Librarian by Day » Time Management

Top Ten Links Week 12

Bobbi Newman — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:54:25 +0000

My personally selected top 10 from the links I shared on Twitter from 3/19/2010 thru 3/25/2010

1. Youth in Nigeria leverage social media to organize and document massive rally against government via @dmlcentral:

Twitter users Gbengasesan and Bubusn posted pictures of the march, and live footage of the event was available at ustream. The demonstration had an online presence unprecedented in the history of Nigerian protest: Facebook, Twitter, and Nigeria’s extensive blogging networks were all mobilized in support of the event (of particular note were the Facebook group Save Nigeriaand the demonstration organizers’ website Where is Yar’Adua?).Nigerian Curiosity even reported that the hashtag#enoughisenough was the number three trending topic on Twitter (though she pointed out that not all the tweets referred specifically to the demonstration in Abuja).

Many in the online community expressed their support for the marchers.

2. Overdrive’s New Program for Visually Impaired Readers – the first thing I did after reading this is email my Overdrive rep and tell him we want to sign up! LEAP allows your library patrons to access and use Bookshare.org, a service limited to students. The partnership between Overdrive and Bookshare will extend Bookshare services to patrons of libraries who provide Overdrive service to their patrons. There is no additional cost. If your library offers Overdrive service email your rep and tell her you want to sign up for LEAP!

3. for those who think Google is the devil - How I Became (Mostly) Google-free in About a Day - I’ll confess I think Google owns my soul or at least has a lien on it, but if you’ve been thinking of kicking the Google habit this is a must read.

4. watch this! SMS for Life – Common Craft – great explanation as always

5. On stereotypes and the echo chamber - great post from Kate on the echo chamber in which she notes

I’m sure no one’s missed the irony of all of us talking about the echo chamber to each other

6. Broadband access for all is essential to meeting the information needs of communities in a democracy – Eric Newton comments on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and The Knight Foundation report Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy

In the digital age, countries without high-speed broadband will be left behind, their citizens able to vote but not knowing why they should; able to work but not knowing how to find a job online.

7. User-Centered Innovation Is Not Sustainable

User-centered innovation has helped conduct us into an unsustainable world. The reason is sustainability is not embedded in the anthropology of our existing culture, society, and economy.

8. The most important things in libraries are people via @LISNews

9. Six reasons to be skeptical of the Net Gen label & stereotypes - if you are talking or thinking about digital natives or the digital generation this is a MUST read.

It exaggerates the gaps between adults and youth.
It hides more important intra-generational differences.
It ignores potentially important socio-economic and cultural differences.
It ignores important second level digital divides.
It is based on unfounded assumptions about current approaches to teaching.
The evidence doesn’t support most of the key Net Gen claims.

10. Work Smart: Do Your Worst Task First (Or, Eat a Live Frog Every Morning) via @dmlcentral – you know how much I love time management and productivity tips

Creative Commons licensed photos used courtesy of bowbrick on flickr. Similar Posts:

Time Off for Reflection, Regrouping and Prioritizing

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:42:22 +0000

I am taking the next two weeks off. Your regularly scheduled blog posts will resume on January 4th 2010. Why?

The short version – It’s the holidays, things are slow and it’s always good to take a break.

The long version – I need time to regroup and realign my priorities. Lately I’ve been scrambling like mad to keep up, I feel like I’m letting everyone around me down, including me. There are emails I haven’t returned, emails I haven’t written. I feel disconnected from my friends on Twitter and Facebook. Work takes up a large part of my personal time. I’m beginning to feel a little dazed and confused, like I’ll never be caught up. This is a red flag for me, time to take two steps back and regroup. I was already considering it when I downloaded What Matters Now from Seth’s blog. As I read through it this week so many passages struck a chord, professionally and personally. It confirmed what I was already thinking, I need to pause and regroup.

I am publicly declaring my holiday for two reason, the first so regular readers will know I haven’t disappeared, I haven’t run out of things to say (never!) and I will be back. Second, publically declaring it will help me stick to my plan, I’m not going anywhere so nothing external will change, but I need to slow down and take a breathe. That means no feedreader (and when I get back they ALL get marked as read), a more personal focus on Twitter and Facebook. It will be hard not to click on links posted by others so I may have to give up Twitter too. Disconnecting will be hard, but I also know how much I need it. The end of the year is a perfect time for reflection and regrouping, though I don’t do New Years resolutions.

So what will I be doing? reflecting, prioritizing, hopefully recharging, clearing my head, goal setting, deciding on boundaries and limits, reading, writing and thinking. So I leave you with these things to ponder for the next two weeks between turkey and presents and confetti and champagne

From What Matters Now:

“…constantly we fear we are not doing enough.”- Ease, Elizabeth Gilbert
“The echo chamber we’re building is getting larger and louder.” – Connected, Howard Mann
“Leadership is more than influence. It is about reminding people of what it is we are trying to build – and why it matters.” – Vision, Michael Hyatt
“Be honest, be authentic, and speak from your passion.” – Speaking, Mark Hurst
“Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do.” – Poker, Tony Hsiech
“…the ability to draw lines and boundaries within which we protect and preserve the mental and emotional space to do our work and to be true to ourselves.” Tough-mindedness, Steven Pressfield
” You are immortal. The result of everything you do today will last forever.” Forever, Piers Fawkes
“What IS working, today, and how can we do more of it?” Change, Chip and Dan Heath
“Forget about working on your weakness -> focus on supporting your strengths.” Most, William C. Taylor

From elsewhere

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For Those Who Are an Overnight Success and For Those Who Aren’t a Video Series From Chris Brogan

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:07:01 +0000

These videos are from Chris Brogan’s Over Night Success Series. There are 9 videos total covering topics such as Grinding vs Clocking – Time and the Overnight Success, Pity Party, Small Talk is Big, Belief Systems, The Competition, What it Takes, No Excuses & A Call to Arms. These videos are great even if you aren’t an over night success, even if you aren’t a success.

These 3 are my favorite (although it was hard to pick)

Take time off – I’ve said it before you need your down time but I’m always happy to point out when others say the same thing. :-)

Don’t believe the hype – I included this one because Chris says – by over night success I mean 10 years of hard work.

Here’s another bag of money – on excuses. We all make excuses that become between us and our goals. Decide what your priorities are. Stop making excuses.
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Your Inbox Is Not a To-do List

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:48:21 +0000

I’ve been talking and thinking about time management a lot lately (the fabulous Brenda Hough and I are doing a prefconference workshop about it at Internet Librarian) so when I saw this from Zen Habits I knew I had to share it

Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List: a very brief summary

You can’t change the subject lines
There might be multiple actions in each email
You can’t re-order the emails (usually)
You can’t prioritize your to-dos
An email inbox contains distractions

Go read the whole thing for explanations and suggestions on tools to use for a to-do lists.Similar Posts:

What can you accomplish in 1 week of Web2.0?

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:35:17 +0000

Nina Smith created this awesome graphic to go with her post How much time does Web 2.0 take? One of the most common questions or protests new comers to web 2.0 have is about time. Nina shows how much you can accomplish based on your time commitment. She’s broken it down nicely in the blog post, too.

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Stress Management in the Library Workplace

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:14:38 +0000

Yesterday I attended a MaintainIT webinar – Using MaintainIT Resources for Technology Training, where they shared some useful information and links. One of the sites was Infopeople, a nonprofit that archives their presentations and handouts and makes them available under a Creative Commons license!

As I was exploring I came across materials for a previous workshop - Stress Management in the Library Workplace. There are a lot of workshops listed but since my post – Library usage will go up during a recession – management are you really prepared? is still getting a lot of hits, I thought I’d share this one specifically. You can download the PowerPoint presentation, some exercise and these handouts:

The “Bakers Dozen” – How to Reduce Stress
Relieving Stress through Exercise
Stress Relief through Nutrition
Stress Relief and Sleeping Habits – 10 Tips for Better Sleep
Symptoms of Stress and Causes of Stress
Seven Quick Tips for Time Management

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You’ve got 30 minutes, how do you use them?

Bobbi Newman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:05:55 +0000

I’ve seen some interesting conversations pop up online lately about FriendFeed vs Twitter, if spending time on Friendfeed killed your blog, (or not) that feedreaders are dead.

Here is the thing, most of us don’t have that much time to spend online, networking, learning, creating content, whatever. I remember Helene Blowers talking about taking 15 minutes each day to read blogs, to stay informed. I gave myself 30. There are only so many hours in the day, and so many of them are taken up with other things, so really it doesn’t leave me much time to spend online (we can’t all be Robert Scoble). So sacrifices are made. I know where I spend my 30 each morning.

But I want to know where do you spend yours? You’ve got 30 minutes today, only 30 minutes where will you spend it?

[polldaddy poll=1357900]
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Do you Twitter at Work?

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:05:08 +0000

Last week Kate asked

Do you hide Twitter from your boss? Or is it ok for you to be Twittering while working? Do you (honestly) think it hurts your performance?

Not many people answered her on Twitter or FriendFeed, maybe it’s because it was an odd week, between Christmas and New Years or maybe because they didn’t want to answer, I don’t know. So I’m asking again -

Do you Tweet at work?
Do you hide it from your boss?
Do you think it’s ok to Twitter from work?
Do you think it hurts your performance?

I’ll even answer them myself first.

Yep!
Nope, in fact I sometimes point him to particular Tweets or conversations on Friendfeed.
Yes, I do. Not all the time not every day, but yes I do. For me its no different that water cooler talk with coworkers who I see face to face. I get valuable information and feed back from both sets of people but in the middle we talk about trivial stuff, tv shows, lunch, etc.
No I don’t, like all things I do it in moderation, some days more some days less. With my job, like so many, focusing on technology etc, I can work from just about anywhere with an internet connection and I do (coffee shop, laundromat, public library etc). This means I don’t’ remember my last 8-5, straight 40 hour work week because the line between personal and professional time blends.

Additionally some of the best ideas I’ve brought to my library in the couple of years have come from my online connections. As I am the only person in my library who does what I do, they are my colleagues, my network, troubleshooters, sounding boards, naysayers and supporters. I’d say in many ways it improves my work.

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Twitter: making the cut

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:56:44 +0000

As we’ve seen from previous posts keeping up and feeling overwhelmed is something I struggle with regularly. There are so many great people out there in libraryland, it makes sense that I would want to keep up with all of them. As part of my “I’m not a Superhero” therapy I’m admitting I can’t do everything I’ve been attempting and over the next month or so I’ll be weeding. I started with Twitter.

First I needed to figure out what I need/want to get from Twitter, so I went to my del.icio.us account. I’m an avid user of delicious and while I don’t like the option to automatically post my links to my blog I’ve decided I should share them more often. Here are the ones I reread

I also considered some of the popular and/or successful librarians who don’t use Twitter. I wont point fingers, but they are out there.

I decided what I want from Twitter is a “real” connection and/or useful information. So it was weeding time. Yes I know this can be perceived as cold, but hey, it’s my time and it’s valuable! Then I went through my “following” pages.

With some people I recognized names/handles immediately. If I did, I questioned -

Have I had a personal interaction with them? If yes, most of them stayed. If no, I took a look at their feed and biography.
Was I getting useful information from them?
Could that information be better accessed somewhere else? For example if it’s a link to their latest blog post, I should have their blog in my FeedReader. That way I can read it when I have the proper time and attention to devote to it.
Did I want to connect with them but hadn’t yet?

If I didn’t recognize a name I looked at their feed and biography and considered -

Was I getting useful information from them?
Could that information be better accessed somewhere else?
Did I want to connect with them but hadn’t yet?

I’m now down to 133 people. I’m really hoping to get down to 100. We’ll see. I also decided if what I’m looking for it a real connection or information I’d better be providing that those things too. I believe by attempting to connect with fewer people I’ll be making better connects with those I connect with.

Has anyone else done this? If you follow 500 people do you feel like you’re getting what you need/want from Twiitter? and what is it?Similar Posts:

How do you organize your FeedReader?

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:00:23 +0000

We’re covering feedreaders in the workshop today so I thought I’d ask, how do you organize your feed reader? I recently made the switch from bloglines to GoogleReader. I’m still playing with the many tools it gives you. I’m a big fan of using folders or labels to organize and prioritize my feeds.

The friends folder is pretty self-explanitory, any time something pops up in there I check it first. The daily folder I don’t always read daily but it’s high priority feeds and I try to keep it to 10 feeds or less. Day in the Life are the blogs that made it on the Day in the Life wiki. I have several different folders for the feeds tracking my library. I think I need to break out “Library stuff” into smaller groups though, any suggestions on more labels? How do you organize your feeds? How do you prioritize what gets read first?

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