I prioritize my goals and tasks that will help me acheive my objectives. I have five personal catagories that help me handle my time wisely. Mental, spritiual, health, personal,and professional. Mental: I make sure I make time to develop my writing skills. Spritual: I read a chapter in the bible before I end my day. Health: I work out four days a week. Personal: Develop my relationships with my love ones. Professional: I continue to learn new skills that will make me an assest to the company and my career. This helps me stay balanced in life.
Not many people seem to have an insurmountable amount of paperwork to process as much as keeping track of things to do now. Unfortunately even though 90% of my work is computerized, I still have to sign off and check on printed documents, forms, student degree audits, schedules, etc. Many times I could have close to 30 or 40 documents that would need to be evaluated then signed and forwarded to other departments.
I used to try to have multiple stacks on my desk for different priority items, but I would end up looking through all of the stacks on occasion to find something that needed to shift priority. I solved this problem by putting every item I received in an expanding folder with consecutive numbers regardless of priority. I would add the item into my electronic "to do" list, prioritize it similar to the method recommended in this course, and then reference the folder number the item was stored in. I would then work from the highest priority items, then by the date they were received in case of a tie in priority, then by the folder number the document was placed in if both documents were received at the same time. I never had to look through all of my stacks to see if I missed something, and I could find a document immediately by storage location once I performed a search on my to do list by key word.
I remember when they said computers would replace all of the paper we were using. It seems as if we have more paper than ever. Digital signatures need to be used more often to streamline some of these processes and reduce clutter. It seems as if the medical industry is finally moving in this direction as they are giving doctors incentives to convert their paper-based patient charts into electronic medical records. Let’s hope the education industry follows this lead.
I try to put my to-do tasks in a certain order that will be the most effecient to accomplish. Although there might be interruptions to this order during the day, I can handle these and then get back on track.
Michalina,
Thank you for this post. How do you decide which things are a necessity?
I prioritize my goals by necessity. I have a lot on my plate on most days, so it is essential that I achieve a understanding of what can be rescheduled.
Joyce,
This sounds like a good plan! Keep following it.
I love the sticky notes too! They are an excellent reminder for me and come in so handy. HOWEVER, I do still use the "original" paper sticky notes as well (hahaha). I create a to-do list each week and then update it each morning (to revise my priorities/goals for the day). I use my microsoft sticky notes to point out the most important tasks of the day so that I constantly see them and have the reminders.
Thank you, Tina.
Your day is probably a lot different that most educator's days. How do you set priorities outside of your nursing responsibilities.
I am continously prioritizing and reorganizing and reprioritizing throughout the day I am a nurse and things are constantly changing throughout the day you must have organizational and prioritizing skills and know the order of importance.
Thank you for replying to my question, Jeremy!
Your peers who take this course may want to emulate your boss.
We have a weekly meeting in which she communicates weekly goals and goals that we have met. Additionally, she provides feedback via email and if passing each other by the in the hall, she's never too busy for mentoring. If she assigns a project, she let's her managers know where it lists on her level of priority, and knowing our boss, it allows us to effectively prioritize the project based on our current workloads.
Jeremy,
You are quite fortunate to have such a good boss. What are the most effective ways she communicates to you?
I am fortunate to have a great boss that is able to prioritize what she wants and effectively communicate which goals and tasks are more important. I also have goals internal to me department in which I allow my floor supervisors to have input in goal prioritization as that creates buy-in from all staff.
I determine what our executive team wants us to focus on and then prioritize accordingly. I like the A,B,C approach suggested in this course and have implemented it into my daily task list.
I also use outlook but I find writing it down in my daytimer is much more effective.
Thanks Nancy! I hope all stays well with your laptop.
Sorry for the delay my laptop lost conection last night. There are certain things needed to be done daily. Once I get in and start working I open my programs needed for daily work. I make sure everything from the prior day is completed. I then start my day with see students and answering questions. As an instructor we solve many problems daily and for each student we must log into their account what we did/talked about. The student must come first so that means we sometimes are back logged on our notes. We write notes as we work with each student and have to find time during the day to complete. All day our schedules shift and we need adjust for meetings, interviews and the directors calling us off the floor.
I use outlook for everything. I find that by changing colors and adding flags it helps me prioritize my day.
I use an old fashioned paper 8 1/2 x 11 - 1 day per two pages dayplanner. It's tough to lug around, but I am at two different locations everyday, use four different computers and am constantly in meetings. It's just easier to know that everything is in one place. Also, I am a visual person and it helps me to see the things spread out. And, I can punch holes in a piece of paper and carry it with me.
I use outlook for setting up appointments and such, but I find my paper planner works best for me.
I also set daily routines, so that I have set times (and days) to complete tasks. E.g., first thing in the morning is to review that day's schedule, go through my email, approve my staff's prior day's time punchs, check in with my boss, then start with Priority A. In the evening, I do a final email check, review my calendar for the day, shred my pile of shredables, etc.
Jeffrey, I like this advice. It keeps the door open for future participation but earns the respect that you are not impulsively participating because you are concerned that others will not view you as a team player.
Wanda
