At least its not the roof . . .
April 16, 2008 at 2:49 pm Karen Klapperstuck 5 comments
I came home from Minneapolis with the thought that I was going to “reorg” my life. I have way too much going on and not enough time or energy to do it all. So I decided that I needed to start thinking about the things that were really important to me and what I really wanted to focus on.
In my effort to do this, I am posting my progress here to keep me honest. I’ve been back from Minneapolis for a little over 2 weeks and I haven’t gotten far. But I have started making lists of all the things I am currently involved in and what those obligations represent in time/ effort/ energy. The next step is to decide which of those I want to continue, which I can gracefully bow out of or fulfill my current obligation and those that I want to stop immediately if not sooner! And this isn’t just about work. It is about valuing my time. And learning to say no, which I traditionally have a hard time doing, especially if its something that I could be interested in or think I SHOULD be interested in.
What I realize is that this is about me being the most productive and useful in a handful of activities, committees, etc and not over-extending myself. As I start training for 3 sprint triathlons this summer, I don’t need obligations weighing me down!
Help keep me on track! If you have suggestions or want to follow the progress, I think I might try to revive my personal blog to keep track of the reorg as it goes.
(I actually started this post last night when I couldn’t sleep and I was trying to type it on my iphone. At 3:30 in the morning, when it was not working I thought that I couldn’t be more frustrated!! I realized, though, that at least what was keeping me up was this plan I had for reorganizing my life and not the roof at the library!)
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Library Garden 
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Marie L. Radford | April 17, 2008 at 10:00 am
If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend the classic book for setting personal priorities- Stephen R. Covey’s, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1990).
Also, if you need a workshop to kick start your thinking, stay tuned for an announcement of an upcoming time management workshop at CRJLC in which I’ll be covering all the topics you mentioned esp. setting priorities and saying no. I also work on all these issues constantly!!
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Carleen | April 17, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I’ve been on a similar reorg kick for the past…mmm, 3 months. I actually got an iPhone for xmas and was hoping it would help me with this endeavor (catch-up on blogs while waiting in line at Wal-Mart).
I recently browsed through a book called The Age of Speed which you may be interested in. The author also has a website and blogs regularly, http://vinceposcente.com/. I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about some of his suggestions for task management but I can’t seem to get reorganized long enough to write something with a solid prespective. Good luck. 🙂
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Janie L. Hermann | April 17, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I have been trying to do this for the last few years — sometimes successfully, other times not so much.
My secret shame is that my husband bought me a PDA for Christmas to help me with keeping track of stuff and I still have not had time to install the software or enter any data. My brain is my PDA, but I am afraid it is going to short circuit soon.
Keep us updated Karen.
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Cynthia | April 18, 2008 at 12:37 pm
This seems to be the quest of our era–finding the time to do the things we want and the things we must. I too have been trying to get organized, but finally gave up.
In a few weeks, I will have significantly more time when I finish my MLIS. Since there is no chance I will actually have a job, I suspect I will be able to pick it back up and really make some meaningful changes.
Here’s my dirty little secret–I am not going to use technology to help me. Nope–I feel that tech, like the home treadmill before it, just gives me one more thing to add to the to-do list. I am going to try and do one thing each day toward the goal.
Then again, maybe I should just read a book….
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