Author: emilyschwartzspeaks@gmail.com

How to Read Fast

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As a grad student and a teacher, I have a lot of reading to do in any given week. Part of having great time management skills is learning to do things efficiently, so knowing how to read fast is essential.

I love reading for fun. I love curling up on the couch with a good book and savoring every word as it floats through my mind. Unfortunately, we can’t read like this when we have vast amounts of material to get through before a deadline. We have to alter our approach to get through the most information in the least amount of time.

3 Strategies for Reading Efficiently

1) Not Every Word is Important
I’m not suggesting that you sloppily skim over the pages; you just need to quickly filter out what information you need and what you don’t. Think of yourself as a detective looking for important ideas and phrases. Do not get caught up in words and sentences that don’t matter.

2) Read with a Pen
Reading with a pen is far better than reading with a highlighter. When you mark something with a highlighter, all you can do is mark something as “important” but you aren’t able to write why. A pen enables you to jot quick notes to yourself, which keeps you more engaged in whatever you’re reading.

3) Do not Read Where you Sleep
I’m all for being comfortable when you read, but if you take work home with you, don’t take it to bed. You’re far more likely to nod off, lose your focus and have to end up re-reading it anyway. Besides, you should be able to keep at least one area of your home a work-free-zone.

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How to Get Ahead

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A slow workday is a great time to try to get ahead with your time management in hopes of easing the burden of your busy times. “Getting ahead” can mean doing things like organizing, planning, creating new systems and getting a jump on important Meat and Vegetable tasks. Think back to your most stressful weeks at work or school:
What were the tasks that took a majority of that time?
Is there anything you can do now that will make those tasks easier later?

I asked myself those questions this week.

I am a teacher and just finished the first week of school. I know that if I don’t start the year organized, I will never be able to catch up once the semester gets rolling. My husband works in travel and he knows that once the busy travel season hits, he’ll be knee-deep in work. We brainstormed some ways that we can use our slower times to ease the stress of our busy times. This is what we came up with:

Finishing Vegetable Tasks Early

This semester I am teaching an online class. I know that once the class starts, I will be spending a majority of my time grading and answering questions. To help ease that stress, I did as many of the organizational “Vegetable” tasks this class will require in advance so I won’t have to worry about them later. This included setting up all of my contact sheets, grading rubrics and supplemental materials. Now I won’t have to worry about all of that mid-semester!

Delegating to Technology

My husband works in travel. Each account his office processes has numerous deadlines to keep track of- deadlines for air, deadlines for hotels, deadlines for visas, etc…When many groups are traveling at once during the busy season, it can be a lot to keep track of by hand. That’s why this week, in their slower time, they set up a program that automatically calculates all of these deadlines and sets up reminders based on the expected travel date. They wouldn’t have had time to set this up during the busy season, but now their work will be much easier!

Organizing Differently

A large part of my time as a band teacher is taken up with keeping track of which students have their music and instrument on a given day and finding materials for them to use when they forget. There is nothing more frustrating than just beginning a rehearsal only to have to stop when a student walks in without his music. To fix this, I used my slow time to set up a binder for each instrument with a set of music for students to use when they forget. This binder also includes a piece of paper for them to sign their name when they need to use it. Now I don’t have to worry about stopping to mark down who forgot their materials. The students do that for me!

What things can YOU do early that help you in your busy times? Leave your idea as a comment! Maybe it will inspire someone else to do it too.

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Happy Birthday Time Diet!

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In lieu of cake on The Time Diet’s 1st Birthday, I present to you five of my favorite “Desserts” that keep my day balanced when I have a ton of work to do. Remember: even those of us with the best time management skills can’t work 24/7 without burning out. That’s why maintaining a balanced diet of: Meats (difficult tasks) Vegetables (easier tasks) and Desserts (enjoyable things) is so important.

My Favorite Time Management Desserts

1) Playing with my dog

When I get home from work, one of the first things I do is spend five or ten minutes playing with my dog Maggie. A dog can’t talk. A dog can’t tell you you’re not working hard enough or doing a good enough job. A dog just gives you unconditional love whenever you need it. If you don’t have a dog (or a cat I suppose…), I recommend getting one. Today.

 

 

2) Grabbing a Coffee

When I sense myself coming close to hitting a wall with my work, I head for the nearest Starbucks for a coffee (a tall, non-fat, light whip, Java Chip Frappuccino, add banana to be exact!) I don’t know whether it is the extra jolt of caffeine or the delicious chocolate drizzle on top, but something about sitting for a few minutes and sipping on my Frappuccino tells me that everything is going to be OK. I know you have a treat that makes you feel like that too.

3) Listening to My Favorite Song

When you need a “time out” from work, make sure your favorite song is never far away. Today’s gadget culture makes it easy to have your favorite music in your pocket at all times. Never underestimate the effect it can have on your mood and stress level. For me, my “let’s do this!” song is Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory” and my “escape from the world” song is the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concert No. 2. Listening to either one on my 10-minute drive between schools instantly improves my day.

4) Yoga Class

I am not a fitness guru. In fact, despite the fact that I am 6 feet tall, I was never really good at basketball or any other sport. However, I joined a gym so I can take a yoga class. I enjoy it, it relaxes me and I feel like I can conquer anything when I’m done. I can’t find time to do it every week, but when I do, I’m happy. Find the physical activity that makes you feel that way and make time for it whenever possible.

5) Watching “The Office”

I’m usually not one to promote watching TV extensively, but everybody needs that one show that guarantees a laugh. For me, it’s “The Office.” My husband and I like to watch it together, because the only thing more fun than laughing is laughing with another person. When I’m stressed about work or school, watching Michael Scott butcher common phrases and social norms makes me forget about the pile of work waiting for me tomorrow.

Do you have a favorite Dessert I didn’t list here? Leave it as a comment! I’d love to know.

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Photo Credits: (in order): www.freedigitalphotos.net by “Idea Go”, Emily Schwartz, www.freedigitalphotos.net by “Paul”, www.freedigitalphotots.net by “Ambro”, www.freedigitalphotos.net by “Arvind Balaraman”, www.freedigitalphotos.net by “Salvatore Vuono”

Just Keep Swimming

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This week, I was reminded of one of my favorite motivational time management quotes. It was spoken by none other than Dory, the blue fish in Disney’s well-known time management film, “Finding Nemo.”

What? You didn’t know “Finding Nemo” was a film about time management? OK, well, maybe not entirely, but whether or not Disney intended it this way, there are many embedded lessons about dedication and time/stress management.

Time Management in the Ocean

The main character, Marlin, loses his son and sets off on a mission to find him. He is extremely dedicated to his quest, but is becoming overwhelmed by his stress and desperation. That’s when is travel companion, a blue fish named Dory, utters her famous line:

“Just Keep Swimming.”

Basically, stop using your precious time and energy to worry about everything and just calmly keep moving forward. Variations of this advice are everywhere, from the famous quote: “The longest journey begins with a single step,” to my own story about the two cows grazing in a field. Dory’s idea is far from new, but her words are unique in their simplicity. Just….keep…swimming.

We’ve All Been Marlin

Haven’t we all been there before? Wanting to bury our head in our hands after becoming lost in a seemingly endless ocean of stressful work? Stress is a natural part of life and we are all going to feel it from time to time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do everything in our power to get rid of it as soon as possible so it doesn’t slow us down.

Here are three simple ways you can keep from becoming overwhelmed with your work:

1) Think of it in smaller chunks

As you sit down to begin a large “Meat” task in your Time Diet, don’t think of it as one big project. Think of it only in terms of what you plan to accomplish that day.

2) Take a break before you need it

We all know how important Desserts are in your day. Don’t wait until you hit a wall with your work to give yourself a break. By then, it’s too late and you’re already stressed.

3) Write down your timeline

Plotting out which parts of a task you plan to complete when can be very reassuring. Then, when you catch yourself muttering, “How in the world will I ever get this all done?” you need only look at your calendar to answer your question.

This week, do not let stress overwhelm you and slow you down. Keep moving forward. Your friends, your family, and maybe even this blog can serve as a life preserver when you feel like you’re drowning, but YOU have the power to “just keep swimming.”

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The Productivity Solution Everyone Needs to Try

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What is the best way to improve your productivity? We know that it’s important to remove distractions and Time Killers, plan your work in a calendar, stop procrastinating, etc… But what if you are doing all of that already? What next? Solution: Try changing the way you work. I looked for ways to change my work this summer and ended up finding a free program called Zotero that saved me hours of time.

People get stuck in a productivity rut when they get in a habit of doing their work a certain way and never stop to think if there is a better or more efficient way. If you are not constantly re-evaluating how your work processes could be better, you could be wasting loads of time.

Here are three ways to make sure you don’t get stuck in a bad productivity habit:

1) Be Aware of Changing Circumstances:Just because a process worked last year doesn’t mean it’s the most efficient way to do things this year! Circumstances change.

2) Don’t Work in a Vacuum: You don’t have to figure everything out by yourself. Talk to people in your industry. What resources do they use to get work done efficiently?

3) Be Open to New Methods: Sometimes, a better work solution is staring us right in the face but we don’t want to use it because, “That’s not the way we do things.” Be open to new ways of doing things, whether it is a new technology, new process or new idea.

How Changing My Process Saved me Hours

I was guilty of a bad productivity habit for the past year until I used the summer as a chance to re-evaluate the way I do academic work. In my master’s program, I frequently wrote papers and had my process pretty much down to a science. Now, in my PhD program, I also write papers frequently but they are much more research-based than before.

My circumstances had changed, but my process remained the same.

I was having a difficult time managing all of my research sources and citing them correctly in my paper. I asked one of my friends in my doctoral program how she handles it all. (Remember, don’t work in a vacuum!) She said, “Oh my goodness, I don’t do that all by hand! There are programs that manage all your sources for you.”

My first reaction was, “I like to do things by hand. That’s how I do things.” Besides, those programs were probably expensive and difficult to use. Then I realized that wasn’t being open to new methods.

I did a little digging on Google and found a great program called Zotero that is not only free, but easy to use. I no longer have to type all of my sources into my bibliography or try to sort them all by topic on note cards. The program does all of that for me. I have now saved myself hours of formatting work.

This week: I urge you to re-evaluate how you work. Once you open your mind to new ideas and methods, you may find yourself wondering how you ever worked “the old way.”

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What is Parkinson’s Law?

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This summer, Parkinson’s Law has had an interesting effect on my time management.

Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Basically, the more time you have available to do something, the longer it’s going to take. Oh so true!

I went into this summer expecting to be very productive, and I was! However, if I take a serious look into how much concrete work I accomplished, it isn’t too much more than what I would have accomplished during the school year. This of course, is because of Parkinson’s Law. I have more time to work in the summer, so the work takes longer.

However, there is something to be said for how much more enjoyable and less stressful my work has been this summer. During the school year, I’m up at 5 to get to school. I try to cram in some work over my lunch break, then squeeze in a few more hours between when school gets out and ASU evening class begins. It’s rather exhausting, but it works.

In the summer, I don’t have to get up that early. I can work much more leisurely. I can take frequent breaks and I also have the flexibility to take a mid-week day off if I need to. Sure, I may not be completing triple the workload that it may seem like I’d be able to, but I’m enjoying my work much more. As long as I’m not flat out wasting time, I’m willing to sacrifice a few productivity hours to make my summer a little more relaxing.

What Counts as Wasting Time?

The key difference between working leisurely and wasting time is your use of Time Killers (or as Lifehack calls them: Cockroaches of Time Management. Ha!) As long as you aren’t getting lost in those little things that waste your time without your permission, there is nothing wrong with choosing to let yourself work a little slower once in a while if your schedule allows it.

Focused work is always better than unfocused work, but staying “focused” doesn’t mean having your nose to the grindstone 24/7. Finding that balance is the ultimate time management secret to success.

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How To Manage Your Time Like a Genius

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You could be the next genius in your field if you learn to manage your time like one!
I’m of the opinion that being a “genius” or “talented” are traits only partially gained at birth and that excellent time management skills play a big part in most very successful people. Let’s look at their secret.

Time Management From Amadeus to Zuckerberg

On my trip to Salzburg, Austria I had the opportunity to tour the birth place of one of classical music’s greatest talents- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. On display are many letters that Mozart wrote back and forth to his sister, including one in which he described in detail what his typical work day entailed. Here is an excerpt of what he wrote:

“My hair is always done by 6 in the morning and by 7 I am fully dressed. I then compose until 9. Then I give lessons from 9-1…I can never work before 5 or 6. I am often prevented by a concert. If not, I compose until 9…..When I come home early I will often lose myself in writing until 1 o’clock and then wake up again.”

I was amazed at his work ethic. Having been told my whole life that Mozart was a musical genius, it’s easy to think that this brilliant music just poured out of his head with ease. I’m not suggesting that if I too spent the majority of every day composing that I could also produce music of Mozart’s quality. There is definitely something to be said for sheer talent. However, Mozart devoted hours upon hours to writing his music. He ate, breathed and slept music. It was his life. This wasn’t just dedication, it was obsession.

Fast forward about 250 years and you’ll find the same obsession in today’s great minds. The movie The Social Network depicts the tireless energy Mark Zuckerberg put into creating Facebook. We can sit around and debate the movie’s gross inaccuracies of the “real” story, but one thing seems to be clear- this man ate, breathed and slept Facebook. He too was obsessed and used this obsession to push his idea into existence.

Both of these men were obsessed with their craft and their time management plan seemed to be “work whenever possible.” My question is, is this the kind of dedication it takes to do great things? Is the quest for a healthy, balanced life unrealistic?

I don’t think so. In his book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell popularized the idea of the 10,000 Hour Rule; that you need to do something for 10,000 hours to be truly great. I don’t believe that those 10,000 hours need to necessarily be all in a row. The key is persistence. You’ll never reach those 10,000 hours if you consistently get off track, let Time Killers steal your focus and give in to procrastination. However, you’ll also never reach those 10,000 hours if you try to do them all at once and burn out too quickly. Seth Godin describes this as getting past The Dip.

The lesson to take from these great minds is not their obsessive use of their time, but their obsessive belief in their work. Their time management secret is actually a motivation management secret. Work with fierce determination toward your goal and you’re on track to greatness.

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Surviving My Facebook Break

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For the past week, I decided to take a break from Facebook for the sake of my time management. I’m not against the social networking site at all. In fact, I think it is extremely important to have little distractions like this that allow us to zone out for a few minutes and give our brains a rest. However, my Facebook usage was getting out of hand and starting to affect my productivity. I decided that we needed a break in our relationship. Here is how my week went:

Day 1: Realized that no Facebook meant I would have to wait to post the pictures of the wedding I went to last weekend. Received upset email from my sister-in-law that I wasn’t posting pictures (she couldn’t be at the wedding.) This was going to be harder than I thought.

Day 2: Felt antsy and almost snuck a peak at my phone over breakfast. Instead, nosed around on the Internet and found some awesome SEO articles to peruse and then went to Starbucks for a work session. Productivity increase of at least 300%.

Day 3: Husband tells me that he saw on Facebook that my sister’s boyfriend got into a bicycle accident. Realized that Facebook is one of my major sources of news. Made a brief and supervised exception to my Facebook fast to look at the picture of him smiling in his hospital bed donning a bike helmet. Husband quickly shoos me off his account and tells me to stick to my rule as I vow to call my sister first thing in the morning and discuss with her proper ways of sharing breaking news with family members.

Day 4: Worked on the syllabus for the class I’m teaching in the fall. Felt the temptation to click over to my browser and scroll through Facebook land. Resisted the temptation and went for a walk around the block to get the mail instead. Felt re-energized and finished 45 more minutes of work. Win.

Day 5: Wanted very badly to tell everyone how well my productive week was going in a Facebook status update. Briefly contemplated the hypocrisy that would entail. Met new friends in person and realized that Facebook has replaced email as my go-to digital address book. Social networking sites do have useful purposes other than wasting time.

Day 6: Found myself going on Twitter a lot more in place of Facebook. Wondered if this was somehow cheating because Twitter is also a social networking site. Realized that it wasn’t cheating because everything I do on Twitter is to build my business. I don’t use a personal Twitter account.

Day 7: First day I could honestly say I didn’t miss Facebook. While working on a paper for grad school I didn’t once click over to my browser. Finished my work much more quickly and rewarded myself with a Happy Hour with friends. Annoying Facebook habit= broken.

So what did I learn through all of this? Facebook, as well other Time Killers, has a time and a place. Time Killers are like the cookies of your Time Diet. They are fine to have once in a while, but you shouldn’t eat them for breakfast. I am now confident that I can use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with people, share pictures and send messages without letting it interfere with my work and productivity.

Final Score: Emily: 1 Facebook: 0

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My Facebook Challenge

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This summer, a time management battle of epic proportions is being fought on a quiet little street in Phoenix Arizona. The stand off is between my productivity and my most addictive Time Killer: Facebook.

During the school year, I have a fairly healthy relationship with my Time Killers. I am able to focus on my work for a good chunk of time and then take a break to check my email, grab a snack and check out what’s going on in Facebook Land.

Now that summer is here, I’m having an extremely difficult time not letting my social network distract me. Whereas normally I could easily sit down at my computer for an hour of focused work, I now find myself checking Facebook every 5 minutes. The constant interruption of focus is starting to really annoy me and I know it’s affecting my productivity.

I have a theory as to why my ability to be distracted has suddenly surged. During the school year, I spend the first 8 hours of my day surrounded by people at work. I also spend about 6 hours a week surrounded by my ASU classmates. Now, in the summer, I spend most of my day working in my home office…by myself. I know that my summer Facebook addiction is due to my craving of social interaction!

A Week Without Facebook

To win my Time Killer battle, I am going to go without Facebook for the next week. I will not check it on my phone, I will not have it open on my computer and I won’t even ask my husband to update my status for me. (“Emily is really missing Facebook right now…”) All “Desserts” are fine in moderation, but I have let this Time Killer have too much power. My challenge this week is to give Facebook a break and find another way to find some social interaction without constantly interrupting my work.

Be sure to check back next Sunday to read about how I did with my challenge!

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The Last 5 Percent

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Why is it that we’ll spend all day working on something, and then stop right before it’s actually finished? We’ll finish 95% of the work involved, and then leave that last 5% until later. Oh “later”….that infamous black hole of time home to so many unwanted tasks!

The problem, of course, is that “later” gets here and we don’t feel any more like finishing up that work. In fact, we feel even less like doing it than we did before! We aren’t in the zone anymore. You create a lot of momentum when you’re working on that first 95% that carries you through to the finish. However, if you stop and try to come back to it later, you won’t have all of that built up momentum to carry you through. It’s like taking a roller coaster car off its track right before that last little hill, then putting it back later and wondering why it isn’t moving.

Time Management Solution

This isn’t to say you should never take breaks. No, you need breaks in your work to keep you going. I’m saying the worst time to take a break is when you are almost finished. Rather than spend the time and energy to get back into the project later, the temptation to say, “You know, this is probably good enough” is too great.

Last week, my husband and I finally admitted to ourselves that our TV was broken and bought a new one. We spent all day picking one out, buying a stand for it and setting it up. The last thing we needed to do was move the old TV into the garage (not an easy task considering it is one of those old TVs that weighs about 200 pounds.) However, I didn’t want to! I had a brand new TV sitting in front of me and I wanted to watch it! We could move the old one later. My fabulous husband talked some sense into me and said, “No, we should just move it now and be done with it.”

I was so glad we did! There was no way we’d feel like moving that thing later and now we didn’t have to worry about it. Don’t let yourself leave that last 5% until later. It’ll just loom over your schedule like a giant bulky television in the middle of your living room.

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