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2 Crash Course in Time Management for Library Staff It is an example of an approach that has worked well for people in many professions, from teachers to business owners. As I talk to library staff from organizations both big and small, I hear concerns and challenges that are not entirely the same as those faced by the people with office or desk-based jobs who are the target audience for most time management writing. In a library, someone may need to flow from delivering a story time to working on a grant proposal to fixing a printer jam to listening to a favorite patronÊs stories about his grandsonÊs visit·all within the space of an hour. Since the work environment in a library is different, the time management strategies that will work are different, too. Whether you are a new manager or a new parent or have been in your position for 15 years, it is not possible to make more time, but it is possible to make big improvements in your productivity and in your level of satisfaction with work and with life. This book is designed to help you develop those strategies. WHY LEARN ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT? We canÊt make more time, but we can learn how to more effec- tively manage the time that we have available to us. Picture the White Rabbit in Lewis CarrollÊs Alice in Wonderland , as he frantically runs around holding a pocket watch and exclaiming, „IÊm late, IÊm late, for a very important date!‰ The anxiety he feels about a shortage of time is a common emotion in our contemporary world. Pay attention to the way people speak about time and you will probably be surprised to notice how frequently busyness comes up. When speaking to a friend on the phone and asking, „How are things going?‰ itÊs likely that friend will reply, „IÊve been so busy.‰ When someone asks, „How are things at the library?‰ itÊs likely that an accurate response is „Things have been so busy!‰ While being busy is not bad, there are negative consequences to an ongoing overworked lifestyle. The sense of being overworked causes stress and stress can negatively impact both our health and our sense of well-being. Although some may feel that people working in libraries live a stress-free life reading books and magazines and telling stories to children, we know that is not an accurate picture. This is a book written for people working in libraries and the pur- pose is not to help you streamline your processes so you can sell more widgets. The goal is a very human-centered focus on both individual well-being and on the important work you are doing in your organiza- tion and in your community so that you can continue to provide these critical services. People are not robots and in focusing on humans in the workplace terms like „higher productivity‰ and „streamlined pro- cesses‰ need to be cautiously considered. Effective time management is not about being a faster machine. Rather, it is about feeling less stress and greater satisfaction with work and life after work with friends and family. It is about feeling like you are making the best use of your time