| Upsides | Downsides |
| - you can take the afternoon (or even the day) off to spend with your lover - no one person is your boss…..i.e. no line manager - you can work a lot and earn plenty money, or work not very much and have more time off - sometimes great variety of work - you only have yourself to blame | - no colleagues to chat to on a daily basis - no security - quiet periods can be rather anxiety-inducing - it can be difficult to know if you are doing well or not (no performance appraisal) - you have to do your own goal-setting - sometimes no variety of work! - you only have yourself to blame! |
Friday, 30 September 2011
Ups and Downs
I was clearing up the desktop of my computer this morning and came across this table outlining the pros and cons of having a self-directed portfolio career. Seeing as I haven't posted anything for a while, I thought I would share it
Sunday, 7 August 2011
The Mess on the Desk
I have so many interests that sometimes it's quite difficult to see the wood for the trees... especially on my desk, which typically has several piles of papers - journal articles, pages from magazines etc that I am in the process of reading (or intending to read). But sometimes this eclectic disorganisation actually pays off.
The other day, during a desk tidying exercise, I found an article that I had torn out of The Psychologist magazine in February called From Brain Scan to Lesson Plan. I put it in my bag to read on the train on the way to meet a friend in London, so later in the evening, something he said prompted me to talk about some of the ideas in the article. One of the things he was interested in was the proliferation of 'neuromyths' in the world of teaching, such as the use of the concept of preferred learning styles to improve learning outcomes (for which there is little scientific evidence). He asked me if I would be prepared to give a talk to the music teachers he works with at Newham Music Academy about the Psychology of Learning as part of their professional development programme.
I agreed in a fairly tentative way, because I wasn't initially sure exactly what I could discuss that they would find interesting (and useful), but then I started doing some research into the links between neuroscience and learning, and strangely enough, this led me to articles about how neuroscience studies have shown that the study and practice of music may actually enhance an individual's general ability to learn. Bingo! Now I have a sense of what the talk could be about. What's more, I realised that I could also link this to studies about improvisation, as much of this work has focused on jazz musicians.
It encourages me to keep up my habit of saving articles of interest, and also to be less bothered about the state of my desk!
The other day, during a desk tidying exercise, I found an article that I had torn out of The Psychologist magazine in February called From Brain Scan to Lesson Plan. I put it in my bag to read on the train on the way to meet a friend in London, so later in the evening, something he said prompted me to talk about some of the ideas in the article. One of the things he was interested in was the proliferation of 'neuromyths' in the world of teaching, such as the use of the concept of preferred learning styles to improve learning outcomes (for which there is little scientific evidence). He asked me if I would be prepared to give a talk to the music teachers he works with at Newham Music Academy about the Psychology of Learning as part of their professional development programme.
I agreed in a fairly tentative way, because I wasn't initially sure exactly what I could discuss that they would find interesting (and useful), but then I started doing some research into the links between neuroscience and learning, and strangely enough, this led me to articles about how neuroscience studies have shown that the study and practice of music may actually enhance an individual's general ability to learn. Bingo! Now I have a sense of what the talk could be about. What's more, I realised that I could also link this to studies about improvisation, as much of this work has focused on jazz musicians.
It encourages me to keep up my habit of saving articles of interest, and also to be less bothered about the state of my desk!
Friday, 22 July 2011
Life is Busy!
I enjoy writing, I really do! But somehow, writing blog posts has not (yet) become part of my routine. There always seem to be so many other things to do - play the piano, mess about on Facebook, clear up the back yard, walk a friend's dog along the beach, speak to a business colleague about a potential project, read up about the 4-hour body, pop to the shops, chat with my god-daughter on-line, send out invites to next week's Hee-Ha's gig, think about planning for a Leadership Event Leadership Event for September, laugh at Private Eye cartoons, re-sign up for the BPS Directory of Chartered Psychologists, work out how to pay my tax on-line, download some articles about using Improvisation in Business, listen to radio 4 news .... that's what I have done today, and it's only 7.30pm - perhaps I really am busy after all!
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