After assessing my time management skills I feel that my most effective
skill is my consistent habit of keeping to-do-lists. My habit of keeping to-do-lists began because
I recognized that I am an extremely forgetful person. To avoid forgetting important tasks I began
keeping to-do-lists for everything. Sometimes
I will have multiple lists, for example: one for the groceries, one for school
assignments, one for personal issues (doctor’s appointments, house repairs,
etc.). I have also adopted a habit of
keeping a calendar for everything. Sometimes
I even add tasks to my calendar to remind me of due dates or priorities. My calendar also has alerts for every
appointment, alerting me beforehand that something important is coming.
Another time-management skill that I have begun to use more is prioritization.
It’s not enough prioritize things in my
head but I also color-code or number my to-do-lists and try to be loyal to the
priorities I have set.
I think my most debilitating issue is my inability to concentrate.
I am easily distracted and can become
fixated with mundane tasks. In my office
I am mostly responsible for answering phones and handling walk-ins. These daily interruptions affect my
administrative abilities. Many times,
especially if I am working on something that requires concentration, I can get
very confused after an interruption and find it difficult to find my place
again or I will begin a new task without completing the one I was doing
beforehand. Because I have a one-track
mind, I find myself making mistakes when I try to do more than one thing at a
time, even when they are trivial things.
I believe that my skills have increased my locus of control
because by incorporating these time-management skills in my day to day life and
seeing the results, I realize that I can control my environment and exert
changes in my own behavior through effective time-management strategies. I realize that everyone has different
personality traits, values and perspectives and the key to successfully
managing your time is to adopt strategies that help you harness your strengths
and turn your weaknesses into assets.
I think one of the main areas of my professional life that I can
improve on by time-management skills is by managing my time effectively. In my mind I have many ideas of how to make my
job more efficient. For example creating
certain guidelines, templates, and shortcuts, that in the long run, would make
certain administrative functions less tedious. Most of these ideas sit on the back burner
because I am constantly engaged in urgent matters. A lot of my job is very time-sensitive and
therefore I find I am always prioritizing for urgent matters and never leave
time for effectiveness.
Another area I could improve on is time-wastage. Much of this is due to my short attention span
(adult ADHD) and inability to deal with extremely stressful situations. During crisis situations, I sometimes revert
to doing mundane tasks in order to avoid complex and complicated situations,
procrastinating the inevitable to the end.
One way I could improve this is by first keeping track of my time. This will reduce the risk of spending too much
time on mundane tasks and keep me centered. Another helpful technique would be to save my
best time for the most essential tasks. I notice that my tendencies towards
distraction happen when I’m tired since I find it more difficult to
concentrate. Doing the more complicated
work when I’m fresh would make me more efficient. In this
scenario, I feel the various stress reduction techniques outlined by Whetten
and Cameron would be helpful. I am a
firm believer of the effectiveness of deep breathing during crisis and know
first-hand the effects it has on the physiology of the body and mental relaxation
(Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Yet during crisis mode, I seem to forget this
important resource. Another strategy
that I never thought of using in the workplace is imagery. Although I have used this technique for
personal use during meditation, I find the idea of using imagery at work as a
method of stress-reduction to be very appealing. At those times when anxiety gets the best of
me, I can use imagery as a way of escaping and decreasing the stress. Once in a calm state, I will be better able to
tackle any issues that seemed too difficult at the time.
My action plan will first involve a conscious effort to track my
time. The first hour of the morning will
be dedicated to answering emails. I will block off my morning from 1000 to 1300
to focus on the more demanding projects.
I can schedule appointments with students outside of this block of time
and address non-urgent phone and email inquiries after these hours. From 1300 to
1400 I will work on non-urgent important tasks. During this time I can work on creating
spreadsheets, templates and checklists that will assist me in reducing the time
I spend on certain administrative tasks.
After lunch, from 1430 – 1530 I will attend any remaining urgent tasks
since this is when our headquarters opens in the U.S. and when I have full availability
of all the universities resources. From
1530-1630 I will accomplish all of the daily mundane tasks that do not require
a lot of concentration and can be completed easily. From 1630 – 1700 I will reorganize and
reprioritize my to-do-list for the next day and make any last minute phone
calls.
After reviewing my plan, I realize that my main focus really needs
to be on reorganize how I plan my day and being conscious of how I spend my
time. I believe that by simply being
aware of my habits and behaviors I make significant changes.
References
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron,
K. S. (2011). Developing management
skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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