How to motivate yourself

To study or not to study…that is the question of the day.  Of course I know the answer to this question is definitely TO study as I have an exam coming up within a week.  But as the plight of the student goes, procrastination is the name of the game.  And I am playing that game very well today.  So well in fact, that here I am writing an entry to my blog.

I might as well kill two birds with one stone, and make the writing of this blog entry work to my advantage – hence the title, ”How to motivate yourself".  In my case motivating to study for an exam.

Now as you may know, this studying process (plus procrastination) and search for motivation included googling a few things.  This incorporated researching the pros and cons of using Windows or Linux as an operating system, the lyrics to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Dragon Queen, apartment hunting on Gumtree and then a tiny bit of multi-user vs. single user OS’s.  And then - lo and behold, I came across a quote by Andrew Carnegie.

 “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” 

Wow!  This made me realize the entire reason behind doing this program in the first place.  To be able to make the reach for my dreams easier, to be able to expand and open my thoughts to what the world has to offer!!  To research open source vs. proprietary software solutions is not only about trying to formulate an opinion to satisfy my lecturer but to understand all the different technologies that are available out there.  That the Information System world is not only about prepackaged, one deal fits all solutions, but that an incredibly vast eco system exists out there for software solutions!  
Just this week it was announced that South Africa and Australia will be sharing the hosting of the SKA (Square Kilometer Array)!  Do you have any idea how much technology and deciding between Linux and Windows that involves?  I am in an industry that runs the growth of the planet.  No matter which way you look at it – all initiatives need IT and IS to bring it all together.  To have the opportunity to learn about these technologies and actually have and give an opinion on which one would be best in any situation….that sounds pretty darn fantastic to me.

And as life has it….my motivation has just presented itself.  Remove the fog and clarify your mind.  Remind yourself of your dreams and remember the bigger picture and the reasons for being on your path…let me get to it!

Have a fantastic day!!

xxx

Gmail vs Outlook

So yesterday myself and fellow colleagues got an absolutely horrific email from our managing..uhmm…manager;  declaring that our Outlook email accounts will no longer be allowed to sync to ANY mobile device but BlackBerry.  Shock Shock, Horror, Horror!

For those who know me, I have never been a BlackBerry fan.  I have never quite had a good reason to jump on that bandwagon and have always found myself leaning toward the unusual like Sony Ericsson and now, my Samsung Galaxy Note running on Android.

Also, allow me to introduce you to the sometimes meticulously planned, organized and efficient version of myself who loves to plot everything in my Outlook calendar.  Of course this allows me to sync it to my mobile device and merrily not have to wonder about what was on my latest shopping list (forgotten on my desk) when I find myself finishing up a meeting early and having some time to do said shopping.

You can understand the upset state I was in when I found out I can no longer do this!  But, where there is a will, there is a way.

Task number one on my To-Do list for today – reschedule my entire life over to my Gmail account.  Note – no syncing is allowed from Outlook to Gmail so this will be a manual entry for entry rescheduling which inevitably will leave me not getting a stitch of work done today.  But as they say…such is life.  Should my managing…uhmm…manager be reading this by any chance, I of course need to do this rescheduling in order for me to be more productive in the long run and manage my time effectively :)

So here I find myself….working from home on a stormy and chilly Cape Town morning, warm hoodie, thick socks, steaming mug of coffee, under a wool blanket with the rain pouring outside; organizing my life over to Gmail.

Make your day great! J

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