Spring-clean your minds!

Well, Christmas lethargy has almost passed. One hopes the cold and snow has gone for this year too. Now’s the time for a little spring-cleaning! That’s what we’re doing in our house at the moment and it occurred to me that’s what needed with our minds sometimes. We carry around so many thoughts and ideas that it’s difficult to focus on what is actually the most important. What is it that actually needs to get done? What is it that needs to be written on our blogs, or what that we have written needs to be posted.

An excellent example of latent thinking and writing surfaced over the weekend in Kelly Page‘s “Social ways of working in Higher Education“. In a tweet, Kelly mentioned that she’d written this post a year ago but hadn’t been sure whether to post it, or not. How often is that so true. How many other ideas and thoughts are getting cobwebs collecting around them that are crying out to see the light of day. How many others just need to be swept away, to allow others to emerge and grow?

So that’s the theme of the next Thought grazing Social Media Cafe (#tgsmc) to be held on Wednesday afternoon, 29th February, from 2.00pm at Costa Coffee in Park Place. Come and do a bit of thought spring cleaning as well as have a good chat and cup of coffee (and a cake), or two.

Social media cafe launches at Cardiff University

Back in Victorian times all the best plans and projects were hatched in the coffee shop where thoughts were exchanged between philosophers and practitioners from many disciplines and backgrounds. The world of social media is great for making connections and for replicating this cross-fertilisation of ideas; it fosters the creation of networks and allows the early discussion of ideas and enables the hatching of plans, but it lacks the obvious benefits of face-to-face contact and also the possibilities for animated, coffee-fueled group discussion.

Informal conversation is where engagement starts. Coffee (or a similar beverage) is what relaxes you (or stimulates you) to start that conversation. Put the two together and you have a winning formula.

Go to the Cardiff menu tab for further information and for short reports of events.