Mastering time: Essential strategies for busy professionals, researchers and mentors
Mastering time: Essential strategies for busy professionals, researchers, and mentors
In the 21st century busy lifestyle and fast-paced culture, every professional has difficulty in balancing the demands of their profession, research, and more importantly personal and leisure activities.
Time has become the most precious commodity in deciding what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. On one hand, professionals have a hectic schedule that involves professional job-related activities like teaching and research, and on the other hand, there are commitments related to mentoring and personal development.
The professionals find it hard to make a meaningful impact and have the right balance between work and leisure. This makes them always overwhelmed and at times feel guilty of not doing enough. All these have a cumulative effect on researchers and those involved in teaching and professional activities, leading to burnout and silent anguish. All of this revolves around effective time management which is the key to management.
I would like to share insights and strategies based on my more than two decades of experience in clinical practice, medical education, and research. These are time-tested tips for better management of time and being more productive as a researcher and a mentor. Anyone can use one or more strategies best suited to his/her personal and environmental situations.
- Learn to be smart with work: leveraging efficient technology
Although hard work always pays off if you are smart you will save a lot of fruitless time and of course time. As researchers and teachers, we use a lot of softwares in our daily professional lives like Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel, SPSS, Mendeley, Endnote, Google Scholar, and many more specific task-oriented softwares.
If we spend a little time exploring and learning these software and know how they work best and the shortcut keys, we will save a lot of time and increase our efficiency. So, I strongly recommend going through the video tutorials and websites of our commonly used software and increasing our proficiency in using them to enhance our research and teaching productivity. As Abraham Lincon said, “if you give me six hours to chop a tree, I will spend the first four hours sharpening my axe”. Planning should be the first step in this process of using smart technology.
- Identify your biological prime time
Every individual has a different biological prime time, some are early risers, others night owls, still others perform best after an afternoon nap, and some are weekend warriors. You need to identify the time when you are the most fresh and energetic and must utilize that time to do the most daunting task that is bothering you and I can assure you that you will do it more quickly than you expected.
Don’t waste your peak time with menial tasks just to get over the to-do list rather take the bull by the horns. When we force ourselves to do tasks when we are mentally and physically exhausted, it leads to frustration and great disappointments.
- Plan, plan, and plan
The key to performing stress-free and smooth sailing with work is careful planning that saves us from a lot of hassle. If we fail to plan, then we are planning to fail.
We should plan and work for all our upcoming research-related deadlines, mark our calendars, and make sure to keep ample time required for the tasks as well as catering for the unforeseen. It is recommended that we plan 50% of the time for our targets and keep time for any contingencies.
So, whether it’s an exam coming, a high-stakes presentation, an international conference, a pending publication, or a review deadline, if we plan well and make space available for everything, we will better execute them, save time, and avoid stress.
- Fight the procrastination: Swiss cheese model
One of the biggest problems that every busy professional and researcher faces is procrastination. We keep delaying things due to the fear of its magnitude and the fear and stress, so we never get started. This leads to increased pressure of nearing deadlines and more procrastination.
There are ways to overcome this and the best way is to divide the big task into smaller tasks and plan them in such a way that you make sure you achieve one small task at one time. This division in parts will help you achieve the task and counter procrastination.
One example is that of the manuscript writing after data collection and result compilation. To counter not getting started, we can divide the manuscript into different sections and schedule a time for one section at a time. The sections can start with a literature search, methodology, and result section followed by an introduction and discussion.
- Avoid social media distractions
The best advice to avoid wasting time while doing some serious research, writing, or academic task is to keep your smartphone away or on silent mode. Also, don’t use/ activate any social media notifications on your laptop because they can easily distract you while working. Dedicate time for checking and responding to emails. This will avoid distractions and give you dedicated time full of concentration and productivity.
- Develop teams and delegate
Research and academics are never a one-man show. It is almost always a teamwork. If you focus on building teams and train them well, they will be your workhorses, and you can delegate tasks to capable team members and save your time for more productive tasks. Make sure that you don’t micromanage the teams once you have delegated tasks.
- Do the magic of being organized
The more organized you are in your office, your home, your laptops, and your cloud storage platforms, the more time you will save. At times it gets difficult when commonly used items on our computers or offices are hard to find because they are disorganized, which leads to a wastage of time. It is better to organize and label properly all resources and folders you frequently use, and you will save time.
- Key to strategic focus: Prioritize and understand the concept of urgent vs Important
Always remember that there is a difference between what is urgent and what is important. At times there are situations that create urgency, but they are not important, and this is the place where we make mistakes and give priority to urgent things over important things.
A ringing telephone with an unknown number, a group social media notification, a drop in uninvited guests at the workplace, etc. can all create an urgency that can be sensibly ignored. So, prioritize your important things over unimportant things that create urgency. Keep your energies on the urgent and important things that must be responded to immediately.
- Time blocking: a structured approach
Dedicate time slots for specific tasks rationally and make sure you stick to that. It allows you to focus on specifics. Make room for research, professional practice, and some buffer time in between to cater to unforeseen circumstances.
Conclusion
Time management for busy professionals is a balancing act and if you use the above strategies, you can reclaim control of your time that was stolen from you, and you can create time for things that really matter. This will help you manage the multiple roles that you play, and it becomes less stressful and more fulfilling.
Biography
Dr Sahibzada Nasir Mansoor, is the Head of department, Rehabilitation Medicine, CMH Hospital Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan. Dr Sahibzada Nasir Mansoor is a consultant in rehabilitation medicine, medical educationist and pain physician and has keen interest in research, mentoring, teaching and assessment. This blog is about time management for busy professionals and researchers on how to keep a balance, increase efficiency, productivity and to find time for what matters most.
First image and thumbnail: by Jan Vašek from Pixabay
Second image: by DesignDraw DesignDrawArtes from Pixabay