I try and complete what are the most urgent tasks at hand. Are they due today, tomorrow, or this week? Obviously, I will accomplish tasks that are due today and tomorrow immediately. As far as other tasks I will prioritize all other tasks. I try and find a balance between work and personal life. With work, personal life, and school I sometimes find it hard to accomplish everything all the time, sometimes I have to just set everything aside and enjoy my family and friends and not worry about everything else. It will all be there when I return, life is to short not to enjoy it.
Yes, those easy, fun and short tasks are quite tempting! It's ok if we knock out a few but we've got to focus on the other stuff too.
It re-enforces the need for me to prioritize. It's easy sometimes to get side tracked from what's really important.
It's a question of time, place and task. I prioritize making sure I have the time without interruption. To do my tasks. Everything in it's time.
Procrastination and sense of urgency have always been personal obstacles for me, but since I started teaching several years ago I've become much better at writing to-do lists and prioritizing those lists, so I can accomplish everything I need to in an efficient manner. Since I've become pretty good at list-making and prioritization, I can't say that I will necessarily change the order in which I accomplish important and urgent tasks in the future, but I will definitely continue this process because it's incredibly valuable to me as an instructor.
I am good about listing tasks that I need to complete. I do tend to first do the tasks that are the easiest and most fun to complete. My justification for this has always been that it makes my list shorter and more manageable. I see now that this is not always the case. I think breaking up those large tasks and numbering them will help me.
I am one of those individuals that likes to accomplish tasks right away. I do prioritize the tasks that needs to be done based on urgency and importance. I worked as a Food & Beverage Director for a couple of Hotel Chains and learnt the importance of meeting deadlines.
This is an interesting approach William. Ultimately, both instructors and administrations are here to serve the needs of students. So it seems like you have the right idea and I imagine it probably works for you most of the time.
I suppose when our most difficult parts as an educator is prioritizing all of the different items that are required from us on any given day. A practice that I personally use is that everything related to students comes first; and all other duties and responsibilities as it relates to the academic environment come after that. I have used this philosophy, ever since I have entered the educational arena. Granted and I'm sure you will agree that a philosophy of this nature could possibly get you in trouble with administration.
Is very important to be realistic and the tasks that you can accomplish any given time constraint. I often times deliberately placed easily accomplish tasks among tasks that are extremely difficult. So that I purposely give myself a break and get a feeling of accomplishment as I've completed the tasks that are difficult as well as easy.
Dennis, I like the way you have organized your list by primary and secondary tasks. This method probably keeps you focused on taking care of what's most important.
Melissa,
I usually plan my next day, the night before. Sometimes I will come in early and make a plan for the current day.
I dont rush to complete all of the tasks. I will prepare for the entire class day, 1 day at a time.
After I have completed all of my "primary tasks", I will start my secondary tasks. Sometimes based on time available or other variable I will be forced to put things off until another day.
I do manage to place high importance tasks first on my to-do list; however, I often feel that I can focus better on the more important tasks if I get a few quick tasks done first. This allows me to relax because I don't have a lot of loose ends hanging around. My concentration and efficiency seem to improve.
Over time I have learned that it much more benefitial to try to avoid procrastination. I do feel that my next step could be to incorporate the ranking of priorities on my 'to-do' lists.
It's true Joseph, Task prioritization is an art. To do it well, we must balance things like task urgency with our estimates of task completion time. We must also fold in a healthy respect for who we are delivering to.
This is true Michael. Sometimes, attacking difficult tasks head on is the best approach. When we do, we let go of our worries and temptations to procrastinate.
I find it is helpful to handle those difficult and complex tasks first or it becomes too easy to delay it to a degree that you become very late in completing it.
Mike
In reality, engaging in specific tasks depends on several variables e.g., time, tools to accomplish the task, and reliance on others. Sometime tasks require less attention and are easier to accomplish and thus are done first. However, in some cases, it is better to focus on those tasks which are more complicated and require more thorough attention. It is a challenge to generalize the order in which tasks should be completed because every task is unique and is accompanied by specific requirements.
This is true Hans. Identifying the highest priority task can be the most challenging. Some instructors base their decision on time to completion or which task is the most urgent. Other instructors focus on who they are delivering to, with different people getting different priority weightings.
this module emphazizes the logical sequence in a "to do List" - first things first.
the only challenge is to figure out the most important thing and go from there.
