Getting Organised

Last trimester I was so busy that I let my usual system of organisation slip, and promptly forgot about it. A couple of months ago I noticed that I was getting stressed about my workload. I'd frantically look at my inbox and think to myself "what is it I'm supposed to be doing right now?" So I deliberately took a couple of hours over the course of a week to spend time reflecting on the way I work, my goals, and what I can reasonably achieve in a working week. I also had the opportunity to attend a workshop on priority management and found it incredibly useful for looking at how I plan out my work.

Photo by Charles Deluvio from Unsplash

Systems

I don't use any one system, but instead take the bits and pieces that work for me and kind of mash them together. It's not perfect but it helps. You can see a sample template of how I organise things here. I use check-boxes because marking things done is very satisfying.

The weekly plan is pretty straightforward. It contains some recurring tasks, and things get added or removed as the week progresses. What doesn't get done makes its way onto the plan for next week.

The long term plan is a list of absolutely everything I need to get done. All the projects and areas of responsibility that have my name next to them. I aim to have each task/subtask roughly the same size in terms of effort or time. This often means breaking down a task into more manageable bits and pieces. I don't aim to get everything on this list finished right away. It's just helpful to have it listed together.

At the end of every week I take half an hour to review everything. This means clearing everything out of my inbox that shouldn't be there, checking my calendar for the next week, and blocking out time for tasks from my long term plan even if they don't involve a meeting or appointment. I also take this time to reflect back on the week and note down the things I'm proud of, things I could improve on, and ideas I've had. It's been quite helpful to note down the different ideas that have popped into my head as I go along.

You'll notice this is a mishmash of systems like Bullet Journal, Kanban, and Getting Stuff Done. But I also use aspects of the Time Management Matrix (or Eisenhower Matrix) to help me decide what's important and what isn't.

Habits

You've probably heard that it take 28 days to form a habit. But researchers at UCL have found otherwise. It can take us anywhere between 18 to 254 days (with the average being 66 days) to form a new habit. The most important factor is how easy it is to fit into your regular routine. So starting with small changes in habits is more likely to succeed (drinking more water, or taking regular breaks to rest your eyes and stretch your legs for example) than larger more complicated changes (replying to every email straight away, or doing sit-ups every morning for example).

Speaking of habits, I've noticed that I'm at my most productive mid-morning, and least productive either side of lunch. So when I have a task that requires a lot of concentration, creativity, or analytical ability I try to schedule it for mid-morning. This usually includes things like lesson planning, writing reports, and library queries. Likewise, if I have a task that is repetitive, or that doesn't require much thought I'll try and schedule it around lunchtime. Examples include reading list data entry, examining use statistics for eresources, weeding old stock, or sourcing a price for a new book. 

Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

I've also given myself permission to procrastinate during my usually unproductive time. It sounds counter-intuitive, but hear me out! John Perry uses the term 'structured procrastination' to describe this approach, writing that "the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important. Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact." So when procrastination strikes, I find something productive, yet more enjoyable from my long term planning list to do. This might include catching up on my RSS feeds and Listserv emails, testing a new app or online service, coming up with new ways to teach a particular topic, drafting a blog post, or even searching for literature on a topic I'm curious about (enthographic research on how patrons use library space, twitter mentions as a predictive measure of citations, Lego and digital literacy etc.).

Another habit I've adopted is re-examining recurrent tasks. If there is a task that I find myself doing over and over again, I'll try to find ways to automate it instead. I used to spend a lot of time emailing back and forth with students about setting up appointments, for example. Lots of "I'm available on..." and "are you free at..." which was not only wasteful but frustrating. So now I use an appointment scheduling app which students can use to book consultations.

I've also identified some bad habits I want to get rid of. I was in the habit of checking my email constantly. So now I am making the effort to only check my email twice a day, à la Tim Ferris. I'll check my inbox first thing in the morning and then again after lunch. At first I felt terribly guilty, but as time went on I realised my stress was decreasing and my attention to task was increasing.

Does all this work? 

The short answer is that it works for me. I feel less stressed about my workload and about priorities. There's a lot of value to had in taking a long hard look at they way you organise your workload and being honest about what you can realistically achieve. I'm glad I was brave enough to do it!