Time Management for Academic Impact: Controlling Teaching Treadmills and Tornadoes

Academic staff are appointed to teach, research, consult, manage, and learn new technology amidst increasing pressure and dissatisfaction with workloads. They must learn new techniques to engage students who study across different modes, often juggling life and work. This book aims to blend good teaching practice with good time management skills to help academics feel more productive, confident, and in control of their ‘teaching side’.

Time Management for Academic Impact explores the relationship between academic workload models, identity, and worldview with our approach to teaching (and research). Using the analogy of life on a treadmill in the midst of tornadoes, it identifies effective, simple, research-informed strategies that will reduce time spent on activities that have low, minimal, or individual impact. Outlining the unique nature of academic work, this book invites the reader to reflect on their own contractual model and helps them to identify ‘time thieves’, to implement strategies to address these, and to create ‘time boundaries’ – reclaiming control of their own time. This approach will result in more satisfied students, increased research output, and more time for academics to do the work they want to do.

This book will be of great use to university academics and faculty staff balancing research and teaching loads. It will also help vocational and community college educators and professionals working in part time, casual, or contract academic roles.

Kate Ames is an award-winning educator, best-selling author, communication professional, manager, wife, mother, student, and part-time military officer. She has spent two decades honing her juggling skills in academic environments with the view that we don’t win any marathons if we burn out too early.