Information disorder after your summer vacation?

Do you know the feeling? You come back to work after a (as I had the luxury) nice and long summer vacation, still relaxed and full of wonderful memories. Your batteries are loaded, you are full of energy and plans, ready to turn the key and start the work engine and work mind… First shock: “Where, by all means, did I put the keys??!!”.

You start to activate the search engine in your brain trying to find all the necessary passwords to get the machine mechanism going… You might recall an earlier recommendation from a colleague to install a software to store all your passwords, but at that time you thought: “No, no, I’m not that soft to need a software like that, I will still remember…!”. Well…here you go (or not)! After quite some time, you finally manage to do so, the engine starts and you are moving slowly. So where are you going next?

There are many roads to take. You are wading through hundreds of emails and loads of information with the focus to absorb the essential and move into the right direction. You try to match the new information with the knowledge you had before your vacation. You get another shock and a slight feeling of panic: ‘But, WHERE is it??!!’. The whole process of your inner knowledge storage and management seems to be messed up and you are finding yourself in a state of information disorder. Syntax Error in your brain, nothing works. Panic!

Of course, you know that the knowledge is there, but still, it seems to be suppressed by the memory of that beautiful tour through the Swiss mountains, the sunset in the Swedish archipelago (and the mosquitos!), how much the vacation actually cost… etc. It just needs a few days to come up to the surface again.

It is exactly at this point and in this state of mind, where I start to dream of having my own inner Knowledge XChanger. Information collection and contribution, classification, searchability, notification and distribution – everything is in one place and done automatically, no scenic routes! What a dream!

On the other hand, and this is what the vacation also is about, we are human beings after all. We should allow the fact to be soft and wear it with pride. After a few days back at work, we have accelerated our processes and everything is back to normal. Summer vacation is left behind.

The engine has started, we have hit the road and are up to speed…what about you?

Welcome back and enjoy the ride!

By: Tove Lindén