Introduction
DISPLAY 9.3 Sample Time Management and Productivity Apps for Students
Timeful (iOS): an app that acts as a calendar and to-do list, allowing users to keep their entire schedule in one place
Evernote: allows users to gather all their notes, thoughts, and ideas in one place across as many devices as they want, making it possible to locate all their different university assignments, plans, and
inspirations in just one click
Focus Booster: allows users to break up their schedule into manageable chunks, using the Pomodoro method (essentially a timer that splits up your revision sessions with a number of little breaks in order to keep you as productive as possible)
30/30 (iOS): allows users to set timers to complete specific tasks
Remember the Milk: functions seamlessly around other time management tools already set up on users’ devices. Earning a worthy name as the “veritable Swiss army knife of to-do list management” from Lifehacker, Remember the Milk helps users to complete tasks, organize their schedule, and set up
multiple-platform reminders for their most important appointments.
Any.do (iOS/Android): allows users to organize their day by creating reminders, to-do lists, notes, and events and storing them on the clean and easy-to-use Any.do interface
Listastic: essentially just a digital list tracker
Finish (iOS): a to-do list app that provides the reward of a checkmark when tasks are accomplished.
Users can also defer set tasks, which, although seemingly counterproductive, allows for ongoing development without penalty.
Epic Win (iOS): functions like most other to-do list apps but with one major difference: Every time users complete a task, they earn XP, which goes toward improving their in-app character in an “ongoing quest to improve stats, gain riches and level-up.”
Coach.me (iOS): formerly known as “Lift,” works much like Facebook and other social networking sites, allowing users to utilize a community of friends focused on productivity online and to share their thoughts among them
Prezi: allows users to create presentations anywhere and everywhere and make them available across all their devices
Super Notes (iOS): allows the saving of notes, recordings, images, and more, so university students can better follow lectures without having to worry about writing everything down
Mind 42: an online-only mind mapping application, which allows users to create and build visual idea trackers in the form of spider diagrams, lists, thought clouds, and more
Google Keep (Android): a pin board–style app, which allows users to pin notes, make lists, and add photos to a well-designed and easily updateable homepage which works across any Android device
Source: Extracted from Tucker, L. (2015). Top time management apps for students in 2015. Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.topuniversities.com/blog/top-time-management-apps-students-2015
Whether you are a student, a manager, or a staff nurse, planning takes time; it requires the ability to think, analyze data, envision alternatives, and make decisions. Examples of the types of plans a charge nurse might make in day-to-day planning include staffing schedules, patient care assignments, coordination of lunch- and work-break schedules, and interdisciplinary coordination of patient care. Examples of an acute care staff nurse’s day-to-day planning might include determining how handoff reports will be given and received; the timing and method used for initial patient assessments; the coordination of medication administration, treatments, and procedures; and the organization of documentation of the day’s activities.
LEARNING EXERCISE
9.1
Making Big Projects Manageable
T
hink of the last major paper you wrote for a class. Did you set short-term and intermediate deadlines?Did you break the task down into smaller tasks to eliminate a last-minute crisis? What short-term and intermediate deadlines have you set to accomplish major projects that have been assigned to you this quarter or semester? Are you realistic about the time that will be required to complete the task or are you likely to experience planning fallacies?
The Time-Efficient Work Environment
Some staff nurses appear disorganized in their efforts to care for patients. This may be the result of poor planning or it may be a symptom of a work environment that is not conducive to efficient time management.
The following suggestions, using industrial engineering principles, may assist the staff nurse in planning work activities, especially when the environment poses obstacles to time efficiency:
Gather all the supplies and equipment that will be needed before starting an activity. Breaking a job down mentally into parts before beginning the activity may help the staff nurse identify what supplies and equipment will be needed to complete the activity.
Group activities that are in the same location. If you have walked a long distance down a hallway, attempt to do several things there before going back to the nurses’ station. If you are a home health nurse, group patient visits geographically when possible to minimize travel time and maximize time with patients.
Use time estimates. For example, if you know an intermittent intravenous medication (IV piggyback) will take 30 minutes to complete, then use that time estimate for planning some other activity that can be completed in that 30-minute window of time.
Document your nursing interventions as soon as possible after an activity is completed. Waiting until the end of the workday to complete necessary documentation increases the risk of inaccuracies and
incomplete documentation.
Always strive to end the workday on time. Although this is not always possible, delegating appropriately to others and making sure that the workload goal for any given day is reasonable are two strategies that will accomplish this goal.
Like staff nurses, unit managers need to coordinate how their duties will be carried out and devise methods to make work simpler and more efficient. Often, this includes simple tasks such as organizing how supplies are stored or determining the most efficient lunch and break schedules for staff. In addition, it is the manager’s responsibility to see that units are appropriately stocked with the equipment nurses need to do their work. This reduces the time spent in trying to locate needed supplies.
Daily planning actions that may help the unit manager identify and utilize time as a resource most efficiently might include the following:
At the start of each workday, identify key priorities to be accomplished that day. Identify what specific actions need to be taken to accomplish those priorities and in what order they should be done. Also, identify specific actions that should be taken to meet ongoing, long-term goals.
Determine the level of achievement that you expect for each prioritized task. Is a maximizing or
“satisficing” approach more appropriate or more reasonable for each of the goals you have identified?
Assess the staff assigned to work with you. Assign work that must be delegated to staff members who are both capable and willing to accomplish the priority task that you have identified. Be sure that you have clearly expressed any expectations you may have about how and when a delegated task must be completed. (Delegation is discussed further in Chapter 20.)
Review the short- and long-term plans of the unit regularly. Include colleagues and subordinates in identifying unit problems or concerns so that they can be fully involved in planning for needed change.
Plan ahead for meetings. Prepare and distribute agendas in advance.
Allow time at several points throughout the day and at the end of the day to assess progress in meeting established daily goals and to determine if unanticipated events have occurred or if new information has been received that may have altered your original plan. Ongoing realities for the unit manager include work situations that are constantly changing, and with them, setting new priorities and adjusting older ones.
Take regularly scheduled breaks. Planning for periodic breaks from work during the workday is an integral part of an individual’s time and task management. These work breaks allow both managers and staff to refresh physically and mentally.
Using an electronic calendar to organize your day can help make a day feel less chaotic. It can also help you identify pockets of spare time that you could use for breaks.
Setting new priorities or adjusting priorities to reflect ever-changing work situations is an ongoing reality for the manager.
LEARNING EXERCISE
9.2
Setting Daily Priorities
A
ssume that you are the registered nurse (RN) leader of a team with one licensed vocational nurse and one nursing assistant on the 7 AM to 3 PM shift at an acute care hospital. The three of you are responsible for providing total care to 10 patients. Prioritize the following list of 10 things that you need to accomplish this morning. Use a “1” for the first thing you will do and a “10” for the last. Be prepared to provide rationale for your priorities.___ Check medication cards/sheets against the patient medication record.
___ Listen to night shift report 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM.
___ Take brief walking rounds to assess the night shift report and to introduce yourself to patients.
___ Hang four 9:00 AM IV medications.
___ Set up the schedule for breaks and lunch among your team members.
___ Give 8:45 AM preop on patient going to surgery at 9:00 AM. ___ Pass 8:30 AM breakfast trays.
___ Meet with team members to plan the schedule for the day and to clarify roles.
___ Read charts of patients who are new to you.
___ Check 6:00 AM blood glucose laboratory results for 7:30 AM insulin administration.
Priority Setting and Procrastination
Because most individuals are inundated with requests for their time and energy, the next step in time management is prioritizing, which may well be the key to good time management. Unfortunately, some individuals lack self-awareness about what is important and therefore how to spend their time.
Priority setting is perhaps the most critical skill in good time management because all actions we take have some type of relative importance.
One simple means of prioritizing what needs to be accomplished is to divide all requests into three categories:
“don’t do,” “do later,” and “do now” (Display 9.4). The don’t do items probably reflect problems that will take care of themselves, are already outdated, or are better accomplished by someone else. The individual either throws away the unnecessary information or passes it on to the appropriate person in a timely fashion.
In either case, the individual removes unneeded clutter from his or her work area.