Some people are just really good at memorizing information and keeping it in their head. If you're one of them, a list in your head may work for you. But I'm glad to hear you have the chalkboard technique as a backup plan.
Excellent Jill! I'm glad task prioritization is working so well for you. Do talk to your supervisor about continuing education for lesson plans. A little training can go a long way.
The most important tasks for me are my lesson plans. I tend to put these off usually because I don't feel knowledgable enough to jump right in and complete them. From this module I will talk to my supervisor about continuing education to help me not struggle so much when it comes to lesson plans. I did find that I already impliment many task prioritization techniques in my daily routine which made me feel much better about the things I still need work on.
Unlike most people I have a running tally sheet in my head. I know almost to the dollar how much money I owe, how much money is on each account etc. But when I become overwhelmed, I write onthe chalkboard a home, just before I leave in the morning, to plan my day. When I come home, I ammend the list until by the end of the week there is nothing left. And when I'm sorking on a project, especially with other people I assign tasks and the order of relevancy in order to stay on track.
I seldom have issues with tasks that I am comfortable completeing. Regardless of their ugency. I have more issues with things I have not been properly trained on or things that "fall in my lap" that were not on my to-do list. I am working on being able to say no to these extra tasks or give realistic deadlines to being able to accomplish the extra work.
I try to organize my paperwork into stacks according to pertinence. Then I organize them into and order of importance. This helps me to stay on track with grading and research. Also, when I lay out a class I try to include paragraphs which demonstrate the information that might be most important for my students to focus on in order to fullfill their correlating assignments.
Each class each quarter presents new challenges to my teaching plans and I alter what I do, in which sequence, based on that class need. By doing this I can determine which areas need more attention and focus..it keeps both me and the students on the right track..charlotte segal
This is an important point Anthony. Sometimes tasks that we think will be handled quickly can end up taking a great deal of time. It's often good to schedule in some buffer time to account for the unexpected.
Yes, achieving balance between procrastination and immediacy is key James. But for most instructors, it is easier to do one or the other.
Well, procrastination can be a tendancy of mine, I fear. But still, I try to stay on task day by day.
If I'm requested to do some task that seems minor, I do try to get it out of the way right away. But what ends up happening is that the simply done, immeadiate tasks have a way of taking longer than they should and the high priority tasks get pushed back to later in the day or evening. By that time I'm not at my best and I let them carry over to the next day or week.
A change of order? I might do the more important tasks first and save the simple-to-do tasks for later when I'm tired no matter how seductive it might seem to get them out of the way.
I make a to-do list every working day as well as some week ends. I do struggle with making quality time for family. Putting my wife on a "list" is not romantic in her eyes.
In my youth I struggled with procrastination; condidering the course material, I now realize that I have gone to the other extreme to immediacy. Although I am a great believer in the use of checklists, I believe the pursuit of balance is important.
Yes, prep lists are just another name for to-do lists Daniel. It sounds like you already have some good experience in task prioritization.
I like to think that I have good time management skills. If anything I practice immediacy but I am still able to prioritize according to urgency and importance.
I always make lists that are prioritized and it works for me. I see no reason to change my approach.
I always place tasks of major importance first and respond to other issues task by task based on level of difficulty and individual student learning progress. charlotte segal
In my line of work we call to-do lists prep lists. I feel reading or taking this module has re-enforced my beliefs in creating an effective to-do or prep list.
You are not alone Ricardo. Many instructors procrastinate important tasks. Finding ways to break these tasks down so they are less intimating can help.
Online teaching indeed comes with unique advantages and disadvantages. Being able to more effectively prioritize is a plus.
In both my full-time job managing others, and part-time teaching I prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency.
With teaching, I'm able to more effectively put tasks off that are lower importance and complete high urgency tasks right away as I teach online. I find it much harder to do this in an office environment where people depend on my feedback and guidance, so I will try and adjust how I accomplish tasks based off what I've learned here. It's important for me to do the things I need to get done.
No I usually put important tasks off for another time and complete easier less important tasks first. I see that this habit I have, is creating unnecessary stress for me and I will definitely change the way I decide to complete tasks. I usually do write lists but from now on I will reorganize the list, with top priorities first, then mark them off as I complete them. I see that this will certainly reduce my stress.
