Getting a mind like water ...
I did say “time to draw a breath” in the last entry, but it hasn’t felt that way since the launch. It’s been a time to trawl back over the budget line items, consolidate more of the sponsorship that’s coming in, and sign up the newest member of the team. There’s a feeling, at least at my desk, that we’re heading towards the artificial stop line of Christmas and New Year’s, as though the planning will somehow drop off the radar during that time. Well perhaps the offices will be shut, but the minds will be ticking over ... actors at work on lines no doubt, the creative teams also dreaming on and quite probably stitching, gluing and composing. The creative process doesn’t work office hours! Of course, the brilliant idea at 3am may not be quite so good in the cold light of day, but there’s no doubt that the good idea will out at its own good and sometimes, at the most inconvenient time, and it’s a month to Boxing Day!
I’ve been much taken during the past 6 months by David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology. I’ve applied it at work and whilst I’ve fallen off the wagon a couple of times, I’ve found it enormously useful in losing the stress over having too much on my mind and apparently not enough time to get things done. Re-reading his great little book again this week, I really picked up on the idea that ideas shouldn’t be held in the head, but released “out there” and acted on responsibly. The Zen of having a relaxed “mind like water”--able to react in the most appropriate way to incoming (?) stimuli and not getting stressed about the zillions of actions waiting to happen, really hit home to me. In the position I have as project leader for SiQP and the University’s 40th Anniversary celebrations, I am working on a daily basis both proactively and reactively with colleagues who are leading the various “ops groups”--production, design, promotion and so on. Most ideas that come from these people are terrific, some are nearly there and simply need some filling out, whilst others tend to keep their ideas in their heads, and whether by accident or design, are not able to act upon these ideas as “responsibly” as is needed to get things done. Frustration can be the result. GTD has really helped me to stay in touch as I need to as project leader and to stay relatively stress-free. Gotta be good!
Signed up Judy Watters this week to run the Sonnets at Breakfast event for the Festival. Judy is a livewire who (among lots of other things) has run the Sirromet Long Lunch very successfully for the past 4 or 5 years, and she is keen to work with the Festival team to make this event a goer. On the marketing front, Anita Adams continues to amaze me with her energy and commitment to the task of building a fledgling tourist industry for Toowoomba and the region. It has come as something of a shock to realise that the tourism industry has no relationships with local hospitality providers. We’re in blue-sky mode here.
And, finally the posters look as though they are ready to roll off the printing presses. Great to have Sian Carlyon on this, as she and her colleagues at USQ Graphics make up a terrificly talented team.
Sunday, 26 November 2006
