Time goes so quickly at my new job. Before, at the public branch, the day was divided into hour-long increments: checking in bookdrop, one hour; looking for holds, one hour; being on the desk, one hour; eating lunch, one (half-) hour; back on the desk, one hour--and your day still isn't over. Have a long-term project you want to work on? Good luck, squeezing it into all your other hours. The longer I worked there, the better I got at accomplishing my day-to-day goals while still making progress on larger ones, but it wasn't easy. The immediate demands of working directly with the public necessarily took precedent over any other ideas. It seemed like there was never enough time to do what I wanted, yet the day could drag.
I still don't feel like I have enough time to do everything I want, but because I can dedicate two or three consecutive hours to a task, I make substantial progress. It feels extremely rewarding. Fulfilling -- that's the word.
