Take Your To Do List from Overwhelm to On Point

If you love the feeling of crossing things off your to do list, I’m right there with you. And if sometimes you look at that list and put it right back down, walking as fast as you can in the opposite direction, once again, I’m with you. 

Which is why I want to share two easy strategies for making to do lists a little more manageable that came to me within days of each other: 

1.     Make it a Get To Do list*. One little word to help remind us all how lucky we are to be alive, doing work that makes the world better. 

2.     Make an Already Done List. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a minute or two to write down things you HAVE accomplished. Getting out of bed and brushing your teeth can 100% be on that puppy, and so can closing the biggest deal you’ve ever made with a dream client. You do you and celebrate those wins! This one is from @Lizandmollie, give them a follow!

*I can’t remember where I saw this one, so if you’ve seen this and have a source, I’d love to give them credit!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, 

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

ShapingEDU’s Pente Pitch Challenge! The first of it’s kind, it’s Day 2 of the Pente Pitch Challenge where 5 teams of higher education dreamers, doers, and drivers from around the world are competing for funding toward their impact projects. From post-pandemic era best practices to immersive experiences to humanizing learning, today we find out who will win the big bucks!

All Parks Zero Landfill Initiative: Last week I had the enormous pleasure of working IN PERSON with NPS, the National Park Conservation Association, the National Park Foundation, and Subaru to bring the first Zero Landfill Initiative pilot project to a close. The three pilot parks shared best practices and reflected on how to carry this work forward. 

Adobe Creative Campus Collaborations: Another fabulous convening focused on Digital Literacy across the globe with Adobe! The highlight was definitely the Graduate Thought Leader Panel who knocked everyone’s socks off with their poise, eloquence, and big ideas!

Drawing Connections to Climate Change is an Award-Winning Video Series!

I’m so proud to share that the National Park Service Drawing Connections to Climate Change illustrated video series won a 2021 Silver Telly award!

Who else won a Silver Telly in our Public Service & Activism category? Stephen Colbert. COLBERT. 

These shorts tell stories of climate impacts in places and ways we don’t necessarily think of first – such as loss of cultural resources due to intense storms, or warming leading to an increased threat of avian malaria for rare birds. 

What I love about the approach we took with these videos is that they tell it like it is: climate change is having some massive impacts on our beloved wild places. AND there are things each of us can do to minimize climate impacts! The series always ends asking the audience “Can you picture it?”, as a tool park interpreters can use to engage with visitors and imagine a future we want to see.

I am so delighted to be part of this team and would like to take a moment to send a major shout-out to Larry Perez and Matt Holly at NPS for championing this series and making darn good videos! Your skills are fire and it’s a joy to collaborate with you!

You can find the entire series as a playlist at NPS Climate Change Response Program’s YouTube channel, or browse the links below:

• Our newest release is from Haleakala – avian malaria and climate change

• Castillo de San Marcos, Florida – sea level rise and historic cultural resources

• Organ Pipe Cactus, New Mexico – the historic Gachado Line Camp and intense storm cycles

• Jean Lafitte, Louisiana – sea level rise and historic and natural resources

• Yosemite, California – the importance of winter seasons for the park to rest

• Summer Heat Safety – how to stay safe even when things heat up in National Parks

• Cabrillo, California – ocean acidification and sea life in tide pools

• And the very first Drawing Connections video from back in ’17 -- Fort Laramie, Wyoming – river flooding events and cultural resources

If you’d like to work together on an illustrated video, I’m currently booked out into spring of 2022. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss your project or be connected with another talented illustrator in my network. 

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, 

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

Another New Video! This video for the National Park Service is designed to introduce a virtual field trip for students to learn about what brown bears eat when they emerge from hibernation, but the salmon haven’t started their run yet. CLICK THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

Ute Mountain Ute Student Voices: The Tribe received a grant for after-school programming for youth, and are starting by gathering the kids’ ideas and interests before taking steps to begin creating the programs – here’s a snapshot of one focus group. 

Graphic Facilitation: for a couple of teams right now. This is a custom element I’ve embedded into the Miro Board to support the multi-disciplinary team of researchers applying for an NSF grant to get on the same page about their approach and begin the process of writing up the complexity in a coherent way. 

My Biggest Takeaway from a Workshop in Visual Practice Might Surprise You. It Sure Surprised Me.

As a visual practitioner, I attend a LOT of meetings and workshops. Last week I flipped from business-as-usual (I mean, as usual as it can be for a visual practitioner) to step into a workshop as a participant rather than facilitator or recorder.

Hosted by Kelvy Bird and Alfredo Carlo, I found myself surrounded with people who I consider thought leaders and experts in the field. Over the course of a few days, I’ve begun to make a profound shift in the way I approach this work, and on a deeper level, provided conditions for me to examine how I show up in this world and what that means for the work I do for my clients.

The Visual Practice Workshop exceeded my expectations and pushed me to think more critically than I have in a long time, which means it’s going to take more than the couple of days I’ve had to process. I expect that what I’ve learned will be infused in these emails/posts moving forward, and I’m excited to catch and ride this wave of learning and pushing myself.

Most of all, I’m looking forward to what the things I’ve learned and explored this week mean for my clients. Applying new models to facilitate understanding of the group and their ideas, moving into a deeper practice of partnership with my clients, and cultivating/holding awareness in and around my groups are filling my mind and heart with potential.

For now, what has settled in most deeply is the power of Breathing. Probably not what you were expecting, right? Me either – life is funny that way.

Whether it’s taking a deep breath at the beginning of a session I’m scribing to truly listen to the bigger message before jumping in, or taking a deep breath to allow myself the time and space to think at a more systemic level about ConverSketch or the challenges my clients are tackling, or reflecting on the cyclical nature of systems and what we can learn from them. There is much to learn from breath and I’m ready to dive in with you!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, partnership and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, Karina

Interested in testing out how to apply some new approaches to this work?

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Phoenix, Arizona: Last week before heading to Portland, I spent the day with the ASU Technology leadership team to continue supporting them as they build their organizational culture.

Illustrated video for NPS: Today I’m in the studio for the National Park Service filming another public service announcement about how to fish smart and be healthy. You can watch the other finished PSA’s here.