Collections management is comprised of a myriad of activities and tasks necessary to the care and stewardship of objects in the collection. The work often requires dedicated focus to complete an activity successfully, and yet there never seems to be enough time in the day. Hectic schedules make it difficult to carve out time to approach the work, and even harder to find enough time for real focus.
In this series, I will share strategies for effective collections management work with an emphasis on carving out time—and how to make the most of it.
Today’s post will explore how to create time for collections management work. Upcoming posts will cover how to batch collections management work and how to prepare for focused time to maximize impact.
Challenges to Effective Collections Management Work
We all know it’s difficult to find enough time or focus in the day, but it’s useful to define the main factors that work against us. Common hurdles to finding protected time for collections management work include:
- Too many meetings
- Too many tasks
- Frequent interruptions
And, when there finally is time available for collections management work, we often struggle to seize the moment due to:
- Lack of clear intention
- Poor preparation
We’ll address the first set of challenges in today’s post with strategies on how to create time for collections management work. In subsequent posts, we’ll cover how to protect that time and how to approach those sessions with intention and practical preparation.
Advice for Creating Time
In order to protect time in our schedules, we first need to have time available to protect. With that in mind, here are three actions you can take to reclaim control of your calendar and create more availability for collections management:
- Review your calendar for natural openings
- Assess and remove unnecessary meetings
- Move standing meetings
Review Your Calendar for Natural Openings
Even if your workdays tend to vary, there are usually pockets of time that are regularly quiet. For example, if your museum is closed every Monday, you might already have a naturally protected time block. When you identify these natural openings in your schedule, you can use that time intentionally to stack internal meetings or for focused collections management work.
Assess and Remove Unnecessary Meetings
Some meetings are optional, e.g., a standing department meeting (for a department other than yours) that offers information but doesn’t require your attendance. It’s very easy to “collect” these types of meetings on our calendars, and the occasional cleanup will help free up time on your calendar for more important work.
Move Standing Meetings
If you do have mandatory standing meetings, see if you can stack them on a specific day. For example, if you have a team meeting and a 1:1 with your boss once a week, try shifting them both to Monday afternoon.
Switching between meetings and deep work creates a high “transition cost.” Grouping meetings into blocks helps free up bigger blocks of uninterrupted time and reduces the loss of focus caused by context switching, which means more of your energy can be dedicated to meaningful collections management tasks.
Create, Then Protect
Creating time is a practice we will need to exercise regularly. As calendars and to-do lists clog up with unnecessary items, scheduling a moment every quarter or even twice a year will help you keep your calendar pruned with intentional time commitments.
Finally, remember that creating time is one thing, protecting it is another. If you’re not vigilant, the time you have carefully carved out and designated for collections management can be easily stolen away. Next week, we’ll discuss how to protect time for effective collections management work.
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