The last time I wrote a blog post for ALSC, I was in graduate school. In my mind, I had an idealized version of librarianship. In my dream world, every day I would come to work, and singing animals would help me put the books away; children would be perfectly behaved; and storytimes would be well attended. Then there was reality. Once I started, I quickly learned that I would need to be in several places at once, and doing multiple things. Cover lunches, order books, plan programs, straighten up my room, the list goes on and on. This is not to say I don’t love my job, I really do, but current me is laughing at the old me.
Recently, I began to figure out different ways to make sure I get everything- or at least the things I want to- done. One of my colleagues uses the bullet journal system, and one of these days, I swear I’ll get to reading the article someone sent me about that. Two other colleagues schedule their day out, each task has a certain time of the day. While I liked all those ideas, I realized they were not for me- at least not scheduling out my day! I like to have the flexibility in my day to handle whatever little emergencies, or fun moments, pop up. I decided what would be best for me is to set goals.
At first, I set five or six, but I quickly realized that if something came up and I wasn’t able to complete all the goals, I felt bad. So, I simplified. Now, every morning before we open, I set 3 daily goals for myself. The goals aren’t anything too lofty either. Yesterday my goals were:
- prep my afterschool book talks
- pull books about hedgehogs
- finalize my supply list for Saturday’s program.
That’s it. Simple, easy, and to the point. And you know what? When I finished, I felt great!
I’m curious, what methods are others using? What works for you? What doesn’t?
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Today’s guest post was written by Alyson Feldman-Piltch. Alyson Feldman-Piltch is a children’s librarian for the Boston Public Library. She likes dogs, ice cream, and baseball. She can be contacted at afeldmanpiltch@bpl.org.
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC
If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.
Julie
I’ve said for years (decades?) that I want to teach a class called “What they didn’t teach me in library school”! I use an academic year (same as our fiscal year) calendar with both month at a glance and week at a glance pages. The monthly page lists all of the children’s activities for that month along with what I paid outside performers and when I’m supremely organized contact information in case something comes up when I’m not here, the weekly has all of my to do items and in red timed commitments. I keep past years on a shelf in my office and I’ve had numerous occasions to go back and check for details.
Abby Johnson
I am addicted to my bullet journal – the only organizational tool I have actually stuck with – but I don’t do a lot of the fancy stuff that lots of crafty, amazing people do. I mainly see it as a place to keep all my to-do lists in one spot. As I complete tasks, I get to shade in the boxes (very satisfying – to me, anyway).
You have a great idea there about keeping things simple and focusing on achievable goals – anything else you accomplish in a day is gravy!