One of the spurs for trying to manage my time more effectively and have a learning log was reading "Working Life and Learning", a free course module from the Open University. The material included a list of handy tips on time management:
- Delegate
- Prioritise tasks
- Set Goals
- Meet deadlines early
- Stay organised (including keeping a to do list)
- Find your productive time
- Minimise stress
- Learn to say No
- Reduce the intrusion of technology
All pretty simple stuff really, but going through the list made me realise just how poor I am at time management. On the list the only items that I'm good at are minimising stress, and not being bugged by technology. So, onwards and upwards! I'm going to try and put these into practice, and I've already started by organising my notebooks and such and creating myself a daily to-do list complete with goals and small challenges. And this learning journal of course.
Set Goals is an interesting one. Having goals that make you work, and perhaps stretch you, but are reasonable and within reach has been shown to improve performance. This is quite interesting in terms of running businesses and teams (and how well implemented performance management systems are, or as the case may be aren't). It also ties in with research on creativity, including Csikszentmihayli's concept of Flow. Having tasks that challenge us, take up our capacities, but don't tax us too much helps us to develop, to learn, and get in 'flow' where we can achieve things more creatively than normal. There is probably a lot to be said here about living the good life, and putting our capabilities to good use, but I'll leave commenting on that for another day*.
* This may be a lie.
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