tl;dr version
A daily blog-athon is starting up next week with hundreds of people writing a daily post on a specific theme. You are invited to participate.

Long version
Coming up soon (Sept 14, to be exact) is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

However, it’s not – to put it in business terms – a year-end review. It’s a job interview. It’s the time when you reflect on how the past year went so that you can commit to making adjustments in attitude and behavior so that we continue to improve as people. It’s high stakes stuff. Have a bad interview, and The Boss might not renew our contract.

As anyone who’s been in a high-stakes interview can attest this is not something that you just show up for unprepared. You’ve got to show up for that interview with your facts straight, with a clear understanding of the numbers, your accomplishments, your shortcomings, etc.

Which leads me to the point of this – the month BEFORE Rosh Hashana (called “Elul” in Hebrew) is a time of getting the balance sheet in order.

To help with that, a bunch of folks from all walks of life participate in #BlogElul: A daily prompt provides the theme and people riff on that – sometimes a few hundred words, sometimes an image, sometimes a poem or just a single sentence. It’s something I’ve done for a few years now.

This year, I thought I’d add a twist and also do an IT Pro version of #BlogElul. A reflection on each of the daily prompts and what they mean in an IT context.

You’re probably thinking “Leon, this is a Jewish thing and completely outside the scope of my experience.” Yes and no.

If you have worked in IT for more than 15 minutes, you’ve probably been involved in a large development project, system rollout, or upgrade. And as the date for the big cutover approaches, there are usually daily status updates. Consider this a chance to give a status update before we roll out “TheWorld version 5776”.

If you are interested in joining in you can find more information on the blog of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, the woman who started it:
http://imabima.blogspot.com/2015/08/blogelul-and-elulgram-2015.html

If you have suggestions on what I should include for any of the days, let me know!

And the daily prompts are here:
Elul 1: Prepare
Elul 2: Act
Elul 3: Search
Elul 4: Understand
Elul 5: Accept
Elul 6: Know
Elul 7: Be
Elul 8: Hear
Elul 9: See
Elul 10: Count
Elul 11: Trust
Elul 12: Forgive
Elul 13: Remember
Elul 14: Learn
Elul 15: Change
Elul 16: Pray
Elul 17: Awaken
Elul 18: Ask
Elul 19: Judge
Elul 20: Dare
Elul 21: Love
Elul 22: End
Elul 23: Begin
Elul 24: Hope
Elul 25: Intend
Elul 26: Create
Elul 27: Bless
Elul 28: Give
Elul 29: Return