Week 4: Prioritize

Homework

The following homework is designed to cover the course objectives for this unit.

1. Writing assignment 1: Reflect: How is Stress Related to Time-Management?

In class, or as homework, free-write for at least 15 minutes on the following question: How is stress related to time-management?

2. Exercise 1: Assess: Are You a Procrastinator?

Take the following three assessments in the Prentice Hall Self-Assessment Library:

Am I a Procrastinator?
What Time of Day am I Most Productive?
How Good Am I at Personal Planning?

To access the assessments, follow this path:
1. To re-visit SAL: Go to http://www.prenhall.com/sal. Click on Log in to Self-Assessment Library. Follow the prompts under the Returning Users section by entering your personal login name and password to return to your SAL assessments.
2. On the drop-down menu under Assessments, navigate to the three assessments.
3. Choose What about me? > Decision Making Insights
Am I a Procrastinator?
4. Choose What about me? > Other
What Time of Day am I Most Productive?
How Good Am I at Personal Planning?

Print your assessment Reports. You may also wish to save them or email them to your personal email.

3. Analysis 1: Plan: Keeping Time

Introduction:

Good time-management is a skill that should develop from a mature outlook on life and a sense of what amount of time certain priorities in your life will take. Time-management can naturally fall out of a good sense of priorities. However, everyone has the potential to prioritize incorrectly sometimes, and sometimes we even procrastinate. After taking the self-assessments on your own potential procrastination risk, plus assessments on your prime times of day and planning capabilities today, the next step is to see these elements as unified parts of a whole: your personal schedule framework.

Your schedule is important because without a reasonable amount of time-budgeting, we would all tend to devote too much time to one task and neglect another. In a chaotic life, potential is neglected; it can fall between the cracks of the time you’re wasting.

If wasting time is the same as wasting opportunity, it’s definitely not something you want to do at this critical time in your life! This Plan assignment asks you to create a personal equation for time-management success, based on the notion that you are in control of your time. External factors may complicate things, but ultimately it’s you who decides how to spend your time.
Let’s get started.

Task 1:

Examine the reports from the self-assessments on procrastination, best time of day, and planning. Using the chart ahead, fill in your answers. Download the chart here.

Did you start to wonder what the rainbow color-coding was about?
Well, think of bright RED as a danger zone. If your answers tended to be red or orange, you must look at these areas closely. The time of day in red indicates a time NOT to plan important activities, for example, while your green-zone time is your most alert time of day. The green and blue areas are those in which you are in good shape.

NOTE: If you receive this handout in black-and-white: 1=RED/2=ORANGE/3=YELLOW/4=BLUE/5=GREEN)
So, what color (or number) is YOUR time and planning potential?

Task 2:

a) Write a list of five things that "zap your time," or those things on which you perceive you waste time. At least two of these things should be things you ENJOY doing.

b) Next, looking at your time worksheet from this assignment, assign two of the items identified in (a) to the time slot in which you are least alert (but not sleeping). Write down these two enjoyable but non-critical items and the time you are giving them.

c) Finally, write one paragraph describing a short-term personal strategy for reassigning low-stakes tasks and things to do that you enjoy but for which you really do not have much time. These tasks should be reassigned to time slots of a day when you would be least productive on a critical work or school task.

4. Project 1: Apply: Time is Not My Enemy! A Personal Schedule Framework for Today and Tomorrow

Introduction:

Now that you have looked at your "personal primetime" (the time of day you’re most alert), your current state of planning aptitude, and your level of procrastination, you’re ready to make a preliminary personal schedule framework. Create a chart similar to or identical to the one below: (Use Word or Excel, whichever you prefer.) You can download an example here.

First, look at your "personal primetimes," and block these out.
Next, gray out the times when you are least alert and ready to work.
Make a list of tasks that must be accomplished this week. Then, take items off of this list and fill them in the chart, paying heed to when you are most alert (put the most difficult tasks there) and when you are least alert (put lower priority or stress-relieving items in these slots.)

Finally, use this schedule for at least three days. After three days, write two paragraphs describing how your new personal schedule worked for you. Include what did not work, and how you think you might redo these aspects in your next version.

Delivery of this Unit’s Assignments:

By this point, you should have gained enough familiarity with Word to complete your assignments using it. You may have already attended the Lab this unit and have comfort in Excel. You can also use Excel in creating your Personal Schedule Framework as a spreadsheet that you can continually update.

Use Garmanond 12 point font, non-bold, double-spaced with spaces between questions or paragraphs.

Attach your reflection from the Writing Assignment and the assessment reports from the Exercise. In addition, attach your Time and Planning Potential worksheet and the other deliverables for the Analysis. Finally, also attach your deliverables for the Project.

Lab:

Lab 1: Microsoft Excel Project 1 Tutorial

What is the purpose?

This is the first Microsoft Excel tutorial lab. You may have had some experience already with the Microsoft Excel or you may not have had any experience at all. These labs are designed to meet you where you’re at. You can start at the beginning by going through this first tutorial whose purpose is to introduce you to the software. You will learn to open a spreadsheet, enter text, perform a simple sort and auto filter, modify a chart, and save and print in Project 1. If you are already familiar with Microsoft Excel and feel you have mastered these skills, you can skip this tutorial entirely and go directly to the Lab Assignment (test). If you can test out with a passing grade of 80% or better, you should proceed to Project 2 tutorial and test. If you have extra time after that, consider going on to additional Projects. Each unit you should do at least one tutorial and take at least one test. Don’t worry about getting through all of the labs listed for this course and not having anything to do at the end of the course! We have more! Let your Instructor know when you reach the end of the labs listed for the course and you will be set up with the ability to move onto more advanced levels.

A word of caution, though, if you think you want to fly through these; though this lab starts with the basics, the tutorials quickly move into new realms. There are always new tricks to learn in these programs that will make your life easier!

What are the steps?
Go to TAIT.
Go through either the following Microsoft Excel tutorials or at least one other Microsoft Excel tutorial. If your Microsoft Excel skills are more advanced than this unit’s lessons, consider taking the Microsoft Excel Project 1 test and moving on to the Project 2 tutorial and test.

Task 1: Microsoft Excel Project 1

Procedure:
Complete the following lessons for Microsoft Word in the TRAIN AND ASSESS IT program
Microsoft Excel Project 1:

Lesson 1: Identifying the Parts of an Excel Screen
Lesson 2: Opening and Saving a Workbook
Lesson 3: Viewing and Editing Contents
Lesson 4: Modifying a Chart
Lesson 5: Performing a Simple Sort and Filter
Lesson 6: Using Buttons to Preview and Print
Lesson 7: Getting Help
Lesson 8: Closing a Workbook and Exiting Excel

Task 2: Microsoft Excel Exam 1

Go through the Microsoft Excel tutorial and then take the Microsoft Excel Exam I. You can access this through TAIT. If your skills in Microsoft Excel are advanced, you can take this test without going through the tutorials for the unit if you go through at least one other Project tutorial and take the exam for that Project.

Did it work?
Were you able to successfully complete all of the lessons in Microsoft Excel Project 1?
Do you feel confident to perform all these tasks in real life?