As a teacher, facilitator or leader, do you sometimes find it challenging or overwhelming to juggle a number of different tasks? If so, you’re not alone.
There are many approaches to managing your to-do-list and we all engage in learning and development in our own ways. Today, guest writer Lori Wade is going to take us through the process of “time-on-task” as a helpful strategy for you to take on board as a professional in this space.
What is time-on-task?
Time-on-task can be defined as the amount of time you spend being actively involved in the learning process; acquiring new skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes. There are many different principles and strategies available to facilitate learning processes, and time-on-task is a highly effective teaching strategy which can lead to positive results.
Whether you are a teacher, an entrepreneur or a freelance facilitator, enhancing your productivity and efficiency is highly important, and one way to do this is to set time on your tasks and keep track of it.
There are so many tools that provide a time tracking solution, and employing this approach can do wonders to support your task-management skills.
How to employ this strategy in 5 steps
As a teacher, facilitator or leader, preparing for your sessions, engaging with your students or attendees, and managing your own time are all vital considerations.
Below are five steps you can take to ensure a positive impact on your students and attendees learning experiences:
1. Plan and prepare
Knowing that you have a limited time to teach and deliver a session for your students or attendees, every minute counts - and planning can help. Planning and preparing your sessions ahead of time not only builds your own confidence in what you’ll deliver, it’ll also ensure a smooth running of the session itself. This will help you to feel in charge, though it’s also important to remain realistic on the timeframe you allow yourself when preparing activities.
2. Incorporate time management tools
Using a time tracking tool, such as timenotes, can help you to manage your time - from organising the physical or virtual space you’ll be presenting in, to preparing your sessions, executing it, and engaging your attendees. This can also serve as a helpful aid in facilitating the learning process for everyone involved.
3. Allocate time for every learning task
For each activity you deliver, be sure to allocate a specific timeframe to it and make the time known to those attending your session. It’s important to remain realistic when setting the time allocation for the task and also to allow flexiblility when it comes to group tasks - often you’ll find that the engagement and conversation within a the group can lead to rich discussions, for which you’ll want to allow additional time for as well.
4. Set a smooth transition
When switching from one session to another, a smooth and guided transition helps to nurture the learning experience. Be sure to allow a portion of time at the beginning and end of each session for setting a positive tone, ensuring clarity for all involved, and inspiring engagement.
5. Stay focused
Keeping track of your time will help you as a teacher or session leader to stay focused. Distractions are very common, and the possibility of shifting focus on the topic can happen, particularly when you’re engaged in a high level of discussion, debate or questions. If you feel the discussion is suddenly off-topic, one idea you can use is to gently bring everyone’s attention back into the present moment by asking them to pick just one learning outcome that’s stood out for them that day so far. Ask them to write it down, and if there is time, suggest a quick summary by going round the group for each person to share what they’ve written down. So as to not divert attention away again from the task at hand, this helps to keep the timing concise and as such, you’ll connect everyone back to the main topic.
The importance of time tracking
Time tracking can increase productivity, motivation and self-confidence. Managing your priorities, setting time aside to nurture those priorities, and maintaining them helps to enable you to monitor your progress and make adjustments where necessary.
It also helps to reduce stress. There are so many circumstances that can cause stress, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed. Therefore, allocating time to tasks and keeping track of them can help you to feel more calm, improve concentration levels, and an overall sense of control in your working day.
Conclusion
Time-on-task has been employed by many teachers, faciliators and leaders, and the ultimate goal of this strategy is to improve the learning process. I hope this article has enabled you to understand how it works and what you can do to achieve this goal.
You’ll also find this strategy can help to improve your connection with those attending your classes or sessions, leading to an enhanced positive outcome, while at the same time reducing the risk of stress and overwhelm.