Posted 25 March 2018 by Lisa Meloncon<\/p>\n

With the ATTW luncheon and my other responsibilities at both ATTW and CCCCs, I’ve gotten “behind” on getting a blog up. (and seriously, if you have something to say, please get in touch<\/a> because we would love to have folks participate here.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>So today I’m gonna do something of a summary of the luncheon activity because it leads into an ongoing topic and concern of many, time management. At the luncheon, the topic was Values and Priorities. We did a couple of exercises where we asked participants to first write down what they valued both personally and professionally. The purpose of this activity was to get folks thinking about what is truly important to THEM in the their lives. Examples of this could include getting an article manuscript out each year or doing more community work or spending more quality time with children or significant others. We then moved to the barriers that can get in the way of what we value. Attendees were asked to write down some of the things that consistently get in the way of the things they value. We had table discussions around these ideas and then we moved to trying to create a schedule–and we gave attendees an actual weekly calendar–to see if they could brainstorm ways to make their values, priorities, and schedules align. The last activity was sharing a strategy to help align values and priorities to schedules. (Those strategies are gathered here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Needless to say, that the discussions at the tables were lively and encouraging (and discouraging because of the number of folks who felt they had little control over their time). As I have said many times, this job is hard and because of all sorts of pressures, we often feel the need to overproduce<\/a> or we lose the focus on what is most important to us. All at the detriment of our mental, emotional, and\/or physical health. The goal of the luncheon was to encourage folks to think through what they value and then try to find ways to shift their own work habits and potentially to set up new boundaries<\/a> to enable schedules that we truly value.<\/p>\n

After the luncheon several people asked me for suggestions on how I manage my time. Time management is the key to aligning our values with our schedules. None of what follows is new or innovative. But it does give insights into the process of approaching work that you may find useful in thinking through your own lives. Hopefully, you can find a nugget or two that can help you manage your workflow.<\/p>\n

Find a Planner<\/h2>\n

I use planner here loosely because I get that many of you do things electronically, while the dinosaurs among us (like me!) still use the old school, in print, carry it around planner. The key is you need to use one. Electronic versions run the gamut from robust task management tools like Omnifocus<\/a> or Things<\/a> to more lightweight free tools like Todoist<\/a> or Wunderlist<\/a> to tools more specific to projects like Trello.<\/a> Then you have the old school type of planners. I currently use an Action Day<\/a> but I have used or tried or bought, examined, and returned so many of the others on the market such as Passion Planner<\/a>, Panda Planner<\/a>, At-a-glance<\/a>, and the bullet journal<\/a> approach.<\/p>\n

The key to a good planner is that it needs space for<\/p>\n

\n
• weekly meetings and such: an actual day to day schedule with hours so you can block things off including writing and thinking time<\/strong><\/li>\n
• tasks for that week: we need to be able to see at a glance things you need to get accomplished in a week<\/li>\n
• additional spaces: this means you can add parts of a project or ongoing administrative tasks that need to get accomplished<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Here’s a blank page of my current planner and the way I’ve shifted it’s areas to fit my life and work.<\/p>\n

  <\/a>