Productive Life
Evangelizing Productivity
One big benefit of learning about productivity as a librarian is I have ample opportunities to share what I’m learning and pass along to others the tips, tricks, and best practices.
My library recently decided to go “all in” with Microsoft 365. We started using Microsoft Teams over COVID, but not nearly enough to make it effective. Last year, a few other staff members saw the benefits, not only for simply catching up with technology but also for productivity reasons (I have a coworker who is reading all the same David Allen/Cal Newport/Ali Abdaal books I have). Having a more centralized digital workspace is beneficial in a number of ways, and our IT team wants it for cybersecurity reasons as well. But of course, the transition is taking months (we have dozens of employees of varying levels of tech needs and abilities), and some folks are more resistant to change than others.
For example, one member of the leadership team lives by their email inbox. If they don’t get emailed a task, it won’t get done. I long ago moved away from that mindset — email is a communication tool, not a task manager! Once you receive the communication about a task to complete, the email has served its purpose. Create a task, and you can better focus and visualize what you need to accomplish on any given day. You can link the task to the (archived)…
