Chapter 10. Time Management/Organizational Skills

Dr. Hammer is the Director of the Bracken Pharmaceutical Care Learning Center and Teaching Certificate Program in Pharmacy Education for the University of Washington School of Pharmacy. Dr. Hammer received a B.S. in pharmacy from Oregon State University, worked in hospital and community independent pharmacies, and then returned to school to earn M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmacy Administration with an emphasis on education from Purdue University School of Pharmacy. Her teaching responsibilities include an introductory pharmacy practice course series, and electives in pharmacy education. Her research involves assessment of students' educational outcomes and professional development, and interprofessional education. Dr. Hammer has served on the editorial boards of several pharmacy education, practice and research journals, and has won awards for teaching, innovations in teaching and education, and educational research. She practices her time management skills balancing a faculty position, relief work in an independent pharmacy, and parenthood of two children.

After completing this chapter, readers should be able to

1. Determine if they need to improve their time management skills.

2. Critically analyze the choices they make in how they spend their time.

3. Describe common myths or pitfalls with regard to time management.

4. Take action to avoid time management pitfalls.

5. Discuss various theories and approaches to time management.

6. Apply concrete suggestions, through a series of steps, to improve their time management skills.

7. Explain how time management techniques apply to pharmacy practice.

8. Recognize the relationship between poor time management and stress.

Revisit the Krista Connelly scenario from Chapter 2. It appears as though Krista is a good time manager—she seems to attend all her classes, prepares for classes ahead of time and reviews material with professors, holds down a part-time pharmacy job, and even is able to squeeze in routine home activities and downtime with friends and family. Granted, Krista may not be taking very good care of herself with regard to diet, exercise, and sleep, but all in all, she seems to have her act together. One question remains, however, after reading about Krista: When does she study? Perhaps she is one of the “genius” students who does not seem to have to study very much but is still able to achieve high grades. Consider a different scenario below.

Tom Chan is also a second-year pharmacy student. Tom describes himself as a busy pharmacy student, although he would not necessarily say that he is stressed out most of the time. Tom tries to get out of bed by 7 a.m. so that he can get to class by 8 a.m., but he often oversleeps and misses his first class. He realizes that he should go to bed earlier, but it seems that the only time he can find to study or maybe watch some TV to unwind is between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Tom's normal day consists of attending classes, getting in an hour of basketball, and then heading to work at his pharmacy intern ...