Monday, September 19, 2005

Keeping the “same-old same-old” interesting

Yes, another blogging break last week while I struggled to keep my head above water. A very busy week. Nuts might be too strong a word but somewhere between Nuts and Very Busy would work.

And it was a week characterized by doing a lot of the same thing. Hour after hour. So it dawned on me this morning that other people might find themselves in the same boat, asking that age old question: how am I going to keep this interesting?

In pondering my own answer to this question, “necessity is the mother of invention” came to mind. I started looking at the repetition as less of an annoyance and more of a problem to be solved, one which would require some fresh thinking and creative responses on my part.

Let’s look at last Friday as a case in point. I had 4 presentations and 5 appointments, all dealing with the same thing, i.e. reviewing the results of a self assessment inventory. Now, granted, it’s helpful when your job includes working with people because they are never boring, right? But, how was I going to say basically the same thing all day and remain sane???

What did a changed perspective and creative response yield?

For use in individual appointments, I came up with a mini card game, a set of simple but colorful mini posters. For use in classroom presentations, I worked up a powerpoint and alternated presentation format--one time in “winging it” mode and the next time in formal, powerpoint presentation mode. Not exactly earthshaking creativity let loose, but at least enough to cover the sanity issue.

Posted by Bonnie Speyers on 09/19 at 10:01 AM
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