Blog - Jo Alcock Consulting
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Blog

03 Jun

Posted at 08:00h in Technology by
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I was recently invited to test a product on behalf of MyTrendyPhone.co.uk. One thing I thought I would find useful was an iPad case with a keyboard. I was sent a Universal Tablet Bluetooth Keyboard and Leather Case: [caption id="attachment_2658" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Universal Bluetooth Keyboard Case[/caption] Please note: I've include my own photos throughout but they're taken in not much daylight on my phone camera, so you may be better off checking out the product photography on the product page. The reason I wanted one of these was for travelling. As a researcher and workshop facilitator, I spend quite a bit of time travelling and...

06 Jan

Posted at 10:00h in Productivity, Publications, Uncategorized by
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Last year I wrote a column for the CILIP Update magazine on the topic of Getting Things Done. The column came about as a follow on from an article I wrote on the topic in 2012. The article was very well received and so I was invited to develop a series of columns on various different aspects. These were published every other month during 2013, and are now outside the embargo period so I am able to share them via the blog. Each one has a theme, and many also include additional hints and tips, updates, and some Q&As. The main takeaway...

02 Jan

Posted at 12:18h in Reflection, Uncategorized by
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As it's the first working day of 2014, I'm taking the opportunity to review how I did against my 2013 resolutions. They were: To write (and hopefully publish) a paper for a peer-reviewed journal Unfortunately this still hasn't happened - it's been on my resolutions for a while now, but the opportunity still hasn't yet materialised. However I do have some plans for this so maybe 2014 will be the year. To embed current awareness into working routine (e.g. keeping up-to-date with RSS feeds) Yes, I'm much better at this now. I've cut down the number of RSS feeds I subscribe to so that's...

31 Dec

Posted at 12:45h in Events, Leadership, Productivity, Professional Organisations, Public speaking, Publications, Reflection, Uncategorized by
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Another year has flown past and it's time for my annual review - you can see previous ones for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. 2013 has been a funny old year; nothing particularly terrible has happened, but I haven't felt as positive as I usually do and this has been reflected by a decrease in blogging and use of social media. It's not all bad though, as another reason for this decrease is a continuation of what I mentioned last year as a major lesson - trying to achieve a more sustainable work-life balance. This year I've been doing a...

31 Oct

Posted at 08:30h in Events, Library, Reflection, Technology, Uncategorized by
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…here a MOOC, there a MOOC, everywhere a MOOC MOOC! That's what it seems like at the moment anyway - everyone seems to be talking about MOOCs at the moment. I was invited to give a presentation about MOOCs at Internet Librarian International 2013 Conference earlier this month. Since it might not be a familiar term to everyone, let's backtrack a bit and cover some of the basics. What on earth is a MOOC? A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. The name is fairly explanatory but it's useful to break that down a bit. In order to be classed as a...

26 Sep

Posted at 10:30h in Productivity, Reflection, Technology by
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="504"] Productivity by Sean MacEntee on Flickr[/caption] I've been writing my column on productivity for CILIP Update for almost a year now, and I'm really enjoying writing it and getting comments from people - it seems to be encouraging people to try new ways of working, sometimes with real day-to-day benefits for them. I've been getting really good feedback and I'm so pleased. My columns so far (also available on my Publications page) have included: Dealing with calendars and diaries To-do or not to-do, that is the question The art of saying no Helping your future self Getting to inbox zero and...

24 Sep

Posted at 22:50h in Technology by
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I travel quite a bit and need to be able to work on the go. Fortunately I have a tablet and a smartphone so between the two devices I pretty much always have access to my email, social media, documents, and note taking apps. I take notes digitally at meetings, use mobile devices to work out where I am and how I get to where I need to be (by foot or by public transport), create presentations on my tablet, present from my smartphone, contact people in various different ways via them (email, social media, Skype, and even occasionally SMS...

23 Jul

Posted at 11:00h in Uncategorized by
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I've been working for CILIP in my part-time secondment role for the Future Skills project for a couple of months now and we're making good progress. I've had a number of people ask questions about where things are at and what will be happening when, as well as people wanting to provide feedback to help shape the support for the new Professional Registration. I thought it would therefore be worthwhile to share where we're up to at this point, what else will be done, and where you can help. Julie and myself first worked on the assessment criteria, and have refined...