Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Reading Resolutions

Photo by tourist_on_earth

To finish out the year, I'm over at the ASLC Blog talking about reading resolutions. Setting reading resolutions can be a great way to build and strengthen your arsenal when it comes to reader's advisory and professional knowledge!

Click on through and share your reading resolutions in the comments! Since I am just finishing up my Newbery year, my resolution is to be easy on myself about setting reading goals this year. I would love to know what YOUR reading resolutions are for this year!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas to Us!

I have some happy news to share.

The Boy and I got engaged last weekend!

Our first wedding-y gift from my sister-in-law!
No date's been set; I keep promising that planning won't start until after Newbery (but short, TIMED Pinterest sessions can make a nice reading break).

And other than that, my life has been reading, reading, reading, reading...

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Eating the Frog and Following Your Bliss: Tackling the To-Do List

Photo by Bev Sykes
As I have mentioned before, I recently had the pleasure of taking an online youth services management class through UW-SLIS, taught by the inimitable Marge Loch-Waters and one of the topics we discussed was finding your zen. By this I mean finding a balance between life and work, managing stress, and getting everything done. It's not always easy and it's something a lot of us struggle with throughout our careers.
This year has been an overwhelmingly busy one in the Children's Room at my library. It's awesome - we love what we're doing - but it's meant that figuring out a to-do list system has been a MUST for me. Stacy Dillon wrote a great post for the ALSC Blog about various organization systems and what she's trying out. (I am using Wunderlist at the moment.)
But once you have settled on an organizational system, how do you keep yourself productive? One of my classmates in my management class suggested "eating the frog". 
"Eating the frog" basically means doing the worst thing you have to do that day to get it out of the way. The "frog" is something you need to do, but don't want to do. Get that thing out of the way. The idea is that if the first thing you do is eat a frog, the rest of your day will seem easy by comparison.
[The term comes from a quote that is repeatedly credited to Mark Twain, but might not actually have been something he said.]
So, I think that's pretty good advice. Tackle something important on your to-do list that you just don't want to do. And it is true that it makes everything else on your to-do list seem much easier!
But sometimes that to-do list can just be overwhelming. Or sometimes you get to a point where you have a bunch of stuff you need to do and they're all of equal importance. When I reach that point, I follow my bliss. I start working on whatever seems the most fun, whether it's putting in a book order, planning a preschool storytime, or getting materials together for our monthly staff reader's advisory discussion. Something's getting done off the to-do list, which is going to make it a little less overwhelming soon.
And maybe tomorrow I'll eat another frog.
How do you keep yourself organized and productive?

Friday, December 5, 2014

Winter Reading Club at the ALSC Blog

Today, I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about our Winter Reading Club and how we tweaked what we did last year to make this year's even better! We still keep this program really simple and aim for giving kids and families something fun to do together during these cold winter months.



Click on through to read the post, and please comment! I would love to know what you do for Winter Reading!