I recently finished listening to the audio version of Brené Brown’s book “Dare to Lead” and besides feeling like her words have changed my life, it reminded me of this draft I wrote two months ago about time management. In her book, she says that time is the most valuable unrenewable resource we have and for me, managing my time to get things done often sounds like this:
“I have a lot to do, and only this much time to get it done.”
“Ok, I need to take some time to figure out how and when I’m going to do stuff. Maybe I can force myself to use these prep times to work on that, or maybe I’ll skip lunch tomorrow and do that other thing.”
“Hmm oh I know, I’ll just come in on Saturday for an hour or two. I will make a mani+pedi appointment to make sure I don’t stay here too long. Great idea.”
“Wait, what if instead of coming in on the weekend I stay late each day this week? That sounds doable… unless I decide to finally start working out again, then that won’t work.”
I have always struggled with the idea of still having things to do when I leave school, but seriously, who doesn’t? I sometimes get home and grab my laptop to continue some of the work I was on before and it takes me a while to fully disconnect. Being married to a teacher makes it easier for me to just think school all day long because the “how was your day, hon?” conversation is mostly school-related and I love it. These chats are awesome until I’m reminded of what awaits on that To-Do list.
I’ve tried many things in the past to help me organize my time and be more efficient, I have gone back and forth with the time I spend at school outside of teaching hours, “do I stay after school or do I come in earlier?” is a question I often play with. I have blocked prep periods on my calendar with the words “Get stuff done!” but many times I end up using those for unscheduled meetings or engaging in a conversation with someone who walks into my room. I’ve used different color pens to write on my list as well as adding the thing I just did that wasn’t on the list just to cross it out. And still, I’d come home thinking only of what I didn’t get to finish.
Things started changing once I decided not to think of unfinished tasks unless I was ready to get them done. With this idea, I gave myself permission to be “done for now”, as I tell writers, ending my day with the notion of what I did accomplish instead of what was missing. Now, when I decide my brain can’t perform another task or write another email, or prep for another lesson, I stop and go home. I may sometimes decide to do something at home that is work-related but I ask myself these two questions before:
- Is it urgent? Am I holding others back by not having this done?
- Is it something that will bring me joy as I work on it?
If the answer is yes, I bring the To-Do list home with me and get stuff done. I try my best to avoid it though because all the unfinished tasks can quickly drag me down.
The list isn’t all bad, I actually love mine because of that wonderful feeling of seeing crossed-out items. So to honor the list and not go crazy with it, I started thinking first of the time I’ll spend doing work before being done for the day, then I grab a post-it and write three tasks that matter more than others plus one that I’m excited to get to. This has been incredibly helpful in feeling accomplished even when I still have work that needs to get done.
Another thing that keeps me on an efficient state of mind is being purposeful with the tabs opened on my chrome window because I see them as a different kind of To-Do list. Now, this is one fun conversation I often have with Tim because this is what his window looks like:
For me, it’s painful to see all those tabs because I am fully aware of how my working memory functions so I take the time to sort through my tabs often. The tabs I keep open are the ones I know I’ll be using while working on the computer (Gmail, drive, calendar, planner are the ones I often have open) and the ones I am not currently working on, I close. Now, for this to work I make sure I am weirdly organized with links and sites I need. I know that if I’m not planning to write the class’ newsletter then I can close that tab and will easily find it once I’m ready to get it done. My thinking sometimes also works like this, many have heard me joke around with phrases like: “oh, I’m not sure, that tab is closed” or “have you checked the document? is there anything I missed? Let me know so I can close that tab.”
These are tips that have kept me sane as I take on lots of responsibilities at once, tips that require discipline, but as I think of how helpful they’ve been I also keep in mind the fact that more often than I realize, I will drop everything and leave stuff undone because, at that moment, it makes more sense to use that time to go have a glass of wine with friends.
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