Do you manage your time or does it manage you?

By: Sandra Petersen PhD.Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology of  Reproduction

Director, STEM Diversity InstituteDirector of the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate

Goal Setting

• Use the SMART strategy to set goals that are:• Specific• Measurable• Attainable• Relevant• Time Bound

GOAL Setting (2)

Determine what you need to accomplish and set a deadline.

Divide the overall task into smaller ones that allow you to achieve benchmarks.

Post your overall goal and your intermediate goals.

Create a daily to-do list

If you are not meeting your goals, determine why.

Developing your to-do list

• List everything you need to accomplish each day• Prioritize the list (1-5)• Estimate the time required for each task• If too many tasks have the highest priority, go through the list

again• Rewrite the list to reflect priority• Do not deviate from your plan• May need to have separate to-do lists for personal, lab and

academic tasks—experiment!• Allow 15 min at the end of the day to set to-do list for the

following day

Controlling InterruptionsSet a time to talk with those who interrupt you.

Make it clear that you would like to talk with the person, but now is not a time when you can give them your full attention.

No one likes to be rude, but…

Remember, time is a valuable resource and needs to be protected!

Are You the Problem?

• Do you sabotage yourself?

• Are you the Interrupter?

• What are you feeling when you are not engaging in the task on your to-do list?

Strategies for Engagement

• Make yourself stay focused on a task for at least 15 min

• Reward yourself for meeting your goals

• Determine why you cannot make yourself focus

• Get help from advisors and colleagues

Activity Logs• How much time do you spend at work doing things that don't

contribute to your success?

• Keep an Activity Log for a few days to understand how you use your time.

• After you evaluate your log, determine whether you are really using your time to your maximum benefit.

• Use the log to reprioritize when you do what types of tasks—decide when you are most energetic to tackle those big ones!

Activity Logs (2)

• Date/Time.• Activity description.• How I feel.• Duration.• Value (high, medium, low, none).

Record the following every time you change tasks:

Efficiency and Effectiveness Tips

• Disconnect from phone and email • Answer emails at specific times each day (morning,

noon and evening)• Never touch a piece of mail more than once• Monitor your “socialization time”

Procrastination Symptoms• Filling your day with low priority tasks • Reading e-mails several times without dealing with them• Starting a high-priority task, then immediately going off to do

something else.• Seeking out people to talk with.• Leaving a high priority item on your To Do list for a long time• Regularly saying "Yes" to unimportant tasks that others ask

you to do• Waiting for the “right mood” or the “right time” to tackle an

important task

Why Do You Procrastinate?

• Task seems overwhelming• Doubt that you can do the task • Perfectionism• Unpleasant to you• Just disorganized

Overcoming Procrastination

• Come up your own rewards. • Consciously focus on how good it feels to

accomplish a goal.• Peer pressure works! • Identify the unpleasant consequences of NOT

doing the task.

The Biggest Rewards

Time to enjoy your life without thinking you are “behind” or “not getting anywhere”.

Feeling that you are in control of your destiny!

Enjoying the praise that comes from a job well done in a timely manner!

Knowing that you are meeting expectations of your PI.

RELAXATION!