be more focused at work

But I am doing much better and getting a ton of work done. Now I’ve just got to concentrate on completing one task at a time before bouncing on to another 20 things. I am going to check this off even though I think it is something I will always need to work on. I tend to be a bit of a daydreamer.

I am running up against a huge deadline!

I need to get these books ordered!!!!

NOW~

This one had been very bad. I had a week’s vacation recently that I hoped would resolve this problem, but it hasn’t. I am a very hard worker. However, the stuff that requires a lot of concentration has been hard for me to complete lately. I really need to stop thinking of anything but work when I am at work.

Good things that happened today:
-I finally finished a draft of the spring instruction schedule, which is a huge relief.
- Also worked on some very interesting reference questions.
- The communications coordinator from one of the schools in the University called me to ask for help with some research. Me, specifically, which amazes me, that they would trust me to be competent and helpful to the extent that they would seek me out individually.
- I successfully dealt with a little staff scheduling problem.

Sometimes, on days like today, it seems possible that I will actually succeed in this profession, that perhaps I already am succeeding. I know that sounds self-deprecating (well, I guess it is a little self-deprecating), but it took me so very long to decide to pursue this career and then to pursue the steps to get me this far. To get a job in which I get to do so many librarianish (to coin a word) tasks and that I enjoy them so much, before even finishing the MLIS is astonishing to me. That this is all working out so well is astonishing.

because I felt like I did focus and was actually able to make some progress on my many tasks.

here is some of what I did:

- answered reference questions
- answered ejournals access questions
- finally made some headway on the spring instruction schedule
- did a fabulous, 1 hour reference consultation that went very well
- actually remembered to bring my lunch to work (unlike yesterday, when my lunch spent the day on my dining room table)
- responded to a bunch of email reference questions, including a kind of hard one

yep, my job is really cool

Argh! Doing better with this one, but still struggling. I’ll cut this short so that I can follow my own advice and get back to work!

This is going so-so. Yesterday I was definitely focused on nothing but work as I had a couple of things I felt I absolutely had to get done. When I feel like there’s a deadline, I do tend to focus. Today I’ve come in a little early in the hopes of checking out this and other sites before work starts.

This is definitely a big one. I don’t have much computer time at home, and so I end up taking care of certain things here at work. Lately it has been cutting into my work time, and I’d like to curb that. I can do that by:

1. Coming in earlier, before work starts, to check some things.

2. Limiting my online, non-work related time to before work, breaks, and lunch (I’m writing this on my lunch break).

3. If I were really that desperate, stay later and check things out off the clock.

Of the three, the second seems like the one I’d be most likely to stick to. Even though I used to come in an hour to 30 minutes early to have some time to check my e-mail, etc., I’ve been so sleepy lately that I’d rather use the extra time to get some extra rest… which brings me to another goal, which is to live healthier. Part of that would be going to bed at a consistent time so that I would hopefully feel more well rested in the morning.

In addition to not letting myself get distracted at work, I would like to:

1. Improve my follow-up skills: not hesitate to remind people about upcoming deadlines, to ask questions, to communicate and promptly resolve issues.

2. Learn more about the technical processes here: it’s not really essential for what I do, but I’ve been curious for a long time about the specifics of how things are actually run and produced here. I’m not sure how I would find the time to do this, though, short of designating 15 minutes on certain days to do this or coming in early/staying late….

3. Learn to handle several tasks and prioritize efficiently.

4. Get more organized: my desk looks like the paper monster threw up all over it. I’d like to come up with a system that allows me to get rid of what I don’t need and put what I do need in a designated, easy-to-remember area. I used to have a system that worked rather well (clean up on Mondays, Fridays, and the beginning of each month), but I just don’t feel like I have the time to do these things at present. I guess I’ll have to take the time to work them in.

Perhaps the trick would be to commit to coming up with a plan to address all of these issues this Friday. I’ve added it to my calendar; who knows if I’ll end up putting aside the time to do this.

NO chatting on msn or yahoo at work.
NO formatting personal pictures at work.
post maximum of once a day on LJ.
save myspace, flickr, 43things, postsecret, etc. etc. for the end of the workday after i’ve focused on work all day.