Alyson over at Chapter Two has a great post on managing professional development. We all know we should do it, but for some of us managing all the things we want to do that fall into that category can quickly spiral out of control. She writes,

“Something that I’ve always struggled with, personally and professionally, is that I find it very, very difficult to let opportunities slip by.”

I fall into this boat too, but as I’ve written before I’ve had to make it a priority to keep this in check, especially committees. Others have written in the past about the tendency for people to be asked to do more and more things once they become active in an association or write and present regularly, which of course is wonderful but can mean that obligations add up quickly. But it can be just as satisfying to suggest someone else for that paper or committee, giving more people a chance to participate.
It is hard to let things go or pass you by, but I figure that in the long run you’ll have more energy to keep being involved with projects and committees instead of burning out under a huge workload. I, at one point, was a member of six committees across ALIA and ALA which I would never repeat! Alyson has a great list of what she will and won’t be doing, a good way to work out what you really do have the time and energy for.

As for me, I’m putting most of my efforts this year into the paper for ALA (with Alyson), the paper on newgrads and writing (so close to finished now!), and the Semantic Library blog. I’m really learning a lot from writing and talking to people about it. The rest of my free time over the next few months is dedicated to travelling!