Library Day in the Life, Day 4 and 5

I’m realizing how repetitive my day is, and how little I get to concentrate. Well, I already knew that, but keeping track of time like this really points it out. Need to find some way to carve out some solid work time for myself.

Thursday

7:30 am-8:00 am – Yay! I finally got to work on time. Spent this half hour doing my time card for the two week period and submitting my vacation time.

8:00 am-8:20 am - Met with boss. No more meetings to set, but a change to an existing meeting.

8:20 am-8:50 am - Email and a phone call

8:50 am-10:15 am - Went to the Nebraska Library Commission to present my web design to them. I think they mostly liked it. Came back with a list of changes to make, which I will do this Saturday.

10:15 am-11:30 pm - Went through email some more, stopped that to get someone access to our web server so she can do her work. In the process, made a “how to log onto web server” page on the wiki, complete with screenshots. Then back to email, was able to handle most items quickly but one involved setting another meeting and another required me getting clarification from another person.

11:30 am- 12:00 pm – Trying to figure out, with the computer person, why my computer and others won’t burn DVD’s

12:00 pm-12:30 pm – Lunch.

12:30 pm-1:30 pm - Meeting minutes, still the meeting from last week. On day three, which was shorter, but messiest.

1:30 pm-2:00 pm - More meeting stuff, including figuring out where my boss’s 2:00 meeting is at, since the person’s address is listed differently in 3 places.

2:00 pm-4:15 pm - Server stuff. Trying to install a couple of programs, but the going is slow because I’m unfamiliar with the flavor of Linux and I REALLY don’t want to mess anything up. Also a couple of phone calls and errands in here.

4:15 pm-5:00 pm - The weather turned nasty, so I spent some time getting all my electronics into plastic bags so it wouldn’t get wet on the way home. Also replied to emails and did some cleanup around the office.

Friday

7:30 am-8:00 am – I opened my email inbox, even though I told myself I wouldn’t. Tabulated meeting responses.

8:00 am-8:15 am – Met with boss. Not a lot to talk about today.

8:15 am- 9:15 am – More email, and catching up on reading minutes and news from other areas of the library.

9:15 am – 11:30 am – Finished server installations from yesterday. WordPress gave me particular trouble, not because of the software, just because I kept doing things ever so slightly wrong. After I had it installed, I played with the themes some, and installed a few necessary plugins. Also answered some phone calls and got the mail.

11:30 am-12:00 pm - You guessed it! email. Getting so close to getting one meeting set. I hate setting meetings across time zones, and I really hate meetings where people have to fly or drive for several hours to get here.

12:00 pm- 2:00 pm - Working on the minutes some more. Very close to being done.

2:00 pm- 3:30 pm - Design work! I worked on concepts for a couple of logos. Didn’t come up with anything good. Will keep some ideas rolling around in my head over the weekend.

3:30 pm- 5:00 pm - Getting everything ready for next week. This included: reviewing my to do lists and moving some items off, getting my inbox back to zero, checking boss’s calendar and then printing out a version for the office and emailing it to some people, ordering some supplies, and straitening up. I’d like to say I did a “weekly review,” but it really wasn’t that systematic.

What I learned

Documenting my day was an interesting exercise. I saw a lot of places I can improve what I do and how I go about it. On paper my day sounds pretty boring, but I really enjoy this job because it lets me do a variety of things. The only thing I wish there was more of is interaction with the public. During the summer, especially, it can be really quiet around the office- in fact, on Friday we had no students in working at all, which is pretty unusual.