1. Time Management for Researchers Session 1
Judith Shawcross

2. Course Aims By the end of this course you will be able to…….
apply tools & techniques to manage YOUR time effectively
recognise common issues and problems and know how to overcome them
know how YOU can improve in this area

3. Course Structure Pre-work
Session 1: Understanding time management, time perspectives, different types of activities and diagnostic tools
Session 2: Identifying your time management issues, prioritising activities and the rules of planning and organising.
Session 3: Changing time management habits and applying effective time management practice
Homework
Homework
The Challenge

4. Making the course work for you
Be on time & attend every session
Participate in whole class and group discussions
Undertaking individual exercises both in class and between sessions
Find a time management buddy or buddies
Have fun
Invest time in making a time management system work for you

5. Time Management – The Facts!
It’s not simple
There are no “one size fits all” solutions - you have to find the recipe that works for you from a menu of tools and techniques.
There are some key questions....by asking these questions it will help you find your answer?
It’s a skill for life – ongoing review and maintenance essential
Effective time management will help you be successful

6. Today’s Agenda Introduction Introducing Each Other
Exploring time management
Benefits of better time management
Different types of activity
Dealing with
Diagnostic tools
Please feel free to ask questions at any time.

7. Introductions First name Current role Department where you are based
Length of experience as a researcher
What is the most important benefit you want to get from this course?
What do you think is your biggest time management issue?

8. Being successful doesn’t make you
Time and Success
Being successful doesn’t make you
manage your time well.

9. Time Management What does it mean for you? Getting organised
Protecting your time
Setting clear goals and plans
Prioritising
Beating bad time habits
Doing two or more things at once
Going with the flow
Getting the research done before the funding runs out
Still having weekends and evenings for fun!

10. Time – Can it be managed?
Time stops for no-one – it is an unmanageable continuous resource
You cannot borrow time
You cannot hoard time
You cannot work and earn more of it
You do get the choice of how you use time.
What you achieve during a certain time is a
direct measure of how wisely you invest it.
You can only invest your time once!

11. Time Management - a definition
The management of our own activities, to make sure that they are accomplished within the available or allocated time
Managing ourselves
Getting things done effectively

12. Effective Self Management
undertaking tasks, activities and responsibilities that provide a high return for you and your department
investing time doing the right thing, in an effective and efficient way at the right time and for the right length of time.

13. Effective Self Managers……….
Concentrate on high return activities
Exercise self discipline - stay focussed on a task until complete
Plan their work
Get started
Strive for results ……..not perfection
Stay positive ……solve problems
Consistently strive to improve

14. To stay effective – ask the following…
Am I doing the right activities?
Am I doing them at the right time?
Am I spending the right length time on them?
Am I doing these activities in an effective and efficient way?
If the answer is no to any of the above then ask
Why?
What is stopping me doing the above?

15. Who controls / influences what you do?
Principal Investigator
Other Academic or Research Staff
PhD candidates
Departmental / Group Administrator
College
Friends
Partner / Family
Pets
You
Other

16. Who/what influences what you do - by how much and how frequently?
High
(Daily)
Medium
(Weekly)
Low
(Monthly +)
Frequency
Influence

17. ?
Who is the CEO of your time?

18. Your perspectives on time will also influence your behaviour.

19. A Series of Time Paradoxes
Paradox 1 Time is one of the most powerful influences on our thoughts, feelings, and actions, yet we are usually totally unaware of the effect of time in our lives.
Paradox 2 Each specific attitude toward time—or time perspective—is associated with numerous benefits, yet in excess each is associated with even greater costs.
Paradox 3 Individual attitudes toward time are learned through personal experience, yet collectively attitudes toward time influence national destinies.

20. Time Perspectives - Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)
Past Negative
Relive painful past experiences, wish they had done different things
Past Positive
Take pleasure from the past, positive attitudes to the past
Present-fatalistic
What will be will be .. It doesn’t matter what I do
Present-hedonistic
Impulsive, party animal, live life for today
Future Time Perspective
Planners, Set goals, To do lists
& Transcendental Future Perspective (TTPI)
Religious type beliefs, death not being the end etc...

22. Break

23. Different types of activities
Answering the phone
Solving an immediate problem
Responding to e.g. survey
Writing up a research interview / lab results
Reading journal articles

24. Differentiating activities in terms of Importance vs. Urgency
Eisenhower Principle:
What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.
Eisenhower Matrix or
Urgent vs. Important Matrix
Introduced by Dr Stephen Covey

25. Urgent vs. Importance Matrix
High
High Return
Activities
Critical
Activities
Urgent and Important ("Critical Activities"): There are two distinct types of urgent and important activities: Ones that you could not foresee, and others that you have left to the last minute. You can avoid the latter by planning ahead and avoiding procrastination. Issues and crises, on the other hand, cannot always be foreseen or avoided. Here, the best approach is to leave some time in your schedule to handle these. Also, if a major crisis arises, some other activity may have to be rescheduled. If this happens, identify which of you urgent-important activities could have been foreseen and think about how you could schedule similar activities ahead of time, so they do not become urgent. Urgent and Not Important ("Interruptions"): Urgent but not important activities can be a constant source of interruption. They stop you achieving your goals and completing your work. Ask yourself whether these tasks can be rescheduled, or whether someone else could do them. A common source of such interruptions is from other people coming into your office. Sometimes it's appropriate to say "No" to people, or encourage them to solve the problem themselves. Alternatively, try allocating time when you are available, so that people only interrupt you at certain times (a good way of doing this is to schedule a regular meeting so that all issues can be dealt with at the same time). By doing this, the flow of work on your important activities will be less disrupted. Not Urgent, but Important ("Important Goals"): These are the activities that you can plan ahead for to achieve your goals and complete your work. Make sure that you have plenty of time to achieve these, so that they do not become urgent. And remember to leave enough time in your schedule to deal with unforeseen problems. This will maximize your chances of keeping on schedule, and help you avoid the stress of work becoming more urgent that necessary. Not Urgent and Not Important ("Distractions"): These activities are just a distraction, and should be avoided if possible. Some can simply be ignored. Others are activities that other people want you to do, but they do not contribute to your own desired outcomes. Again, say "No" politely and firmly where this is appropriate. If people see you are clear about your objectives and boundaries, they will often not ask you to do "not important" activities in future.
Importance
Distractions
Interruptions
Low
Low
Urgency
High

26. Important Activities High Return Activities
Those activities that will enable you to achieve your goals
Schedule uninterrupted time to achieve them
As important as meetings with your PI
Critical Activities
Those you have left to the last minute
Those that you could not foresee

27. Non important activities
These stop you achieving your goals and completing your work
Interruptions
Hide
Ask people to make an appointment
Distractions
Avoid if you can
Turn them off
Set aside time to do these when you’ve finished your important task.

28. Urgent vs. Importance Matrix
High Return
Activities
Critical
Distractions
Interruptions
Urgency
Low
High
Importance

29. Dealing with Email – Best Practice
Turn off visual and audio notifications
Use your out of office notification
Don’t let it manage you

30. Keeping the Inbox in check
Check your regularly
This should not be constantly – you need uninterrupted time to do work!
Frequency and timing has to be appropriate for you and your work – 2 or 3 times a day should be adequate
Allocate time to deal with
Chose times when you have completed a high return activity or when your energy levels are low.
Researchers can improve their productivity by 20% by
not looking at their first thing in the morning.
Vitae – The Balanced Researcher

31. Dealing with
Scan the headers - if it is not important/relevant - delete
Review the rest - either
Don’t respond – then file or delete e.g. Information s - transfer to a ‘to read’ folder - and allocate time to read them!
Forward to someone else to respond
Respond – then file or delete
Send a holding response – schedule a full response
Flag or move to an ‘action’ folder - if you don’t have time to deal with it immediately
3. Apply the “two minute rule” (David Allen)
if the will take less than two minutes to process (a quick read, and a short answer) then take care of it right now, even if it's not a high priority

32. Email Organisation – Some Options
Have a simple set of folders and move any s you need to keep to them
E.g. Action, Read, Reference, Waiting, Archive
Eg. Project 1, Project 2, Project 3 etc.
File all s that you need to keep in a “month” folder and use a search tool
Set up rules to help you sort incoming mail into folders – great for those non-urgent messages

33. Reducing Email Encourage people to send you
Less
Short s – don’t get into debates – use the phone or go and see them
Promote effective practice in your section / department
Unsubscribe from unwanted s
Be careful who you give permission to send you s

34. Writing Effective Email 1
Use the title as the headline message
Please confirm your availability – Project X Meeting 1100 to 1200, 6th December, Room 1
For Information: Weekly project report
Always make sure headline is appropriate
Keep it short – try for two sentences per reply - one or two paragraphs max
One item per – particularly for unrelated issues or ones which require different types of reply

35. Writing Effective Email 2
Multiple items – use only if closely related -make sure each point is easy to identify
Always be polite / use appropriate language
Be very clear what action is required – if any
Make sure all the details are given e.g. Meetings: date, start time, finish time, location
Make sure all s have your contact details

36. Q1. Are you doing the right activities?
Would you tell me, please,
which way I ought to go from
here?
That depends a good deal on
where you want to get to.
What activities are the most important for you?
What activities do I need to do for my research?
What are your goals? Long-term, this year, this month, this week, today!
Are they written down?
Are they SMART?

37. SMART Goals S = Specific What is to be achieved?
M = Measurable How will I know when I’ve got there?
A = Achievable Is this possible?
R = Realistic Have I got the resources to achieve this?
T = Timed When am I going to achieve this by?

38. A1. Define your goals and write them down
Clearly define what you want to achieve
Set your self goals – long term, yearly, monthly, weekly, daily
Share your Research plan with your PI
Monitor your progress against the plan
Review and update plan regularly
“PLANS ARE USELESS BUT PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL”
US President Dwight Eisenhower

39. Tools & Techniques to be applied!
What are the goals for my research project, long term, medium term, short term?
What are my high return activities?
How am I spending my time?

40. GOALS SMART Long Term Short Term GOALS High Return Activities
To have my research published in Nature by July 2012
To co-author a book on carbon nano-tubes by April 2013
High
Return
Activities
Milestones 1. 2. 3.

41. How am I spending my time?
Take a week (at least 3 days) and actually record how you spend your time in 15 minute chunks using the Activity Log provided or Toggl.com - Time Tracking Software System
Activities could include: Reading Journal Articles, Responding to , Answering Telephone Calls, Planning and organising, Tea/Coffee Break, Writing Papers / Reports, Chatting with colleagues, Lunch, Facebook / Twitter, Build Test Rig, Conducting Interviews, Attending Seminars, Training & Development ,Conducting Experiment , Exercise
Analyse this carefully
- what activities should you eliminate, reduce?
- what activities do you need to do more of?

42. ? Effective Self Management Urgent vs. Importance Matrix
undertaking tasks, activities and responsibilities that provide a high return for you and your department
investing time doing the right thing, in an effective and efficient way at the right time and for the right length of time.
Urgent vs. Importance Matrix
High Return
Activities
Critical
Distractions
Interruptions
Urgency
Low
High
Importance
Define your goals
and
write them down ?
Who is the CEO of your time?

43. Managing your time is about working smarter not working harder.
What is the best use of my time right now?
Don’t look at your first thing in the morning
Thank you for listening

44. Resources VITAE www.vitae.ac.uk
Previously UK GRAD Programme and UK Higher Education Researcher Development UKHERD
Booklet: The Balanced Researcher
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
The Time Paradox, Using the new Psychology of Time to your advantage (Paperback) by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd, Rider Books, 2008
Why People Fail – The 16 Obstacles to Success and How You Can Overcome Them by Simon Reynolds, Jossey Bass 2012

45. Resources
Mike Clayton, 2011, Brilliant Time Management, What most productive people know, do and say, Pearson
Brian Tracy, 2004, Eat that Frog! Get more of the important things done, Today!, Mobius
Jurgen Wolfe, 2010, Focus: Use the Power of Targetted Thinking to Get More Done, Prentice Hall Business
Give Me Time, 2006, The Mind Gym, CIPD
David Allen, 2001, Getting Things Done – How to achieve Stress-free Productivity, Piatkus
Michael Heppell, 2011, How to Save an hour every day, Prentice Hall Life