Coffee with a shot of PLN in the morning

I've often said this about myself - "It's only the completely obvious I miss."

For the past two nights, Shannon Miller, Shawn Holloway, Deron Durflinger Laura Horan and Bill Brannick have been collaborating on a class Shannon's piloting in Van Meter

It's been two nights of chatting and work that at the end of the day, it's better than a shot of 5 hour energy as the hours melt away. At the end of this time there is a product AND a fired up feeling about what you accomplished.

But why hadn't I thought to do this in the morning to get things started? To completely obvious.

This morning, instead sitting down with a cup of coffee watching to the same stories I saw on KCCI last night (horrible flooding in Ames, Colfax and Des Moines - prayers for everyone effected), I got back on my PLN.

I jumped on Facebook to see what my social network was doing and then opened tweetdeck to see what my PLN was up to. An article someone referenced sparked a reflection on last nights work, which prompted me back to the Google Doc about the class we were working on and added some thoughts.

Reading through what we have created so far, I saw it's evolving in a group and personal way feeling better and better about our direction. I updated my Diigo toolbar and located some reading and watching for later. This took minutes and I felt like the Army used to say - "done more before 6 a.m. than most do during the day!"

I'm now charged, focused, found a blog topic (actually two...will write the second one soon), wrote the blog, am ready for our Skype at 10 a.m., all the while finding time to get ready for the day.

Why didn't I think about it this way before? Instead of just getting all fired up at night I can help boost my day and send me out with the right focus.

PLN - a part of a balanced breakfast.