Time Management Tips from the Legal Aid Community
Submitted by Leah on Mon, 04/05/2010 - 11:49am
During our Time Management Tips training we got some great suggestions from the audience about how they manage their time and make themselves more productive. The following is a list of some of the suggestions we received from the audience.
- Have the IT person filter the MAC address temporarily. That way, only he/she has the password and you have to get their approval.
- Take Hotmail and other links not related to work off the bookmarks list on your browser.
- Forward all personal emails to your home email address.
- Save web surfing for your lunch hour. You know it's coming, and thus is a motivating factor.
- Check email for 1 hour in the morning, then minimize it.
- Track the time that you waste during the week.
- Block your favorite distracting websites.
- Take work (just papers, no laptop) to work in a cafe, library, etc.
- Turn off email notifications so you don't see when a new email arrives and can resist checking it.
- Turn your computer towards the door so people who walk by your office can see what you're doing online.
Click here to view the recording of the Time Management Tips session.
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Just a visceral reaction ...
After a scan of the suggestions, I'd say:
1) Instead of, or in addition to, limiting bookmarks, the employer should add targeted bookmarks for important work-related sites employees may not normally think about.
2) Web surfing for work-related purposes is important and should be encouraged. We need advocates and support staff to investigate the web for tools and resources that can help them. That said, management should point staff to websites, blogs and other resources and encourage self-enrichment time.
3) I can go to a cafe, but I can't "work" without a laptop. Everything that's work-related for me is on the web or accessible thru the web. But that's me. I could take a reading file. Could I make notes on my Blackberry? Would that be cheating? Why handwrite and then type later?
4) I think- again, for me-- that the greatest time management tool is understanding my inner clock. I'm a morning person, so I go into the office early and tackle the difficult work first. I save reading, calls and web work for the afternoon when possible.
Oops, lost track of time. Gotta run!
For my part, I have to agree
For my part, I have to agree that the inner clock is the most important piece of the time management thing. I need to (note, I'm not saying I succeed at it) learn when I concentrate the best and hide my email and etc to work on mission critical things during that time. Too often I spend too much time moving back and forth between email and research or writing, and that means not getting anything done.
And, like you, Mike, there's little I can do without using my computer, so turning off the laptop wouldn't help me at all.