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Dear friends,
The title of this email comes from an observation that September, not January, is the right time to initiate new habits or enact resolutions. (Of course, it is the new year for the Jewish side of our family. Early Shanah Tovah to all of you who are celebrating!) Perhaps it’s the start of the school year, or the end of summertime adventures that heralds a return to routine and, hopefully, productivity.
One tool that can help set the stage for a successful habit change or resolution is data. Based on the book the book I Know How She Does It, by Laura Vanderkam, I recommend logging how you spend your time for an entire week. Here’s a time log template the author uses. The author collected these time logs from mothers earning $100,000 or more, and the book has a number of excellent strategies gleaned from these very efficient participants. For me, though, the most useful lesson came from tracking my own time. I thought I knew what I was doing with my time, and I was wrong! I underestimated the time I spent driving from campus to campus during work hours and the number of hours devoted to meetings/ administrative tasks. I also learned that I was chronically underestimating the time it took to do certain tasks, like reviewing a paper for a journal. Logging my time freed me from feeling bad about myself for not getting more done and instead allowed me to acknowledge that I need to recalibrate how long it takes to do the work. I also learned that I work fewer hours than I thought I did, and surprisingly, this helped with feelings of burnout.
I challenge you to start on Monday- track your time, and let me know what you learn. If you have any September resolutions, tell me about those, too.
I hope September and the rest of the year are off to a wonderful start for all of you. One unexpected benefit of sending these emails is receiving responses with your news and updates. Please keep in touch!
Warmly,
Urmimala