Gary,
What are some things you do to try to get those folks to leave?
Jeffrey Schillinger
My most time consuming time wasters are when someone comes into my room and talks too long about non work related subjects when I am trying to get my grades or training done.
I have found that if my "electronic" stuff is close at hand and easy to access then it is too easy to check company emails, personal emails, responses from LinkedIn professional and personal colleagues, etc.
Also, I have found that if I have Engrade opened (this is the 3rd party software that we use for our gradesheets, communications with students, assignments, etc. that it is easy to go into the account and use it for one entry. I have found that if I wait until later in the day or even the next day and use the time to enter in large groups of data, then I am only using the time once for login and logout... This is very important if the network or system is running slowly and we just sit there watching for the Engrade to install!
I am trying to learn better organizational methods... for example, to use Excel to have all of the necessary information easily at hand. It takes some time to set up but it is far faster than looking up individual data from different resources often.
Meetings about other meetings or meetings about email's are a definate time waster.Wheter it is getting an instant message or email while lecturing or even a text it certainly has an impact on productivity.
Edith ,
One thing you may want to try is to let the person know you have another meeting coming up as your meeting starts and make an offer to schedule a follow-up meeting if needed. I have fond the prase "respecting your time" to be well-received.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Email, as expressed by many in this thread, is a great distraction to me. One of the best benefits of this course for me has been the simple idea to check email only 2-3 times a day at set hours, and to turn it off the rest of the time. Of course, it is still an addiction! so I haven't been able to quite stick with the scheduled regimen. Like someone else said, the mailbox can fill up quickly so sometimes it feels more efficient to just keep checking and responding to the simple stuff. I can, and do, file the more complicated stuff for later in the day or next day's attention.
Other than email, my next biggest identifiable time-waster is frequent distraction caused by my Open Door policy. I have learned from this course that it is OK to put a 'do not disturb' up for an hour or so, and take that time to power through a couple focused tasks. This seems to be working out for me.
In my scheduled appointment times, people I meet with tend to want to sit and chit chat and go off course, since I want to be friendly and make them feel comfortable our meeting goes longer than expected and then takes up time in the next meeting which creates a domino affect in making me behind in my following appointments, how can I make sure I keep to my scheduled times without cutting people off?
David,
Thanks for sharing. We are working on a way to reduce the steady stream of students to our Deans by encouraging students who need assistance to reach out to our Student Affairs Specialist or Registrar so that the Deans can focus on faculty development.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I feel that the single largest time-waster that I battle on a daily basis is the disruption that occurs when a student or staff member needs my attention over an issue. I am forced to stop working on the task/project that I was working on, help them, and then return to my task/project. I feel that the more distractions that occur, the longer it takes me to refocus on continue progress with my original task/project.
I feel that keeping a to-do list in front of me helps to promote efficiency and reduce wasted time.
My personal time waster was jumping to suggest solutions to direct reports when they brought in problems. I have been able to replace that habit by asking a few questions; What are you going to do about it? What resources will you need? How long will it take you to fix it?
Cory,
I am glad you found value in this course.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I used to fall into the email trap and the web surfing trap. I was always checking emails or looking at current news topics. I had to overcome the urge to constsntly feel connected and learn to focus on the task at hand. Lucky for me I had an excellent mentor who helped me overcome those habits. This course was very informative and I will take away some excellent tools for building up a pool of bought time to draw upon. I also found useful tools in how to say no to your boss...
Oh boy - where to begin. I have found several things to be time wasters. A good example is not dealing with emails as far as filing them or saving them to the proper folder right away and letting them stack up then the mailbox is full and you don't get important information and then you have to spend a lot of time cleaning up emails from months ago. So learning a little system of filing or dumping emails daily or at the time of could be helpful. Also, being organized in terms of other materials coming your way & in my job that's a lot of documents etc. every day. Having a system in place to readily put them in the proper place so you don't waste time looking through the pile of papers on your desk for something you need.... bottom line, a systematic approach to dealing with all incoming & outgoing information.
For me it is checking my email. I get so many emails daily that I would spend too much time reading them. So to minimize this I check my emails only a few times a day once in the early morning again at lunch and in the afternoon. Then at night I delete all the junk mail and read my personal emails so it doesn't interfere with my work emails.
I agree with Jeffrey, this is solid strategy. So many times as an Instructor, students, peers and managers will come by the classroom or lab for whatever reason and three interuption in a half hour can set up back an hour on classroom productivity or catch up.
Damon,
This is a pretty common issue with folks. Lots of times we are drawn to the details that we enjoy at the expense of other parts of the project.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I notice that I get bogged down in details of a project and agonize over nuances. I now do my best to realy get to the main idea or outcome of a project and focus only on the two or three things that are most important. Otherwise, I open a can of worms and I run amuk on content that just isnt germain.
In class I am often trying to assist students with additional product needs for their lesson. Often, I would have help them find the product or leave the classroom to get what is needed.
I now a list for additional items needed and set a time limit for students to request additional products. I then have the assigned student manager take the list to purchasing and filled.
This frees me up to help students accomplish their lesson for the day rather than leaving the classroom several times.
Jason,
Smart move, Jason. It is intersting how people seem to think that sending an email instantly transfers the information to the receiver's consciousness. I was sitting in the break room a few days ago and a co-worker, who was at another table a few feet away, sent me an email while I was eating and asked if I had received it yet.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We recently added instant message system to the campus network that seemed like a great idea, but I soon realized that most people think instant message is also instant reply.
I found myself being pulled away from my direct task frequently. I have learned to set my instant message status to not available so people will send an email that I can check and respond to when convenient without breaking my focus from my priority tasks.
