Rudaí 23 #thing11: Reflections, excuses and solutions

I was sure that it would be no problem keeping up with the various tasks throughout the course, especially as the course FAQs indicated that each task and blog would only take about an hour to complete. I quickly found that this wasn’t the case – to fully research a task and its associated apps or programs and to write a halfway decent blog post was taking a minimum of four hours per task and sometimes up to six for the more technical exercises. Initially I thought this was down to my personal approach but once I had spoken to colleagues and had engaged in Rudaí 23 discussions I quickly realised this was the case for many of the participants.

When I started the course I thought I might be able to complete some of the tasks at work but realistically a busy work environment doesn’t allow for this. The priority in the build up to September has been preparing and delivering student inductions, giving tutorials to staff and students and developing professional relationships with academic staff. I can’t honestly say that procrastination is the reason I’ve fallen behind – I like to be busy and my life involves working in two different part-time library jobs, volunteering in the Irish Film Institute one day a week, meeting up with friends and family and finding the time to learn how to drive somewhere in all of that!

If I’m being honest I think the problem is the time I'm taking with each Rudaí 23 task – six hours is definitely excessive. The podcasting and video tasks took a lot of my time as I revised the recordings ad nauseam until I was completely happy with them.  The aim with this course as I see it now is to learn new skills that can be applied at a later date rather than getting it perfectly right the first time.


I know that my blogs aren’t going to change the world or be read by thousands of people but I do view this course and the blogs as an extension of my CV – it’s a way for me to get to know other library professionals and vice versa. Because of that I want to be sure my blog posts are clear, well-researched and avoid eye-wincing grammatical errors, something which takes time and effort.

So, a study plan together with strict time management is the only way to go it seems – I need to choose one set evening a week to complete the Rudaí 23 tasks and allot a maximum of 3 hours to each task. This will involve accepting that each blog post doesn’t need to be perfect and that every task doesn’t need to be mastered to the nth degree. So far, I’ve enjoyed certain tasks so much that I’ve found myself investigating Pinterest for hours, or spending far too much time researching how libraries are using podcasts when one or two examples would suffice. No more I say, with a realistic study plan and better time management I will (hopefully) be up to date with the tasks by the 14^th September. Watch this space…