It seems that I just do not have enough time with preparing for lectures and completing portfolios. I do alot of work at home just to keep up. I think I need to know when I reach my limitations and learn to say no.
I find checking email as a "time-waster." I find myself keeping Outlook open constantly and every few minutes looking at my computer screen to determine if any new mail has arrived. If new mail has arrived, I'm quick to respond. This can leave me sidetracked from what I was doing before. I remember the days before email - life seemed so much easier!
I hope this works for you, Andrew. I have to close windows or I become distracted. I do the same with email.
Agreed. One reason I teach is that I am very curious and love to learn. However, a downfall of that is the near infinite amount of information to discover on-line. Some of it helps my job (blogs by professors on the subject I teach), some of it maybe doesn't so much (trying to figure out the gestation period of a grey squirrel). I'll try the closed windows technique and focus on keeping track of how much time I do spend on-line.
My personal time-waster is multi-tasking. I work at the library's reference desk and serving the students always comes first. But once I've done that, it takes me a few minutes to figure out where I left off on a project. Also, its hard to budget time when you don't know how busy the desk will be that day.
Ken,
I am not sutre what you described should be considered a "time waster." Time with students is very important and you should keep doing what your doing. You may want to look for ways to be a little more efficient with them, but guard against giving the impression you are in a hurry.
Students probably come to you because you take time to instruct them.
My biggest time waster is not being able to tell a student no when they want to talk or have concerns about the material. Instead of getting right to the point and answering questions I find myself still trying to instruct the student. I want all students to succeed especially when they are asking for the extra help which presents a problem for time management
Audrey,
A lot of people have had issues with the Internet being a ready distractor. Some have been subject to disciplinary action when companies identify the net as an issue that is limiting productivity. The best solution I have seen is to turn off the surf engines except at times when it is appropriate to take a break.
Access to the internet is a big time waster. I work in the lobby of my building and my co-workers are on the second floor. There isn't typically anyone around to manage my work progress. I always get my work completed, but I ten to wait until the last several hours of the day to cram it all in.
I find that stopping to ask the boss a question usually turns into a longer than needed conversation also, I think the e-mail method may be one way to keep on track with other tasks.
Fahad,
Many of your peers have reported that social media sites can get in the way of productivity. Not having the sites open at work except for during a few selected times during the day may be a good plan.
Unfortunately, we are starting to feel we are expected to immediately update our pages or respond right away to other's posts.
Facebook is a big time waster. I decided to cut out facebook time a few months ago and have been very pleased with the results.
Thanks, Ken.
What are some ways that you try to lessen the impact of "chatting" on your productivity?
People stoping by to chat. It is an essential part of the corporate culture to talk to fellow employees and students but could be done either more efficiently or les frequently.
I find that a horrible tempting time waster is free access to the internet while trying to accomplish mission critical work tasks either at the office or at home. No matter how focused and productive I may be for awhile, there's always that Little "e" symbol on my desktop that leads instantly to travel, entertainment, games, humor, and news all at the click of a button, or one sentence gobbled up by google which then redirects me to somewhere that is engaging and wholly distracting. Sometimes I find that I can increase productivity significantly by doing the unthinkable and Shutting down the computer completely to focus on paperwork. Taking this a step further, if the task at hand requires programs on the computer, I've found that simply pulling out that little Ethernet cord from the back of the desktop or shutting down a laptops Wi-Fi makes all of the difference. Anyone else have this trouble?
The meetings could be summarized into emails, with specific groups getting focused information forwarded to them that have direct relevance to issues, or topics needing to be addressed.
The next idea I have for meetings would be to forward power point presentations to everyone prior to the meeting, so that meetings could be shortened. This would allow the meeting participants to be briefed prior to the meeting. This would help two ways. The participants could view the power point at a convenient time to that person. The duration of the meetings could also be reduced, by only clarifying the important parts of the power point presentations, and then conduct a brief question and answer session before closing the meeting.
Thanks, Terry.
What are one or two specific things you would like to see happen regarding these meetings to make them more productive and less of a drain on your time?
The biggest time wasters in my week, hands down are low value, unproductive meetings. The problem is the meetings are attendance required meetings. I often ask my direct supervisor about not attending. Usually we are directed to attend. As I tracked my activities for a week, I found little I could modify.Restructuring the day in the life of an instructor is proving difficult.
Thanks, Betty.
Unnecessary or poorly run meetings are often identified as "time wasters." If one is running the meeting, one can have a great deal of impact on how te meeting progresses. If one is not running the meeting, it is more difficult.
What do you think you can do as a participant to make the meetings go more quickly and be less of a time waster?
My time is wasted with many meetings which cover much of the same topics through the week. Keeping the meetings on topic and not bringing up or updating from a previous meeting would help solve the wasted time so completing goals could more easily be achieved.
