On March 29th about 30 Maryland Chapter members attended a time-management seminar on Overcoming Workday Overwhelm at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis. The evening’s speaker, Ms. Mary Ann Kmetyk based her presentation on Michael Linenberger’s book Master Your Workday Now!
Before the seminar began, chapter members gathered to mingle, network and enjoy a light dinner. Ms. Kmetyk began her presentation by asking the attendees why we felt overwhelmed at work. Common answers included “not enough librarians, new responsibilities, too much email and last minute projects. She then asserted that one reason why we feel overwhelmed is that there seems to be too many urgent things on our to-do list, and when this happens, we lose the ability to determine what is truly urgent.
Chapter members were then asked to think about when they could fit in a new project that would require four hours of time. Answers varied, but many indicated the project would need to wait a little while. This discussion allowed Ms. Kmetyk to introduce the concept of urgency zones, which are a technique for prioritizing our tasks. She recommended using three zones: Critical Now, which are tasks that must be completed by the close of business today; Opportunity Now, which are tasks that need to be accomplished in the next week and a half, and Over the Horizon, which are tasks with a deadline more than two weeks away, or no deadline.
A method Ms. Kmetyk proposed to help implement the urgency zones idea was to develop a Workday Mastery List, which documents all our tasks and projects in one place. This list can be in hard or soft copy and there are a number of common software tools that could assist us in making this kind of list, although Ms Kmetyk focused on Outlook. Once this list is compiled, each task can be assigned to one of the zones.
To determine which zone a task belongs to, two rules should be followed. The first is called the going home test. Only tasks that you would work late into the night to complete pass this test. These items belong in your Critical Now zone and there should never be more than 3-5 items in this zone at any point in time. The second rule is to keep the Opportunity Now zone small, less than 20 items. If the number of tasks in this zone becomes too large, move the lowest priority items to the Over the Horizon zone. If the number of tasks in the Over the Horizon zone becomes too large, they can be effectively managed by setting up extended review cycles that allow you to assess the importance of these tasks at definite, specific intervals.
The other major topic Ms. Kmetyk covered was mastering email. She first suggested converting e-mail to tasks in Outlook, by dragging it to the task bar or calendar. Emails that we send to others can also be turned into tasks, so that appropriate follow-up occurs. In addition to this strategy, she also suggested that we set aside a few times during the day to read and respond to email and ignore it the rest of the day. If email is the primary way that your patrons contact you, let them know you are implementing a new policy in order to enhance your efficiency and will only be checking your email at specific times. If an urgent message is received, she suggested responding only if you could do so in two minutes or less, or to mark the message as something needing further attention before the end of the day. In addition, Ms. Kmetyk suggested developing an email filing system using Outlook’s categories or G-mail’s labels. One category in either system should be a processed mail folder where all mail that has been read is placed. If such a filing system is implemented, it should be possible for you to clean out your inbox before leaving every day since the mail will have been responded to, filed, put in your task list or deleted.
Written By: Susan Wright, Chapter Member
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