One Librarian's Open Journal

January 11th, 2024

I am trying really hard to get into the habit of journaling. I feel like I have so much to say and writing it down feels difficult. I find that I can process and ‘spill’ my thoughts more easily when I have an authentic audience to listen. I don’t really have an audience for my daily thoughts yet. I don’t know how I want to or even how to get that reach. I am definitely getting closer.

I have spent the past few months since I got hired in October, figuring out my work style. I have so much space here to work, research, think, write, and create that it is a little overwhelming (not in a bad way). I found a hybrid (office/work from home) balance that works for me. It allows me to be available to pick up my son from school, provides a distraction free setting for me to dive into reading, writing, and creating, and gives me power of my work life balance. I am so grateful for this space.

I am now working on figuring out my reading-writing-creating process. I have been experimenting with different research management and note taking tools over the past few months. I am working to find a streamlined process with as few different tools as possible. We have the Microsoft suite available to us through the university, but I can’t share my notes through a OneNote Notebook publicly. I am limited to sharing with the UTA community. This is fine, but not in line with my values as an open practitioner. So, I had to cross OneNote from my list.

I am close to figuring out my strategy and process. I am using Zotero to collect, manage, read, and annotate my resources. After reading and annotating, I am copying my annotations and notes over to a Notion Notebook to analyze and write more about. I am new to Notion but I have known about it for a while. I have reached a point in my experimental research where I am ready to dive into Notion to see what it can do for me.

My first impression of Notion is that is incredibly robust and that I may be able to project manage my entire life from this one tool. I am excited to dive in and try. I am amazed with the number of templates, features, and capabilities within Notion. More to come on this experience.

Published by

Megan Zara

Open Educational Resources (OER) Librarian at the University of Texas at Arlington. Baby-librarian with an insatiable curiosity and a humanitarian heart. My work revolves around meeting people where they are and raising marginalized voices. Intensely interested in Open Education practices as a way of life and a way of learning. Opinions are my own.

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