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Dear friends,
Happy new year! I am writing this post early, in preparation for a truly unplugged vacation. I recently facilitated a time-management session with a group of UCSF junior faculty in our K-scholars’ program, all junior faculty with career development awards. It won’t surprise you to learn that I asked everyone to log their time for a week and bring their time log with them to the session. Today I want to share some of the main lessons from that group session. They’re a self-selected group of talented and busy people. I hope that their reflections help you start the year with optimism and energy!
“I don’t work as many hours as I thought I did.” Most people in the room, all junior faculty with career development awards, worked between 40-50 hours per week. Many were surprised when they totaled up their work time. One person noted that they had not worked as much as planned, because they stayed home with a sick kid. Despite this, they managed to get a good amount of work done. You are more productive than you think!
“I spend more time with my kids than I thought I did.” All the parents in the room were surprised by how much time they spent with their children. I suspect that all of you, whether or not you have kids, are already putting your time where your values lie, by investing in personal relationships. Congratulate yourself for putting time and effort into family and friends!
“I guess I do have some work-life balance.” People had many activities on their time log that were neither work nor family- it could be taking a walk or reading a book or grabbing a drink with a friend. For some reason, it’s hard to remember that you are making time for your leisure, but you are. Keep doing the things that feed your soul!
“There are some things that just have to get done.” Laundry, groceries, and other basic human tasks take time. When I asked the group if they had to be the one to do these things, it prompted an interesting discussion. We have a wide range of approaches, means, and strategies to handle the logistics of daily living. In the room, people expressed strong and ingrained beliefs about what they should spend their time on, and they differed quite a bit from person to person. My question to you is: are your beliefs about time obligations serving you? Are these beliefs helping you reach your goals and fulfill your mission? Perhaps, find one thing you do with your time to re-envision for where you are now.
“I suck at multi-tasking.” Just don’t even try. It is not conductive to efficiency or quality (as you already know, right?!) If you find yourself multi-tasking, ask yourself why- with compassion. Usually, it’s because you don’t want to do the thing you have to do. Reschedule it for another time, or get it out of the way quickly, or strategize about who can help you, or decide not to do it, but please don’t try to do it while watching TV and hanging out with your family! Can we all make a resolution not to pretend to multi-task in 2020? It just doesn’t work. (I will make one- exception- required annual online trainings. You’re allowed to multi-task on those.)
I’ll end with my usual request for good news. I love to amplify your successes! As always, feel free to forward this email, and let others know they can sign up for the monthly updates here. For 2020, I wish you peace, joy, funded grants, and accepted papers!
Happy new year,
Urmimala