Time Management/Organizational Skills

Click to edit Master subtitle style Qais Alefan

B.Pharm, R.Ph., M.Pharm, PhD

3/30/12

THE NEED FOR TIME MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS

There are 24 hours in a day! in technology and other areas are all about saving time time management can lead to frustration, stress, and a failure to complete daily tasks time management can cause others to lose respect for and faith in us can also be compromised3/30/12

Advances

Poor

Poor

Safety

COMMON MYTHS/PITFALLS
I dont have time . . .
We

all have 24 hours in every day to accomplish what we need difference is how we choose to spend our time consciously decide how to spend our time was your choice to go to pharmacy school ... next time that you feel compelled to say, I dont have time to, rephrase it to, I cant take the

The

We

It

The

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COMMON MYTHS/PITFALLS
Im too busy . . .
Do Find

not take on as many tasks

your success limit, and maintain it! to popular belief, the busier people are, the more productive they are may not be able to prioritize their responsibilities very well or may be easily distracted or consistently interrupted feel stressed out and guilty if
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Contrary

People

You

COMMON MYTHS/PITFALLS
This

My personal time management skills have nothing to do with how I manage time at work

is because we are proactive at home (i.e., pay bills, etc.), whereas pharmacy practice is often reactive (fill medication orders as they come in) is possible that a person might be completely organized at home and a train wreck at work, but this is a rare and unusual case good news is that these skills can be learned
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It

The

COMMON MYTHS/PITFALLS
I need time to focus in order to . .
The

ability to multitask is an absolute necessity for any pharmacist or pharmacy student does not mean doing several things concurrently it does mean, however, is that it is important that you have the ability to switch gears easily and maintain a sharp mind so that you can give your undivided attention for a few moments to the task at hand and then move on

This

What

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COMMON MYTHS/PITFALLS
Im a perfectionist . . .
It

is certainly important to do your best and to always put your best foot forward, but as a pharmacy student or pharmacist with many demands on your time, it is critical that you distinguish which tasks must be perfect and which can be less than perfect and preparation of chemotherapeutic agents, for example, should be as close to perfect as possible a paper five times for a 33/30/12

Dosing

Revising

COMMON MYTHS/PITFALLS
Some

They didnt teach time management in my curriculum

pharmacy schools provide regular workshops for students or parts of courses devoted to time management, study skills, stress management, and other pharmacy school and life survival skills your school is not one of those, however, this lecture is here to help there are books and articles that can serve to help you become a successful time manager

If

Additionally,

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REAL TIME MANAGEMENTHOW TO DO IT

The

steps involved in practicing better time management are:

Recognize the need for improvement Conduct an honest self-reflection or analysis of how you currently use your time Establish your mission and set goals Get organized Take action Review, revise, and modify
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Recognize the Need for Improvement

Almost all literature that describes successful behavioral change programs, start at this point you have decided already that your time management skills could use some improvement you have not decided this, then the chances of your being able to improve are much less

Hopefully,

If

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Conduct an Honest Self-Reflection or Analysis of How You Currently Use Your Time
Conduct

a review of how you currently spend your typical day or week yourself key questions to identify problem areas and how you should best plan your time of the most useful tools is to keep a time journal a calendar, document how you spend your time in blocks of 15 mints this for an entire week, and be honest a week, analyze those areas where you 3/30/12 think your time could have been better spent (city

Ask

One

On

Do

After

Conduct an Honest Self-Reflection or Analysis of How You Currently Use Your Time
When

conducting the analysis, ask yourself these questions with regard to each activity:
Why am I doing this? What is the goal? Why will I succeed? Is what I am doing at this minute moving me toward my objective? What will happen if I choose not to do it?

A few

general questions about how your time is spent:

What am I doing that does not really need to be done? 3/30/12 What am I doing that could be done by someone

Conduct an Honest Self-Reflection or Analysis of How You Currently Use Your Time
Create

a pie chart to visually depict where your time was spent Ask yourself 12 questions when reviewing a day in your time log 1. What went right today? What went wrong? Why? 2. What time did I start my top-priority task ? Why? Could I have started earlier in the day? 3. What patterns and habits are apparent from my time log? 4. Did I spend the first hour of my [work] day doing important work?
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Establish Your Mission and Set Goals

Setting

short- and long-term personal and professional goals helps to determine priorities and stay focused your personal mission statement; from this, all your goals and priorities should flow personal mission statement, or philosophy, focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values and principles upon

Write

Your

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Get Organized

There are several steps help to get organized:

Sort through tasks Create a master list Schedule tasks Use a system

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Get Organized
Sort Through Tasks
Each

time we get a new piece of mail, an assignment, we need to decide how we are going to use that and do something with it-file it, recycle it, or read it later need to set up a filing system that works for us it is not bad to have a read it later pile as long as you make sure that you schedule some time to actually read through the papers same ideas apply to e-mail messages and computer documents
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We

Also,

These

Get Organized
Create a Master List
Organizing

and prioritizing your tasks are often more difficult a master list of all the tasks and then prioritize and schedule them can create your master list on your computer, on paper, in your planner have more than one master list, a work list and a home list sure that you keep your list(s) in
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Create

You

Some

Make

Get Organized
Prioritize Tasks
The

more difficult task is determining how to approach the multitude of tasks on your list. Where do you start? it can be overwhelming to think about if you have a variety of tasks that all seem very important approaches to prioritize tasks:
1. 2. 3.

Sometimes

Three

Goal-achievement approach Deadline approach Consequences approach

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Get Organized
Prioritize Tasks
Goal-achievement

approach

Prioritize tasks that you know will directly help you achieve your goals as most important (GPA of 3.5 or higher, at least 4 hours)

The

deadline approach

when are your tasks due? is easy when the deadlines have been set by others is not as effective, however, when certain tasks have no deadlines or when you have to set a deadline yourself

Consequence

approach

What will happen if this task is not completed or not 3/30/12 completed on time?

Get Organized
Schedule Tasks
Allow

yourself more time than you think you will need to complete a task is always better to under commit and over deliver (telling a patient that her prescription will be ready in 15 minutes) yourself of the phenomenon things always take longer than I think they will to allow for unexpected interruptions
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It

Convince

Get Organized
Use a System
The

busier you are and the more tasks you need to complete, the more you should rely on some sort of planner system to stay organized approaches that you may find useful:

Several

Paper calendar Paper-based planner/organizer systems Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and computer programs
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Take Action
Realities

of human nature and how we normally spend our time:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

We do what we like to do before we do what we do not like to do We tackle what we know how to do faster than we tackle what we do not know how to do We do activities that we have resources for We do things that are scheduled before we do nonscheduled things We respond to the demands of others before we respond to demands from

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Take Action
Always

keep the big picture in mindthink of the goals that you want to achieve and how completing a task will help you do that self-motivation is important when you are trying to change your behavior your work, and then work your actions to help you stay plan

Constant

Plan

Three

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Take Action
Helpful

hints to improve your time management

skills:

Take care of yourself Most people do their best work in the morning, so tackle the tough projects at that time Schedule meetings and less intensive activities in the afternoon Check your e-mail and phone messages only twice a day Cluster tasks and activities together when possible Quantity does not equal quality Busy does not equal productive Working harder does not equal working smarter Reward yourself
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Review/Revise/Modify
It

is important periodically to review all the steps that you went through to determine if your system is working well

Are you accomplishing tasks and goals to your satisfaction? Are you feeling less stressed? Do you procrastinate less often? Have your preferences or your style changed in any way? Do you want to try out a new organizational system? Have your goals or priorities changed? What major changes have occurred in your life to 3/30/12

Review/Revise/Modify
Questions

help us review our goals and priorities to see if they have changed:

Do you feel as strongly about your priority (goal) as you did when you set it? Do you reward yourself for daily or weekly successes? Are you adhering to your priority (goal) deadline? Do you spread yourself too thin and run out of time? Do you review your activities to determine which ones can be shortened, reorganized, or terminated?

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Review/Revise/Modify
As

long as you are making progress toward your goals, that is what is most important slow and steady wins the race that as much as we might like to, we will never have complete control over all our time the Serenity Prayer:

Remember, Remember

Recall

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change The courage to change those things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference

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TIME MANAGEMENT IN PHARMACY PRACTICE

Certainly,

however, time management skills in practice depend on the type of job you have you have a position that is more administrative, project-based, or appointment based, you will have more control over how your time is spent, and you can better use many of the skills described in this lecture most pharmacy environments, however, 3/30/12 we do not get to determine how we spend

If

In

TIME MANAGEMENT IN PHARMACY PRACTICE

Make

full use of pharmacy technicians. One example is never to answer the phone yourself unless it is a prescribers line (e.g., doctors) a variety of dispensing technologies and robotics, automated refill phone lines and Web sites technicians and pharmacists job descriptions so that technicians perform most technical duties and pharmacists can concentrate on reviewing and monitoring patients drug therapy, as well as engaging in patient and provider 3/30/12

Implement

Reconfiguring

STRESS AS A PRIMARY CONSEQUENCE OF POOR TIME MANAGEMENT

Individual

characteristics related to job stress include balance between work and personal life, a persons outlook on life, the stressfulness of family life, and various aspects of personality issue of balance, in all aspects of ones life, is the heart of this lecture it has been shown that pharmacy students reported higher stress levels as students than they did as practicing 3/30/12 pharmacists

The

Interestingly,

STRESS AS A PRIMARY CONSEQUENCE OF POOR TIME MANAGEMENT

If

students feel stressed about school and perhaps their internship, they likely might suffer similar consequences as pharmacists:

dissatisfaction with their Pharm.D. program or internship lower commitment to completing ones degree program or even pharmacy as a career quitting school or the internship or both The potential for substance abuse and burnout

Thankfully,

coworker social support, or the material and emotional support received from ones coworkers, has been shown to buffer the impact of 3/30/12 job stress on job dissatisfaction

STRESS AS A PRIMARY CONSEQUENCE OF POOR TIME MANAGEMENT

How

one copes with stress also makes a difference; problem-focused coping strategies, where one attempts to tackle the problems at hand, are most effective in reducing the impact of job stress on job dissatisfaction time management strategies could be an example of a problem-focused coping strategy based coping strategies, such as distancing oneself from the problem or trying to 3/30/12 avoid the problem, are unsuccessful

Implementing

Emotionally

CONCLUSION
The

goal of this lecture was to raise awareness about the importance of time management in ones personal and professional lives should have come away with concrete strategies about how to improve my skills so that I can achieve my full potential time management is not about managing time, its about managing yourself - and all of us can probably use at least some improvement so that we can be more effective in all that we do

Remember,

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Thank you
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3/30/12