Time Management for Academics

Working hours

Types of tasks

Time-blocking

Day theming

Weekly reviews

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A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days…it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time.

Annie Dillard (2013)

There’s no time to breathe when you’re running all the time. When your working day feels beyond your control, it’s hard to pay attention to anything other than what’s directly in front of you. We feel like we’re working all the time, and that we bounce around between tasks without any focus. We get to the end of the week feeling like we’ve made no progress on our most important work, only to look ahead at the next week and feel the same sense of dread because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

Much of the anxiety associated with academic work stems from a feeling that your schedule is out of your control; that you have no autonomy in planning your day. The purpose of this course is to help you establish a space in your schedule to pause, to reflect, and to build a system of habits and routines for calm productivity.

Aim and objectives

Create a fixed schedule for academic time management that’s planned effectively, with protected time to focus on the work you care about.

The objectives of this course are to:

  1. Establish a fixed working schedule.
  2. Define the different types of tasks in your working context.
  3. Allocate specific tasks to specific blocks of time in your schedule.
  4. Use weekly reviews to plan more effectively.
  5. Batch related tasks for specific days.

Course overview

Working hours Types of tasks Time-blocking Day-theming Weekly reviews Summary