Time management is an essential part of everyone’s life. This is especially true for academic coaches with specific duties requiring careful planning. Many faculty report working around 54 hours per week,
One can find numerous time management advice and solutions that could help with the organization of tasks. Yet, there is no magic recipe for managing time for any specific area.
Here are some hacks that can help academic coaches stay organized and manage their time better.
Organization is Key
Time management means organizing all aspects of your life at home and work. Ideally, you’d want to do all tasks structured and efficiently. To have uninterrupted flow in your daily tasks, arrange and label items in your working environment in a way that structures your day but does not overwhelm you.
To-do List and Routine Tasks
Check which of your routine tasks can be automated, delegated, or adjusted. Identify the most important ones and find ways to deal with the rest to save time.
Little organizational reminders like writing down your to-do list to avoid forgetting something can help. Remember to write even minor tasks, especially if they are time-sensitive. Once done, list the tasks by level of importance and plan your day accordingly.
If you benefit from an Academic Coach or Teaching Assistant assigned to your online course, delegate some tasks to them, such as grading or answering simple emails. Be sure to provide detailed rubrics and inter-rater reliability activities to ensure the grading will be consistent with your standards and expectations.
The Importance of Planning Your Day
Try to estimate how much time you’ll need to complete a certain task. Allocating sufficient time to complete a task and ticking it off the to-do list will allow you to promptly complete it and move on to the next. This way, you can focus on completing one task before starting another and getting your work to flow smoothly.
Avoid picking one task, completing it halfway, and starting on something else. This will only create a chaotic and unproductive day.
Utilize Technology to Its Full Extent
Technology was invented to make our lives easy. Use all the available relevant technology for your online course. Use online planners for yourself and reach out to social groups or forums to share best practices or resources.
Enjoy all the help you can get from relevant programs. This will make your job easier and allow you more time to complete other tasks.
Procrastination Is the Enemy
Putting off things we don’t like doing for later is another way of wasting time and still having to complete those things. Finish the things you must do before the things you enjoy doing. Remove all possible obstacles interrupting you during working hours and obtain a tunnel-vision mentality – focusing on one task at a time.
For example, people spend a lot of time reading emails and not replying immediately, only to re-read them so they can respond. Email notifications can interrupt your working process, so turn them off. Choose a time when you will read and answer emails so you don’t feel distracted and aren’t split-tasking, which will slow you down.
The Best Online Academic Coach for Your Distance Learning Program
Instructional Connections is a third-party service provider of high-quality, asynchronous instructional support services to colleges and universities that offer online courses and degree programs. IC provides “Academic Coaches” to institutions that offer online courses and programs with a highly effective, scalable, and affordable instructional model. This model enables the faculty of record to focus and manage their time effectively on delivering learning objectives and outcomes while allowing the institution to scale the course to meet student enrollment demands.
Contact us today for any inquiries you may have, and we’ll be happy to provide the information you need.
