Time Management

Advice from Forbes.com

The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency. Humans are pre-wired to focus on things which demand an immediate response, like alerts on their phones – and to postpone things which are most important, like going to the gym. You need to reverse that, which goes against your brain and most of human society.

Look at what you spend your day doing. Most of it, I’ll warrant, is not anything you chose – it’s what is being asked of you. Here’s how we fix that, young padawan:

• Say no. Most of us follow an implicit social contract: when someone asks you to do something you almost always say yes. It may feel very noble, but don’t forget there’s a dying princess you need to save, and you just agreed to slow yourself down because you were asked nicely. You may need to sacrifice some social comfort to save a life (as a bonus, people tend to instinctively respect those who can say no).

I have no problem saying "No," but this is something that comes and grows with age and experience.  In the online world, you may have to say no when it comes to late work, late submissions or even no with extensions.  The beauty of online is that you can actually put a block on specific assignments, and by doing this, you are indirectly saying, "No."  For instance, when my AP students blog, I cut off the submission at a specific time.  When this happens, students are blocked from being able to submit anything.  

• Unplug the TV. I haven’t had a TV signal for 7 years, which has given me about 12,376 hours more than the average American who indulges in 34 hours a week. I do watch some shows – usually one hour a day whilst eating dinner – but only ones I’ve chosen and bought. You can do a lot with 12,000 hours and still keep up with Mad Men.

I am not a big TV watcher, so this part is not difficult for me.  And, TV now has it where you can record shows on your DVR, making TV watching more accessible when you need to do it.  TV is actually a convenience for doing online classes because I can access coursework from any part of the house, even in front of  a TV.  This suggestion just takes discipline.

• Kill notifications. Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora, and more will fight to distract you constantly. Fortunately, this is easily fixed: turn off all your notifications. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted – say, during a lunch break – and work through them together, saving time.

Notifications are extremely wonderful for online classes.  And, I can actually set a time of which notifications I want to delay when working with online coursework.  Notifications keep me up-to-speed with issues and concerns in the online forum.

• Schedule your priorities. Humans are such funny critters. If you have a friend to meet, you’ll arrange to see them at a set time. But if you have something that matters to you more than anything – say writing a book, or going to the gym – you won’t schedule it. You’ll just ‘get round to it’. Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you from making your flight.

I have decided that when I teach my online classes, I will schedule dates when I want to release information.  And, there are going to be some things I want made available from the start.  Scheduling resources helps keep consistency and helps keep me focused on the matter at hand.  And, it will help put students on a timed schedule.  Students have a large problem staying on top of their assignments, but this is because they don't plan and prioritize.  

• Less volume, more time. There’s always millions of things you could be doing. The trick is to pick no more than 1 – 3 a day and relentlessly pursue those. Your brain won’t like this limit. Other people won’t like this limit. Do it anyway. Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.

Less is more.  Instead of attempting to cover a whole host of material, I only need to cover selected pieces.  This is easy when a teacher carries a repertoire of resources.  This also applies to the online classroom.  My intent is to use specific pieces that are representative for specific content and skills.  

• Ignore. It’s rude, unprofessional, and often utterly necessary. There are people you won’t find time to reply to. There are requests you will allow yourself to forget. You can be slow to do things like tidy up, pay bills, or open mail. The world won’t fall apart. The payoff is you get done what matters.

Apps and Tools to Integrate for help:

1. RescueTime - This tool runs with your Windows or Mac to watch and record how long you spend on each application or activity as you go. It also generates an analysis of how you're using your time to help you plan more effectively for the next week.

This is actually a great exercise to keep track of where your time goes, or keep track of where you are losing time.  This is especially helpful in the online world because so many things may be happening simultaneously.  I am going to attempt to use this for a billing activity as well.

4. List.ly - While MindMeister is ideal for visual folks, List.ly—as the name suggests—is a great resource for those who prefer lists. But it's not your ordinary to-do list; it's highly engaging and makes it easier to receive crowd-sourced feedback.

This app is great for creating lists and possibly sharing those lists.

8. OneNote - This ultimate note taker, which is part of Microsoft Office 2010, allows you to keep organized virtual folders to file away notes. OneNote is particularly useful when you're collecting a massive amount of research. Its drag and drop function makes it very easy to stay organized.

This is a great note-taking app, but I would much prefer EverNote than this one because EverNote is web-based.  OneNote requires Microsoft only, and you may have to purchase it.

9. Nozbe - This application follows best-selling author David Allen's "Getting Things Done" philosophy, by organizing your tasks according to the location where you'd perform them—whether it's home, office, online, etc. It also has a team-oriented tasks option, like group message boards.

This app seems best for helping one to organize assignments around specific locations and specific times.  

10. StayFocusd - Download this Google Chrome extension to block your biggest time-wasting sites. It works like a timer, and asks you to set the maximum time you want to waste on your customized time-killer sites before they're blocked.

I will share this resource with students and parents because this can help quell the urge to look up Twitter and Facebook when students are in the middle of assignments.