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Had some time this morning to try to put the #CollectionsManagement ducks (incl. a few actual ducks) in a row and have some swirling thoughts about the challenges of trying to work strategically with collections right now. May contain: performative business, no actual solutions.
One thing that hopefully is familiar with other #CollectionsManagement colleagues is the 'two hour' problem or however you call it at your gaff. Enquiries, documentation, loans etc. that take less than two hours can sort of be squeezed in between meetings, visitors etc.
But it can take weeks or months to get to tasks that take two hours or more and sometimes it takes you months to take two hours to end up with a "no we don't have this" response which feels unsatisfying thinking about collections users who have waited that long for a -ve reply
The two hour problem is now further complicated by backlogs from lockdown 1, continued restricted access to collections, COVID safety in pokey museums spaces, any kind of working across institutions and combinations of part time/furloughed/remote and on site staff plus
tech woes and *just* as it felt like the catch up work could EVEN start to begin, lockdown 2 happens atomising each and every aspect of normal #CollectionsManagement processing. So there's pre-lockdown projects, projects in response to lockdown projects and months of enquiries.
Just before this current lockdown, I'd boiled down what I thought was feasible important work down to six major tasks anticipating the usual admin, meetings, reactive stuff around it. Trying to maintain some sliver of strategic working whilst everything is up in the air.
I'm not 100% sure it's the best approach but I'm basically dividing up the days on specific tasks to try to get over the 2 hour problem hump but stuff is flowing in all the time, sometimes with quick turn around deadlines and then there's tasks which can only be done on site.
And sometimes it feels like a chaotic maelstrom. Finished tasks are few and far between. Some enquiries will inevitably be passively pitched into the long grass because I need to check A on site which is half a day, which I don't have free for at least another month...
And then every now and then the fact of the pandemic *pops* into mind and needs a little processing. ANYWAY. Any #CollectionsManagement colleagues out there got any tips to share in how they're managing work from before February to now? Dealing with enquiries when everything...
Is up in the air? Reframing thinking about workloads and what's achievable? Shelving entire strands of work? Managing remote teams? Planning around these interim situations? Talking about and sharing the mental busy business?
Coincidentally, my day today & no, multitasking makes this go slower or just crash altogether.
INCLUDING. IT SEEMS. TAKING SCREENSHOTS. So now there's a folder and a backup folder and an interim folder and a folder and the backup and the interim. Copies copies copies copies copies.
