I. General

• A. Keeping track of what you need to do
  • 1. Write things you need to remember to do in your date book, calendar, PDA, etc.
  • 2. Prioritize your list:
    • a. Important items with deadlines
    • b. Less critical items with deadlines
    • c. Important items without deadlines: give yourself target deadlines
    • d. Less critical items without deadline
  • 3. Also categorize each task according to the time you think it will require
• B. Planning your day, week, & semester or summer
  • 1. Block out parcels of time for which you have obligations
  • 2. Block out parcels of time for yourself: personal e-mails, relaxation, reflection, coffee break with friends, etc.
  • 3. When you have a block of free time, consult your list of tasks & do those that fit into the time slot, starting with the highest priority
  • 4. Minimize travel to essential (includes vacation!) trips
  • 5. Organize your out-of-class time with students
    • a. Office hours, meeting times
    • b. Meet in groups if possible: can be beneficial to students to interact with peers, saves you time
    • c. Letters of recommendation:
      • i. Have students supply addressed, stamped envelopes well ahead of deadline
      • ii. Have students fill out an information form to give you material for letters
• C. Cut corners whenever possible
  • 1. Consider trade-off of quality vs. time
  • 2. If you are not naturally great at a lower-priority duty, don’t compensate with higher priority
• D. Back up all your work!
  • 1. Hardcopies
  • 2. CD-ROM, large back-up disk, whatever – it takes too much time to re-create!
• E. Make others aware of your deadlines: chair, colleagues, staff, students, family
• F. Maintain a good (for you) filing system
• G. E-mail
  • 1. You do not need to respond immediately to messages!
  • 2. If a student asks a question of general relevance, send reply to entire class
  • 3. If reply would need to be lengthy, use phone call or office visit instead
  • 4. If you will be away from e-mail for extended period, set up a “vacation” message
    • Write that you will reply to messages after your return as time permits – don’t promise!
  • 5. If faced with a pile of e-mails, go through them from latest to earliest (some issues will have already been resolved)
• H. Maintain a list of accomplished tasks
  • For your annual report and to gain some satisfaction when many tasks are not yet done
• I. Off-load tasks that you can delegate to staff and/or students
  • Choose tasks carefully so that time for instructions & amending their work is limited
• J. Maintain a log for a week, 2 weeks, or month of how you actually spend your time
  • If actual time spent does not match priorities, make adjustments
• K. For every new responsibility, research area, student working with you, etc.:
  • You MUST drop something else that takes your time.

II. Classes

• A. Preparation
  • 1. Aim for less than 2:1 prep to class time ratio for familiar topics
    • a. Longer prep time for less familiar topics, but give yourself a cut-off
    • b. Don’t aim for perfection the first time you teach a course
  • 2. Plan to cover only about half of your initial estimate of material
    • a. Applies to composing syllabus as well
    • b. Plan time to interact with students to determine how well they are absorbing material
  • 3. Use technology only when it really adds value
    • a. Consider using PowerPoint only for images + captions, animations/videos, etc.
    • b. At most, include outline in presentation (perhaps more in notes posted on website)
  • 4. Unless extensive research is needed, start preparing only within a few days of class
    • a. Reduces prep time
    • b. Reduces need to refresh memory
  • 5. Give yourself (& students!) an occasional prep break: class discussion, review session, group activity, discussion of assignment(s), guest lecturer, video, etc.
  • 6. Write down list of items you will need to take to class
• B. Before Class
  • 1. Give yourself 15-30 minutes to collect your thoughts (& yourself!)
  • 2. Check list you wrote beforehand of items you need to take to class
• C. Immediately After Class
  • 1. Write down issues that you need to consider for the next class & questions for exam
  • 2. Give yourself some personal wind-down time

III. Service Duties

• A. Volunteer for one or two departmental/college service duties that you think you would be worthwhile and not take too much time
• B. Requests for service by your chair, dean, etc.
  • 1. Learn (with help of mentor) what requests you can safely refuse
  • 2. Say "no" if you really don’t think that you have time or want to perform the duty
  • 3. If a straight "no" is infeasible, ask your boss what other service duties you can drop to make time for the new duty

IV. Research

• A. Finding the time
  • 1. Create blocks of time for research during the semester
    • a. No non-research-related e-mail, no phone calls, etc.
    • b. Find the best place with minimal distractions but with necessary resources
  • 2. Stop working on academics within a few days of the end of classes
  • 3. Don’t start working diligently on your classes again until late in the summer
• B. Summers
  • 1. Think of summer research time as almost over on June 1: get cracking!
  • 2. Confine work on academics to relatively small blocks of time