Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

time management

Time Management (is a modern fantasy)

As we begin Advent, we bring you a special edition of our Time Management series. Anthropologist Kevin Birth draws on his extensive research on concepts of time in different cultures to challenge our modern concepts of time management and point us to other possible ways of experiencing time. We hope that his description of “kairotic time” helps you find a meaningful way of experiencing time, especially as we enter the Advent season with its liturgical timekeeping that points us to God’s presence. 

Kevin is the author of three books about time, including Time Blind: Problems in Perceiving Other Temporalities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); and Any Time is Trinidad Time: Temporal Consciousness and Social Meanings in Trinidad (University Press of Florida, 1999). He has also presented extensively on the topic, including appearances at the United States Naval Observatory and the Frick Collection in New York, and on Talk of the Nation  (National Public Radio).

You can read earlier posts by Kevin here, and you can also explore ESN posts on his book Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality.

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Time Management Tips: Managing a Different Sleep Schedule

alarm clock photoAs the days grow colder and the to do lists grow longer, ESN is sharing a series of time management tips, interspersed with longer reflections on aspects of our relationship to time. Today’s reflection is from graduate student Kateri Collins. You can read more of Kateri’s work for ESN here or click here for the rest of the time management series. Like many of the topics we publish on, time management is an area that combines opportunities for practical growth and spiritual formation. Our goal is to encourage readers to steward the gift of time God has given us, using it to love God and others and live out Christ’s Kingdom.  [Read more…] about Time Management Tips: Managing a Different Sleep Schedule

Time Management Tips: Urgency, importance, and a tip from a professor

clock photo

As the days grow colder and the to do lists grow longer, ESN is sharing a series of time management tips, interspersed with longer reflections on aspects of our relationship to time. Today’s quick tip is from graduate student Kevin Orner. Read a previous post by Kevin here, or click here for the rest of the time management series. Like many of the topics we publish on, time management is an area that combines opportunities for practical growth and spiritual formation. Our goal is to encourage readers to steward the gift of time God has given us, using it to love God and others and live out Christ’s Kingdom. 

Tip #1:

Differentiating between the urgent and the important and do the important first. Because I’m a visual learner, the Eisenhower Matrix helped me understand the concept. You can see an Eisenhower Matrix chart at the beginning of this article.

It’s simply a 2×2 matrix with urgency on the x-axis and importance on the y-axis. Obviously important and urgent things should be done before not important and not urgent things, but how about urgent and not important vs. not urgent and important? Here the important should win out over the urgent, although urgent things do a greater job at demanding our attention—an email pops up, a text message vibrates our phone, a friend stops by to talk. In graduate school, you graduate when you finish your thesis or dissertation, not when you answer 10,000 emails. That thesis or dissertation is often in quadrant 2, which is in direct competition with the quick wins of email or homework assignments found in quadrant 3. 

Tip #2:

Align your time with your priorities. I received this piece of advice from a professor who said that she organizes her time based on how she will be evaluated for tenure (e.g. 70% research, 20% teaching, 10% service). If you’re spending 50% of your time on teaching and 20% on service and not spending much time writing grants or manuscripts, you may be in trouble. The same can be applied for graduate students. If we graduate when we complete our thesis or dissertation, then we should be spending the appropriate percentage of our time on the thesis or dissertation. To see how you’re doing in this respect, for one week write down how you spent your time and compare it to your priorities. 

Time Management Tip: Reward yourself with check marks

color check calendar photo

As the days grow colder and the to do lists grow longer, ESN is sharing a series of time management tips, interspersed with longer reflections on aspects of our relationship to time. Today’s quick tip is from Inez Tan; read other posts by Inez here or click here for the rest of the time management series. Like many of the topics we publish on, time management is an area that combines opportunities for practical growth and spiritual formation. Our goal is to encourage readers to steward the gift of time God has given us, using it to love God and others and live out Christ’s Kingdom. 

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Summer Snapshot: Plan Long and Prosper

moleskine photo
Photo by danyeela

Tamarie Macon shares today’s Summer Snapshot. You can read her Scholar’s Compass “Navigating the Rapids” series here, and check out other Summer Snapshots here.

I’ve tried “getting my life together” more than once or twice. You too? Often, I begin with a measure of zeal, lit by a fire of inspiration (“Let’s do this!”) or perspiration (“Things are spiraling out of control – I must do this”). Big hopes and dreams that I will finally become “focused,” setting and meeting goals, achieving balance in my life. And all too often, I would forget about such plans. Or, more perilously, I disregarded such planning as taking away time from the “real work” that needs to be done. [Read more…] about Summer Snapshot: Plan Long and Prosper