Time Management
The most precious commodity for me these days is time. It appears that I have more to do but so little time to squeeze everything in. The deadlines for work can force me into spending hours online researching information and communicating with students and faculty. Not to mention working in family obligations and trying to give them equal time as well.
Over the years I have attended numerous workshops on time management and thought I had developed techniques to deal with time constraints. As I think back to those workshops, the information dealt with juggling the demands of the office, employees and the expectations of the boss.
Today, I am a professional in an entirely different environment. I don't have employees to supervise and the issues surrounding this responsibility. I don't have an office that I must commute to daily. I don't have a boss that I must see daily.
The employees have been replaced with students who require my guidance and support. I can save myself time by clearly stating the expectations for assignments and developing a grading rubric that is detailed and leaves no room for gray errors. Communication is the key to avoiding endless amount of time sending emails trying to clarifying what I meant. The more places I post information and provide resources the less likely it is that I will be flooded with email that I have to respond to. Getting it right the first time is the key to saving time.
A major percentage of my time is spent grading. This ranges from grading individual projects, discussion boards, live chats and tests. To save time with live chat sessions, grading participation right after the session ends is a quick way to complete this task. This avoids going back though the archives later trying to determine who attended and how much they participated. Instead of grading the individual projects all at once, I can grade a couple of these each day so that I am not stressed trying to meet the grading deadline.
When you must juggle so many responsibilities at once, working smarter is the best way to avoid stress and save a precious few minutes for yourself.