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Read on for tips from the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD)--an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community--about strategies to help you manage your time. Membership in the NCFDD (free for UCSB students!) provides several forms of professional support to help combat common problems academics face. Read on to learn more!
Are you feeling like you just can't get anything done with everything that has been going on recently? Read on for an article from the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of over 71,000 graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members.
To take advantage of this amazing resource (free for UCSB students!), you must register with your UCSB account (see how to register here). Once you register, you are automatically subscribed to the Monday Motivator -- your weekly dose of positive energy and actionable steps to increase your productivity and motivation. This week's Monday motivator focuses on strategies for time management.
Monday, February 14, 2022
Are You Maxed Out?
by Kerry Ann Rockquemore, PhD
Founder, NCFDD
Anthony Ocampo, PhD
Academic Director, NCFDD
Our workshop facilitators have given numerous time management workshops to completely exhausted groups of tenure-track faculty. When asked why they were so exhausted, we hear a lengthy list of time challenges combined with a pervasive feeling that there was no way out of their 60-80 hour workweeks. As we think about this, we are reminded of the old TV show "Maxed Out." Each episode featured a stressed-out couple who were deeply in debt and had no idea how to climb out of it. Inevitably, their financial problems boiled down to 1) not knowing how much debt they had, 2) no clue where their money went each month, and 3) a vague sense of what they hoped might happen in the future, but no concrete plan to move in that direction. They always felt out of control and frustrated at the outset, but as soon as they created a plan, took a hard look at their reality, and made some concrete behavioral changes, they experienced a sense of empowerment and forward motion. So when we were listening to the frazzled faculty, it felt clear to us that they were totally maxed out -- not on money but on TIME. And because this is so common, we want to dedicate this week's Monday Motivator to common faculty error #7: Not Knowing How You Spend Your Time.
Are You Maxed Out?
We've all heard that financial intelligence requires knowing how you spend your money. The problem with time is that, unlike money, it is finite. We each have 24 hours in the day and must divide that precious time between personal, physical, professional, and familial commitments. We can't borrow extra hours from a credit card or bank. We have to work with the 24 hours that we have. The faculty members in our workshops complained that they never had enough time, that they were constantly running from one commitment to the next, and that their lack of time led to feelings of frustration, guilt, shame, and an overall sense of not moving forward at an adequate pace. But at the same time, they couldn't answer the most basic questions about how they spent their time because they just don't know where the hours go.
When we tracked our time over a week, we were shocked by how much time we were spending on service and teaching and how little we were spending on writing and research, despite knowing that our publication records were the primary criteria for promotion and tenure at our respective institutions. Understanding how you spend your time each week (not in your imagination, but in reality) will help you to decide if you are investing in things that will pay off in the long run or spending it on things that offer immediate gratification but no long-term interest. And more importantly, you must know how you're investing your time today in order to make conscious decisions about how you will spend it in the future.
Track Your Time
Just like the adviser on "Maxed Out," we want to suggest that you try the same homework assignment, but instead of tracking your money, keep track of how you spend your time this week. If you are feeling exhausted, frustrated, and I-don't-even-know-how-I'm-
Evaluate Your Data
Once you have a week's worth of data, tally up how much time you spend on research, teaching, and service when you sit down for your weekly planning meeting (a.k.a the Weekly Meeting). That's a great time to gently and patiently ask yourself:
- Is how I'm spending my time aligned with how I will be evaluated for tenure and promotion?
- Does my time reflect my personal values, priorities, and long-term goals?
If the answer to these questions is "yes," then congratulations! But if you find that the answer is a resounding "NO!" then it's time to make some changes. For example, if 50 percent of your evaluation criteria is based on research and publication, but you are only spending 2 hours a week writing -- there's a problem. If teaching is 25 percent of your evaluation criteria, but you are spending 40 hours a week on it -- there's a problem. And if service is taking up more than a few hours per week -- there's definitely a problem. The good news is that these are problems that can be resolved by proactively adjusting your behavior.
Rethink Your Time Expenditures
Faculty development researchers have documented that the difference between successful new faculty and those who struggle is how they spend their time. Successful new faculty:
- Spend at least 30 minutes a day on scholarly writing
- Integrate their research into their teaching
- Manage course preparation time and avoid over-preparing for classes
- Spend time each week discussing research and teaching with colleagues
Only you can determine if you're satisfied with how you are spending your time each day, but if you're unhappy, exhausted, and feel like you're not moving forward, then it might be time for a check-in. Becoming conscious of how you spend your time AND comparing it to the behaviors of successful new faculty should give you some concrete ideas about how to climb out of your time debt.
The Weekly Challenge
If you're feeling maxed out this week, we challenge you to:
- Track your time!
- Without criticism or judgment, honestly evaluate how your time expenditures compare with your tenure and promotion criteria and/or your personal goals and values.
- Try to identify and eliminate unnecessary time demands to increase the time you have available for the things that really matter.
- Write at least 30 minutes every day.
We hope that this week brings each of you the patience to track your time, the wisdom to evaluate your current situation and pinpoint areas for change, and the sense of empowerment that results from making conscious decisions about how you spend your time each day.