Communication between IT personnel and other individuals

How many times have you read an email or document and been extremely confused because some of the terms in the message were difficult to understand. In some cases, these messages or documents have been written by someone in an IT department, and it is full of IT terms and acronyms.

In a number of cases, these messages are trying to inform you of information that is important to you and your work. IT personnel sometimes seem to have a language all of their own, and it is hard for them to communicate without using their shortcuts. In some cases, it’s even difficult for other IT personnel to understand each other.

It is extremely important to remember that when you are writing an email or document that is going to be used by others in the company that you use language that everyone is going to understand. If you are going to use an acronym in your document, ensure that at the beginning of the document you write it out in long-hand and then show the acronym. This is important even when talking to other IT personnel because an acronym can mean a number of different things even to IT personnel. Here is an example of one acronym having three different meanings.

DC - direct current, domain controller and data centre

It is vital to ensure that a document or email can be understood by all that are going to receive it. Using IT specific terms can result in a misunderstanding of the document, or in some cases the entire document will be ignored due to the confusion. Using simple writing is the best way to ensure that the message is going to be received and understood by everyone. This method of communication doesn’t just go for written, it should also be used when talking to individuals. If you are using terms that the recipient doesn’t understand, your message will not be received correctly.

Remember, not everyone is from IT and not even IT personnel use all the same terms and meanings.

Reflections of yourself

Have you ever looked into a body of water and looked at a reflection of yourself? 

What made us who we are is something that is hard to explain. No, we weren't just made up of good experiences, some experiences were bad, but they also helped make us who we are today. Learning that not all experiences are going to be good will help make you a better person.

If we cannot forget the bad experiences, they are going to impact us for the rest of our lives. What people need to do is realize that a bad experience happened and let it go. No, it may not be totally forgotten, but at least saying it happened, and I am not going to let it negatively impact the rest of my life is important. Being able to accept it happened but not dwell on it will make you a better person. Another important thing is learning from the negative experience and trying not to repeat that same experience.

Looking into who you are is something we all do from time to time, and it's important to look at the good experiences and be happy with them. The experiences that weren't, so good are lessons that we learned and things that cannot be changed, but experiences that we don't want to repeat.

Knowing how to accept that a bad experience happened and letting it go will help make that reflection of yourself even better. You will know that you are a stronger person for letting it go.

Journaling - paper versus computer

Journaling is a process of documenting thoughts, activities, and memories.  A journal can be done so many different ways, and it all depends on the purpose of a journal.  Some individuals keep paper journals, while others use a computer as their method of keeping their journals.  If a computer is used some use specific software, some publish their journals for others to read while others keep their journals as a document on their computer for private viewing.  There is no right or wrong method of journaling, as it is an individual preference.

Some of my journaling is done on the computer and is available for others to read and some is done on paper as they are my personal thoughts and I want them to remain private.  One advantage of using paper is it can be done anywhere and is quickly available.  It some instances, entries that have originated on paper have later been entered on the computer and are available to others.

Journaling to me is a method of tracking my thoughts, activities and memories.  In some cases a journal can be used to assist in resolving issues while other times it can be a great venting location, especially if it's a private journal.  A journal is whatever an individual wants it to be.

If a journal is on a computer, and you want it to remain private, a password would be suggested to ensure no one can access it.  If a journal is accessible to others, they could read it and even let others read it or make it public, or it's important to protect your journal if you want it kept private.

A paper journal if left out is accessible to others, so that is also something to consider.  The privacy of journals depends on the people around you.  I keep journals in various methods, and I know that even my paper journal is private as I trust those around me to leave it unless I want them to see something and I will show them.

Journaling can be a means of escaping and writing about dreams, or it can be a method of capturing ideas.  Paper versus computer is an individual choice, the same as public versus private.

Know what you want your journal to be, and then enjoy your time writing in it.

Wearing Many Hats

In the world today, more and more people wear numerous hats.  Even in companies, we need to do more jobs than we did before.  There are fewer employees doing the same number of jobs that were done before.  In some cases, the additional hats may be temporary, while in other cases it will be permanent.

The many hats especially apply to small businesses, as there isn't the staff to do each of the jobs.  When you really see this is when you are filling in the various business reports.  Who is head of finance, payable, receivables, sales, IT and even marketing?  In some cases, a lot of these jobs are all handled by one individual, instead of each function being performed by a separate person.  In other cases, some of the jobs are shared by a couple of people and who does it depend on who has the time that day to perform the given task.

Everyone has jobs that they enjoy doing, while other jobs aren't as enjoyable but need to be accomplished.  Making sure you handle each of the jobs you need to do is very important.  Mixing up the order of when you do each job is important so that you aren't stuck doing all the jobs you would rather not do all at once.

Wearing many hats is not just related to work, they can be part of your personal life as well.  How many people have only one hat in their personal life, I don't know anyone that has one hat in their personal life.  Most people have more than one, and in some cases, they wear more hats personally than they do professionally.  Sometimes the hats you wear professionally end up being another hat personally.  For someone that does IT professionally, they normally end up with a personal IT hat because friends and family end up contacting this person for their IT issues.

Wearing many hats can be challenging or rewarding depending on how you handle it.  Don't try to wear too many hats at once, otherwise no job is completed, and you just bounce from one job to another.  Hats can be taken off when you need to focus on a specific task, but they are always close by.

I wear many hats, both professionally and personally, and I know that sometimes only one hat can be worn if I need to focus and accomplish a specific task.

Think about how many hats you wear, you may be amazed.

Escaping Your Daily Routine

How often can you tell what day it is because of what you are doing?  For some people, that is their routine, and they are happy with it.  Other people cannot handle a routine like that, as they need variety.  I, for one, fall somewhere in the middle, I like a routine sometimes but also like variety in a schedule.

There are times when a routine helps get the mandatory things completed, and sometimes, they are determined by others.  A routine can also result in the inability to accomplish things because it just the same things over and over.

In some cases, just escaping your daily routine can enable you to accomplish so much more.  it may mean doing things in a different order or even in a different location if that is possible.  This escape is a way of seeing what needs to be done in a different light and maybe seeing a different way of doing things.

For me, I escape my routine by doing my work in different locations when possible.  The variety of locations means that I can see the tasks differently and sometimes change what I have always done.  A different location can also mean new ideas are generated.

Escaping your daily routine is important at different times to ensure you can recharge your internal battery.  The escaping of your daily routine is one reason, so many companies force vacation time for their employees.  Yes, you may come back from vacation to a lot of work, but at least you escaped your daily routine for a bit.

Allergies in the world today

So many people have allergies in the world today.  Some have the occasional reaction due to seasonal allergies, while others deal with life-threatening allergies daily.  Knowing how to face the various allergies is important.

Life-threatening allergies are allergies that must be taken seriously.  If someone says they have a life-threatening allergy, believe them, and don't try to see what their reaction is like.  You can ask questions to gain knowledge and understanding, helping them avoid the allergen.  If you aren't comfortable dealing with the allergy, let the person know this.  It's better to tell them then try and hide your fear and in turn put the individual at risk.

For the individual with the allergy, it is important to know who around them understand and those that have problems dealing with it.  Not everyone can handle everything, so it's key to respect those that aren't comfortable, at least they let you know instead of putting you at risk.

Allergies, be them seasonal, or life-threatening, can develop at any age.  Learn what you can about your allergies, and then education those around you.

Allergies are in the world today, so we all have to face them.  Knowing you aren't alone is what matters.  I know I'm not alone when dealing with my life-threatening allergies, and that is what matters.

Accomplishing your tasks

We all have tasks that we need to accomplish in our daily lives.  It can be simple or very challenging, but it still needs to be done.  Sometimes it's just knowing the task exists that makes it hard, even when the task itself could be simple to accomplish.

For the larger or more challenging tasks, it sometimes helps to break them down into smaller tasks.  The smaller tasks in, so many, ways are more manageable and easier to achieve than one large task.  Being able to see some small tasks being accomplished helps achieve the larger task.

Not everyone will break down a larger task into smaller tasks.  It is an individual preference and can even way be depending on the task itself.

I am one of those individuals who like the smaller tasks.  I find that even if I have lots and lots of tasks, being about to cross things off helps me see and feel like I am making progress.  Big tasks don't seem so challenging when I can see the parts of it instead of just the whole task.

Managing tasks is something we all do, no matter what we do.  How we accomplish our tasks is what is important.  Simple or challenging tasks, they all need to be accomplished.