I have something of a tragic history with libraries, having once run up a debt of over $100 on overdue fees during a history project. I was reminded of this incident when a recent trip to the library cost me $11.20 in overdue fees.
While I love the library, and appreciate the public service, I cannot stand to be beholden to anyone unless it is strategically useful.
It does not escape my notice that one month of overdue fees has exceeded my monthly direct personal contribution to Kiwisaver. It’s a simple way of saying, that money could have been spent better elsewhere.
While this was an exceptional month, library overdues are something of a common occurrence. I shudder to think that I may be racking up as much as $50 in overdue fees per year.
What causes the overdue fees? A lack of organisation. A low level of consciousness about where I am at on my reading journey. And a rather poor system.
So how could I rather simply (and pathetically) overhaul my current system in order to create one that prohibits me from incurring an overdue fine ever again?
It’s simple, really. On the way home from the library I purchased a notebook. The notebook cost me $1.20. I titled the notebook ‘reading plan’ and wrote in it the title of the book I had got out, the number of pages, and the date it was due. I then translated the number of pages into the approximate number of preps it would take to read this book whole (about 8 preps in this instance). That gave me a good overview of how much reading I would need to do between now and the return date.
Once I had the return date in mind it was very difficult to forget it. And knowing that I had the book for a finite amount of time spurred me on to prioritise reading during my week.
And once the book has been returned I simply cross it out of the notebook. That makes it easy for me to see at a glance whether I have any other books outstanding.
It also stops me from having my eyes get too big for my stomach, a problem that often leads to more overdue fees than I need.
I’m yet to see the final results of this plan given that it’s so fresh. I am hoping that it results in me not having to pay overdues at all during the year. If it works, I will have pocketed an extra $50 on the back of a small investment.
