Category: Management

Finding some down time in a hectic life

I found this article by Tom Basson and really liked it: 16 Tips to Simplify Your Life (and Increase Your Productivity).

As busy museum professionals, we can all make use of some of these tips. For me, I am going to focus on turning off my technology and ignoring my phone for a few hours each day to get actual work done. I am constantly pulled away from the task at hand to reply to emails. Although, have you noticed that people are becoming increasingly impatient for replies to emails? I’ll sometimes get a follow-up “Did you get my email?” email within a few hours of receiving the first. I fear that our world of instant information and feedback is making us impatient and rude. Which makes me agree even more with Mr. Basson’s #4 and #13…we need to give ourselves breaks. For me, my breaks always take place beside my iPhone. I need to stop that!!

Do you have any other tips for ways to calm down your hectic life?

What lessons can we learn from the NPS’s President’s House?

With the start of 2011 comes the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War – the War Between the States, the War of the Rebellion, the War of Northern Aggression, the War for Southern Independence, the Freedom War. All of these names have appeared in history text books. The version of the war I studied in school is different than the version you studied. What you learned about the causes of the Civil War depends on the decade and the state in which you were educated. (more…)

What we can learn from history’s leaders

I really enjoyed Jonathan Gifford’s article on leadership qualities we can learn from history’s great personalities, which appeared in The Guardian. Jump there to read the whole article, or grab a copy of author Jonathan Gifford’s book, History Lessons: What Business and Managers Can Learn from the Movers and Shakers of History, here. (more…)