Working cycles and good habits

As an Collaboration and Content Strategies Analyst for the Burton Group my work life has become cyclical process. The cycle starts with a slow ramp up period investigating a specific topic, moving into a more interactive period of working with teammates on developing my thesis, followed by intense periods of heads down writing and analysis which, once finished throw me back into lighter times of regrouping and starting on a new idea. Presently I'm in a ramp up period, 2nd gear if you will, as I research my next report on SharePoint Designer and put finishing touches on my last report on Enterprise Messaging. I thought this would be a good opportunity to start the blogging habit.

Prior to joining Burton Group my work life was much more random as a consultant where I was always "on deck" for my clients. The cycle is a nice change. I can actually plan my work life now! While I miss some of the daily interaction with customers, I thoroughly enjoy the daily interaction with technology, the people who are instrumental in making it happen, and helping users understand what's going on in the marketplace. It's a wonderful position to be in and I am thrilled to be here.

I am officially a collector now. My work is a cumulative process where I pick up information and gather tidbits as I go along. Keeping up with information and being able to easily access references is always a challenge. It requires me to tap into my youthful days collecting shells, my college years cataloging library books, the organization skills I learned in various administrative and management positions, and the access I have to tools that can help me in my research activities. Since I cover communication, collaboration, and content technologies at the Burton Group I am well positioned to explore tools that can help with all of these tasks.

This blog is one of those tools I expect to help me collect information, share my thoughts with others, and collaborate with others who are interested in the same. My career has always been connecting dots, be it for myself or others. Some of dots I plan to present here will exercise thoughts and opinions, some will ask questions and hopefully elicit a dialog and other dots will be simply to inform or add to my collection for future reference.

Right now I am re-reading a wonderful book: "The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life", by Twyla Tharp, the choreographer. One part of her thesis is that all creative people have some sort of cataloging system for saving and recalling information/inputs that inspire them. The system doesn't have to be scientific (and typically isn't) and may seem odd or even disorganized to the critical eye. However, the system is crucial to the creative process and must be habitual in order to be effective. So in the spirit of new-year resolutions, I'm starting a new habit, Connecting The Dots.