Time Awareness and Prioritization

Audit the day before fixing it

Prof. Rupashree Baral begins by auditing where working time and attention actually go. Tools and planners come later. Her list will be familiar to faculty: digital distraction, poor meetings, reluctance to delegate, procrastination, weak boundaries around requests, paperwork, disorganisation, long informal breaks, calls and apps, drop-in visitors, commuting and waiting. Some losses come from personal habits. Others are built into the workplace.

For digital use, check notifications and habitual device use. Silence routine notifications, reserve immediate alerts for genuinely urgent items, set device-free times or places, use calendars deliberately, practise sustained attention and protect offline activity. Institutions have a part to play too. Possible institutional changes include limits on after-hours and weekend email, wellbeing support, bounded meetings, in-person collaboration when it genuinely helps, flexible work and predictable time off or advance notice.

A useful meeting has an agenda, a clear purpose, a prompt start and a firm finish. Delegation protects attention when the handover is properly designed. People may hold back because they think they can do the job faster, feel insecure or want control. A proper handover specifies the scope, available support, checkpoints, milestones and how progress will be reported.

Procrastination also calls for a cause analysis. Low motivation, fear, ambiguous deadlines, disorganisation and anxiety call for different responses. Start before confidence arrives, set a deadline, divide the task, choose an easy entry point, reserve high-energy periods for difficult work, recognise progress and loosen perfectionist standards. Better focus comes from adjusting both individual habits and workplace expectations.