Time

I’m supposed to be thinking about time more. In my previous life on the bench, my daily life was dictated by my timer. Some days were scheduled almost down to the second, assays and tasks lined up one after another. But when I left that, I left a lot of my schedule behind. I find that I still need that structure.

I tend to not pay attention to time at all. I constantly over or under estimate how long something will need to take. The tasks I have now don’t come with protocols or instruction sheets with the timing outlined. To add to the problem, there are fewer clocks in the world.  This seems like such a small thing, but my phone is my alarm, so I don’t have a clock in the bedroom. We don’t have a wall clock anywhere in the house. We have a clock in the bathroom, but that is only so that my husband can listen to the radio while in the shower. The only other visible clocks are the oven and microwave, which can’t be seen unless you are in the room.

And so without constant time devices, I flounder. As an exercise, I’m supposed to be paying more attention to time. This means taking a moment, really paying attention before and after I start tasks. The idea is to see if how I do at estimating time generally, and also to simply notice time.

One of the feelings that I struggle with is setting boundaries around time. I will say yes to appointments and stack tasks one on top of another, and then be frustrated that I race around all day. This is exacerbated by the lack of targets in my job. As a liaison, my liaisonship is determined by my user base and what they need. It could be a combination of work tasks and no two liaisonships are alike. But we are also faculty, and so there is the expectation of research and service as well. There is no guideline as to how to allocate time. Is research ten percent? Fifty?

I hope to soon be tenure track. The discussions are starting now about the process of converting me. The most I have heard is that to be successful at this institution, I need to be excellent at research, good at librarianship, and passable at service. Of course this is of no help. I know there is friction between librarianship and research. Our demands on our time only increase.  As for research, it seems that it would be a very individual process. What percentage of time mine takes is dependent on my question, my methods, my facility with handling data and directing a project.

Of course research isn’t the only issue. It is just forefront in my mind because I will have to shift some to make it more prominent in my daily work. All areas of my work and home are taking a hit. I read somewhere that if someone is constantly taking work home, it isn’t a sign that they are a dedicated worker. It’s a sign that they are bad at time management or that there is a boundary issue (probably both). And that is true in my case. I have said yet to too many things, sometimes it’s because the thing is too cool to not be involved in. But it’s also because there is no vision that creates a boundary for what I should be doing. I’m going to have to create that for myself.

 [fruitful_ibox_row]
[fruitful_ibox column=”ffs-two-one” title=”Title 1″]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.[/fruitful_ibox]
[fruitful_ibox column=”ffs-two-one” title=”Title 2″ last=”true”]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.[/fruitful_ibox][/fruitful_ibox_row]