I’m facilitating a 23 Things /Learning 2.0 program at MPOW. I mentioned on twitter that I was emailing staff with 10 ways to find time for 23 things, and I was asked to share. Here it is. The reference to “mentors” is because some staff have agreed to be “go to” people during the program:
This programme will take different people different amounts of time, according to:
- how familiar you are with this kind of stuff
- how quickly you learn new things
- how motivated you are
- whether it matches your leaning style
– so it is hard to say “this will take exactly an hour per week”.
I can guarantee that by the end of the 13 weeks, you would be able to go back and do the first things in half or a third of the time. You are learning general skills about how to use web tools as well as 23 specific Things.
Where will you find the hour or so per week? Here’s some starting points dealing with understanding why, finding support and maintaining motivation.
TEN WAYS TO FIND TIME FOR 23 THINGS
- 1.Why? Think about what will happen to libraries if we don’t understand these new tools
- 2. How are they used? Do a bit of googling about to find out how other libraries are using these tools to be more productive. Here is a good place to start: Library Success: a best practices wiki
- 3. Cheat club. Talk to people in your section about forming a “cheat club” to work through the tasks together.
- 4. Buddy up. Ask one of the mentors to “buddy up” to cheer you on.
- 5. A sign. Put a sign up on your PC saying “”23 Thinging” when you are working on it, so other staff know not to interrupt you
- 6. Phone a friend. Arrange a “phone a friend” agreement with a teenager so you can ring them if you get stuck.
- 7. Float you own boat. Work out what floats your boat – knitting, gardening, Ancient Egypt, trainspotting, photography, celebrity babies – and weave this theme into each activity.
- 8. 15 minutes per day. Set aside 15 minutes a day each afternoon, or before you open your email each day.
- 9. A week at a time. Commit to the program a week at a time. Initially, just commit to the first week. If you find time for that, commit to just the second week. If you don’t complete all you need to do, then commit to getting Week 2 done by the end of Week 3. This is not a race.
- 10. Rearrange your workflow. This program has support from management. If you have tried the things above and still can’t find time, please talk to your supervisor about how you can re-arrange your workflow
Ah, a timely post. I’ve been procrastinating for a week about getting going on running 23 Things at MPOW 🙂
Kathryn,
I’ve recently started 23 Things at Central. See the blog here:
http://23thingscentral.blogspot.com/. This is a trial run with only 9 participants. I hope to expand it to a wider audience once I’ve ironed out any hiccups.
snail..maybe I need a post about “how to find time to lead a 23 Things program at work”.
Maeve…Thanks for the link, I’ve been watching it unfold. Why are you using zoho for the info? Not critical, just curious.
Hi Kathryn,
As you may know, we are running the program throughout the Victorian Public Libraries and I saw your post and thought “Brilliant! Why didn’t we do this!” Would you mind terribly if we borrowed your idea and put up a similar advice page for our participants?
Very clever.
Cheers,
Leslie Sharples and Lynette Lewis
Yarra Plenty regional Library
Co-administrators- Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Program
Hi Kathryn, great to read of your program, I have conducted a taste test of this type of program based on the 23 things idea, for teachers and administration staff here at Tropical North Queensland TAFE. As part of this evaluation I am keen to quite and use your ideas on this page as time was quoted often in the evaluation of this trial, are you happy to be linked in to our next trial in October? If you wanted to have a look at our trial the link is below
http://tnqit.janison.com.au/toolbox/desktop/logon.asp
Username edna
password networkguest
Cheers Colleen Hodgins
Lead Vocational teacher
Tropical North Queensland TAFE
Thanks Colleen. I’m very happy to be linked to, absolutely. I’ve poked about on the inroductory site and bookmarked a couple of the T4 podcasts which look extremely useful.
Leslie and Lynette. I’ve emailed you further, but I’m very happy for you to use my material, thanks for asking – and congratulations on your 1000 signups. Wow and wow again.
what a great list! Thank you for sharing. I really like #9, I think people often feel overwhelmed by what they don’t know
This is such a great idea. We did a few of these things at our Library. There were 3 of us working together, we made a time and gathered together to work together (armed with strong coffee and music). We rarely missed these “gatherings” because we made it fun. We shared all the information we found, not only with each other but the rest of the LIbrary staff and anyone else who would listen. It was a great program and the support was amazing 🙂