1. 13
Managing Time

2. Learning Outcomes Identify time wasters. Identify goals.
Set priorities.
Group activities and minimize routine work.
Manage personal organization and self-discipline.
Minimize time wasters.

3. Time Management
No one manages time, but we can determine how we use time

4. Organizational Factors
Job enlargement
Organizational structure that can affect time demands
Flatter organizational structure
Positions combined, with managers having more staff to supervise

5. Time Wasters Staff interruptions Meetings without a clear purpose
Goals, objectives, and priorities that are not measurable
Plans without time parameters

6. Time Wasters Disorganized files or papers Time logs, not analyzed
Tasks/activities that can be delegated
Waiting for others
Inability to say no

7. Time Logs
Examine your planner or appointment book to determine how you spend your time
Determine time wasters and activities that can be delegated to others or eliminated

8. Goals
Goals provide a guide, a time frame, and a way to measure accomplishments

9. Goal Categories Department or unit Interpersonal Professional
Financial
Social

10. Goal Categories Vacation and travel Physical Lifestyle Community
Spiritual

11. Managing Goals Identify objectives to be achieved
Describe specific activities necessary to achieve these objectives
Estimate time required for each activity
Determine planned activities for concurrent action versus sequential
Identify activities that can be delegated

12. Prioritizing – Urgent and Important
A patient’s condition becomes life threatening and you have other patients who need your care
How do you handle the situation?
Have students identify how they would ask for assistance and ask other nurses to check in on their patients
While they are handling the life threatening situation.

13. Prioritizing – Important but Not Urgent
You are the clinical preceptor for a nurse resident who needs to debrief about how he communicated with the case manager about a patient’s discharge plans
How do you handle the situation?

14. Prioritizing – Urgent but Not Important
Today is the deadline to submit a quality assurance report about decubitus ulcers; the study results demonstrate that staff practice is consistent with standards and the decubitus ulcer rate is decreasing
How do you handle the situation?

15. Minimize Routine Work
Group similar items within the divisions of the work shift
Group routine tasks during the least productive time
Use transition or waiting time productively
Implement the daily plan and follow up

16. Self-Discipline
Work from clearly defined priorities based on measurable, achievable objectives
Establish realistic commitments to manage time effectively

17. Self-Discipline
Explain to your superior how being overloaded will have consequences on your assignments
Communicate your own needs to others

18. Interruptions
Each time you are stopped in the middle of one activity to give attention to something else, you are wasting valuable time
How can you approach interruptions to save time?

19. Interruption Log List interruptions that occur
Describe how the interruption affects your work
Analyze interruptions to determine patterns
Calculate how much time is wasted

20. Paperwork Plan and schedule times for paperwork
Sort paperwork for effective processing
Send every communication online
Analyze paperwork frequently
Do not be a paper shuffler; handle paper once

21. Other Interruptions Phone calls, text messages E-mail
Set a specific time for them
Check only at specific times

22. Other Interruptions Drop-in visitors Meetings
Control frequency and duration
Meetings
Schedule only as necessary, have an agenda, and set time limit