Intro to this blog…

I am in love with time management–I don’t always do it well, but I love reading about it, trying out techniques, getting calendars and gadgets to help me be more productive and efficient in my teaching, my research, my service activities, and my life.

I’m an associate professor of Spanish at a large public university in Ohio. Professional expectations here are “traditional.” For tenure and for merit increases, the work load distribution is figured at 40% research, 40% teaching and 20% service. It’s a nice mix and at this point I don’t want to change it, although we can vary the weight of the categories if the chair and dean agree.

I also have two young kids, a house that was built in 1920 and hasn’t seen many improvements since, parents who are getting older and sometimes need help, but are still capable of lending a hand with lots of things (like babysitting)… in short, between work and home, I’ve got a lot to do, just like everyone else.

I thought this blog would be a good way to share and discuss techniques, problems and issues unique to time management for professors, especially those of us in the humanities. (For some reason, the scientists always seem much better organized–maybe it’s because they have to be in the lab for research, maybe it’s just their natural inclination.)

A video that inspired me to write the blog was Randy Pausch’s “Time management” lecture–yes, the Randy Pausch of “The Final Lecture” fame. He says somewhere that he is prouder of the time management lecture than the other, and in fact, we was thrilled when he punched “time management” into Google search and this video came up in number one position. It’s well worth your time to see the whole thing.

This is also available on YouTube and other video viewing sites).

Please read on, comment and make suggestions.