Modern technology has made it easier than ever for parents employed in technical environments to keep up with work at all hours and in all locations. This makes it possible to work a flexible schedule, but also may lead to problems with work/life balance and furthering unreasonable
expectations about working hours. Add to that shifting gender roles and
limited paid parental leave in the United States and you have potential for burnout and a certainty for anxiety. It raises the additional question of whether the “always connected” mindset puts up a barrier to some populations who otherwise might be better represented in open source and library technology communities.
This presentation will address tools that are useful for working parents in technical library positions, and share some lessons learned about using these tools while maintaining a reasonable work/life balance. We will consider a question that Karen Coyle raised back in 1996: “What if the thousands of hours of graveyard shift amateur hacking wasn't really
the best way to get the job done? That would be unthinkable.”
For those who are able to take an extended parental leave, we will present strategies for minimizing the impact to your career and your employer. For those (particularly in the United States) who are only able to take a short leave will require different strategies. Despite different levels of preparation, all are useful exercises in succession planning and making a stronger workplace and future ability to work a flexible schedule through reviewing workloads, cross-training personnel, hiring contract replacements, and creative divisions of labor. Such preparation makes work better for everyone, kids or no kids or caretakers of any kind.
10 Practical Ways to Be More Efficient at WorkWeekdone.com
Efficiency has always been an ongoing process that you will keep fine tuning for the rest of your life. However, when it comes down to being efficient at work, there are whole industries coming up with solutions. We at Weekdone gathered the 10 best ways to be more efficient at work that we believe to be simple, practical and proven to make you more efficient at work.
The document discusses the myth of multitasking and provides evidence that humans are not capable of truly multitasking. It notes that when people switch between tasks frequently, it takes longer to complete the tasks and more mistakes are made. Additionally, research shows that multitasking can cause a 40% drop in productivity. While some people think they can multitask, studies show that only 2% of people are actually able to do so without harm, and chronic multitaskers perform worse on cognitive tasks overall.
1) Prioritize requests from your boss and your boss's boss above all others as they are highest in the company hierarchy and can directly impact your career advancement. Also prioritize tasks that have the biggest impact on business performance and your personal goals.
2) Delegate as much work as possible to empower your team to take initiatives and act independently in order to minimize your time spent and maximize efficiency. Push your team to take on harder tasks within reason.
3) Seek to automate repetitive tasks through technology and outsource non-core work to further reduce time spent on lower value activities. Know your stakeholders well and manage expectations on quality and deadlines accordingly.
You need a strong foundation in math to succeed in higher levels of math, get a good job, and manage finances. Math skills are required for many jobs and everyday tasks like cooking, and using math regularly exercises the brain. Developing math abilities in school helps open career opportunities and makes graduating and finding employment easier.
In this presentation I'll share 19 of my most helpful productivity hacks (including productivity apps, tips and techniques.) that have insanely boosted my productivity through my entire career.
Multitasking - The Good The Bad and The UglyTal Aviv
The document discusses the pros and cons of multitasking using examples from computing, project management, and an experiment. It shows that while multitasking may seem productive, it often leads to lower quality work and delays completion of tasks. Specifically, an example of managing three projects showed that multitasking resulted in all projects being delayed and lower overall profits than focusing on one task at a time.
Here are few ways to take hold of your day and accomplish more. It's easy to let time slip by and fall into a rut. Use a few of these tools to get more done and let MaidPro check cleaning off your list.
Time management is one of the biggest struggles in our day-to-day lives. How to balance work and personal life? How to make sure things get done? How to stay happy while doing so?
To help you we gathered 12 best techniques to help you with your time management.
10 Practical Ways to Be More Efficient at WorkWeekdone.com
Efficiency has always been an ongoing process that you will keep fine tuning for the rest of your life. However, when it comes down to being efficient at work, there are whole industries coming up with solutions. We at Weekdone gathered the 10 best ways to be more efficient at work that we believe to be simple, practical and proven to make you more efficient at work.
The document discusses the myth of multitasking and provides evidence that humans are not capable of truly multitasking. It notes that when people switch between tasks frequently, it takes longer to complete the tasks and more mistakes are made. Additionally, research shows that multitasking can cause a 40% drop in productivity. While some people think they can multitask, studies show that only 2% of people are actually able to do so without harm, and chronic multitaskers perform worse on cognitive tasks overall.
1) Prioritize requests from your boss and your boss's boss above all others as they are highest in the company hierarchy and can directly impact your career advancement. Also prioritize tasks that have the biggest impact on business performance and your personal goals.
2) Delegate as much work as possible to empower your team to take initiatives and act independently in order to minimize your time spent and maximize efficiency. Push your team to take on harder tasks within reason.
3) Seek to automate repetitive tasks through technology and outsource non-core work to further reduce time spent on lower value activities. Know your stakeholders well and manage expectations on quality and deadlines accordingly.
You need a strong foundation in math to succeed in higher levels of math, get a good job, and manage finances. Math skills are required for many jobs and everyday tasks like cooking, and using math regularly exercises the brain. Developing math abilities in school helps open career opportunities and makes graduating and finding employment easier.
In this presentation I'll share 19 of my most helpful productivity hacks (including productivity apps, tips and techniques.) that have insanely boosted my productivity through my entire career.
Multitasking - The Good The Bad and The UglyTal Aviv
The document discusses the pros and cons of multitasking using examples from computing, project management, and an experiment. It shows that while multitasking may seem productive, it often leads to lower quality work and delays completion of tasks. Specifically, an example of managing three projects showed that multitasking resulted in all projects being delayed and lower overall profits than focusing on one task at a time.
Here are few ways to take hold of your day and accomplish more. It's easy to let time slip by and fall into a rut. Use a few of these tools to get more done and let MaidPro check cleaning off your list.
Time management is one of the biggest struggles in our day-to-day lives. How to balance work and personal life? How to make sure things get done? How to stay happy while doing so?
To help you we gathered 12 best techniques to help you with your time management.
This document provides a career resource manual to help people through career transitions. It is divided into three main sections: spiritual transition, personal transition, and professional transition. The spiritual transition section focuses on seeking God's direction, clarity, and encouragement. It provides scripture passages, quotes, and tips for daily meditation. The personal transition section offers tools for self-reflection, managing time, setting accountability goals, and developing competitive strengths. The professional transition section gives guidance on career exploration, networking, resumes, interviewing, negotiating, and online job resources. The overall goal is to help those facing unemployment or underemployment take the next step forward each day through faith, personal growth, and professional development.
This is a powerful tool that has been vital in helping me focus and produce so I could move from a salaried teacher/coach making about $35,000 a year to becoming a successful entrepreneur, quadrupling my teachers salary and increasing my net worth to over a million dollars IN JUST FOUR YEARS!! more tools at www.claystaires.com
The document discusses various personal productivity strategies and tools for managing information overload and staying focused, including using a fixed schedule, only handling emails and tasks once, maintaining an inbox of zero, and cultivating focus through techniques like daily meditation, note taking, and consistency in routines. It also contrasts the schedules of managers and makers, and emphasizes the importance of protecting focused work time to achieve meaningful goals.
The document discusses various theories and concepts related to motivation, including Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor's Theory X, and achievement motivation theory. It also outlines program objectives focused on leadership, feedback, and problem solving. Additionally, it defines motivation and lists what employees prefer in jobs, types of rewards, and intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Finally, it provides nine ways to motivate employees such as recognizing accomplishments, encouraging learning, and cultivating a positive work environment.
Part 1 (Use APA citations)This week’s Shared Practice requires y.docxkarlhennesey
Part 1 (Use APA citations)
This week’s Shared Practice requires you to consider what rewards have motivated you to perform in your professional career. Then, you reflect on your experiences to determine how you frame your primary motivation and purpose.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post a description of a positive professional experience when you felt motivated to perform at your best and a description of a challenging professional experience when you did not feel very motivated to perform. Be sure to include what were the sources of motivation in both experiences. Then explain what each experience taught you about the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on your performance and the motivations that are the main sources of job satisfaction for you.
As you are analyzing your motivations and sources of job satisfaction, consider the advice that was reportedly given to U.S. President John F. Kennedy:
"A great man is one sentence."
—Clare Boothe Luce
After you post your descriptions, write your one sentence that captures how you define your purpose or main priority on which you want to focus to make your organization, community, or the world a better place. Think about the legacy you want to leave or how you want to be remembered, or what makes you want to get out of bed each day.
Hint: Your sentence should emphasize how you want other to see you. For example, your sentence might be: Jane Rivera founded a company that gave back to the community and served a role model for young entrepreneurs. Or, Travis Williams’ family and friends could always count on his unconditional support.
Provide your assessment of why you chose your sentence and what it means to you.
Part 2
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
Respond to two or more colleagues’ posts in one or more of the following ways:
· Consider how motivational techniques shared by your colleague might work for you, but potentially not work for others. Explain your rationale.
· Share suggestions to a colleague regarding how she or he can work to accomplish the purpose captured in their sentence or observations you have made or examples you have seen of others who seem to be driven by a similar purpose.
1st Person to Respond to:
“People are motivated by good relationships with bosses, collaborators, and customers” (Maccoby, 2010). Working in a behavioral health setting, things change daily. You are not in control of these changes, because you are funded by Medicaid, which means as a company, we must follow these changes, or we face consequences. It is my job to do a quarterly check, where I must complete an audit on each client to make sure everything is in order and nothing is missing. I have a deadline to meet, so I push myself to get it done as early as possible. In doing so, I can get overwhelm easily, because I am checking over 150 charts to make sure everything is in order with no mistakes. Instead it motivates me to check every detail carefully, because I know as a comp ...
This document outlines key factors for success in a fast-paced business environment. It discusses the importance of: 1) having a well-organized structure and clear communication; 2) hiring enthusiastic employees and dealing with stress; and 3) managing time effectively and responding to change. The document provides tips for being proactive, prioritizing tasks, and developing routines to navigate interruptions and busy schedules. Overall, it advocates for organizational strategies, effective communication, and adapting to change in order to succeed in today's business world.
The document provides a 7-step method for gaining time management traction called "The Steering Wheel" which includes identifying to-dos, categorizing tasks, setting times, creating a daily schedule, printing the schedule, adding tasks to the schedule daily, and applying "pig-headed determination" to complete tasks. It emphasizes the importance of taking action by scheduling priorities and not just urgent tasks, and encourages carrying your schedule with you to stay on track. The steps are supported by numerous quotes about time management, productivity, and the value of simplicity and action.
This document provides a 4-step process for mastering time management. The 4 steps are:
1. Print off a daily schedule.
2. Categorize your to-do list into areas of responsibility.
3. Add to-dos to your daily schedule.
4. Apply "Pig headed Determination" to follow your daily schedule.
Lead Up Session How You Start And End Your DayMyles Miller
The document summarizes a lunch and learn session about how starting and ending your day determines what happens in between. It discusses how to distinguish between urgent and important tasks, put people first before plans and processes, and engage in daily review, re-evaluation and refocusing. Key points include carving out time each evening to prepare for the next day, prioritizing important non-urgent tasks, and focusing on relationships and helping others daily.
Keynote - Thomson Reuters Synergy 2015 Conference
In this inspirational keynote, Tom will show practitioners how to explore new value-added services and position their practices for success in a rapidly changing world. He'll discuss the major "shift change" and the trends shaping business today, and give participants a framework to provide more proactive services and strategic advice—and a plan to get started.
Tom Hood (Maryland Association of CPAs, Inc.)—Tom is passionate about three areas: leadership, learning, and technology. His recognition and awards reflect his leadership in helping CPAs "shape their future" through his work as the CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute, a center for the development of leadership, strategic thinking, and collaboration skills for CPAs. In 2013, Accounting Today said about Tom, "If there is a conversation about the future of the profession, you're bound to hear Hood's name mentioned as one of the people leading the way. Hood is doing as much as anyone—and more than most- to lead public accounting forward."
CPA Practice Advisor inducted Tom into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2015. He was named the fourth most influential leader in Accounting Today’s 2014 list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting (his tenth time on the list). LinkedIn recruited Tom as one of their Top 150 Influencers, and he was named to the Top 25 Influencers in Learning by HR Examiner.
(1) A meaningful mission statement identifies an organization's core purpose in 20 words or less in an aspirational way to guide actions. (2) A purposeful plan links daily activities and resources through outcomes to the mission. (3) Empowering evaluation measures program outcomes, compares results to an alternative, and is transparent to demonstrate impact. Developing these tools helps capture and communicate an organization's impact.
Bringing a Culture of Wellbeing to Nonprofit WorkplacesBeth Kanter
Beth Kanter discusses how nonprofits can raise more money without burning out their employees. She explains that burnout is caused by too many demands and not enough recovery time. Kanter advocates for implementing self-care plans and shifting organizational culture to prioritize well-being. Changing culture requires leadership commitment, employee engagement, and patience rather than quick fixes. When nonprofits focus on well-being, they benefit from lower costs, higher productivity, and a more motivated and resilient workforce.
Focus Your Priorities On Your Strengthsguest80f9c3
David Scurlock has experience in learning and organizational development, providing strategic alignment and direction to teams. Job satisfaction among employees has declined over the past few decades, with fewer workers finding their jobs interesting as incomes have not kept up with inflation and health costs have increased. Franklin Covey's Focus model emphasizes spending time on important priorities rather than urgent trivial tasks that do not contribute to goals.
Effective Time Management Techniques to Teach Your Employees | Webinar 09.22.15BizLibrary
Effective Time Management Techniques to Teach Your Employees Do we ever really manage time? It frequently feels like our work week manages us. The reality of effective time management isn’t to try and squeeze more and more productive minutes out of every day, but to find ways to focus energy and effort into those hours we allocate to work.Effective time management, however, is a competency we can master (and teach) that will improve the quality of our lives both at work and at home. In today’s complex world, we have more and more distractions and demands on our time, so it’s extremely important to master techniques of time management to make the most of a resource that is not renewable, never repeats and is limited each day. In this webinar we’ll provide effective time management techniques for yourself and your employees.
www.bizlibrary.com
Work life balance And Spiritual QuotientSudeep Malik
Does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic.
(must read the last article)
French law mandates at least five weeks of vacation. Australia provides both paid maternal and paternal leave. Denmark breeds work-life balance into their culture.
So why is American so out of touch? In stark contrast to these balanced regimes, Americans continue to pander through the workday. We extend our hours, snack on sad desk lunches, and forgo vacation to get ahead. But science says there’s a fatal flaw in our system…
Today, 70 percent of the American workforce is disengaged. The rat race mentality has left us sleepwalking through life — and it’s time to wake up. Join Joe Mechlinski, New York Times Bestselling author and speaker, as he introduces science into the great work debate. Joe will show you how to become better in tune with your three brains (head, heart, and gut) to help reshape your thinking, motivation, and behaviors to find greater fulfillment at work.
These are the slides for a workshop to Microsoft employees (April 2014) to encourage well-being in the workplace. The science is beginning to show that happiness leads to success .... what can you do to increase your happiness (whatever your definition of success)?
Arnetha Booth provides account management support for Laura and Cristina. Her primary responsibilities include entering training requests, customizing marketing materials, pulling utilization reports, and responding to daily duties like claims research, schedule A requests, and updating member eligibility. She also keeps contacts and events updated in Salesforce and provides documentation. Arnetha has over 16 years of experience in EAP and behavioral health. She aims to provide excellent customer service while maintaining accuracy and quality of work.
Arnetha Booth provides account management support for Laura and Cristina. Her primary responsibilities include entering training requests, customizing marketing materials, pulling utilization reports, and responding to daily duties like claims research, schedule A requests, and updating member eligibility. She also keeps contacts and events updated in Salesforce and provides documentation. Arnetha has over 16 years of experience in EAP and behavioral health. She aims to provide excellent customer service while maintaining accuracy and quality of work.
Infrastructure Challenges in Scaling RAG with Custom AI modelsZilliz
Building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems with open-source and custom AI models is a complex task. This talk explores the challenges in productionizing RAG systems, including retrieval performance, response synthesis, and evaluation. We’ll discuss how to leverage open-source models like text embeddings, language models, and custom fine-tuned models to enhance RAG performance. Additionally, we’ll cover how BentoML can help orchestrate and scale these AI components efficiently, ensuring seamless deployment and management of RAG systems in the cloud.
For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2024/06/building-and-scaling-ai-applications-with-the-nx-ai-manager-a-presentation-from-network-optix/
Robin van Emden, Senior Director of Data Science at Network Optix, presents the “Building and Scaling AI Applications with the Nx AI Manager,” tutorial at the May 2024 Embedded Vision Summit.
In this presentation, van Emden covers the basics of scaling edge AI solutions using the Nx tool kit. He emphasizes the process of developing AI models and deploying them globally. He also showcases the conversion of AI models and the creation of effective edge AI pipelines, with a focus on pre-processing, model conversion, selecting the appropriate inference engine for the target hardware and post-processing.
van Emden shows how Nx can simplify the developer’s life and facilitate a rapid transition from concept to production-ready applications.He provides valuable insights into developing scalable and efficient edge AI solutions, with a strong focus on practical implementation.
More Related Content
Similar to How to Hack it as a Working Parent: or, should your face be bathed in the blue glow of a phone at 2AM?
This document provides a career resource manual to help people through career transitions. It is divided into three main sections: spiritual transition, personal transition, and professional transition. The spiritual transition section focuses on seeking God's direction, clarity, and encouragement. It provides scripture passages, quotes, and tips for daily meditation. The personal transition section offers tools for self-reflection, managing time, setting accountability goals, and developing competitive strengths. The professional transition section gives guidance on career exploration, networking, resumes, interviewing, negotiating, and online job resources. The overall goal is to help those facing unemployment or underemployment take the next step forward each day through faith, personal growth, and professional development.
This is a powerful tool that has been vital in helping me focus and produce so I could move from a salaried teacher/coach making about $35,000 a year to becoming a successful entrepreneur, quadrupling my teachers salary and increasing my net worth to over a million dollars IN JUST FOUR YEARS!! more tools at www.claystaires.com
The document discusses various personal productivity strategies and tools for managing information overload and staying focused, including using a fixed schedule, only handling emails and tasks once, maintaining an inbox of zero, and cultivating focus through techniques like daily meditation, note taking, and consistency in routines. It also contrasts the schedules of managers and makers, and emphasizes the importance of protecting focused work time to achieve meaningful goals.
The document discusses various theories and concepts related to motivation, including Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor's Theory X, and achievement motivation theory. It also outlines program objectives focused on leadership, feedback, and problem solving. Additionally, it defines motivation and lists what employees prefer in jobs, types of rewards, and intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Finally, it provides nine ways to motivate employees such as recognizing accomplishments, encouraging learning, and cultivating a positive work environment.
Part 1 (Use APA citations)This week’s Shared Practice requires y.docxkarlhennesey
Part 1 (Use APA citations)
This week’s Shared Practice requires you to consider what rewards have motivated you to perform in your professional career. Then, you reflect on your experiences to determine how you frame your primary motivation and purpose.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post a description of a positive professional experience when you felt motivated to perform at your best and a description of a challenging professional experience when you did not feel very motivated to perform. Be sure to include what were the sources of motivation in both experiences. Then explain what each experience taught you about the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on your performance and the motivations that are the main sources of job satisfaction for you.
As you are analyzing your motivations and sources of job satisfaction, consider the advice that was reportedly given to U.S. President John F. Kennedy:
"A great man is one sentence."
—Clare Boothe Luce
After you post your descriptions, write your one sentence that captures how you define your purpose or main priority on which you want to focus to make your organization, community, or the world a better place. Think about the legacy you want to leave or how you want to be remembered, or what makes you want to get out of bed each day.
Hint: Your sentence should emphasize how you want other to see you. For example, your sentence might be: Jane Rivera founded a company that gave back to the community and served a role model for young entrepreneurs. Or, Travis Williams’ family and friends could always count on his unconditional support.
Provide your assessment of why you chose your sentence and what it means to you.
Part 2
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
Respond to two or more colleagues’ posts in one or more of the following ways:
· Consider how motivational techniques shared by your colleague might work for you, but potentially not work for others. Explain your rationale.
· Share suggestions to a colleague regarding how she or he can work to accomplish the purpose captured in their sentence or observations you have made or examples you have seen of others who seem to be driven by a similar purpose.
1st Person to Respond to:
“People are motivated by good relationships with bosses, collaborators, and customers” (Maccoby, 2010). Working in a behavioral health setting, things change daily. You are not in control of these changes, because you are funded by Medicaid, which means as a company, we must follow these changes, or we face consequences. It is my job to do a quarterly check, where I must complete an audit on each client to make sure everything is in order and nothing is missing. I have a deadline to meet, so I push myself to get it done as early as possible. In doing so, I can get overwhelm easily, because I am checking over 150 charts to make sure everything is in order with no mistakes. Instead it motivates me to check every detail carefully, because I know as a comp ...
This document outlines key factors for success in a fast-paced business environment. It discusses the importance of: 1) having a well-organized structure and clear communication; 2) hiring enthusiastic employees and dealing with stress; and 3) managing time effectively and responding to change. The document provides tips for being proactive, prioritizing tasks, and developing routines to navigate interruptions and busy schedules. Overall, it advocates for organizational strategies, effective communication, and adapting to change in order to succeed in today's business world.
The document provides a 7-step method for gaining time management traction called "The Steering Wheel" which includes identifying to-dos, categorizing tasks, setting times, creating a daily schedule, printing the schedule, adding tasks to the schedule daily, and applying "pig-headed determination" to complete tasks. It emphasizes the importance of taking action by scheduling priorities and not just urgent tasks, and encourages carrying your schedule with you to stay on track. The steps are supported by numerous quotes about time management, productivity, and the value of simplicity and action.
This document provides a 4-step process for mastering time management. The 4 steps are:
1. Print off a daily schedule.
2. Categorize your to-do list into areas of responsibility.
3. Add to-dos to your daily schedule.
4. Apply "Pig headed Determination" to follow your daily schedule.
Lead Up Session How You Start And End Your DayMyles Miller
The document summarizes a lunch and learn session about how starting and ending your day determines what happens in between. It discusses how to distinguish between urgent and important tasks, put people first before plans and processes, and engage in daily review, re-evaluation and refocusing. Key points include carving out time each evening to prepare for the next day, prioritizing important non-urgent tasks, and focusing on relationships and helping others daily.
Keynote - Thomson Reuters Synergy 2015 Conference
In this inspirational keynote, Tom will show practitioners how to explore new value-added services and position their practices for success in a rapidly changing world. He'll discuss the major "shift change" and the trends shaping business today, and give participants a framework to provide more proactive services and strategic advice—and a plan to get started.
Tom Hood (Maryland Association of CPAs, Inc.)—Tom is passionate about three areas: leadership, learning, and technology. His recognition and awards reflect his leadership in helping CPAs "shape their future" through his work as the CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute, a center for the development of leadership, strategic thinking, and collaboration skills for CPAs. In 2013, Accounting Today said about Tom, "If there is a conversation about the future of the profession, you're bound to hear Hood's name mentioned as one of the people leading the way. Hood is doing as much as anyone—and more than most- to lead public accounting forward."
CPA Practice Advisor inducted Tom into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2015. He was named the fourth most influential leader in Accounting Today’s 2014 list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting (his tenth time on the list). LinkedIn recruited Tom as one of their Top 150 Influencers, and he was named to the Top 25 Influencers in Learning by HR Examiner.
(1) A meaningful mission statement identifies an organization's core purpose in 20 words or less in an aspirational way to guide actions. (2) A purposeful plan links daily activities and resources through outcomes to the mission. (3) Empowering evaluation measures program outcomes, compares results to an alternative, and is transparent to demonstrate impact. Developing these tools helps capture and communicate an organization's impact.
Bringing a Culture of Wellbeing to Nonprofit WorkplacesBeth Kanter
Beth Kanter discusses how nonprofits can raise more money without burning out their employees. She explains that burnout is caused by too many demands and not enough recovery time. Kanter advocates for implementing self-care plans and shifting organizational culture to prioritize well-being. Changing culture requires leadership commitment, employee engagement, and patience rather than quick fixes. When nonprofits focus on well-being, they benefit from lower costs, higher productivity, and a more motivated and resilient workforce.
Focus Your Priorities On Your Strengthsguest80f9c3
David Scurlock has experience in learning and organizational development, providing strategic alignment and direction to teams. Job satisfaction among employees has declined over the past few decades, with fewer workers finding their jobs interesting as incomes have not kept up with inflation and health costs have increased. Franklin Covey's Focus model emphasizes spending time on important priorities rather than urgent trivial tasks that do not contribute to goals.
Effective Time Management Techniques to Teach Your Employees | Webinar 09.22.15BizLibrary
Effective Time Management Techniques to Teach Your Employees Do we ever really manage time? It frequently feels like our work week manages us. The reality of effective time management isn’t to try and squeeze more and more productive minutes out of every day, but to find ways to focus energy and effort into those hours we allocate to work.Effective time management, however, is a competency we can master (and teach) that will improve the quality of our lives both at work and at home. In today’s complex world, we have more and more distractions and demands on our time, so it’s extremely important to master techniques of time management to make the most of a resource that is not renewable, never repeats and is limited each day. In this webinar we’ll provide effective time management techniques for yourself and your employees.
www.bizlibrary.com
Work life balance And Spiritual QuotientSudeep Malik
Does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic.
(must read the last article)
French law mandates at least five weeks of vacation. Australia provides both paid maternal and paternal leave. Denmark breeds work-life balance into their culture.
So why is American so out of touch? In stark contrast to these balanced regimes, Americans continue to pander through the workday. We extend our hours, snack on sad desk lunches, and forgo vacation to get ahead. But science says there’s a fatal flaw in our system…
Today, 70 percent of the American workforce is disengaged. The rat race mentality has left us sleepwalking through life — and it’s time to wake up. Join Joe Mechlinski, New York Times Bestselling author and speaker, as he introduces science into the great work debate. Joe will show you how to become better in tune with your three brains (head, heart, and gut) to help reshape your thinking, motivation, and behaviors to find greater fulfillment at work.
These are the slides for a workshop to Microsoft employees (April 2014) to encourage well-being in the workplace. The science is beginning to show that happiness leads to success .... what can you do to increase your happiness (whatever your definition of success)?
Arnetha Booth provides account management support for Laura and Cristina. Her primary responsibilities include entering training requests, customizing marketing materials, pulling utilization reports, and responding to daily duties like claims research, schedule A requests, and updating member eligibility. She also keeps contacts and events updated in Salesforce and provides documentation. Arnetha has over 16 years of experience in EAP and behavioral health. She aims to provide excellent customer service while maintaining accuracy and quality of work.
Arnetha Booth provides account management support for Laura and Cristina. Her primary responsibilities include entering training requests, customizing marketing materials, pulling utilization reports, and responding to daily duties like claims research, schedule A requests, and updating member eligibility. She also keeps contacts and events updated in Salesforce and provides documentation. Arnetha has over 16 years of experience in EAP and behavioral health. She aims to provide excellent customer service while maintaining accuracy and quality of work.
Similar to How to Hack it as a Working Parent: or, should your face be bathed in the blue glow of a phone at 2AM? (20)
Infrastructure Challenges in Scaling RAG with Custom AI modelsZilliz
Building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems with open-source and custom AI models is a complex task. This talk explores the challenges in productionizing RAG systems, including retrieval performance, response synthesis, and evaluation. We’ll discuss how to leverage open-source models like text embeddings, language models, and custom fine-tuned models to enhance RAG performance. Additionally, we’ll cover how BentoML can help orchestrate and scale these AI components efficiently, ensuring seamless deployment and management of RAG systems in the cloud.
For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2024/06/building-and-scaling-ai-applications-with-the-nx-ai-manager-a-presentation-from-network-optix/
Robin van Emden, Senior Director of Data Science at Network Optix, presents the “Building and Scaling AI Applications with the Nx AI Manager,” tutorial at the May 2024 Embedded Vision Summit.
In this presentation, van Emden covers the basics of scaling edge AI solutions using the Nx tool kit. He emphasizes the process of developing AI models and deploying them globally. He also showcases the conversion of AI models and the creation of effective edge AI pipelines, with a focus on pre-processing, model conversion, selecting the appropriate inference engine for the target hardware and post-processing.
van Emden shows how Nx can simplify the developer’s life and facilitate a rapid transition from concept to production-ready applications.He provides valuable insights into developing scalable and efficient edge AI solutions, with a strong focus on practical implementation.
Cosa hanno in comune un mattoncino Lego e la backdoor XZ?Speck&Tech
ABSTRACT: A prima vista, un mattoncino Lego e la backdoor XZ potrebbero avere in comune il fatto di essere entrambi blocchi di costruzione, o dipendenze di progetti creativi e software. La realtà è che un mattoncino Lego e il caso della backdoor XZ hanno molto di più di tutto ciò in comune.
Partecipate alla presentazione per immergervi in una storia di interoperabilità, standard e formati aperti, per poi discutere del ruolo importante che i contributori hanno in una comunità open source sostenibile.
BIO: Sostenitrice del software libero e dei formati standard e aperti. È stata un membro attivo dei progetti Fedora e openSUSE e ha co-fondato l'Associazione LibreItalia dove è stata coinvolta in diversi eventi, migrazioni e formazione relativi a LibreOffice. In precedenza ha lavorato a migrazioni e corsi di formazione su LibreOffice per diverse amministrazioni pubbliche e privati. Da gennaio 2020 lavora in SUSE come Software Release Engineer per Uyuni e SUSE Manager e quando non segue la sua passione per i computer e per Geeko coltiva la sua curiosità per l'astronomia (da cui deriva il suo nickname deneb_alpha).
HCL Notes und Domino Lizenzkostenreduzierung in der Welt von DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-und-domino-lizenzkostenreduzierung-in-der-welt-von-dlau/
DLAU und die Lizenzen nach dem CCB- und CCX-Modell sind für viele in der HCL-Community seit letztem Jahr ein heißes Thema. Als Notes- oder Domino-Kunde haben Sie vielleicht mit unerwartet hohen Benutzerzahlen und Lizenzgebühren zu kämpfen. Sie fragen sich vielleicht, wie diese neue Art der Lizenzierung funktioniert und welchen Nutzen sie Ihnen bringt. Vor allem wollen Sie sicherlich Ihr Budget einhalten und Kosten sparen, wo immer möglich. Das verstehen wir und wir möchten Ihnen dabei helfen!
Wir erklären Ihnen, wie Sie häufige Konfigurationsprobleme lösen können, die dazu führen können, dass mehr Benutzer gezählt werden als nötig, und wie Sie überflüssige oder ungenutzte Konten identifizieren und entfernen können, um Geld zu sparen. Es gibt auch einige Ansätze, die zu unnötigen Ausgaben führen können, z. B. wenn ein Personendokument anstelle eines Mail-Ins für geteilte Mailboxen verwendet wird. Wir zeigen Ihnen solche Fälle und deren Lösungen. Und natürlich erklären wir Ihnen das neue Lizenzmodell.
Nehmen Sie an diesem Webinar teil, bei dem HCL-Ambassador Marc Thomas und Gastredner Franz Walder Ihnen diese neue Welt näherbringen. Es vermittelt Ihnen die Tools und das Know-how, um den Überblick zu bewahren. Sie werden in der Lage sein, Ihre Kosten durch eine optimierte Domino-Konfiguration zu reduzieren und auch in Zukunft gering zu halten.
Diese Themen werden behandelt
- Reduzierung der Lizenzkosten durch Auffinden und Beheben von Fehlkonfigurationen und überflüssigen Konten
- Wie funktionieren CCB- und CCX-Lizenzen wirklich?
- Verstehen des DLAU-Tools und wie man es am besten nutzt
- Tipps für häufige Problembereiche, wie z. B. Team-Postfächer, Funktions-/Testbenutzer usw.
- Praxisbeispiele und Best Practices zum sofortigen Umsetzen
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
TrustArc Webinar - 2024 Global Privacy SurveyTrustArc
How does your privacy program stack up against your peers? What challenges are privacy teams tackling and prioritizing in 2024?
In the fifth annual Global Privacy Benchmarks Survey, we asked over 1,800 global privacy professionals and business executives to share their perspectives on the current state of privacy inside and outside of their organizations. This year’s report focused on emerging areas of importance for privacy and compliance professionals, including considerations and implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, building brand trust, and different approaches for achieving higher privacy competence scores.
See how organizational priorities and strategic approaches to data security and privacy are evolving around the globe.
This webinar will review:
- The top 10 privacy insights from the fifth annual Global Privacy Benchmarks Survey
- The top challenges for privacy leaders, practitioners, and organizations in 2024
- Key themes to consider in developing and maintaining your privacy program
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 5DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 5. In this session, we will cover CI/CD with devops.
Topics covered:
CI/CD with in UiPath
End-to-end overview of CI/CD pipeline with Azure devops
Speaker:
Lyndsey Byblow, Test Suite Sales Engineer @ UiPath, Inc.
Maruthi Prithivirajan, Head of ASEAN & IN Solution Architecture, Neo4j
Get an inside look at the latest Neo4j innovations that enable relationship-driven intelligence at scale. Learn more about the newest cloud integrations and product enhancements that make Neo4j an essential choice for developers building apps with interconnected data and generative AI.
Threats to mobile devices are more prevalent and increasing in scope and complexity. Users of mobile devices desire to take full advantage of the features
available on those devices, but many of the features provide convenience and capability but sacrifice security. This best practices guide outlines steps the users can take to better protect personal devices and information.
GraphSummit Singapore | The Future of Agility: Supercharging Digital Transfor...Neo4j
Leonard Jayamohan, Partner & Generative AI Lead, Deloitte
This keynote will reveal how Deloitte leverages Neo4j’s graph power for groundbreaking digital twin solutions, achieving a staggering 100x performance boost. Discover the essential role knowledge graphs play in successful generative AI implementations. Plus, get an exclusive look at an innovative Neo4j + Generative AI solution Deloitte is developing in-house.
Unlocking Productivity: Leveraging the Potential of Copilot in Microsoft 365, a presentation by Christoforos Vlachos, Senior Solutions Manager – Modern Workplace, Uni Systems
Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing DaysKari Kakkonen
My slides at Nordic Testing Days 6.6.2024
Climate impact / sustainability of software testing discussed on the talk. ICT and testing must carry their part of global responsibility to help with the climat warming. We can minimize the carbon footprint but we can also have a carbon handprint, a positive impact on the climate. Quality characteristics can be added with sustainability, and then measured continuously. Test environments can be used less, and in smaller scale and on demand. Test techniques can be used in optimizing or minimizing number of tests. Test automation can be used to speed up testing.
Why You Should Replace Windows 11 with Nitrux Linux 3.5.0 for enhanced perfor...SOFTTECHHUB
The choice of an operating system plays a pivotal role in shaping our computing experience. For decades, Microsoft's Windows has dominated the market, offering a familiar and widely adopted platform for personal and professional use. However, as technological advancements continue to push the boundaries of innovation, alternative operating systems have emerged, challenging the status quo and offering users a fresh perspective on computing.
One such alternative that has garnered significant attention and acclaim is Nitrux Linux 3.5.0, a sleek, powerful, and user-friendly Linux distribution that promises to redefine the way we interact with our devices. With its focus on performance, security, and customization, Nitrux Linux presents a compelling case for those seeking to break free from the constraints of proprietary software and embrace the freedom and flexibility of open-source computing.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Unlock the Future of Search with MongoDB Atlas_ Vector Search Unleashed.pdfMalak Abu Hammad
Discover how MongoDB Atlas and vector search technology can revolutionize your application's search capabilities. This comprehensive presentation covers:
* What is Vector Search?
* Importance and benefits of vector search
* Practical use cases across various industries
* Step-by-step implementation guide
* Live demos with code snippets
* Enhancing LLM capabilities with vector search
* Best practices and optimization strategies
Perfect for developers, AI enthusiasts, and tech leaders. Learn how to leverage MongoDB Atlas to deliver highly relevant, context-aware search results, transforming your data retrieval process. Stay ahead in tech innovation and maximize the potential of your applications.
#MongoDB #VectorSearch #AI #SemanticSearch #TechInnovation #DataScience #LLM #MachineLearning #SearchTechnology
Unlock the Future of Search with MongoDB Atlas_ Vector Search Unleashed.pdf
How to Hack it as a Working Parent: or, should your face be bathed in the blue glow of a phone at 2AM?
1. How to Hack it
As a Working
Parent
or, should your face be bathed in the blue glow of a
phone at 2 AM?
Margaret Heller, Christina Salazar, May Yan //
2.11.2015
3. Traister, Rebecca. “When Will We Stop Punishing Working Women for Having Babies?” Text. The New Republic, February 2,
2015. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120939/maternity-leave-policies-america-hurt-working-moms.
“...an American woman’s earnings decrease by 4
percent for every child that she bears….[A]fter men
have kids, their earnings increase, on average, by 6
percent… [F]athers are more likely to be hired and
to be regarded as more competent employees than
mothers.”
6. (Extended) Parental Leave
How long of an extended leave are you talking
about?
Canada
Mandated Leave with Benefits (varies by province)
17 weeks (maternity leave)
+ 35 weeks (parental leave)
= 52 weeks
7. Why think about leave planning?
❏ You are a parent-to-be
❏ You are in management or administration
❏ You are thinking of starting a family one day
❏ You are human and might one day get sick
9. Create a manual of your job functions
Get important documents out of your own
computer
● Keep the systems simple
● Findable and Usable is important
● Commit to maintaining it
10. “Stop Emailing Me”
<a href=
”mailto:group.email@mpow?Subject=Not
asking an individual”>I need help!</a>
11. Hiring Replacement & Cross Train
Creative Division of responsibilities prior to
hiring
● Look internally first - Cross Train
● Overlap as long as possible to train prior to
leave, and to debrief at the end of leave.
● Try to keep your external hires
13. Getting to Leave by 5:30
● Getting Things Done (David Allen, 2001)
o Projects => Actions
● Fixed Schedule Productivity (Cal Newport)
o Focusing effort => Deep Work
18. Norton, Quinn. “Against Productivity: This Essay Took Four Years to Write.” Medium, November 7, 2014.
https://medium.com/message/against-productivity-b19f56b67da6.
“This moment’s goal of productivity, with its
all-consuming practice and unattainable
horizon, is perfect for our current corporate
world. Productivity never asks what it builds,
just how much of it can be piled up before we
leave or die.”
20. Thanks! Let’s discuss this more!
Margaret Heller
@margaret_heller
mheller1@luc.edu
Christina Salazar
@InphoManiac
christina.salazar@csuci.edu
May Yan
@mayyan
may.yan@ryerson.ca
Special thanks to Jaclyn Bedoya. Look for our forthcoming article about this topic in Code4Lib Issue 28.
Editor's Notes
At my place of work, we recently had the opportunity to hire for a programmer/analyst position. The lead candidate was an internal candidate who the hiring committee (of which I was a member) knew well. As we discussed this candidate, one of the committee members commented that “Yeah… in some ways this person has allowed his family commitments to hold him back professionally.” As a working mother who’s repeatedly had to turn down professional opportunities of all kinds so that I could take care of my child or my (now aging) parents, those words were a wake up call to the professional price that I was paying for simply having family commitments. However, my male colleague would be awarded good worker points for his time spent with his family while I would just be expected to do it because that’s just what women do.
How many times have I heard "I learned this programming language" or "I installed that operating system in the wee hours of the night when we're officially off the clock and hopefully in bed.
Even as this team prepped this presentation, we wrote emails to each other with one hand in the middle of the night while nursing babies, while staying up all night with naughty toddlers then dragging ourselves to work despite exhaustion, illness and stress. We pushed ourselves hard, because that seems to be the only way, even when we know we can’t work the same pace and the same hours that others can.
We want you to know why that is, and why we think everyone, kids or no kids, needs to think about how you balance work with care for your children, your elders, your pets, and yourself.
And because of the disproportionate impact on women and people of color, this issue has a direct impact on the diversity of this community and in fact, any workplace. We want to shed some light on the inequities that parents and especially moms face as well as showing you a way to get through the current situation.
What we are saying goes for any type of caregiver – whether it’s a mother or father caring for his or her children or an adult child caring for his or her elderly mom or dad or someone taking care of a sick spouse or partner… or sibling. We're sharing our experiences as mothers of infants and young children and some of those experiences are unique to that group and reflect that we're grappling with the newness of how to be working professionals and caregivers. But please remember that this situation is particularly dire for all women.
A 2014 report by Michelle Budig, quoted here by Rebecca Traister in The New Republic, points out that there is a very real gap and penalty for women vs. men. In short, men who take time away from their jobs are more likely to be viewed positively than women who take time to care for their children.
Further a 2013 Pew study found that in the “Sandwich Generation” of people raising children while also caring for an aging parent women--particularly middle aged and Hispanic women-- are more likely to have cared for an aging parent.
Beyond that though, the culture of “Always On” can be damaging in ways that aren’t always obvious.
Our world--particularly our technical world--relies on treating human labor as interoperable machine parts that can be “always on”. We librarians have it easy compared to the service sector - or even tenure track faculty, who have classroom obligations to meet.
The open source technology world expects all types of work at odd hours. But whom does these expectations exclude?
Then there's the special issue of maternity/paternity leave. Take a look at the comparison by country of mandated paid maternity/paternity leave - that’s right, the US is at zero.
If you are an academic librarian in the United States here are some other things you will want to think about: Whether or not you’re on the tenure track? Can you pause your tenure clock? By the time your baby is born will you have worked at your job for at least one year so that you are eligible for FMLA which protects your job for 12 weeks unpaid leave. Many academic institutions give 6 weeks of pay on short term disability, but if you want any more than that (up to 12 weeks allowed by FMLA) you will have to make up the difference in vacation time or unpaid leave. Note too that you are usually required to use up all banked sick time before your short term disability kicks in. So if you have two weeks of banked sick time, you use that and then get four weeks disability pay. You now have no sick time when you are back at work after six weeks. So don't get sick... or let your kiddos get sick.
Let's turn now to some practical advice, since we're talking about leave. As a parent to be you'll have a lot of work related questions, like “Wait, how do I get this baby out of me and somehow still work?” If you don’t yet have children, here’s your chance to plan (or rethink your life choices). And if you don't ever intend to have children take this as hitting the highlights for how to prepare for an extended leave of any type.
“But there is a better place. It’s called Canada.”
In Canada women are entitled to an full year of leave if they are giving birth to a baby. either parents can take a parental leave. With such a long period of leave, it becomes important to have to look at seriously preparing for leaves and hiring replacements.However, it’s also easier for organizations to hire a replacement for a 1 year contract so that is an advantage for both the new parent and the employer.
When I talk about preparing for a leave, I mean for you to do it well before you need to take one, and that it should be part of the culture of your work to always prepare for times when someone (anyone) might have to be away for an extended period of time for any reason. But for most of us this starts when we know we’re going to take maternity leave, this typically means you have 8-9 months of preparation time.
First we start with creating documentation. It’s more than just documentation for projects and documenting your code.
You are creating a manual for all your job functions so someone else can do your job.
This maybe a challenging idea for many people: even the most mundane everyday tasks you do might actually need to be documented in case you are unable to do those things, for a short or a longer period of time.
A good way to start on this type of documentation is to reflect on a periodic basis what tasks needs to be tackled, weekly? Monthly? Yearly? Identify those deadlines, record needed procedures and gather working documentation to ensure that those tasks can be accomplished.
If you have a specific leave planned, start by looking at what’s to happen during that period of time. This includes things you do infrequently or ad-hoc basis outside of a regular routine. The upside creating all this documentation is that you’ll ask others to maintain it while you’re away and it’ll be useful for you to reacquaint yourself with any changes when you come back from a long leave.
As technologist, you can be creative in maximizing the technologies you have to keep these documents searchable and usable but you are looking for long term sustainable solutions.
Use generic emails for all the contact points when someone would be asking for help or working with library personnel both internally and externally. Reference, Systems, Electronic resource renewals, er troubleshooting etc. This way, procedures didn’t need to change, and contacts didn’t need to be updated when the person behind the generic email goes on a leave.
This also means, that key communications over time, can be saved in a location that can be accessed by your replacement or other people that share the same responsibility.
Depending on how high the learning curve for a position, it makes sense to consider looking at a creative division of responsibilities within the organization first before looking outside the library for a replacement. For example having many people to take over various components of your work instead of just one person. If you identify internal candidates for planned leave the training and hand off of work can be a lot smoother for everyone because it It gives you a much longer period of time to train. This might be the first time you cross train within the library, but it is something you should consider doing even when there are no leaves planned.
Cross training protects the library by having multiple people well versed in important work and allows the library to be be flexible. cross training should take place both within a department and outside of it. When you train in new skills or work with a new department, you create opportunities to seed new ideas and may lead to better collaborations in the library.
On day to day, this means that employees are able to take sick days, go to appointments, and take a vacation and always have a backup. When someone takes a planned or unplanned extended leave of a few weeks or a few months, you can shift around responsibilities in order to make sure everything is still running smoothly. In the case of an extended leave, you can use an internal candidate as replacement before looking to hire externally.
Management should always be looking creatively at where is there growth in the library and look for ways to take advantage of a planned leave and replacement hiring. In my place of work, we’ve done it a few times where contract workers hired for replace leaves did not take on the work of the person who went on leave. Instead internal Librarian’s portfolios were shifted and crossed trained to take new responsibilities. Contract replacements are brought in to work in other (growing) areas of the library.
When the person who went on leave returns, we look to keep the temporary hires by extending their contracts, or working to create new positions. This way, we are looking at growing and keeping skills in the library, but also maximizing our investment in new temporary hire.
All you’ve done to prepare for your leave makes the library ready to be more flexible in your day to day work once you return.
But it’s still overwhelming to return to work as new parents and have to learn to work with new time constraints.
Sheryl Sandberg once admitted (somewhat defensively) that she leaves the office by 5:30 every day so she can eat dinner with her kids. This doesn’t seem that revolutionary. I have to leave by 4:30 myself. This is totally doable, even if you think it isn’t.
Let’s look at two different approaches.
First, Getting Things Done is a favorite of many people in technology, and mostly the way I personally work. This methodology was described by David Allen in his 2001 book. In this, you figure out all your projects--work, home, personal, whatever, and divide them up into a series of discrete actions. Ask yourself “What is the next physical action I have to take to make this happen?” You categorize your tasks by contexts, time to complete, and other factors, and then when you are in that context you choose the actions to accomplish.
The potential problem with this method is that we end up with everything being in same context--computer or phone, and mixing up work and personal projects makes you feel unable to escape from either world.
Another technique, about which Cal Newport of the Study Hacks blog writes convincingly, is the idea of Fixed Schedule Productivity. This is, in a way, more traditional, since this is basically planning your week out in advance, and only planning to get done what can be done within reasonable weekday hours, with a bit of time on the weekend if possible. He has published multiple books, finished a PhD, and started a family on this regimen. He argues that the problem with Getting Things Done is that it requires your work to be divisible into discrete actions, which is just not possible when you’re trying to do some types of work such as solving complicated mathematical, technical, or artistic problems. To make this work, you have to figure out what the most crucial things are for your life, and do everything you can to be able to put the time to those. Batch your time-suck work, avoid procrastination, be absolutely clear about when you will deliver (even if it’s far away) and ruthlessly cull commitments. This clears out space for Deep Work, where you can solve important problems--but at 10 AM when you have childcare, not at 10 PM when you are exhausted from a day’s work.
Be ruthless with yourself. A tool like RescueTime can help you with shaping days that look more like you want them to. Seen here is the screen that I get when I try to check Twitter in the afternoons if I’ve not been all that productive in the morning. I can also set a Focus Time session, which blocks all my timesink sites for half an hour, which is enough to get me back on the right track. It’s aimed at developers, and things like development environments and text editors automatically get tagged as extremely productive. But I use it for my other work as well. The free tier is a good way to get started. I subscribed to the premium version eventually, and really love it for being able to categorize my days.
Optimizing your communication with your colleagues is also critical. Lightweight project management tools are all over now, and when used thoughtfully have the potential to improve team communication.
Don’t work out of your inbox. I know everyone does, but when the whole world wants something from you, give them a place to do it that isn’t on your person at all times. Use a separate task and project manager that helps you turn emails into actions, as well as see how much you have going on. This makes it easier to say “NO” to new projects that come in if you are overburdened already.
Using tools like this keeps things out of email, and reviewable by everyone, so even if you were out of the office on leave for a few months you can still monitor what’s going on. This also helps you review the workload and see that things are getting done even if “face time” isn’t happening.
As lightweight as you can go is best. Don’t make it a high barrier to following along. Something with a mobile app is even better, since that allows you to get work done on your phone.
About those phones: The Twitter exchange above pretty much summarizes my experience. “If it can’t be done on my phone, it’s going to take me a lot longer to get to it.” And for that reason, just finishing things is often the most important thing. For me, the iPhone 5 was a lifeline during maternity leave. I could easily hold it and reach the entire screen one handed. That allowed me to write emails, do my banking, check into my project management apps, and schedule meetings all while holding my baby. My sister, who has no children but who uses a wheelchair to get around and has limited arm strength, relies on her iPhone for similar reasons.
But not all phones are not engineered with the working mom in mind. Just recently I spoke with a whole table of accomplished women in library technology about the problems they have with phones that are getting too large to hold, and certainly too large to put in pockets of women’s clothing. Our iPhone 5s fit so perfectly in our hands that we are loathe to ever give them up for the “better” iPhone 6.
It can get worse than that. Zeynep Tufecki, who chose not to use an iOS device for very legitimate reasons, writes here about her frustration of not being able to use her phone one handed while documenting tear gas being used on peaceful protesters in Gezi Park in Istanbul. “...on the latest versions of the kinds of phones I want to use, I cannot type one-handed....”
This is a larger symptom of technological solutions and habits that do not adapt to someone outside of the average. We may laugh at Jitterbug phones, but they very appropriately meet the needs of people whose needs are not always considered by the rest of the tech world. We would do well to pay attention to this message. Who is being excluded by unattainable expectations for participation?
The expectation to work at all hours and in all modes assumes that this is the ideal way to accomplish great technical feats. Karen Coyle wrote in 1996 of reasons women weren’t represented in hacker culture at MIT in the 1960s. She suggested that women, while technically equal to men, may just not have been interested in hacking. To quote Karen: “What if the thousands of hours of graveyard shift amateur hacking wasn't really the best way to get the job done? That would be unthinkable.”
People who love technology, and love learning and building new systems, may love other things--like their kids--even more. They may not care to spend more hours than necessary attached to a computer for the sake of being so.
The focus on hours spent, amount accomplished, and other things we measure when we quantify our projects and ourselves don’t really get at the whole picture of human experience, as this quote by Quinn Norton describes beautifully. The time we spend in solving complicated problems can’t be measured just by hours spent typing. The wisdom to do so takes time, and space. We must give ourselves--and our community--time to think, reflect, and be.
Let’s take even one more step back.
Chris Bourg, in her 2015 talk at the Ontario Library Association Superconference, suggests changing the image of technologists. “We should drop the term “tech guy” from our vocabulary and we should ditch the Star Trek posters” - because harmful stereotypes are self-reinforcing. Instead of “always-connected” and “all night coding sprints” and “brogrammers” can we instead become the haven of family-friendly, flexible, and well-rounded but still smart and committed professionals? Library technologists - who have both borrowed and hidden from the separate cultures of libraries and Silicon Valley - have a chance to forge a new culture. The Code4Lib community, through actions like providing childcare at conferences, adopting a Code of Conduct, and having talks like this has made a great start.