The document provides a comprehensive guide on time management strategies, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing significant tasks, planning, and minimizing distractions. It includes practical tips for academics such as scheduling time, managing electronic communication, and prioritizing tasks to enhance productivity. Additionally, it discusses common barriers to effective time management and encourages reflection on personal time management styles and behaviors.

1. TIME MANAGEMENT
By
Prajakta Basu

3. STORY TIME
FIST-SIZED ROCKS
GRAVELS
SAND
PITCHER OF WATER
POINT OF ILLUSTRATION ?

4. If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get
them in at all.”
• DECIDE THE BIG ROCKS OF YOUR LIFE
 A project or mission
Family and Loved ones
Education
Finances
Social Causes
Mentoring others
Spiritual beliefs

5. DO BACKWARD PLANNING
• THE FINAL GOAL
• LONG-TERM GOALS
• SHORT TERM GOALS
• GOALS FOR THIS ACADEMIC YEAR
• MONTHLY PLANNING
• DAILY PLANNING
• HOURLY PLANNING

6. EAT THAT FROG
"If the first thing you do each
morning is to eat a live frog,
you can go through the day
with the satisfaction of
knowing that it is probably the
worst thing that is going to
happen to you all day long!"

7. • "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first!"
• "If you have to eat a live frog, it does not pay to sit and look
at it for a very long time!"
• Your frog is the task that will have the greatest impact on
achieving your goals, and the task that you are most likely to
procrastinate starting.
• The key to reaching high levels of performance and
productivity is for you to develop the lifelong habit of
tackling your major task first thing each morning.
• What is your Frog? When is the best time of day for you to eat
your Frog?

8. List your frog!
List your most productive time
of the day.
Commit to eating Your Frog(s).

9. LET’s ANALYZE
Prof. Shah is a perfectionist. He is having a hard time adjusting to
college life due to his fear of failure. In his mind, it is safer to do nothing
than to take a risk and fail. Prof. Shah has decided to not confront his
college workload. He feels he has too much to do and not enough time
to do it perfectly. What should he do to ease his anxiety and diminish
his tendency to procrastinate?

10. • From your point of view, how common is Prof Shah’s problem?
• What kinds of events happen in your workday that keep you from getting to
share some of the important projects you would like to spend time on?
• To what extent do you believe that Prof. Shah’s “problem” is caused more by
Prof. himself or by the demands of his job? (Please explain)

11. We are playing a game!!!!
• Get into group of 6.
•Designate one person as a time keeper in your group.
•Please send one member of your group to collect the material.
•The purpose of this exercise is to work as effectively as possible in your
teams to complete the task.
•Each team is competing with other teams. The winning team is the one
that can finish the task in the shortest possible time.
•Rules :
You need to lay out the cards exactly as shown.
•All cards must be in neat tidy rows with no cards touching.

12. Rules contd.
•The aim is to complete this task in the fastest possible time – you are
directly in competition with the other teams in the room!
•You have 5 minutes to prepare your strategy and undertake any practice
runs.
• At the end of 5 minutes you will be asked to submit an estimate time in
which you will complete the task.
•You will then be asked to complete the task against the clock.
•There will be three rounds in the game and each time the winner will be
declared.
Good Luck!!

13. THE PATTERN
HEART, SPADE, DIAMOND, CLUB

14. WHAT HAVE WE OBSERVED
• What was the experience in round 1?
• What factors helped to improve the performance in the following
rounds?
• Was the discussion before the final arrangement useful?
• Were we able to perform as per our expectations? Could we meet the
deadline?
• What factors were contributing to process excellence?
• What factors were holding us back?
• What is the major learning? (Reflect)

15. ACTION TIME!!!

16. Barriers to Time Management
Unscheduled interruptions
Reacting or fire-fighting
Lack of delegation
Accepting other’s monkeys
Lack of planning and unclear priorities
Unnecessary paperwork
Socializing/drop-in visitors
Procrastination
Poor organization of desk/filing system
Inability to say “no”
Bureaucracy and administrative red tape
Failure to use time management tools

17. Stephen Covey’s Matrix

18. THE APPLICATION

19. MY TASK LIST

20. SOME INTROSPECTION
Here comes a questionnaire that tries to illustrate your skills at time
management.
Please allot a score to each of the item.
Please be candid in your reactions and scoring.
Don’t think about ideal options , just reflect your own style.
There is nothing right or wrong. Your choices are the indicators of your
approach.
Take your time.
Add the scores to arrive at a final score.

21. TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR
ACADEMICIANS
1. Schedule your time.
2. Manage distractions.
3. Identify and minimize "time robbers."
4. Prioritize tasks.
5. Manage your electronic life.
6. Choose your teaching schedule.
7. Control your teaching preparations.
Conclusion

22. SCHEDULE YOUR TIME
• Schedule every bit of your time. Don’t go into the office in the
morning without an accurate plan as to how you will spend your day.
• Keep track of what you need to do. Use a calendar for daily
commitments. Make a project chart for longer-term commitments
with due dates. Planning in these ways leverages time through focus.
• Try to leave at least one day in your schedule with no meetings.
• Schedule structured time with your colleagues and graduate students.

23. MANAGE DISTRACTIONS
• Discover your preferred work environment. Yes, you teach in a
classroom, your meetings are all over campus, you meet students in
your office during office hours... But make sure you have a determined
place for all other work where distractions are minimized.
• Do not check your email or answer the phone during time set aside for
a specific task such as writing, course planning, or thinking. Protect
this time.
• When an unscheduled visitor shows up, stand. It helps end the
interruption faster.

24. IDENTIFY AND MINIMIZE
“TIME ROBBERS”
• Leaving tasks unfinished
• Socializing
• Telephone interruptions
• Attempting too much
• Drop-in visitors
• Personal disorganization
• Inability to say no
• Procrastination
• Meetings

25. PRIORITIZE TASKS
• List tasks and prioritize them. This allows you to reasonably say no to new
commitments. Use a project chart to remind you of your priorities and their
relative time commitments.
• Delegate as much as possible. Choose tasks carefully so that time for
instructions and amending work is limited.
• Learn to say no. Only take on new projects that directly dovetail into
something you’re already working on.
• Monitor all of your duties as a faculty member related to Teaching, Research
and Service. Be aware of the time each activity takes and remember to keep
them prioritized appropriately.
• Maintain a list of accomplished tasks. It gives you satisfaction and also saves
time when compiling annual reports.

26. MANAGE YOUR ELECTRONIC LIFE
• Keep your email in-box empty. Delete, answer or move messages to folders
as you read them.
• Transform email messages into tasks as appropriate and add them to your
task list.
• Monitor your time on the internet and social networking sites.
• Back-up all your work with hardcopies and on thumb drives.

27. CHOOSE YOUR TEACHING PLAN
• Limit the number of different classes you teach (number of preparations) to
one or two per semester.
• Arrange your teaching schedule such that your classes meet on the same
days. This arrangement will allow for uninterrupted blocks of time on other
days.
• Appoint TAs, CRs, etc to assist you in class evaluations and act as process
facilitators.
• Identify group leaders who can help you percolate the concepts.

28. CONTROL YOUR TEACHING PREPARATIONS
• Create a master syllabus with calendar dates and update it for each class.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Teach a course that has been taught before,
either by you or by someone else, and start your preparation with existing
materials. Use the textbook and its ancillary materials to your advantage.
• Don’t over prepare. Maintain the 2:1 ratio.
• Use technology only when it adds value.
• Occasionally substitute other activities for prepared lectures - class
discussion, review, group activity, guest speaker, video, etc. This allows for
reduced preparation time.
• Stagger your due dates. Collect major tests/assignments from different
classes on different weeks so you don’t have everything to grade at once.

29. CONCLUSION
• As part of our culture, we tend to separate work and life. Consider them
related and:
• Set clear goals for life roles, including your work. Translate those goals into a
plan.
• Do what is meaningful to you, in and outside of work. This should contribute
to your ability to prioritize and not procrastinate. When your daily activities
reflect your values, you experience personal fulfillment, less frustration and
more energy.
• Accurately estimate how much time you need for everything you do.

30. TIME MANAGEMENT IS REALLY A MISNOMER-THE
CHALLENGE IS NOT TO MANAGE TIME
BUT
TO MANAGE OURSELVES.
THE KEY IS
NOT TO PRIORITIZE WHAT IS ON YOUR SCHEDULE
BUT
TO SCHEDULE YOUR PRIORIES.
- STEPHEN COVEY