Every Christmas I look forward to a few days of non work time that I can use to work.
Let me explain.
With a very busy schedule there are many times when I don’t get the chance to just think or explore or let an idea lead to another idea or just experiment. One thing that I’ve found helpful for me is to use technology to push my own boundaries and that learning can lead to further creativity, new ideas and…wait for it…additional perspective.
So, this year’s Christmas ‘project’ was iPad exploration. I’m in love with this thing.
However, technology can come with a cost. There’s a learning curve and so when I got an iTunes gift card I dutifully loaded it into my laptop account and the next day proceeded to download some other apps and music on my iPad and realized a credit card had been billed although a credit should have remained from the iTunes card.
Old school thinking: I probably loaded the card up wrong, so I better find the card now in the kitchen garbage from 2 days ago mixing nicely with the other garbage outside. Yah, that was fun, but after a little CSI rubber glove investigation, I found it. When I reloaded the card info, I was told the card had already been used.
What?
Newer school thinking: Actually think through the scenario and begin to dig deeper. Could there be a technology problem and solution? As it turned out, I had created a second Apple ID and although the devices were syncing together, they were accessing iTunes with different ID’s one of which had the gift card credit still on it and one that had a credit card number on it.
After 30 minutes of invoking the humbling ‘wife can you help me clause’ in our marriage agreement and some interesting searching through online tech chat sites (not), we discovered and fixed the issue.
Why am I telling you this?
Years ago, before iPads and iPods, I told myself that if I could learn ONE new technology item every year and really try to master it, I could continue to learn and grow and push both my efficiency AND effectiveness levels upwards.
For example, one year spending a couple of hours trying to figure out my OLD cell phone and actually program in speed dial numbers was an incredible help.
Today it’s the iPad and the investment of a few hours of initial frustration (some of it self-created!) is part of the learning process that I look forward to every Christmas…just a couple of days where you can relax a little, dig through some garbage and learn some new tricks!
I wish all of you a very meaningful, productive, and inspiring 2012 with many BE THE BEST moments!
Looking forward to sharing those as we go.
Be The Best. 