Making Time for Research (and You): Using an “Intentionality Toolkit” to Achieve Your Goals and Mitigate Feelings of Overwhelm

Introduction Academic, professional, and personal life are a lot to balance, and there is always more work to do than there are hours in the day. The Bullet Journal Method, the Weekly Meeting, and the Semester Plan, which come together as an “intentionality toolkit,” are three practices to help prioritize competing interests, mitigate feelings of overwhelm, and practice saying “no.” Experience Each method hosts its own distinct benefits: the Bullet Journal Method offers a strategy for managing your day-to-day tasks, the Weekly Meeting provides short-term planning and the opportunity to practice saying “no” to requests, and the Semester Plan helps break down long-term goals into smaller, achievable tasks. Discussion An intentionality toolkit can help in numerous ways. This includes reducing cognitive load; improving prioritization practices; improving openness and flexibility; mitigating perfectionism; owning your time; and incorporating reflective practices into your workweek. This isn’t a perfect toolkit. It is a set of options that might be beneficial to librarians. Takeaways These three techniques create a toolkit to provide structure and personal accountability, specifically to achieve goals that traditionally have less oversight and accountability, like writing and research.