Far Wise in Knowledge Management

What do you mean, distracted?

In both my Canadian work places I was (and am) working in a cubicle setting. Now I realize what a luxury it was in The Netherlands, where I shared a rather large room with one colleague. In France, I worked from home, which is again different.

I never felt so much distracted as I did before. I have to get used to unwillingly overhearing telephone conversations, people passing my desk who don’t come to see me (I’m on the way to reception and exit, so there is some traffic going on). When I read about distraction, it’s mainly about incoming e-mail messages. Well, these are the least of my concerns! I know how to shut these down or how to filter them, but I find it harder to close my ears and my eyes for the other work environment-related distractions. The problem is: the more often I’m distracted, the more chaotic becomes my work style. What happened to the efficient-working me? I’m starting 101 new tasks, but have to keep a list of activities; otherwise I just forget to finish them. This has nothing to do with multi tasking, which at least has the sound of efficiency, but jumping from one task to the other.

On the blog Lifehacking.nl, which I discovered recently, I read about Attention Firewalling (posting is in Dutch). That’s what I should do: put a firewall on for the noise around me and people walking by. Sort of ear and eye cups. Maybe I just need an iPod with silence!

I hope it's just a matter of time...

Wendy is back but where is Carla?

Wendy, the summer student who joined the branch during the quiet summer months,  sent me a message and a comment in the weblog ánd a text massage that she is back in the branch (now as co-op student), but where is Carla? Yes, Carla left the Ministry of Agriculture just before the end of the year for a new experience at Research In Motion as Knowledge Management Specialist. There were several reasons for me to move on. The easiest to explain is that my 6-month contract ended and although I could get one month extra, the future of my position remains unclear. All other reasons would sound like frustration (it's true, I was frustrated sometimes by the way the ministry works), so I won't explain them here.

What I miss are my colleagues, our coffee breaks, the lunches and the many activities that were going on in the Atrium. I miss the tasting of new peach and apple varieties, watching the Wii cow-racing competition (I didn't even know it existed). The social part was very good, that's for sure, though not enough for me.

Now, two months in my new place, I get a better feeling of what's going on and what I can do. I think I just understand this type of environment (technology) better. It's flattering that one of my former colleagues called me for some advice last week. They realize now what they are missing. But, sorry Wendy, I'm not coming back!