A key activity of our Annual Conference is the round table discussion. At the October 2017 Annual Conference in San Diego, Greg Bowen, ALMA Board Member, facilitated a discussion on best time management practices for busy lab managers. Attendees were asked to provide input in three areas: What takes up our time? What should we be spending more time doing? What solutions do you use to manage your time better? This is the last of a 3-part series. Below are tried and true suggestions from conference participants on how to make your days more efficient.
What solutions have you used to better manage your time?
Email Filters – Apply filters so emails from specific senders go into appropriately labeled folders. Filter emails which the manager was not a primary addressee (cc’d) to a cc folder for review later.
Add a Splash of Color -to your email! Color code senders. You might try highlighting your supervisor’s emails in yellow so you can get to those first.
Schedule and Abide by Blocked Time – Do it! Focus your attention on particular issue in a scheduled block of time. Stick to it!
[Read more…] about Best Practices for Busy Lab Managers (Part III)