Time. It seems, no matter how far in advance I start
planning, or how late I stay at school, there is always a never-ending list of
tasks for me to complete. Not mention this week, I have had a meeting every day
before school AND during my conference period! Sigh.
One of the biggest problems that all professionals
have is finding enough time to get things done during the day. Some weeks as a
teacher, every single minute of my “planning” time or before school and after
school time, is often consumed by meetings. And yet, I’m expected to keep all
of those plates spinning in the air in perfect harmony.
Here are a couple of things I do to help keep
myself organized, balanced, and out from under the “weeds.”
- Keep a
running “To-Do” list – I keep a running to-do list that I write down in my
planner. I take this book with me EVERYWHERE. Whenever a thought comes into my
mind about something I need to do…I write it down. If I’ve had an extremely
busy day of adding tasks to my to-do list, I spend five minutes at the end of
the day prioritizing the tasks. I ask myself…”what needs to get done today”?
What can I get done tomorrow? And so on. I highlight the tasks that need to get
done right away in yellow and the rest in green. Color coding helps me because
I am a visual learner.
- Read your emails - I read every email that comes into my inbox as soon as possible. Some days I get 10 emails, most days I get 50+. And before all of you business people gawk at how low the number fifty is, let me remind you…that’s fifty emails WHILE I’m teaching and talking to a billion students at one time. It’s the ultimate in multitasking.
- I read every email and try to reply/respond/act as soon as I can. When I do that, it feels like I’m scratching another item off my to-do list. However, if it’s a lengthy email, or something that requires more time and thought to respond to, I read it, then go back and mark it as “unread.” This is a signal to me later on, that I still need to go back and re-read the email and address something. Managing emails this ways eliminates a ton of unnecessary or superfluous emails from my inbox, while at the same time, keeping me updated on pertinent and important information. This habit has been a lifesaver for me because our school uses emails as its primary form of communication.
If you have any great tips on how you manage
you time, please share them! Reply to this post…I’d love to learn a better/new
way.
I keep a similar running to-do list on paper that gives me so much joy when I cross completed items off. I also have an app on my iphone called paperless that allows me to keep multiple to-do lists. I still prefer paper and pen for work lists, but love to be able to categorize my lists by week, month, future goals, photography wants, Christmas lists, borrowed list, music to download, wish list, Andy's list, groceries, etc...I even made a specific to do list for the week of spring break last year. I'm obsessive about it! I do the same thing with my emails too...one thing that annoys me about the iphone is that I can't mark a text message as unread, so I sometimes forget to respond to those if I happen to read it but don't have time to respond right away. Love reading your blog Lacrecia!
ReplyDeleteI am an avid "lister" like you! I love pen to paper lists, especially on pretty paper with fun sizes and textures....excuse me while I digress...
ReplyDeleteAnother helpful way I stay organized at work is that I use my Outlook calendar reminders. I have consistent weekly and monthly tasks that need to get done so instead of a list for those I place them on my Outlook calendar and it's fantastic! If I can't get to that task right away I click on "snooze" and it will remind me again later on. Since I too read a lot of emails I can always see what reminders come up. Thanks for sharing your time saving tips and ways to keep organized!
I remember you telling me about that ap. I need to get it. It sounds fabulous!
ReplyDeleteDina. I use Outlook for reminders too. The only thing that stinks is that I can't sync my work calendar/email with my personal one in my phone because of the way the school district has set Outlook up for teachers.
ReplyDelete