Even more about Swiss Cheese

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Today’s post starts with a caveat about Swiss Cheese—not the kind of cheese you see on the party platter, but the time management method of using small amounts of empty time to complete tasks.  

The caveat: beware of using the Swiss Cheese time management method to an extreme. A few years ago my husband Terry and I discovered that we were both “doing one more thing” while we were waiting for the other person. However, it was easy to solve the problem with clear communication. Today if I am emptying the dishwasher and he is sorting the mail when it is almost time to head out the door, I simply ask him, “Are we each doing one more thing while we wait for each other?”

Problem solved.

Another less often used description of the SwissCheese time management method is just as helpful as the one I described in the December 2016 post.  In his book, Doing it Now, Edwin Bliss describes the Swiss Cheese Method as “Make yourself do any small thing toward completing your task. ‘Poke holes in the task’ until it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to finish it.” 

Whether the task is to write a paper for school or create a proposal for a workgroup, start poking holes. The first hole to poke might just be to list all the details that will make up the task.

One hole for the school project might be to gather resources—that’s all, just do a quick internet search. Another hole might be to narrow the resources into the best five or ten by title. Another hole might be to skim one of the resources—you get the picture.

One hole for the work project might be to list what you already know. Another hole might be to list what you need to find out. Another hole might be to list people in the industry who could give good advice—again you get the picture.

Using the mindset of poking holes in a project until it seems manageable takes away any feelings of being overwhelmed and indeed makes the project manageable.

This Swiss Cheese method takes starting well ahead of the deadline and meshes well with the other Swiss Cheese method of using small amounts of free time.

By the time I write another post, another year will have started and I will adopt my annual anchor word. I am using some Swiss Cheese time to mull over what the 2017 anchor will be and have almost made my final decision. 

Consider what you will emphasize for yourself in the coming year. Leave a comment if you wish. 

Prioritize, focus, beat the clock—even if it means cutting the cheese

 Read time is approximately 2 1/2 minutes

Last post we discussed three surprising tips that connect decluttering to reaching success.  Today let’s focus on two more practices for de-cluttering and using time wisely and that are particularly useful during this busy, busy holiday season.

1.       Beat the Clock

I call the first time management practice “beat the clock” because it actually involves using a timer. The strategy combines prioritizing and focusing when I de-clutter and/or clean my house. First I determine how much time I have to complete the cleaning job that particular day and divide the time by the number of rooms I must clean to see how much time I can spend on each room. For instance, if I have eight rooms to clean in four hours (240 minutes), I can spend 30 minutes in each room. Second I prioritize the rooms in order of needing to be cleaned.
I start with the room that needs cleaning the most and actually set the kitchen timer for the allotted time. I find I am very focused on the job since I am trying to "beat the clock." If I do not finish that room before the buzzer goes off, I still must move on to the next room. If I finish any room before the buzzer goes off, I can go back to a room I did not finish earlier until the buzzer does sound. When the buzzer sounds, I move to the next uncleaned room.

Now, I know that cleaning house is not altogether like completing a school or job-related project, but might this system of prioritizing, focusing, and beating the clock have some carry-over to managing time while completing any project? How might you see yourself using this practice?

2.       Swiss Cheese

The other particularly useful practice of time management in this busy, busy season is the Swiss Cheese method. The Swiss Cheese method is most often described as using any little amount of free time to accomplish something. (Picture small holes in a wedge of cheese.) For instance, if you just have three minutes in a chunk of time, fold a dryer load of towels or order a party platter for your holiday open house or answer one review question at the end of a chapter. Where do these little holes of free time come from? Some ideas might include waiting for your tablet to boot up, standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for the rest of your family to get in the car.

Using small amounts of empty time to complete tasks sets a tone of accomplishment and spurs you on to more accomplishments.

In the next post we'll discuss a less often used description of the Swiss Cheese time management method.

Making your bed makes you more successful

Read time is approximately 2 ½  minutes

In the last post, we discussed new beginnings as in a new beginning of a school year or a new project. The question posed to ask yourself is, “What one thing can I do today to make myself more successful at…?” 

If you came up short on an idea or didn’t take an action, let’s start again. Notice I did not meet my blog goal (it has been almost two months since I posted rather than once a month).  That does not stop me from posting today. Just because any of us falter once or even a few times, it doesn’t mean we should give up on the whole project. Sometimes we falter because we need to shift our focus, sometimes our technology might fail us, or sometimes life just happens. Today’s post includes steps that we can take to feel successful and get back on track.  

Gretchen Rubin, one of my favorite authors, wrote an article featured in What Inspires Me. In her Sept. 6, 2016 article, “Calm your mind by Clearing Office Clutter,in Less than 5 Minutes” she writes that clutter is overwhelming. Clutter can be a number of small unfinished tasks that lead to a feeling of paralysis, she writes, and offers ten suggestions for controlling the clutter.

Three of the most powerful suggestions are 1. Make your bed, 2. Beware of freebies, and 3. Tidy-up for five minutes.

1. Make your bed seems unrelated to productivity, but it actually can be powerful. Making your bed not only sets the tone for the day, but it also gives you an immediate feeling of accomplishment. You will build on that positive feeling all day.

2. Beware of freebies is one of my biggest personal challenges. I need to remember that I already have a stack of bags from conferences and three extra silicone phone pockets and those tee-shirts never fit anyway.  All those freebies add up to physical clutter and mind clutter. If I really want a silicone phone pocket, I can buy one for $1.74 online. 

3. In the next post we will talk more about the power of a five minute tidy-up. It is amazing how much I can get done if I set a timer for five minutes. When I come back to the project the next day, my workspace is organized and I am better able to focus.

To see all ten of Gretchen Rubin’s tips, click here to go to “Calm your mind by Clearing Office Clutter, in Less than 5 Minutes."

Please share your best practices for clearing your space—and your head—of clutter in the comment section. 

What can you do today?

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 This week marks the traditional beginning of a new school year; the end of last school year seems long ago.  Remember the time you spent to reflect after the end of the school year? Let’s see what happens when we turn reflection 180 degrees and practice reflection near the beginning of the school year or before the beginning of any event.

In January 2016, I referenced Sarah Brown Wessling’s blog on the topic of what makes a good teacher or good learner. She suggested good teachers and good learners reflect at the end of the year. That’s good advice. Now let’s take that advice one step further—revisit your reflection from last spring and actually make a plan to do something about what you determined.

How did you respond to Wessling’s question, “What are the three things that make a successful teacher?” or “What are the three things that make a successful learner?” Think about your response and make a plan--a response is not enough. What can you DO about your response TODAY?

As we face the beginning of a new school year, three things might seem like a lot on which to focus. Change the question to, “What is ONE thing that makes a successful teacher?” or “What is ONE thing that makes a successful learner?” What is one thing you need to continue to do to be successful this school year? What one change do you need to make to become even more successful this school year? Build on your strengths. Choose ONE thing on which to begin work.

If you did not reflect last spring, start a reflection now. Use the simpler question, “What is ONE thing that will make you successful this school year?”

If you are not a teacher or a student, reflection is still for you. The question simply becomes, “What is one thing that will make you successful on the project you are about to start?”

Education is one of the few professions that allow the learners--or workers to start over each fall. Take advantage of the new start to become even more successful.

Next post, we’ll continue to work on ideas for getting more organized.  Until then, have a great start to your new school year or new project. 

It is worth doing well or it has to be done?

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My mother was adamant in teaching my sisters and I, “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” My advisor at the University of Wyoming was just as adamant about, “It doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to be done.”

So how do we know which piece of advice to employ? Well, just like both of these people who influenced my life used to say in response to several of my questions, “It depends.”

 “It depends” is how I find the time management balance in my life…some projects such as a resume fall mainly into the “do it well” category. Other projects such as a blog post (or a dissertation it turns out) fall mainly into the “has to be done” category. Obviously, the resume has to be done before the prospective job is filled or it won’t matter how well it is done and obviously, the blog has to be done as well as possible or readers will stop reading. But by-and-large, different projects fall under different categories and we need to decide which project will best be served by which school of advice: do it well, have it done, or somewhere in the grey area between.

Dr.Joseph Ferrari has identified three different types of procrastinators who fall into those three different categories: do it well, has to be done, or grey area between.  We might find it helpful to know what kind of a procrastinator we are (and we all procrastinate sometimes) and why we might be procrastinating.

Ferrari has designed a flowchart infographic describing three types of time wasters. Sometimes just knowing why we do what we do helps us avoid regrettable behaviors. Follow the flowchart to see what best describes your traits in most projects.

Try the helpful tip at the bottom of the flowchart for a couple of weeks. Post a comment on the end of the blog to let the rest of us know into what category you fall, if the tip has helped, or if this whole exercise fails to match your life experience.

Next post we’ll talk about an important strategy for the beginning of a school year and in subsequent posts we’ll talk more about tips for avoiding procrastination and managing time better. 

Recalculating…

Read time is approximately 4 minutes

On the last post I shared some tips for motivation to manage time and promised to share some specific tips I have learned in prioritizing my tasks and sustaining motivation to finish a task. Today, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of just what managing time might look like. I will use one of my projects as an example—writing a blog post.

I really like that term Sarangi uses, steering time. Steering time incorporates both prioritizing tasks and approaching the tasks in a planned way. Just like using a navigation system to drive or steer to a destination, it takes a system to steer time and arrive at your target destination. Compare steering time to the steering/driving steps a navigation system provides.

Here are the directions I generally use to get a project done, such as writing my blog post.

1.       Let go of daily tasks. Sweeping the floor, ironing the laundry, or washing the car will have to wait if you are working on a home project. Updating your calendar, cleaning your desktop, or scheduling appointments will have to wait if you are working on an office project. Time is not elastic. Don’t try to stretch yourself to complete all of the daily tasks as well as the project.  If you wait until the daily tasks are done to tackle a project, you will never even get the project started. For instance, when I am writing my blog post, I delay answering text messages or email. Those communications will have to wait.

2.       Make the to-do list—list everything, every little step.  For instance when I write a blog post, I have items on the to-do list such as brainstorm, write a draft, correct the draft, choose a picture, write the headline, wait a 24 hour cooling off period before writing the final draft, publish the post, make notes, read blog examples. Listing every little step gives me a better idea of how much time writing the blog post will take.

3.       Prioritize the items. Think of these as the turn-by-turn navigation instructions to follow. Complete the most important item first. For the blog, taking notes is the most important to me. I need to complete that first. In fact, I usually begin writing notes for the next post as I am working on the current blog post. The notes help me avoid procrastination and writer’s block. If I have notes about the information I will use in the post, I can write the draft.  If I know I won’t be able to write the draft in one sitting, I always quit in the middle of a sentence. See blog post “Never finish your sentence.” 

4.       Plan for interruptions. This most important step, planning for the unexpected, insures that unexpected interruptions do not become calamities. Consider even listing the step, resolving interruptions, into your to-do list.  Phone calls, visits, responding to messages and messes to clean up can be unexpected. For instance to avoid a calamity, I start a blog post at least a week before my publishing deadline. I start even earlier if I know I have a fuller than usual calendar. For this post, I started June 20 since I knew I was having house guests for the 4^th of July weekend and I wanted to publish before July 8.  Just like a navigation system recalculates when I make a wrong turn, I can recalculate when an unexpected interruption happens—and I can still arrive at my planned destination/goal.

5.       Cross off tasks as they are completed. This significant step gives me a feeling of accomplishment, helps me stay disciplined, and spurs more energy for me to complete more tasks on the way to finalizing the overall project, in this case the blog post.

6.       Create self-discipline. The steps can work for any projects, only the specifics will change. By letting go of some daily tasks, listing all the steps, prioritizing the steps, and planning for interruptions, and crossing off the steps as they are completed, we create the motivation and discipline we need to complete a project.

In the next post, I’ll share what I have learned from other experts about goalsetting motivation—I have already started the notes. J

Steer time, prioritize tasks, and approach in a planned way to complete project

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Perhaps you are starting a summer project that you have been promising yourself to complete for a long time. 

The excerpt from the post by Dr. Ipsita Sarangi first appeared in the WizIQ blog in 2014 and is still relevant today in helping you complete that summer project. She reminds us of why managing time is essential and highlights six keys for time management in a work environment; the first one and the last one are the most critical in completing a project or any arena. 

The following excerpt gives us motivation to start managing our time. In the next post I’ll share some specific tips I have learned in prioritizing my tasks and sustaining motivation to finish a task.

Sarangi’s three most important phrases in the excerpt include steering time, prioritize tasks, and approach in a planned way:

How often do you find time galloping out of your hands? Weekly, Daily, Hourly? For many it seems that there’s just never sufficient time in the day to get everything done.

Truly in the words of Peter F.Drucker: 

“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.”

Do you know how some people are able to pencil in so many diverse activities into their agenda, while others hardly seem to have time for a task?

Do you think they are genius? Not sure.

Are they more systematized? May be.

Better at steering time? Likely.

Time is a unique, irreplaceable, non-renewable resource that is one of the major building blocks for the successful completion of the project... Dealing with deadlines and other time constraints on a daily basis has made…time management…essential for good project management.

Once one knows how to manage their time, they will be able to maximize what they do…at work and thereby reduce their stress levels.

Time Management in a Project:

1) Aids to prioritize the tasks – Efficacious time management advocates daily tasks by prioritizing them. Once you align the tasks in order of importance, you can deal with them one at a time. If a project manager is aware of what chores are important for himself and his project, he would not waste time on trivial matters and have the extra time to concentrate on other crucial issues.

...

6) Creates discipline – Time always ticks away. But with good practice of time management, you are less likely to procrastinate. Time management leads to higher potency and disciplined ways to complete the project.

Hence, time management avoids last minute haste and…develops a rational overview of commitments. It brings forth an approach in a planned way to produce effective, efficient, higher quality pieces of work.

To read Sarangi’s entire WizIQ blog post, go to  http://www.wiziq.com/blog/importance-of-time-management-in-projects/   

Also stayed tuned to this blog to see more concrete ideas about prioritizing tasks and creating discipline to complete tasks and projects. 

No more atta boys

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I saved my favorite Robert Mazano strategy, setting goals and providing feedback, for last. His research shows that goals and feedback yields a 23% increase. My own related research shows 75% of adults agreed or strongly agreed that specific feedback positively impacts learning.

Specific feedback is the key phrase here. Experts all agree that feedback needs to specific. Just what does specific mean?  It means phrases that include what is done well—phrases such as, “Your use of action verbs makes this writing powerful,” or “Holding your fingers close together while you swim makes you go faster in the water.”  Include in the feedback what the learner can replicate to continue be good (or get even better) at the task, whatever the task.

What is not good feedback are phrases such as, “Good job,” or “atta boy, keep trying.” The learner needs to know what makes the job good or what action to keep trying.

In the last post, I said that feedback is the sister to recognition. They are related, but not the same thing. Recognition is praise such as “Well organized,” or “First place.” Feedback is what the learner can do to continue earning the awards.

A final thought about recognition and feedback: One powerful phrase I have discovered is, “You can be so proud of yourself.” That small turn of words from “I am so proud of you” to “You can be so proud of yourself” puts the recognition right where it should be, on the achiever. As educators or parents, we don’t want learners to do anything just because it makes us proud—we want autonomous learners that do their best and make themselves proud of what they have done. Next time you catch someone doing something well, watch h/his eyes light up when you say, “You can be so proud of yourself…” Just remember to finish that phrase with the specific action that person took.

Specific feedback is easy to talk about, but one of the struggles is developing the habit of making the feedback specific. Keep working to make your feedback specific until it becomes your default. Every time you say “good job,” add a specific phrase.  One example would be, “Good job of showing your thinking when solving this equation.”

Another struggle with specific feedback is when you do not receive it. Try asking for specifics. If someone tells you “good work,” ask what makes it good. Say you want to be sure to keep doing good work.

As the traditional school year winds down, we will change the focus in the next few posts to emphasize time management in any arena.  Next time, we’ll discuss strategies to make that summer project more likely to be completed.

Authentic rather than artificial

Read time is 2 ½ minutes

April and May are filled with those end-of-the-year awards nights and those award nights are a great opportunity to recognize top performers. However, year-end award nights are not enough. Providing reward and recognition along the learning journey is far more important. 

Reinforcing effort and providing recognition is among Robert Marzano’s top nine strategies, yielding a 29 percentile gain. This strategy is not just for that year-end awards night. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition are authentic acknowledgements along the way that provide incentive for learners. 

Unfortunately, too many students think success is linked to natural ability or luck.  By reinforcing effort, educators can dispel this myth and learners can recognize their own connection between effort and success.

Marzano suggests using symbolic recognition rather than tangible rewards. Symbolic recognition does NOT include gold stars or stickers—these are tangible rewards.  One of the best examples of symbolic recognition is a progress chart. The chart is even more effective when the learner keeps it for him or herself. Learners can chart both their own effort and their own results. Self-charting has a big Return On Investment in two ways: it shows learners how much they are improving and even more importantly, it shows the connections between effort and improvement and/or success. Some great examples of progress charts have been pinned on Pinterest. 

Providing rewards is NOT a new idea by a long stretch and neither is offering caution regarding artificial awards. In his 1993 book, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, IncentivePlans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes,  Alfie Kohn  writes, “…S. Neill put it, promising a reward for an activity is ‘tantamount to declaring that the activity is not worth doing for its own sake.’ Thus, a parent who says to a child, ‘If you finish your math homework, you may watch an hour of TV’ is teaching the child to think of math as something that isn’t much fun.” (p.76)  

Let me be clear, recognition and rewards are an important part of learning. It is just that the rewards need to be authentic rather than artificial. For the educator this means providing frequent opportunity for intrinsic rewards along the way. For the learner this means frequently charting self-progress along the way. No need to wait for the instructor to provide the chart.

How realistic is all of this? How does it fit into today’s learning environments? Your thoughts?

In the next post we’ll discuss the sister of recognition, feedback. 

Five at more than twenty

Read time is 3 ½ minutes

In keeping with the summarizing theme, this post is a summary of five of Robert Marzano’s top Return on Investment learning strategies: Homework and Practice; Nonlinguistic Representations;  Cooperative Learning; Generating and Testing Hypothesis;  and Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers.

• Homework and Practice: (28 percentile gain) The single most important information about Homework and Practice is to let the learner (and the learner’s parents) know the objective of the practice at home. If the objective of the practice is not clear, learners should respectfully ask what the purpose of the practice is. That way everyone knows the importance.  

• Nonlinguistic Representations: (27 percentile gain) These maps, graphs, timelines, or drawings rely only secondarily on words. For instance, when acquiring new vocabulary, drawing a sketch that depicts the meaning of the new term cements the meaning of the new word for the learner.  One of the most powerful uses of nonlinguistic representations is formative assessment. Both the learner and the teacher can see at a quick glance what information is unclear or has not been mastered. The learner then knows what s/he needs to work on more. Nonlinguistic representation builds on the Identifying Similarities and Differences strategy. Resources can be found at http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/. 

• Cooperative Learning: (23 percentile gain) The most important information about cooperative learning is to use affinity grouping. In other words, design groups with learners who are similar rather than learners with highest and lowest ability. We learn better from someone who is right next to us in knowledge or ability rather than someone who is far more advanced. When creating your own study group, find partners who are just a bit ahead of or below your understanding. Find specific techniques for using Cooperative Learning at http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/cooperative/techniques.html

• Generating and Testing Hypothesis: (23 percentile gain) This strategy is not just for science, but for any content area that involves investigating and making a decision. Isn’t that any content area? Notice the strategy is called generating and TESTING hypothesis. The key component of Generating and Testing Hypothesis is going beyond testing to defending the conclusion that the hypothesis led to. Specific techniques for using Generating and Testing Hypothesis can be found at http://techtraining.brevard.k12.fl.us/hooverj/InstructionalStrategies/Generating&TestingHypotheses.htm

• Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers: (22 percentile gain) The most important aspect of this strategy is questions. Learners, of course, need to ask questions about what is unclear. Teachers need to pose only questions that are not “googleable.” Replace questions that can be answered with facts with more rigorous questions that start with such phrases as, “How would you compare…with…?” or “What is meant by…?” or “What facts would you select to show…?” or “What would be your original way to…?” Other rigorous question starters can be found at http://svesd.net/files/DOK_Question_Stems.pdf  or http://doe.sd.gov/octe/documents/WebbLevel.pdf. Additional techniques for using Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers can be found at http://effectiveinstructionalstrategies.weebly.com/cues-questions-and-advance-organizers.html

Whew…this post was taxing for me—there is so much important information, I had to constantly remind myself that  summarizing is not only writing down key information, but it is also dismissing less important information. 

There are plenty of weeks left of the school year. Try one of the strategies each week. Repeat the strategies that are particularly helpful. Consider adding a comment about which works well for you.

In the next post, I’ll discuss another top learning strategy—Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition.

Think Twitter

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How are you doing with your anchor word? Consider posting your word in the comments and a short message about how you are doing. For more information about anchor words, see Gretchen Rubin’s blog.

Grit, my word for 2016, takes perseverance and energy--just like developing a habit of new learning strategies does. 

Over the last year I have posted tools for using the highest Return On Investment strategy, identifying similarities and differences. Today let’s look at the second highest ROI strategy, summarizing and notetaking, which still has great results. According to Marzano’s meta-analysis, summarizing and note taking yields a thirty-four percentile gain for learners. 

Summarizing is not only writing down key information, but it is also dismissing less important information. This slight twist of thinking could be a component that learners are missing. When summarizing, think of choosing what is most important and leaving out the rest.

Notice it is important to leave out the rest. The biggest mistake learners make is to keep too much information in the summary. Sorting through what is important and what should be eliminated is the challenge of writing a summary. This skill is more important today than ever before in this abundant information age. Eliminate all but the most important information—think Twitter writing. 

One way to insure eliminating all but the most important is the Three Little Words tool explained in the Dec. 3, 2014 post. Graphic organizers (discussed in the Feb. 15 and Nov. 2015 posts) are other good ways to summarize.

Writing a summary can be a paragraph, an outline, or a graphic organizer—include only the most important information and use your own words for that information. Develop the habit of writing formal or informal summaries to increase learning.

I invite you to summarize this post in the comments section. Challenge yourself to write as few words as possible while keeping the important information.

In the next post, I’ll summarize other top learning strategies that provide more than a twenty percentile gain.