05.29.08
Spreadsheet to-do-list
I recently dug up and refreshed a to-do list I had created in Excel, because from September to December of last year, it worked so well for me use a spreadsheet to keep track of big and small projects. When I first opened the file and looked it over, it was one very long list, with lots of stuff checked off and almost as much stuff still not checked off. I found it overwhelming to look at and darn near closed it up right then and there! I know I could have removed the rows with the checked off stuff, but I like to see that I’ve accomplished things, so that wasn’t the answer. I know it sounds dumb, but it works for me.
I decided to break the tasks into categories as tabbed sections, since I had roughly organized them this way they developed last fall. What better way to keep each list separate and more manageable, yet still together in one Excel file. I find that I like seeing the main categories on the tabs and viewing just one tab at a time, but with the others just a click away. It’s so much easier to focus on the tasks listed there and know how far along I’m coming on a big project. Just for the record– I’ve tried to organize my tasks in Microsoft’s Outlook by assigning them to categories, but every so often, my computer hiccups and rearranges my task list. Then I waste time trying to reconstruct the view so I can figure out where I left off.
I guess the thing I like about the spreadsheet method for my to-do list is that it doesn’t have annoying reminders. If I use Outlook and try to set deadlines on too many tasks, they seem to pop up at inopportune times and I end up ignoring the reminders. It’s too hard to predict that at 8 am the next day, I will definitely be doing a particular task, which will then be followed by an additional task with another reminder. If I can’t do a task as it was originally scheduled, I know I can move the reminder to another time or day, but then I’m just putting it off, sometimes indefinitely. I’m very good at procrastinating on my own, so I don’t need help from any software.
I do try to use reminders sparingly, though, so I won’t forget to do really important things, like attend meetings or do something by a specific date. I find that I tend to pay more attention to those types of reminders and never ignore them or put them off. It’s a rare occasion that I miss a meeting or turn in paperwork late when I set a reminder for it. For everything else, the spreadsheet gives me much more flexibility to work my tasks into my schedule, rather than schedule tasks into my workday.
05.27.08
A sense of accomplishment
Have you ever had something, whether it was a simple task or a big project, hanging over your head for what seems like forever? Finding the time to do it just doesn’t happen and each day that goes by means you’re that much farther behind in getting it done. Maybe it’s something with a deadline or a sense of timeliness and not doing it just makes it worse. You know other people are waiting for you to do it, yet it just isn’t getting done despite your best efforts to squeeze it into your busy schedule.
Well today I finished compiling several months’ worth of cataloging statistics. Big deal, right? It wasn’t so much the compiling that was hard– it was figuring out a new way to compile them, making sure that method was accurate, redesigning our statistical reports, and coming up with new instructions so that I could (hopefully) delegate the task to someone else in the future. It was a major project, to be sure! Compiling my department’s monthly cataloging statistics used to be so easy that I had it down to where it took just an hour or two to do (yeah, we hand-counted EVERYTHING we did in our department!). But a consultant came along last fall and was convinced I could get the same numbers out of our automated system. He said we should stop counting so much by hand and stop counting EVERYTHING we did. Easier said than done, I say.
After months of creating lists of data and trying to figure out where the system counts things differently than we humans count things, I’ve finally cracked the code. I’m actually looking forward to next week, when I can use my new method to compile the May statistics, hopefully within the first week of June. Then I can put my energies towards coming up with new statistical counts that reflect some of the new things we’re doing, such as getting shelf-ready books from vendors.
No matter what, I can’t forget the feeling of calm and the sense of accomplishment I felt when I posted the last report on our staff intranet and sent an email to my department announcing the reports were available. Feeling caught up (even in just this one small area) was a great way to end the day and a wonderful way to start the week.
05.21.08
To-do lists
Only a packrat like me can accumulate multiple to-do lists. I recently mentioned the scraps of paper I’ve been collecting with tasks and projects to do and the need to put them all together. In trying to think of a location to compile them (and do them- including checking them off), I remembered the Excel spreadsheet I started last fall. I still had it on my thumb drive, so I plugged it into my laptop and began transferring tasks and projects from scraps of paper to the spreadsheet.
It was nice to see all the things I’d accomplished last fall. I knew I felt busy at the time and the spreadsheet confirmed it– it had lots of stuff checked off. Ahhh, a rare sense of accomplishment. But when I opened the file, I noticed the last time I updated it was 12/4/07. Hmmm…. had it really been that long since I last used it? I discovered a few tasks and projects that weren’t checked off and yes, they still needed to be done. Darn–forgetting them didn’t make them go away.
I know I should work harder at delegating things to other people, but it’s a skill I’m not very good at. There are lots of things at my library where I’m the only one trained or authorized in the software to do them, so delegation isn’t as simple as picking an employee and saying, “Here- this is your project. I want it done by…” If I get too many questions when I assign something, I feel like I didn’t explain it clearly enough or train the person well enough so they could work on it independently.
I also need to break down bigger projects into smaller steps that either have deadlines or target dates, so I can know if I’m on track or way off it. I recently worked with an employee to do this for our digitization plan and we both like having a general timeline in which to begin digitizing and cataloging local maps and photographs. I need to go back to my other big projects that have been hanging around my neck like an albatross and put them on timelines as well. Maybe that will give me an incentive to squeeze them in and stay on track– and maybe even complete them before I retire decades from now.
05.18.08
Pollyanna
I took home a bunch of work this weekend, thinking I’d spend some time doing it so I could feel caught up come Monday morning. I should have known better. I already have too much work to do at home, so what was I thinking? I do the same thing every night– take home way too much to read, compile, summarize, or even absorb. Now I find myself doing the same most weekends. Sometimes I wish I could slip a professional journal under my pillow and through osmosis, absorb the latest library information contained within it.
I wish I could multi-task even more than I do. I want to do not three or four things at once, but ten. I want to compile statistics while browsing my email, file papers while scanning my blogs, and catalog problem books while checking staff work. And as each new day dawns, like a perennial dummy, I think “This is the day I will get it all done.” Pollyanna strikes again!
I wish I had the capability to have a really good idea of what I can realistically accomplish in an hour, or a day, or a week. I’m too optimistic for my own good. For example, this weekend I brought home a vendor profile to finish filling out, an employee performance appraisal to start working on, 2 professional magazines to read, several management binders to re-read (so I could get into the right frame of mind to tackle the appraisal), and 2 sets of conference notes to summarize. It was not fun toting home all that stuff and it’ll be less fun dragging it back Monday morning– especially knowing I didn’t touch any of it. What was I thinking? I should ask Pollyanna– I’m sure she knows the answer.
05.15.08
Miserable day
I struggled to wake up this morning and I felt like I was catching a cold. I’m feeling the effects of too many late nights and early mornings. They make for a horrible combination for staying focused and being on an even keel emotionally. The weather didn’t help either. It was cold, rainy, and oppressively gloomy all day. My head throbbed with a dull headache, my contacts felt dirty, and my neck and back ached. Two meetings kept me away from my desk and every minor frustration nearly drove me to tears. Some days I just want to throw up my hands and run out the door, never to return.
I’ve been struggling to find time to read the May issue of Wired Magazine. It’s one of the many new journals that have been mysteriously appearing on my desk with my name on a routing label. Somehow I’m collecting routed journals and I didn’t even try. (Maybe there’s a sign on my back…)
The cover article discussing how to Get Smarter contains lots of fascinating long and short articles, so I hate to pass along this issue without reading it. Some points of interest: I can relate to how panicking makes you stupid. I was surprised to learn that reading too fast (i.e. speed reading) affects your comprehension level. But the most interesting article of all is the one on remembering everything you’ll ever learn. It says the best time to commit new information to your memory is right before you forget it– which is nearly impossible to do in everyday life. Now I won’t feel too bad when I forget something. I can just say I forgot to remember it at the right time.
05.12.08
Workload exceeds maximum!
Each time I got a voice mail today, my voice mail system gave me an ominous warning that my inbox was getting so full, it was considering not letting me hear any messages. It told me I had to delete or move emails first in order to free up space. It came down to my basic curiosity– how bad did I want to know who the caller was or what they wanted? Would it be worth it to free up inbox space just to find out I had a new task, project, or problem to handle?
Hmmm… curiosity got the better of me. I decided to squirrel away some unread newsletters that were piling up. I stuffed them into a folder on my hard drive, along with dozens of other unread newsletters from the same sender. Sigh… wish I had time to read them. Maybe someday…. Wait- forget that daydream of getting caught up– the voice mail beckons. After hearing it, I was right. I have a new project to work on and a phone call to return. Guess I’ll have to read those newsletters later, whenever that is…
I’m so far behind on reading my blogs I might as well clear out the aggregator and start over. When I worry about what I may have missed in unread blog posts, I try to tell myself if it were that important, I’d find time to read them every day. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially when the voice mail and email inboxes are full to bursting.
In addition to emails, voice mails, and newsletters, I tried desperately to keep up with new projects today by writing them down on a pad of paper. It was a great idea– until I remembered I had several pads of paper scattered about my desktop with lots of old projects written on them. Guess it’s time to consolidate them on one large piece of paper and figure out which ones need to be done first.
I’ve tried putting new projects or tasks into Microsoft Outlook’s tasks and assigning due dates, reminders, and priorities. But they only end up annoying me when the reminder pops up and I don’t have time to do the task or project right then, usually because something else has come up. I know I can change the reminder or even dismiss it. I can also ignore it and have the software tell me how many hours, days, or even weeks I’ve been ignoring it. There’s nothing like being reminded you’re really far behind on your to-do list–and like a true packrat, I can accumulate overdue reminders like nobody else.
05.07.08
Delving into Dewey
We (the Dewey Editorial Policy Committee) spent the day delving into Dewey tables and schedules. We discussed and approved nearly all of the dozens of proposed changes presented by the editors. And that was just day one. Tomorrow is another day of discussing and approving or tabling changes to even more Dewey numbers– and it promises to be a more challenging agenda than it was today.
The changes we approved today are far too many to summarize here. While some of them will take place with the next quarterly update of WebDewey, others are bigger changes that need time to be introduced to the library community, because they will affect all libraries using the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Dinner tonight was a great chance to get to know fellow committee members, both old and new (there are 4 new members at this meeting). I enjoy learning about different cultures by talking with the international committee members, as well as learning about different parts of my country from my American counterparts. We sometimes find out we are more alike than we are different and soon develop special bonds within the committee. The EPC is a really great group of people, no matter who serves on the committee. We’re all there because we want to make a difference.
05.06.08
Dewey EPC
I’m in Dublin, OH, at OCLC for the Dewey Decimal Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) meetings this week. It’s a really interesting committee to be a part of. I’m learning a lot about the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system and I’m meeting lots of great librariansand archivists from around the world. Our committee’s work is proof that the DDC is a living, breathing classification system.
The way the 9-member international committee works is that the editors of the DDC propose changes to the numbers and members of the EPC let them know if those changes are the right ones. The editors get the ideas for changes from many sources– from user input, from translators, from changes that take place in the world, such as new technologies, trends, or world leaders, and from the editors’ own revision schedule. Sometimes we send proposals for changes back to the editors, so they can rework them. Then they bring them forward again and if we approve the changes, libraries soon learn they have new numbers.
Because the DDC is used internationally, it’s growing and changing in response to translation and adoption in countries around the world. Serving on the committee and working with wonderful people from around the world has been humbling at times, as it’s shown me that our American view of the world isn’t the only one.
05.04.08
Overwhelmed!
If anyone was following this blog regularly, you’ve probably wondered what happened to me or maybe even given up reading it. If you were disappointed in my poor performance, you have my sincerest apologies. It’s just that I’ve been super-busy lately. I’ve started at least 5 different posts, but have been unable to perfect and publish any of them. So rather than finish writing even one of them, my solution is to write a new one! What else would a packrat do? If I can’t accumulate unwritten blog posts, then I’m not a true packrat.
One of the things that has overwhelmed me lately is my accumulation of new blog subscriptions. For the longest time, I had a manageable collection of blogs to read– somewhere around 65. But in the course of keeping up with my professional readings, I’ve discovered more blogs and subscribed to them. Being the packrat that I am, the number quickly jumped to 92 (I just added another today http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/). I don’t want the number to rise any higher, so I need to review the list and prune the deadwood. (I also need to learn how to speed read.)
Before I pruned any blogs from my reader, I decided to read through some of them. Of course, I didn’t get very far before finding this post from Steve Rubel about attention crash and managing email, blogs, and everything else our in digital world. He referred to Inbox Zero, which offers tips on keeping your email inbox empty. A colleague of mine already recommended this same link to me, but I’ve failed to spend enough time investigating or implementing it. Maybe it’s because my own inbox is so overwhelmingly stuffed that I feel there’s no hope for ever getting it to zero. Inbox Zero could more accurately refer to my attention span, which is hovering around zero these days.
Steve wrote about investing in search tools, although he didn’t mention a new tool called Twine, which I’ve signed up to beta test. Twine is a semantic web application that’s supposed to tie everything together, meaning you tell it what you’re interested in and it searches the Web for that information. It can make recommendations and even link you up with like-minded people who share the same interests.
Steve’s blog also mentioned the book The 4-hour workweek by Timothy Ferriss. I just got a copy from my library over the weekend, so I have yet to read it. Hopefully I can work it into my piles of nonfiction books awaiting me on my hope chest at home (how appropriate!– they’re hoping to be read). When I figure out Twine and read Tim’s book, I’ll let you know if either of them are useful, whether or not you’re a packrat.
