…even if it wasn’t in the way that I had planned on.
I was feeling confident, early in 2015, that in completing my first year at my new job, I would be able to clear the time and space to “stay on top of things” in the year ahead.
Staying on top of the routine tasks, keeping on top of the to-do-list making so I don’t panic about what’s not on it, thinking ahead and being proactive instead of reactive with planning…There are 9 million different ways this could look, but I hope it looks like less anxiety about opening my email, more blog posts here, being able to plan farther ahead, having some time to think more deeply about storytime and training staff.
For the most part, I did stay on top of the essential tasks, I hit my deadlines, I worked on storytime training with my team, I stopped being quite so anxious about opening email; all great accomplishments. But I didn’t realize how much I would still be learning, in year two, about the job and about what routines and disciplines I needed to have in place to do the job as well as I wanted to. So I couldn’t be as proactive with planning as I wanted, or think as deeply about how to mentor, and certainly the hope for more blog posts was a bust!
Well, “staying on top of things” was a great goal anyway, and one I was able to meet, even if now I can look back and realize that what I REALLY meant by “staying on top of things” was “working ahead of the curve” which I couldn’t quite pull off yet. But with “staying on top of things” as my lens I was able to spend the year creating the tools that 14 months ago I still didn’t know I needed. Now I am going into this new year with an accurate daily checklist, a roadtested list-building & planner routine, and better ways to capture info while I am not at my desk. I have a lot more practice with routine supervisor tasks such as creating schedules and approving timecards so they take less time, and everyone in the district is getting used to our new storytime staffing plan which means fewer emails are coming in, and THAT takes less time. And we even hired a new librarian* who will be able to help with some ongoing programs and services I’ve never been able to prioritize as highly as I should have.
So yay 2015! It was another tough year but I learned a lot, and I’m even in a place now where I’m building my list of the final new-supervisor projects I want to finish before my 2-year anniversary in May. I’m still not sure what my 2016 Resolve to Rock** resolution will be, but come back next week to find out what I decide!
________________________________________________________________
*re: the new librarian
Because I can't hold it in anymore: in March I'll be taking the position of Early Literacy Librarian with the Arapahoe District Library.
— Mollie Kay L. (@molliekay) February 18, 2016
**re: other resolutions, find them at Storytime Underground!
.jpg)
