Earlier I wrote about blogging as a learning tool. Pulling My Hair Out picked up on that idea and suggested a weekly learning review, which I'm thinking is a good idea for a Friday afternoon when I need a break from the major deadlines breathing down my neck. So here goes. . .

1. You CAN Teach Old Dogs New Tricks
I'm smack in the middle of a major grant-writing project with the usual impossible requirements--sum up a major initiative in 20 pages and 3 weeks,  working with 20+ people from 5 different counties who live in a different state from me. My heart sank at the notion of relying on group e-mail (the group's usual MO) to get the work done, so I made the decision to put the entire project on a wiki. (I'd share, but the clients are feeling proprietary right now). I expected some major push back on the idea, but am surprised to report that so far, so good.

Having set this thing up, I don't think I could go back to managing a grant application without the wiki. It's just too easy to be able to have all of our documents, the project calendar, contact list, etc. all in one place. I basically converted the grant requirements into wiki pages, so it's also giving me a great way to get other people to add to the grant proposal and comment with ease. I also needed to do flow charts, which I was able to do in gliffy and then copy the code directly into my wiki to embed the charts directly into the pages. We'll see how it all turns out, but for now I'm feeling like maybe I can get some people moving on things.

2. It's easier than I realized to add RSS to my Wikispaces.

3. I Am A Geek
I know that "Getting Things Done" (GTD) has been floating around for a while now, but I just haven't had the time to looking into it.(Ironic, I know).  I still don't have the time (that's something for next month, I think), but I am starting to collect some articles/resources to explore it further when I do have the time. While perusing this site, I came across a section on why GTD is appealing to geeks.

• geeks are often disorganized or have a twisted skein of attention-deficit issues
• geeks love assessing, classifying, and defining the objects in their world
• geeks crave actionable items and roll their eyes at “mission statements” and lofty management patois
• geeks like things that work with technology-agnostic and lofi tools
• geeks like frameworks but tend to ignore rules
• geeks are unusually open to change (if it can be demonstrated to work better than what they’re currently using)
• geeks like fixing things on their own terms
• geeks have too many projects and lots and lots of stuff

I particularly related to "geeks like frameworks but tend to ignore rules" and "geeks like fixing things on their own terms." I apparently need to give into my geek nature and quit fighting it.

4. I'm not the only one who's having second thoughts about listservs.
I've been thinking lately about the value of listservs. With limited time, I can either maintain my blog (which involves both reading other blogs and writing for my own) or I can participate in lists. It's harder to do both, depending on the volume of the list. And I'm not sure that I care for a lot of the dynamics that go on with lists. Now I see that Dave Snowden and David Wilcox are asking some similar questions. From a learning perspective in particular, they make some excellent points about the shortcomings of lists that I've been struggling with myself. If I pay attention to where I spend my time, it's clear that I've probably already made the decision that blogs and blogging are more valuable to me. It's interesting to see what others have to say about it, though.

5. Do not revisit the Top 15 Best Places to Waste Time on the Web when you have major projects due.

Photo via Mike in Tokyo