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shopping, and cleaning. Previously, Alinore never box 11-2
asked him for help. Cooking meals was clustered:
Ten Frequent Activities That Infringe
Alinore made all the meals in 1 day and then froze on Time
and labeled them to be used later. This left time for
• Managing by crisis
other activities. Alinore graduated at the top of her • Telephone calls
class and subsequently completed her BSN. She • Poor planning
became a clinical preceptor for other associate degree • Taking on too much
nursing students on a pediatric unit in a county • Unexpected visitors
• Improper delegation
hospital. She never did get to Tahiti, though.
• Disorganization
• Inability to say no
Employers pay nurses for their time. Does that • Procrastinating
mean that nurses “sell” their time? If so, then nurs- • Meetings
es “own” their time. Looking at time from this per- Adapted from the ABA Career Resource Center, http://www.abanet.org/
spective changes the point of view about time, as careercounsel/prelaw/5timeprelawtips.pdf
nurses then manage their own time to accomplish
patient care tasks.
Time management means handling time with a beginning of the next day. Do not include routine
measure of proficiency. Therefore, time manage- tasks because they will make the list too long and
ment means meeting patient care needs skillfully you will do them without the extra reminder.
during a nursing shift (Navuluri, 2001). Organizing If you are a team leader, place the unique tasks
work eliminates extra steps or serious delays in of the day on the list: team conference, telephone
completing it. Organizing also reduces the amount calls to families, discussion of a new project, or in-
of time spent in activities that are neither produc- service demonstration of a new piece of equip-
tive nor satisfying. ment. You may also want to arrange these tasks in
Working on the most difficult tasks when you order of their priority, starting with those that
have the most energy decreases frustration later in must be done that day. Ask yourself the following
the day when you may be more tired and less effi- questions regarding the tasks on the list
cient. To begin managing your time, develop a (Moshovitz, 1993):
clear understanding of how you use your time.
■ What is the relative importance of each of these
Creating a personal time inventory helps you
tasks?
estimate how much time you spend on typical
■ How much time will each task require?
activities. Keeping the inventory for a week gives
■ When must each task be completed?
a fairly accurate estimate of how you spend your
■ How much time and energy have to be devoted
time. The inventory also helps identify “time
to these tasks?
wasters” (Gahar, 2000).
MacKenzie (1990) identified 20 of the biggest If you find yourself postponing an item for several
time wasters. Some of these come directly from the days, decide whether to give it top priority the next
work environment,whereas others are personal char- day or drop it from the list as an unnecessary task.
acteristics. To avoid time wasters, take control. It is The list should be in a user-friendly form: on
important to prevent endless activities and other your electronic organizer, in your pocket, or on a
people controlling you (American Bar Association clipboard. Checking the list several times a day
Career Resource Center, n.d.). Every day, set priori- quickly becomes a good habit. Computerized
ties to help you meet your goals.Ten frequent activ- calendar-creator programs help in setting priori-
ities that infringe on time are in Box 11-2. ties and guiding daily activities. Many of these
are found on the Internet or intranet of an insti-
Lists tution. These programs can be set to appear on
One of the most useful organizers is the “to do”list. the desktop when you turn on your computer to
You can make this list either at the end of every day give an overview of the day, week, or month. This
or at the beginning of each day before you do any- calendar acts as an automated to-do list. Your
thing else. Some people say they do it at the end of daily list may become your most important time
the day because something always interferes at the manager (Box 11-3).