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But Michael, How Do I have the TIME to do All Together Now???

July 18, 2008 I'm sure some folks are wondering if they would even have the time the next few weeks to do the program with us. Here's a wonderful blog post from Kathryn Greenhill, Emerging Technologies Specialist at Murdoch University in Western Australia.

Kathryn wrote a post on her own blog about finding time for the program she facillitated at her library:

http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2007/09/03/10-ways-to-find-time-for-23-things/

Kathryn writes:

This programme will take different people different amounts of time, according to:

• how familiar you are with this kind of stuff
• how quickly you learn new things
• how motivated you are
• whether it matches your leaning style

so it is hard to say “this will take exactly an hour per week”.
I can guarantee that by the end of the 13 weeks, you would be able to go back and do the first things in half or a third of the time. You are learning general skills about how to use web tools as well as 23 specific Things.

Where will you find the hour or so per week? Here’s some starting points dealing with understanding why, finding support and maintaining motivation.

TEN WAYS TO FIND TIME FOR 23 THINGS

1.Why? Think about what will happen to libraries if we don’t understand these new tools.

2. How are they used? Do a bit of googling about to find out how other libraries are using these tools to be more productive. Here is a good place to start: Library Success: a best practices wiki

3. Cheat club. Talk to people in your section about forming a “cheat club” to work through the tasks together.

4. Buddy up. Ask one of the mentors to “buddy up” to cheer you on.

5. A sign. Put a sign up on your PC saying “”23 Thinging” when you are working on it, so other staff know not to interrupt you.

6. Phone a friend. Arrange a “phone a friend” agreement with a teenager so you can ring them if you get stuck.

7. Float you own boat. Work out what floats your boat - knitting, gardening, Ancient Egypt, trainspotting, photography, celebrity babies - and weave this theme into each activity.

8. 15 minutes per day. Set aside 15 minutes a day each afternoon, or before you open your email each day.

9. A week at a time. Commit to the program a week at a time. Initially, just commit to the first week. If you find time for that, commit to just the second week. If you don’t complete all you need to do, then commit to getting Week 2 done by the end of Week 3. This is not a race.

10. Rearrange your workflow. This program has support from management. If you have tried the things above and still can’t find time, please talk to your supervisor about how you can re-arrange your workflow.

We'll be doing 12 things, but these suggestions are golden. Ponder them as we gear up for Monday's launch.
(I especially like #7 - I learned about the eweb back in the 90s by surfing to sites that interested me and thinking about how they worked: X-Files, Fleetwood Mac & Stevie Nicks, etc...)

Thanks to Kathryn for allowing me to post her insights!

Posted by Michael Stephens on July 18, 2008 | Comments (1)