Time
I can’t believe that two weeks from today I’ll actually be in Boston. I’m now shifting my perspective from “what things do I need to do to prepare,” to “what exactly am I going to do when I’m there.”
In doing so, I come to the inevitable conclusion: there isn’t enough time.
I’ve got too much to do, too many people to see, too many places to be. Of course, this isn’t a bad problem to have, but it reminds me that I need to be disciplined in my scheduling. I’m the personality type that likes to play it by ear, and just hang out in various places and see who I meet. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. So here are two things I’m doing to be more disciplined about it.
I am making a list of the specific people I want to spend time with at the meeting, and I’m going to contact them ahead of time and either schedule a time to talk, or at least give them my cell phone number so I can connect at the meeting. Remember, there are 25 hotels in use during this conference, so hoping to “bump into them” may not work!
Balance work and play. One reason I love the annual meeting is hanging out with my friends in this community that I rarely get to see. Unfortunately, if I hang out with them all the time, I’ll miss out on opportunities to meet new people. I need to hang out with friends, and I need to meet new people, so it simply requires some negotiation with my friends (so they’re not insulted when I go in a different direction!) and some discipline on my part.