Time Management: A Ballancing Act
Ireta Ekstrom

Time is one of the most important commodities we have and we all struggle to manage it.  For most faculty, the combination of many worthwhile projects and very little organizational structure starts us down a very busy path.  Toss in a poor record of saying “no” to new and exiting projects and we end up stretched to the limits.  Unless you desire to devote your life to the unimportant/urgent quadrant of life, you need to find a way to keep focused and on track. 

Calendars: Every writer on the topic of time management encourages the use of a calendar of some type. Whether it is paper, Outlook or a personal digital device, using one will free you to make plans and schedules. Ailamaki and Gehrke (2003) suggest that you include everything in your plan for the entire day, including issues related to your personal life such as reading with your children. Fill it up so you can reserve time for the important things in life: reading, writing, reflection, research, relaxation, and recreation with family and friends. Life will fill in any gaps you have in your calendar.

Ailamaki and Gehrke (2003) also suggest that you keep track of meetings by putting all information about them in the calendar, such as where the meeting is located, who is attending, main topic of the meeting, and the beginning/ending times. With everything noted you won’t have to hunt for the announcement.

Committees and Meetings. The general consensus is that early in your career, carefully accept committee work. McClain (2003) suggests that you pause before accepting any committee assignments. Ask for time to think about it, and then talk to a senior faculty member about taking on major responsibilities, the overall importance of the committee, and the impact on your tenure.

Class preparation. New faculty should plan for 2-3 hours of preparation for each class (Marscher, 2006; Felder, 2003). Don’t over prepare. Students can be “overwhelmed into passivity” with a tightly organized lecture according to Lee McClain (2003). If a class discussion does run longer than expected, be flexible enough to go with the immediate needs of the group rather than your tightly planned class. On the other hand, do have a few extra questions or activities in your “back pocket” in case you cover planned material more quickly than expected (Felder).

One difficulty in teaching is planning how much time to devote to a given subject. I recommend classroom assessment techniques (CATS) to determine how to pace the class (Angelo and Cross, 1993). When students demonstrate they have learned the material, it’s time to move on.  Another method to assist you deal with the heavy workload of class preparation for a new course is to build in research days, guest speakers, group work and class presentations (McClain, 2003; Zakrajsek, 2004). Also be careful to space course elements that take a good deal of your time.  For example, it is unwise to have term papers due the class period before or after an essay exam. 

Class Organization. Okay, I admit it: I am filing challenged. However, I did find that a bag or shelf area designated for each class was a big time saver. Why? Well, everything for the class goes in the designated spot or bags, papers to grade go there, papers I’ve graded go there. Want to take something to class? It goes -- well, you get the picture. With the bag or designated pile you may still have to sort through material, but at least you know where to look.

Use Blackboard’s time saving features to create chapter quizzes (they are automatically graded and grades go in the Gradebook). Set up areas within the course as “storage spots” (just make them unavailable to students) to keep material you may/may not need during the semester or that you normally email to students. Set up a discussion forum for questions. With any luck class members will answer the questions for you. If you are teaching the class again within a year, you can copy many pieces of your class forward to save having to re-create the shell.

Students. Marscher (2006) recommends meeting students in groups, if possible. Another time-saver is to have students bring agendas/bullet points to meetings so they can take notes.

Writing letters of recommendation can take quite a bit of time. Two strategies that can help are to create a questionnaire for students to fill out and return via email so you will have all the information you will need (Marscher) and to create and save a file of “boiler plate” paragraphs or phrases which can be helpful idea starters when you need them quickly.

Writing. Find the approach that results in putting out pages of work for you.  Some are natural binge writing and others are more productive writing in brief daily sessions. Try a period of time using each method and find which works best for your personality.

Remember that calendar we talked about? Using it to plan writing time makes it invaluable. McClain (2003) swears that by building speaking engagements into his calendar with an accompanying conference deadline he is thoroughly motivated to get moving on the conference paper and perhaps a complete journal article after that.

Organization. One of the best pieces of advice I received was to organize my computer into just four categories: Scholarship, Teaching, Service and Personal. It helps keep me on track, makes it easy to find what I am working on and streamlines my computer interface tremendously.  After I made this one change I felt like I had a handle on my life, I hope it helps you, too.

These are just a few of the planning strategies that can help maximize your time. Keeping your long-range planning always in the front, make sure you understand the impact of each activity on your personal and professional goals.  Being really busy on things that do not matter will not help you nearly as much as keeping focused on a few important goals and working toward those ends. And one last thing: a key component of time management is the reward that can come from strictly following a structured schedule:  the return of your weekends to your family and friends. Enjoy.

References:
Ailamaki, A. & Gehrke, J. (2003). Time management for new faculty. SIGMOD Record. 32(2).

Angelo, TA, & Cross, KP (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Marscher, A. (2006). Time management for faculty. Retrieved September 18, 2006.  http://www.bu.edu/cet/develop/time.html

Classroom Assessment Techniques from FaCIT’s resources. Retrieved 9/18/2006. http://www.facit.cmich.edu/instructional-development/links/cats.htm

Felder, RM. (2002). The effective, efficient professor. Chemical Engineering Education, 36(2), 114-115. Retrieved September 18, 2006. http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Columns/Wankat.html.

McClain, LT. (2003). Lessons in time management. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 12/16/2003. Retrieved September 18, 2006.

http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/12/200312160c.htm
Zakrajsek, T. (2004). Teaching a course you feel unprepared to teach. Association for Psychological Science Observer. 17(11).