Teaching Tip: Manage tasks, not time

July 28, 2015

Marissa Carl

Whether you’re designing a new course or revising an existing one, it’s a lot of work. And work equals time, right? Yes, but we’re not organizing our to-do lists in the most useful way. When sitting down to a long list of tasks, business psychologist Tony Crabbe suggests that working according to the task and not the time allotted to complete the task is more successful.

For example, one critical element of all coursework is establishing the contemporary context — why does the coursework matter? The answer evolves as the discipline evolves, and creating a forum for sharing up-to-date information with your students as the semester progresses can be helpful.

In a face-to-face course, sharing this type of information is a fairly intuitive part of standing in front of your students and talking to them. In an online environment, however, it may feel less natural to address your students conversationally, or to include information in your course that isn’t directly related to assessment. Instead of front-loading all of the content into an online course, then, it is helpful to create a reminder for yourself: “I will create one weekly post devoted to non-mandatory but discipline-relevant information to share with my students.”

Crabbe’s argument, ultimately, is that when we’re watching the clock, work begets more work. But when we prioritize our work according to tasks, then we naturally use our time more wisely.

-- Teaching Tip by Brooke Sheridan, UAF eLearning instructional designer

Read the full Teaching Tip on iTeachU.