Every new semester, faculty and administrators have a particular goal which is half professional, half personal: Optimize their time, inboxes, and schedule for maximum efficiency. That said, there are a few simple things higher education professionals can do in order to optimize their productivity, especially in this demanding blended learning environment.
One of the recurrent concerns educators bring up in conversations goes around the importance of meetings to eliminate the back-and-forth of email regarding various topics or issues, according to Aye Moah, productivity expert, CEO and Co-founder of Boomerang.
“By planning out the day and week in advance, education professionals benefit from establishing ‘free/busy’ times on their calendars in advance to allow time for both important meetings and the time needed to focus on their most important work,” she said.
The process of scheduling meetings can become a distraction and hinder productivity. “On average, it takes eight emails to schedule a meeting between the back-and-forth to accommodate ever-changing availability,” she said. Smart tools such as Bookable Schedule suggest meeting time based on real-time availability rather than sending recipients an impersonal calendar link.
The tool simplifies the various scheduling needs for meetings with students, donors, vendors, and alumni. By establishing the free-time slots in advance for these types of meetings, education pros can manage their time more effectively, increasing focus and productivity.
Indeed, we do pay a price each time we drop everything and switch activities to satisfy a mental craving. According to a study conducted by the University of California-Irvine, regaining our initial momentum following an interruption can take an average estimate upwards of 20 minutes.
Moreover, Harvard Business Review reported that the University of London found that “we lose as many as 10 IQ points whenever we allow our work to be interrupted by seemingly bending distractions like emails and text messages.”
The Harvard Business Review article, "The Cost of Continuously Checking Email" by Dr. Ron Friedman, award-winning social psychologist and founder of Ignite 80, explores how we can protect our cognitive resources and how “the more you do to minimize task-switching over the course of the day, the more mental bandwidth you’ll have for activities that actually matter.”
Indeed. “The tactic of time blocking to focus on the most important work or task at hand also extends to email,” said Moah. Being able to pause the emails or setting specific times to check emails establishes a boundary letting the attention focus on the work that matters the most.
Automation is another valuable productivity tool for education professionals. “Following up on important emails or removing those messages until you actually need them is an organizational tactic that we knew could be automated,” said Moah.
“You can select to only be reminded if nobody replies, or regardless. This way, you won’t let messages slip through the cracks and will never forget to follow up. A recurrent calendar alert can also serve as a reminder to jog your memory to check-in on emails that have not been responded to, or need to be followed-up on in a timely manner,” she said.
Finally, Moah said that “when these little things are taken care of, it will help you mitigate the risk of allowing your mind to wander to what else you have to do that day, and ultimately allow you to accomplish your most important work.”