Educators - Use Your Planner Effectively
As an educator, regardless of whether you use a paper or an electronic planner, there are several aspects that you need to attend to if you want to be productive (in a peaceful manner, that is). This article has some specific ways to use your planner to help this happen.
- Block time for re-entry.
If you have been out of the classroom (and/or home), you need time to \"re-enter\" or \"re-cover.\" Whenever you are planning a professional trip, a vacation, or surgery, block out time on your planner for \"re-entry.\" This allows you to process the email, voice mail, and paperwork that have accumulated during your absence.
- Use a month-at-a-glance calendar or view
. Any good planner is going to give you a way of seeing your month at a glance. This feature gives you a \"storyboard\" of your month. You can keep chaos at bay by making sure that the month itself is reasonably balanced, even if particular days or weeks are not. As an educator, you could (potentially) avail yourself of a game, meeting, or other event every evening of the week. Take a look at your month-at-a-glance calendar to see whether you have already committed to enough (or too many) evening/weekend events before adding another one.
- Use a week-at-a-glance calendar or view.
Depending on your position, you may need to also have a week-at-a-glance page view so you know what is in the offing for the week. Most planners offer this feature as one of the options and some of them design their whole system around the weekly calendar, (e.g., Planner Pad).
- Schedule time to answer emails and voice mails/phone messages.
If you try to do a \"catch as catch can\" approach to handling emails and voice mails, you\'re always feeling out of control and \"behind.\". So schedule 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or whatever number of minutes you need to once or twice a day and handle the electronic messages that you need to. The key here is \"schedule\" that time. If you are a classroom teacher, avoid using your planning period to respond to email or voice mail. Generally, you are rushed and you would be better off to use that time on higher priority projects.
- Schedule project time.
Essentially all professionals have projects to work on as part of their responsibilities. We imagine that we will work on that project \'as we have a chance.\' Good grief. Doesn\'t work too well, does it? Trying to do unit planning in little snitches and snatches is counterproductive. Schedule time to work on that project just like you\'d schedule a meeting or some other type of appointment. And then keep that scheduled time sacrosanct.
- Keep a running list of tasks in your planner.
David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, recommends that these tasks be divided up by what type of tasks (e.g., phone, at computer, errands, etc.) Regardless of whether you follow that advice, do keep a list of things that you need to do in your planner. It\'s a great place to capture the idea and then you can always refer to your planner to see what else you need to/could be working on.
- Make notes during meetings or other appointments.
There\'s no sense in trying to \"remember\" what was said. Write it down. If you never need it, then no problem, but if you do, it\'s captured and you have a written record of what was said, decided, etc. There are times when the notes you made during a parent meeting will come in handy later. This is an understatement.
- Keep your planner with you at all times. It\'s difficult to follow any of these suggestions if your planner is nowhere to be found (or if it\'s at work when you\'re at home, or vice versa).
Educators have the most influential positions in our society--and need every bit of support that can be mustered. Two resources that will help increase educators\' sense of peaceful, predictable productivity are Meggin\'s weekly emails:
**Top Ten Productivity Tips http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com
**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com
(c) 2007 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., \"The Productivity Professor\"(tm)
Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, and consulting. For additional information on Meggin\'s seminars, workshops, consulting, and coaching, go to http://www.meggin.com
Planning for Results
Improve Your Ability to Achieve Your PrioritiesTake a step toward accomplishing your values and goals. Improve your ability to plan and carry out the ...
Telemarketing As A Career - Is It A Good Choice?
If you are considering becoming a telemarketer either as a career or a temporary job, I would like to offer you some things to consider. Most telemark...
Use New Hire Training to Ramp Up Quickly
Your new hire employees have to be up and running fast. Should you use on-the-job-training? Online courses? Classroom? You can bring them up to speed ...
Battle Obesity with the Use of Hoodia Gordonii
It is a fact that obesity is ruining plenty of lives these days. More and more people are having weight problems.There are lots of people who are bein...
How to Sell to the Devil’s Advocate
There is a car commercial running were a husband is sitting in a car with the salesperson. The wife is standing outside the vehicle looking in on her...
Popular Uses of Postcards
Generally, postcards are used to write to a loved one especially if one is miles away. Often, postcards are prominent items in ones list of things to ...
The Best Diet According to Your Zodiac Sign
AriesAries women start new diets with enthusiasm, but easily give up if they don`t lose weight fast. The best diet for Aries women consists of fish me...
Best Website Promotion - Tips on How to Better Promote a Site
With the overwhelming number of web sites that are competing with one another in getting enough traffic, thinking about how you can effectively promot...
Are Your Salespeople Confusing Your Prospects And Customers?
Your ability, as a salesperson, to effectively influence and persuade your prospects and/or customers depends entirely on your ability to communicate ...
Quick Site Promotion - 3 Strategies that Effectively Work in Promoting a Site
It is a well known concept that promoting a web site or any online business that has a site is something that is not taken lightly. The need to have ...
Hoodia Gordonii - Efficient Diet Pill
Hoodia gordonii is a succulent plant with medicinal uses. This plant grows naturally in Kalahari Desert of South Africa. This plant was used by tribe...
Autistic National Society
A variety of support and information groups exist to help families that are living with autism. Physicians, psychiatrists, educators, and parents who...
Ten Ways to Make Prospects Like You Enough to Buy from You
Buyers buy from people they like.The only possible exception occurs when buyers have no choice but to do business with a particular salesperson or a p...
The Benefits of Prostate Massage
Prostate massage is a healthy and pleasurable activity that can be enjoyed as part of your intimate life. Quite simply, prostate massage stimulates th...
Why Don’t My Goals Work?
It is not unusual for me to meet with someone who has an incredibly detailed outline of their goals. It is sometimes presented in a PowerPoint presen...
This entry has been filed under
Increasing Productivity
and currently has