have to find your mouse under a heap of paperwork.

Some of my colleagues work incredibly hard but not with maximum efficiency, they don't prioritise tasks well, they are reluctant to deligate or experiment. There is an old chestnut about Brits being the hardest working but least efficient in Europe, I think there is some truth in it. I'm in work today becuase it is my rota'd Saturday, I'm using it to catch up with library blogs; sometimes I may load data on a Saturday morning, I never use it to do my normal tasks, which frankly I spend enough time doing Monday to Friday. I can bet though that there will be some colleagues in, unpaid, beavering away madly- how are you supposed to be refreshed on Monday when you don't switch off and relax properly at the weekend? I may feel I can talk about efficiency and the benefits of working smarter rather than harder, but when it come to being refreshed after the weekend or an evening at home, legs to stand on are in short supply.

One of my aims next year is to take more time to relax. Currently, I make sure I don't take my work jhome with me but I do find if difficult to stop my self writing mental to-do lists late at night or prioritising my morning tasks on the journey in to work. I think tinkering with this aspect of my job, or rather my profession, over the weekend or of an evening is ok, but obsessing over the quotidian is unhealthy. (Note to self, stop thinking about UNIX.) Next year I'm going to try and switch off my machine and that part of my mind at 5.20, bore the missus less in the evening by talking about work.... ok, it'll be tough, but I'm sure I can find something else tedious to bore her with.

When is Twitter not Twitter? When it's Facebook? (part of import week)

Fab article I read today:

http://citizenl.net/2009/03/why-twitter-is-not-facebook-and-why-some-people-think-it-is/

I'm going against the grain here as I picked this up from someone I'm following on twitter and retweeting it for the benefit of Facebook friends and colleagues. I don't think that implicit and explicit networks are immiscible, but I do think it is a one way street: I might want to spread some techie/geek/librarian news to a wider audience, but I certainly wouldn't want to direct my twitter followers to 'my mate's had a baby, LOL!!!*'

When I first started using twitter it really was just a feed, a regular update of your activities and ideas. Aptly described as micro-blogging it allowed you to keep track of people, institutions, entities and even (I'm sad to admit I did) fictional characters. Increasingly I feel it is becoming more voyeuristic: I'm checking my TweetDeck to see if anyone has responded to my tweets, I'm responding to their tweets. It's less like following and creating a trail than it used to be.

COPAC has recently decided to follow all of its followers, allowing them -if they have the time- to keep an ear to the ground and find out what its users want. I've enjoyed being able to interact with them in this fast, informal way; I've had great results from it, results which have been invaluable in a work context. The BL and the UL haven't followed this approach and they don't seem to encourage direct messages. At first I thought it staid, but perhaps this is a more purist approach. I want institutions and certain entities (journalists, newspapers, for example) to provide me with information, I want to follow what's going on there; I don't really need them to be my friend.

Twitter more than Facebook is becoming the place where business and pleasure and meeting. I think if we keep in mind what we want from our explicit and implicit networks we can make this a useful mix of networks rather than a car crash.

* Yes, typing LOL!! was like dragging my nails down a blackboard.