Common challenges: time is not an unlimited resource

Author: Tighe Flanagan

Article:

Over the past three and a half years, I’ve seen many common challenges in the Wikimedia Movement when it comes to education activities. In the updated newsletter, we will highlight a featured topic starting with a series about challenges. We invite you to participate in the conversation. In this series, the education team will highlight one small and common challenge each month. This month, let’s look at time.

The greatest resource that our Movement has is human power and energy. The volunteers and staff that run education programs work extremely hard and are very passionate about their jobs. The amount of energy and work one human being can put into an activity does have limits, however. It’s not an unlimited and “free” resource, although we oftentimes think of it that way.

Thinking about time as an investment is important in attaching value to those hours spent supporting students and teachers, or crunching numbers and running surveys. It has more value than any other resources like money or tools. In fact, the latter is only meaningful if it allows you to use your time more efficiently.

With this in mind, I’d encourage us all to take stock and think about how we invest our time. We should be proud of the things we do to change the world with Wikipedia and the sister projects. If we value our time, it can potentially keep us from over extending ourselves and burning out as well.

What do you think? Do you have any strategies for valuing the time you invest in your work?

Tags: featured topic, challenges, education team