HDI Higher Education Forum is Gambling with their Time in Las Vegas

The HDI Higher Education Forum (HEF) group is meeting at the Nevada System of Higher Education on the UNLV campus today, Sunday, April 5, 2009, which is one day prior to the 2009 HDI Annual Conference in Las Vegas. This is a special day for them. It allows them to reconnect and rejuvenate with one another prior to a very busy and exciting week at the annual conference.

During this one-day HDI HEF meeting, the main topic of discussion is "Time Management: Capitalizing on Efficiencies". Mia Melanson, an HDI Faculty member is leading this discussion. Mia actually kicked this session off a couple of weeks prior to the meeting. Mia had each participant track their time for 5 days. She provided them with a time log ( Download TimeLogHEF ) to track their time. The goal of this exercise was to discover patterns on how they spend their time. During the meeting, the group analyzed the results of their time logs. Analyzing the time logs helped the group determined their strengths and weaknesses related to time management, which include goal setting, prioritizing, managing interruptions, procastination, and scheduling.

At the first of the meeting, the HDI HEF group shared time management tips with each other. Some of these tips included the following:

• Take a few minutes each and every morning to plan
• Stay organized by using a calendar
• Read "Eat that Frog...Do Ugly Stuff First"  
• Delegate effectively
• Focus on high priority projects
• Become "unavailable" so that you can complete your work, limit interruptions
• Know when to ignore a request/issue, know when to get involved
• If culture allows it, move your office around, so your team has to physically find you, which may give them more time to figure the answer out on their own.

I would now like to take a few moments of your time to ask "How well do you manage time?" For each question, respond with a 1 or 2 or 3....1 means rarely, 2 means sometimes, 3 means often. After you answer each question, add up the points. If you rank between 40-45, you are a time master! If you rank between 35-39, you are good at some things and there is room for improvement. If you rank less than 35, you need to improve and there is great opportunity. Please find the questions below:

1. Are the tasks you work on during the day the ones with the highest priority?
2. Do you find yourself completing tasks on time, without needing extensions?
3. Do you set aside time for planning and scheduling?
4. Do you know how much time you are spending on the various jobs you do?
5. Are you able to effectively limit interruptions?
6. Do you use goal setting to decide what tasks and activities you should work on?
7. Do you leave contingency time in your schedule to deal with the "unexpected"?
8. Do you know whether the tasks you are working on are high value?
9. When you are given a new assignment, do you analyze it for importance and prioritize it accordingly?
10. Are you relaxed about deadlines and commitments?
11. Do you manage distractions well so that you can concentrate and work on critical tasks?
12. Do you find that you can complete your work at work?
13. Do you prioritize your "To Do" list or Action Program?
14. Do you talk with your boss to prioritize the work you're doing?
15. Before you take on a task, do you check that the results will be worth the time put in?

To review your specific areas of accomplishment or improvement see the following question numbers below:

• Goal Setting: questions 6,10, 14, 15
• Prioritizing: questions 1, 4,8,9,13,14,15
• Managing Interruptions: questions 5,9,11,12
• Procrastination: questions 2,10,12
• Scheduling: questions 3,7,12

I would like to thank Mia Melanson for sharing this time management exercise. I hope it helps you improve your time management.

You can review the complete agenda for this HDI Higher Education Forum meeting by downloading it here: Download Agenda_HEF_April 2009_vFINAL. 

If you are interested in learning more about the HDI Higher Education Forum or the other HDI Forum groups, please contact me directly at 719-268-0338 or lcook@thinkhdi.com.  

Thanks for blogging with me!

Leslie Cook, Program and Logistics Manager, HDI Forums

Comments

[Everything Counts]

Prioritizing issues and addressing them as per the priority is very important. Time is always limited and to achieve something in that limited time the entire task needs to be broken down into small tasks. It is now up to us how we manage them and complete them one by one. But the last thing is that we need to focus on what we have set out for ourselves.