I’m in Japan with a suitcase full of notebooks and professional literature.   I am on a dump and slash mission.   I’m here for thirty days and I hope to return without any of the notebooks and professional literature that I crammed into my suit case.   Sometimes you need to raze a village to save a child.

First a little back story.  I basically stopped updating Samurai Mind Online when I received a scholarship to study to become a librarian two years ago.  My courses were online at Syracuse University but that doesn’t mean that it was a piece of cake.  In addition to my full-time job, I was also elected the union representative for my school and continued to be a dad of two young children.

As the various projects and demands piled up, I found that I had a growing mound of professional literature and my notebooks piling up.   This pile is a potential treasure pile but it’s sheer size was a major de-motivator.   It created falling hazards on my desk that threatened to bury my children alive.   As an organizational samurai I’ve now realized that you have to raze a village to save a child.In addition to my library journals, I’ve brought a bunch of my notebooks that are due for review.   However, I’ve decided that instead of dating the entries and reviewing methodically that I will review at random and not date any of the pages.   The only effort I will expend is copying very interesting entries by hand into my new notebook or in the case of longer entries I use CamScanner to turn the pages into PDFs which I then upload to my Evernote account.

I have a built in incentive.  The luggage will have room for more goodies to bring back from Japan.  Plus, my wife won’t kill me.   My luggage is not all my own.  I moonlight as a mule of Japanese stationary, house hold goods, and snacks  for my wife.

This is just a reminder that even if you have a system sometimes what really needs to happen is to have a purge.   I could have carefully dated and reviewed all of my notebooks but they had built up to such a big pile that it would have just led to resentment, resistance and possibly an even bigger pile leading to more resentment and resistance.

So this is just a friendly reminder that if you are feeling overwhelmed by the “pile” maybe what you need is a celebration around the pyre of letting things go.  You need to raze a village to save the child.

I’m in transition. (No not that kind.).  I’m a teacher learning to be a teacher librarian.   But to be a teacher librarian these days means to be an information generalist in an age when information is metastasizing at a tremendous rate.  In library school, we are encouraged to learn coding languages as well as connecting with great books for kids of all ages.  It’s overwhelming for a busy dad who doesn’t even know what’s on cable television.

But I decided to let go and let podcast.  From my days of All Japanese All The Time,  I realized that you become what you listen to.   So I hit up a Facebook group for librarians called ALA THINK TANK for librarian podcast recommendations.  Librarians are a helpful bunch and within minutes and over several days I developed a nice little list of podcasts.

My only “ask” was that the program has to be fun to listen to.   I have enough required activities in my life right now and don’t need any more “homework.”  I found a program, Lost in the Stacks, about university libraries that interspersed with great rock  and roll.

Then I stumbled onto The Cyberpunk Librarian.  Episode 36 focuses on productivity tools and did a great explanation of the Getting Things Done system.  Daniel Messer shows how to use list making tools and why he prefers using OneNote to Evernote.  He also succinctly explains and rifts on the very helpful Pomodoro technique.  Always a librarian, Messer provides a killer resource list of interest to anyone interested in getting things done.  But what also intrigued me was that he also advocates for using a physical notebook.  I’m waiting with samurai baited breath to listen to that episode.

This little episode is a great reminder that you can use the immersion and principles can work for whatever skill you want to tackle.  Make sure to:

• Use and expand your social networks to get ideas beyond your own research
• Let go and let podcast.  There is so much interesting and specialized content out there.   Go get it!
• Be immersed in the language of your new or desired skill
• Expand your Personal Learning Network by asking for help, online and in person.  When you strike gold, make sure to share the wealth
• Have fun!

Hello, Samurai Mindsters!   I’ve attached many vacuums to my time lately.  I am still a high school teacher.   I am a Librarian in Training (LIT!).   I also believe I am the parent of two little girls.

I keep a samurai mind notebook to remind me of great ideas but I also incorporate another practice to be physically reminded of great books and ideas.  As I come across great ideas of books and videos, I check my library to see if they have it and put the items on reserve.  Most libraries now make it easy to see which materials they have through online catalog and reserve systems.    It usually takes a while to actually receive the item, and I am notified by email when it arrives in my local branch.

Then I have a physical reminder of that inspirational idea.   Either I skim the book or view the video, or if I really like it, I fall into it.   The idea becomes a part of my physical reality.   The library reserve can become a physical spaced repetition system.

I made my first video for my graduate work at Syracuse University’s School Media Specialist program.  (Note:  I need to get a better microphone and background.  Enjoy my first foray into SamuraiTube!

You may have wondered where I have gone?  I’ve disappeared into the actual and virtual worlds of library training through Syracuse University.    I was away for the summer at the beautiful campus and then have been busy with online classes, learning, reading, in addition to my work as a personal coach and teacher.

Currently, I am taking a class called “Information Technology in Educational Organizations.”   Along with my other course, “Literacy Through School Libraries”, my head is spinning–in a good way.   I am taking my samurai mind on a different spin and I am valiantly trying to join the 21st century.

One of our current questions is to consider how we might include blogging in our libraries and classrooms.   How would or could a blog support the library?  Should it involve just me, your samurai mind librarian, or also involve the patrons.   My first thought is that blogging is an awesome opportunity to create community while developing skills that involve  collaboration, editing, technology, and a plethora of other skills that involve the Common Core and AASL standards.

I think it is important to have a librarian voice and a patron voice.   I think the more students/patrons know me as a human being, the better.   Blogging lends itself to informal sharing that could open up patrons to new books, activities, and ways to use the library.  I think it is also important to include micro-blogging opportunities for students so they have ownership and widen the audience/use of the library by reviewing books, adverstising/creating creation opportunities and events in the library and otherwise using student-speak to attract a wider audience.

How to do that is a different issue.   Ideas?

Talk to me—your lamp post.

Even if you talked to a lamp post about your goals, dreams, and obstacles you would benefit.   Talking and getting your aspirations, frustrations, and the tangled web of priorities outside of yourself gives you the benefit of getting out of your head and into action.

I am offering to become your lamp post and your coach.  For a limited time, I am offering three free sessions of coaching to the first candidates that apply for the available sessions below.   We will have an initial discussion to see if we are good fit, then after that we will begin our 45 minute sessions.

It’s time to tap into your already wonderful mind and life and take it up a samurai notch. 

More about me:

• I am a current student at the tail end of my training program at Coach U.   In addition to my current training, I also bring decades of experience in teaching and co-counseling, a process where people are training to listen–without judgement–to encourage growth and breaking through barriers.
• I am a life-long learner and teacher.   I believe in everyone’s inherent capacity to grow and expand.
• I am a teacher and am also starting a Masters in Library Science.  It is all part of my calling to help people find their voice without drowning in a sea of information.
• I have been samurai mind blogging and encouraging people to use their minds and lives better since 2011.   With all my rough edges out I have blogged about various “self-help” topics such as maximizing how you use your memory to learn everything from foreign language to musical instruments, the importance of consistent “reaches” and small moments of practice, money consciousness, leveraging the power of reading, the power of letting go, creativity and time management, deliberate practice, the power of small moves,  and creating a samurai notebook (the powerful use of samurai mind notebooks).
• I firmly believe that if we fully can tap our minds, we can better serve our selves, others, and the earth in a spirit of intelligent play.

What coaching is and what it can do for you:

• Coaching is a process where you, the coachee, get to move your samurai mind and life forward, by articulating what you want in life, obstacles that you see, and envisioning.   As a coach I am there to support you, listen, gently question and remind you of your stated goals.
• Coaching is not therapy, consulting, financial planning, or any other such service.  In the process of a coaching session you may reach the conclusion that this may help your growth and make a plan to get outside help.  I do not pretend I am qualified to guide you in these areas.  I am your lamp post.  You do the walking.

It’s time to tap into your already wonderful mind and life and take it up a samurai notch. 

Available Session Times in June:

Mondays at 4 P.M.  EST

Wednesdays 4-6 P.M. EST

Thursdays at 9 P.M. EST

Librarians have always been my superheros because they helped me get to where I am. Now I get to return the favor. The idea of librarianship is really evolving as this article about superheroes, comics, and libraries shows.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two months since I’ve blogged on this site.  Where did I go?  I’ve been spending a little time blogging about teaching about Asia, but really the rest of the time has been taken up by teaching and also getting into a School Media Specialist program at Syracuse University.  There are still little steps to take (immunization records, transcripts, etc!) but for now most of the post-acceptance work is done.

I will start actual classes in July, but I feel like I’ve already started to get the benefits of the program.  The library program shared a short article and video from one of their professors, R. David Lankes.   In “The Community is Your Collection”  Lankes weaves the story of his cancer with changing the notion of librarianship.  Rather than being the guardian of a “collection”,  being a librarian actually involves gathering the hopes, goals, dreams and fears of your patrons and working from their to build, assist, and grow. This lecture made even more excited to be going to the iSchool in Syracuse to learn how to be a School Media Specialist.  (Thanks to a PLUS NY grant funded by Institute of Museum and Library Services!)

Lankes begins by describing the night he that learned about his diagnosis and very quickly moves to explain how his experience differed with the experience of children and their families who learn about their prognoses at the very same hospital.   At that particular hospital, in addition to doctors and other support staff, a librarian comes to the meeting.   This librarian listens to the doctors, the families and listens for keywords and the concerns of every one involved.    Then she provides resources–links, sites and articles for the adults–appropriate age level picture books for the children.   Lankes very powerfully shows that being a librarian is about listening to people, and the community, and to help them face their fears, their dreams, and to take on life in its myriad forms.

I highly suggest watching the video even if you aren’t big into libraries.   What I would like to add is that you also need to be your own librarian.   You need to query your own passions, interests, lingering questions, problems, and challenges and get excited building your own set of resources–music, videos, websites, personal trainings, etc.    Follow your love and passion and in your own way you can better serve others.  You are the collection!

In addition to the filing cabinets, I brought this shelf from my mother’s hometown. The physical act of organizing my books cleared up a little more RAM. Sometimes physical action will help you get over your samurai drama and help you get going.

Another school year has ended.  My wife and daughters are in Japan and I am living the wild bachelor life.   The other day I got a little wild and bought a  filing cabinet.   Crazy!  I know!

Buying a filing cabinet is all  part of taking myself a little more seriously and allowing myself to play at the same time.  If you file something efficiently you save time and space at the same time.  More time.  More play.

I lazily channeled Getting Things Done by David Allen and his filing system.   First of all, David Allen says to get a label maker.  My hand writing is awful and it just hurts my spirit to look at my crawlies to find information.   A crisp typed  label makes it less of a drag to look through files.  You can alphabetize everything nicely nicely with clear labels.

David Allen’s system of creating files also includes a simple and powerful method of creating files for each day and month.  David Allen suggests creating a file for all the days of the month and a file for every month.  Sometimes, you need to hold projects or papers for the next day or month.  Creating a file for each day keeps you from struggling to hold that information in your brain and therefore distract you.   Ay, but the rub is that you actually have to look at the files for each day and use the system.

I’ve got the labels but I’ve been placing the folders in a big plastic box.  Albeit it is an elegant plastic box from Muji.  However, I soon got tired of just having to heave files in a hard to use box.  It just didn’t invite looking through and sorting.   Though it had nice labels, the box  seemed more like a physical barrier.  It didn’t invite daily use.

As I’ve been dusting, cleaning, and filing I’ve come to realize that when you are filing, you are also filing your brain.  The physical tossing and filing is an opportunity to set priorities, review, and take stock of resources.

Take a look around.  What needs to be “sorted and filed?”  You may get into a hissy fit about doing it, (I know I did), but once you get going it will be worth it.   Sort and organize your tools.  Polish and shine your armor and sword, and neatly arrange them for ready use.   File your sword.  File your life.

The book reinforces things I already practice. I am an early riser and walker. The author, a brain researcher, explains how the sun stimulates brain activity. Catch the worm!

Cliche alert.  They say that the early bird catches the worm.   Well, yesterday, that proved to be true.  My window in Japan faces South and East and because Japan doesn’t do daylight savings I’m often up  without an alarm clock around 5 a.m.    Yesterday, I woke up even earlier and decided to head out even earlier for my walking/jogging, podcast listening, and moderate sun exposure.  When I walked to the local 自動販売機 (vending machine), I found a crumpled up 1000 円 bill.  That’s $10  ‘Murican.  As Benjamin “All About the Benjamins” Franklin said early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Who needs worms?

There are distinct advantages to waking up early in Numazu.   The main one is that after 6 a.m. the sun starts to burn the precious.  But lately, I keep getting hit with other reminders of the power of rising early.   Sukiyama Takeshi, a brain researcher includes a whole chapter on the cognitive advantages of getting sunlight and walking outside in the early morning in his book The Brain’s Timetable (脳の時間が割).    The latest issue of Tarzan, a Japanese lifestyle magazine, is devoted to suggested early morning activities and highlights folks in different fields and their early morning routines.  

So “the universe” is guiding and bribing me to leverage my early morning.  You don”t have to join me.   Some people prefer the night.  But here are some reasons I prefer the morning:

• Get it done before other concerns, distractions, and fatigue set in.
  I used to do a Japanese immersion service called Silverspoon.   You didn’t necessarily have to start early in the morning, but a lot of the “heavy lifting”  came early in the day.   You just “git er” done in the early part of the day and start with a win.
• Experience the after burn.  Start a chain reaction.　I don’t lift weights often but when I do they are full of air.  I’ve heard that one of the benefits of lifting in the morning is that you get to feel the after burn all day.   Whether you are playing guitar, writing, or
  

  Spark your morning and take a small direction in your dreams. You may just set off a chain reaction.. At least you can enjoy the after burn.

  learning a language one of the nice benefits of morning time is that that little bit of time can start a chain reaction of ideas, inspiration or linguistic connection.

• Wake and bake.   Set the trend for the day.   One of the most “instructive” moments of my college education was a “Cartoon Kegger.”  That’s when you wake up early in the morning for cartoons and start drinking massive amounts of beer.   The theory went that if you wake up early when your brain cells are perky, you get to be a different kind of drunk and watch cartoons.  A great use of tuition money, huh?  Now I use the power of morning to bake in a different kind of goodness and set a positive trend for the day.

I became more of a morning samurai..   After my children were born, I found I had less time and energy.  You don’t have to wait to be a parent to claim the mornings.    Give it a shot.  Wake up 15 minutes early and see what you can make happen.  Catch the worm!