Today, in a bit of a hissy fit, I cancelled a few of the paid subscriptions I had regarding my pro-versions of my RSS feed reader and note taking apps deciding that the days of having a personal knowledge management routine is well and truly, behind me.

I looked at everything I was collecting over the years to do with social learning, social media for learning, curation, communities of practice and learning and development and decided that I don’t need it anymore. (And, if I really wanted it, I can search for it and find it in the future but let’s get real, how often will this happen?)

• What did I keep it all for?
• What good is it to anyone or anything?
• How does keeping it impact or benefit anyone or anything?

I collect, I read, I may write about it by mentioning it in a blog post or two and then….that’s it!

I don’t actually DO anything with this information long term.

Everything I need happens to be the content I’ve created on my blog because it references these original articles I’ve saved, the content I’ve read and accessed through the years.

Why am I keeping the original source content when I have my own interpretation of it? Added my own value. That’s the stuff I should be keeping.

MY stuff. MY thinking. MY interpretation.

That is, if there’s no direct outcome, reason or result from keeping original links other than saying “I’ve read it.” Or, “it may be useful somewhere, somehow” then…..

So what?

I’m not using the references to build a business; nor am I saving them for my own studies towards research projects. I’m not even writing a book. Over the last couple of years, I’ve also started to decline speaking presentations at conferences and I’ve all but shut up shop with Activate Learning Solutions. I’ve reached a point where I say goodbye to that part of my working life where I’m trying to get people to see value in social learning and communities.

Why?

I don’t think it’s actually valued.

It’s too hard for people. People are tired and change fatigued. People have been put through the wringer these last couple of years so it’s not exactly a priority.

It’s also given lip service by organisations.

Part of me is also tired of banging on about it to people who may not be genuinely interested in it.

I thought that as I’m not using these references and link collections to help the world or the community in any way, it may be time to accept that I’ve flogged this horse to death. It’s now time to say goodbye, put it all behind me and move on with something else in my life. Something a little more life affirming, positive, helpful, creative and supporting.

(I have no idea what it is but I’m sure the universe will provide that to me in some way).

There is no reason to keep collecting this stuff that seemed so part of my identity for many years.

In some way, it’s made me realise that over time, all I need are the apps native to the OS I use), my blog and my YouTube channel. Keep things to a minimum. That’s it. They’re the only things that will allow me to express myself and to capture what I need to capture for now.

I don’t care what tool, what tech, what platform. Nor do I owe people explanations about what to do when and why anymore. If they want it, they’ll ask and I’ll be more than happy to provide.

I’m going through something in my life now where I’m just purging things and ways that worked for me in the past but don’t serve me anymore.

Nothing is important to me anymore as it used to be – except family, friends, health, life & love.

Everything else is extraneous.