When you record an appointment in your planner (either paper or electronic), include the person’s email address and phone number. Make it a habit to do so. If you need it, it’s there. If you don’t need it, it took 10 seconds so you haven’t invested too much time.

If you have a committee (or other assemblage) you will be meeting with, have their email addresses already in a “group” in your email program. It will be helpful to have that for notifications of meetings or for follow-up. And, if you need it to quickly send out an announcement that you are out sick, you already have the group email established.

Make plans with your students ahead of time if you will email them about any class cancellation due to your illness. Establish the protocol prior to needing it and set up their emails in a group so it’s an easy notification to do.

Make plans with your students that they will receive a phone call if you are out sick. This works if you have a small graduate seminar and someone who can help make the phone calls. Of course, you’ll need accurate phone numbers from your students. I often used this one for the rare occasion I was out sick because so many of our university students drove 60 – 90+ minutes to get to class and a note on the door was not going to be met with much pleasure.

Make plans with your students about posting on your website or class blog (or Facebook fan page) if you are going to be out sick. You can establish the idea that they should always check 2 hours ahead of time for any change in status.

Make arrangements with a colleague about trading class “coverage” if one of you is ill. You both hope that it never happens, but it’s nice to know that you have already put a plan in place should one be needed.

Use technology if you are able to teach (or chair a meeting), but just can’t come to class (or the meeting) in person. Imagine if you fell and broke your ankle and your doctor said you were to stay with it elevated for 3 days. You could get yourself set up in your home office to teach the class either using just the telephone (using a bridgeline) or a webcam. Students can still be served and you can still tend to your injury.

Acknowledge that you are sick sooner rather than later. This gives you time to make arrangements and to be respectful by notifying others while they still have time to alter their plans. It is not heroic to hang on until the last minute to decide you are too sick. It removes your options when you do so.

Use a tickler system (1-31 file) in your office so that you can call someone to check it to see what is in there. This works much better than having various and sundry pertinent items strung around your office and trying to tell people where to look for them.

Start cancelling non-essential appointments when you see that you are coming down with something so that you give yourself time to get better. In the short and long run, you are better off (and so are the rest of us!)

Use one or all of these ideas to set yourself up well for the academic year. Planning and preparation make a big difference and not one of these ideas take long to implement.

And if you would like hundreds of sets of Top Ten Productivity Tips like these, you’re invited to join others around the globe who subscribe (free) to one of the Top Ten Productivity Tips series (info to be found at):

** http://TopTenProductivityTips.com

(c) 2010 Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. | The Ph.D. of Productivity(tm)

Absenteeism

Anyone who tracks absenteeism will notice that more and more people are out on ’sick days’ – and they may actually be sick or they just need respite from the environment. Either way, there’s a loss of productivity. Watch for signs of an increase in people being ‘out.’

Illness

Depending on the level of toxicity in your academic work environment, you may notice more illnesses or a longer recovery time for sickness. The maladies that result from people who are working under incessant stress, bullying, or exclusionary behaviors include an entire range. Start paying attention to your own physical well-being and that of others.

A reduction in productivity

This indicator is particularly noticeable when the quality(or quantity) of work goes down. If someone used to do a great job, be on time, get projects completely with few or no errors, etc. and gradually, you see more late work, more errors, hear more excuses for why projects aren’t completed, and so forth, then you will know that there is some kind of problem. While it may be a personal problem with an individual, if there are multiple examples of this within a department or other work unit, it’s worth considering whether toxicity at some level is the culprit.

Racist, sexist, ‘-ist’ comments, slurs, “jokes,” etc.

Another example, the ‘-ists’ of various types. It is phenomenal to me that in 2010 we continue to have places – academic environments – where racist jokes are told. Where sexist comments are made. Other “ists” are present and that’s because there are so many types of “ist” comments and slurs that are made. All you had to do was watch some of the foolishness that went around during this last election season, and continues to go on; it certainly causes one to think, ‘Wow, what’s going on in the United States, also in all the other countries?’ So people need to just be aware of that.

“Social” functions are poorly attended

You notice that the social functions that were previously well attended are now sparsely attended – or have completely stopped. When people can barely tolerate being around one another at work, they are not going to spend time together outside of work. This was one of the big signs that one of the departments where I worked was sliding into toxicity…early on, people went out on Friday afternoons, got together on the weekends, invited one another over for Thanksgiving, and scheduled lunches or breakfasts together. We LOVED each other…and then…

Turf wars

When people are scuffling over ‘turf,’ they aren’t working collaboratively and they aren’t making sure that everyone has what s/he needs in order to be successful.

Blaming, external locus of control, etc.

Then you see a lot of blaming and “it’s somebody else’s fault,” and a great deal of external locus of control – then this is a danger sign.

These are just a few of the possible indicators. Don’t assume “it will work itself out.” It won’t.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php where I have the handouts and recording available.

(c) 2010 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

I have decided that if I am going to keep doing my job (I work at a local college), I need to get some additional help – and it needs to be more than just a student worker who I have to train each semester. I need someone to help with financial reports, cash requests, all the “caretaking” if you will, of the grants we currently have so that I would have time to write/research more and push for more planning for potential projects. I guess my problem is that I don’t even really know where to start in putting together my case. I lose confidence, then I get discouraged. Help!

To build your case you need to identify the ‘caretaking’ you do. Keep a pad handy or some notecards or your digital recorder. Then, every single time you start doing something that is part of the ‘caretaking’, make note of it. This will end up giving you a complete list of all the piddly things that, while they DO have to be done, do NOT have to be done by you. In fact, for you to spend your time doing them is nuts.

Keep a time log that tracks the time you’re spending on the ‘caretaking’ tasks.

Make a list of all the tasks that you are supposed to be doing. For example, you should be writing grants, building relationships, working on the big picture, etc. That’s your strength and the best use of the college’s resources.

For each of these tasks that are part of the ‘bigger picture,’, indicate what you weren’t able to do because you were putting in cash requests, handling a phone call that was just a bit of minutiae, etc.

Make a list of the projects and ideas that you somehow feel are on the back burner and you can’t pursue because you are spending ½ your week (or more) on the things that are “Below your pay grade.”

Using this documentation, I would then make a “pain and joy” type of proposal. That is, create a proposal that clearly states: “Here is the pain and loss that it is costing the College because I am working on lower level tasks.” Have a separate section that clearly represents (and paint a picture) the joy, the upside, the benefit of what the College would gain if you could focus on the higher level projects.

I think your ‘boss’ will get it – and then you will get an assistant!!

And as a college or university faculty member, you have many opportunities for success and failure. If you would like additional tips, tools, and techniques that you can use to support your successes, then access one or both of the following free resource websites:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips ( http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com )

**Articles for Professors ( http://www.ArticlesforProfessors.com )

(c) 2010 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

And here is a question that could be asked by a typical college faculty member (and many other professionals, too):

I am involved with writing a number of articles and grants. Do you have an opinion on whether or not it is better to stick with one until it’s done completely or whether or not to work on each one a little at a time? So, within any given period (say, a time block set aside for writing) do you personally just stick to one thing a day until it’s done or work on a new thing each day, etc…?

It is great to have multiple writing projects going on, for several reasons:

Sometimes you are in the ‘mood’ to work on one of those projects, but not another.

Your time frame on a given day may lend itself more to one type of writing activity – and having several to choose from gives you that option.

A colleague from another department, institution, or area of the country (or world) may be close by – and you only have access to him/her for a short period of time. Because you want to work with this person, when you have several different kinds of projects, you can either choose one to present as a collaborative option, or you can offer several of them and let the colleague indicate where s/he sees the best chance for working together.

It means you have lots of ideas and lots of choices, which is a very good thing!!

Now, with those four reasons to have multiple projects going, we also need to be smart about focusing sometimes on getting a project to completion. Here are a couple of suggestions to help that happen:

With grants, there’s a deadline. As you begin to approach the grant submission deadline, eschew all other projects and stay totally focused on completion of the grant (with a little time to spare, by the way!)

With many articles or other writing projects, there are also deadlines, particularly when there is a themed issue and your article matches the theme. When there is a deadline, work to meet it in the same way as suggested in the item above.

When you are not working under deadline (oh, heavenly), then have as a goal to bring at least one project to completion each week or month (depending on what it is that you do and what your writing projects entail). Nothing is so motivating as feeling ‘finished.’ You want that momentum to carry you forward to progress on your other projects – and ultimately completing those as well.

So, should you have multiple projects going on? Yes. Can you get some of them finished rather than swirling around in ‘draft-land’? Yes.

And as a college or university faculty member, you have many opportunities for success and failure. If you would like additional tips, tools, and techniques that you can use to support your successes, then access one or both of the following free resource websites:

** Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

** Articles for Professors (http://www.ArticlesforProfessors.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

A perennial complaint of mathematics teachers is that students are unable to cope with word problems. This inability to deal with such problems often becomes a major stumbling block to success in mathematics courses (Nolan 1984). National trends in mathematics problem-solving, as measured by the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress, indicate that students, even 17-year-olds, have difficulty solving word problems (Dossey et al. 1988).

When asked, many students who have trouble with word problems say that

a) they cannot decide what is important in the problem and what is not,

b) they cannot determine which information in the problem will help them and which information is just put in there as a distractor, and/or

c) they cannot figure out how to compute the solution once they have figured out what the problem is.

As Kresse (1984, 598) cited: “Research using “students not solving (word) problems correctly” indicated 95% of the sixth graders tested could read all the words correctly, 98% knew the situation the problem was discussing, 92% knew what the problems was asking you to find, yet only 36% knew how to work the problem (Knifong and Holtron, 1977).”

There are many reasons why students have this difficulty, including semantic, syntactic, contextual, and structural characteristics (Silver and Thompson 1984). One possible approach to overcoming some of these difficulties is to “rewrite” the problems so that the question appears first, instead of last.

Teachers of reading often ask questions of students before having them read–so that the students will know what to look for, and thereby have better comprehension. It makes sense that this same strategy will also enhance mathematics students’ comprehension of word problems. Teachers in the mathematics classroom are not expected to be reading teachers, but it behooves us to draw on strategies that have been found beneficial by reading teachers in our quest to enable students to solve word problems correctly–and without the dread so many of them feel.

So…it is worth a try the next time you observe a young person who is mixed up about what to do next when confronted with a word problem in his/her mathematics classroom. Encourage the student to jump to the question first, then come back to the beginning of the problem and use that knowledge to determine what to do.

You’ll observe success – and will feel your own relief – and theirs!

References

Dossey, John A.; Mullis, Ina V. S.; Lindquist, Mary M.; & Chambers, Donald L. The mathematics report card: Are we measuring up? Trends and achievement based on the 1986 National Assessment. Princeton, N.J.: Educational Testing Service, 1988.

Kresse, Elaine Campbell. “Using Reading As a Thinking Process to Solve Math Story Problems,” Journal of Reading 27, (1984): 598-601.

Nolan, James F. “Reading in the Content Area of Mathematics.” In M. DuPuis (Ed.), Reading in the Content Areas: Research for Teachers (pp. 28-41). Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 1984.

Silver, Edward A. & Thompson, Alba G. “Research Perspectives on Problem Solving in Elementary School Mathematics.” The Elementary School Journal 84, (May 1984): 529-545.

Stiff, Leo V. “Understanding Word Problems.” Mathematics Teacher 79, (March 1986): 163-165, 215.

And to access scores of free resources that you can use to support the learners in your classroom, including PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word documents, just go to http://www.OwningWordsforLiteracy.com – and you can click on the Downloads tab. To get numerous articles with teaching tips (for free), just go to http://www.ArticlesforTeachers.com and see what’s there for you to use in your classroom.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

To explore that further, please answer the following questions:

1. Do all of the students in your class read at exactly the same level? 
2. Does any dictionary have ALL the features, words, tools, and resources that you need?
3. Are you capable of – and interested in - differentiating instruction for your students?

 Here are the answers I’d predict for anyone reading this article:

1. No.
2. No.
3. Yes.

Given those answers, let’s think about making the case with other teachers in your building about using a variety of dictionaries instead of the proverbial ‘class set.’ 

• Students read at a range of reading levels, no matter whether they are in first grade or are juniors in high school.
• Students need dictionaries that are appropriate for their reading level or there is little or no chance that they will access them.
• If students don’t use the dictionaries that are in a classroom, then there is little reason to have them in the classroom.
• Students need dictionaries that are challenging enough to make them interesting but not inaccessible because the reading level is too high.
• If everyone in the classroom is using a different dictionary (or at least it appears that way) when students are doing dictionary work, then no one feels singled out because s/he is the ONLY one with a higher or lower level of dictionary.  The idea is for all students to feel included in the learning event.

 Let’s hope you can use some of these reasons/arguments with some of your colleagues.  When you do, then have a dictionary ’swap.’  Have all the teachers (who ‘get it’) bring their dictionaries to a central location (like your classroom).  Whatever number of dictionaries that a person comes in with is the number s/he will leave with.  Everyone can wander around the classroom choosing from the piles of dictionaries that are displayed. 

An additional way to differentiate your dictionary selection is to go to garage sales (normally I’m not a fan) and buy dictionaries that are available.  Old, new, battered, whatever…buy them for 50 cents or thereabouts.

Another way is  to check out the discount tables at bookstores.  I’m stunned at the fabulous, brand new dictionaries that one can purchase for a few dollars.

And yes… yet another way is to ask parents, friends, or local libraries to donate dictionaries for your classroom.  MANY people will say yes – and this adds to the array of choices your students will have the next time you say, ‘Good news, it’s time for some word play and dictionary fun!’ 

Have you “traded” some dictionaries with grade levels above or below yours so that you have a wider range of dictionaries?

Make the dictionaries in your classroom irresistible and then students will clamor for opportunities to just enjoy them. I know because I was one of ‘those’ classroom teachers who did things like that. I’ll bet you are, too. Hooray for us!!!

And if you would like to access scores of free resources that you can use to support the learners in your classroom, including PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word documents, just go to

** http://www.OwningWordsforLiteracy.com – and you can click on the Downloads tab.

To get numerous articles with teaching tips (for free), just go to http://www.ArticlesforTeachers.com and see what’s there for you to use in your classroom.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

Are you getting ready to interview for a teaching position at a college or university (or at a K-12 institution that is wise enough to ask for a teaching demonstration?  Then you may wonder how to ‘wow’ them so that you are offered the position.  If you want to be sure to do an A+ demonstration (even when you only have 30 minutes to ’show  your stuff’) then consider the following ideas, which are not presented in any particular order: 

1. You are better to convey one or two ideas REALLY well than 8 or 9 ideas poorly.  Focus on your real message.

2. When planning your teaching demonstration, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I want people to KNOW as a result of my teaching?
• What do I want people to FEEL as a result of my teaching?
• What do I want people do DO result of my teaching?

 The KNOW, FEEL, and DO idea is shared by Bill Jensen in his book, Simplify Your Life. 

You don’t have to tell your participants what your Know, Feel, & Do goals are, but it helps you to focus your thinking and your preparation.

3. Engage your learners. Avoid the lecture – because you know you would not teach by using only lecture format with students. If you are going to lecture for a portion of the time you have for your teaching demonstration, make it brief, interspersed with something that involves your learners.

4. Use PowerPoint – but ONLY a FEW slides that are mostly graphics not words. You want to show them what you would do with the students and you don’t want anyone to imagine that your technique would be the ‘wall of words’ format.  Ugh and Bo-ring.

5. Be your real self. That’s who they are hiring. Be who you are because that is who they will love and want to hire (I am assuming that only really cool people are reading this article).

6. Provide closure vs. just ‘ending.’ Find out what they learned – and there are variety of ways to determine that.  It can be as simple as asking, ‘what was the main concept you learned tonight?’ or ‘What are the 2 best ideas you heard here?’

And, of course, keep your positive thinking hat on!  Positive thinking is certainly preferable to negative thinking!  I think you should be in this frame of mind when you head into your teaching demonstration. 

And as a current or future college or university faculty member, you have many opportunities for success and failure. If you would like additional tips, tools, and techniques that you can use to support your successes, then access one or both of the following free resource websites:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

**Articles for Professors (http://www.ArticlesforProfessors.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

• What will I do to get my students excited about what I am getting ready to teach them?
• How will I motivate, incite, energize, stimulate, encourage, inspire, provoke, challenge, rouse, rally, invite, titillate, engage, entice, and/or lure my students into this unit of study?
• What will I do that will activate their background knowledge?

The sky is the limit for all of these because your creativity is boundless.  So, there is not a particular ‘number” of activities or strategies that you need to use, because so much depends on the depth and breadth of your unit and what you ultimately create that will be the energizer(s), the enticer(s), the engager(s) for your unit.

With that being said, however, just thinking that you will have a guest speaker on plate tectonics or that you’ll show a movie related to your unit theme is not enough.  Let’s think about what you can consider as you’re putting your unit together. 

1. Go back to the unit’s “Content Outline” and the unit “Objectives.”  No matter what you decide to include into your unit plans, it is essential that the motivation and activation activities support the learning objectives. There is so much you can do that enhances students’ learning that there is certainly no need for ‘filler’ activities that are ‘fun’ but don’t add to the learning. 

2. Begin to consider what will motivate your students as they are learning.  To motivate is to “furnish with a motive or motives; to give impetus to; to incite; to impel.” The learning activities that you want to include in your unit are ones meant to encourage students to learn, to inspire them to learn, to engage them in learning, to challenge them to learn, to rally them to the teacher’s side in the fight for learning, etc.  Start brainstorming what would do that (again, review your content outline and objectives to help keep your brainstorming on track). 

3.  Next, go back and rethink your brainstorming and begin to flesh out those ideas that seem to have promise for ‘inciting learning’ in your students.  This includes helping them make connections between what they know and what you are teaching them as well as extending their learning of the information. 

4.  Consider all the different types of learners you have in your classroom, too.  Certain learning activities will connect better with some students than others – so be sure to differentiate where possible and where reasonable. 

5.  As you are working through this, you will also need to evaluate whether you have ”enough” – or if you have gone overboard!  As stated above, one movie is not enough. (Two movies are not enough).  You want to look for quantity (5 – 10 activities/ occurrences/ happenings) and/or for quality 1-3 exceptionally “in-depth” activities/occurrences /happenings. This does not mean that there won’t be quality in the quantity. I hope there will be–but you want to assure yourself that you have created motivational experiences that demonstrate quality of reasoning, planning, and potential learning.

6.  It’s always wise to conceptualize a clear justification for each motivation learning experience.  You never know when someone might question you and how you are getting your students too excited about learning!  Sad, but true. 

Have fun planning and then have a fabulous time teaching and learning with your students! That’s the best part of all!!

And if you’d like to access multiple free resources to support your teaching, you’ll find them at both of the following websites, which you are welcome to access:

** http://www.PumpernickelPublishing.com

** http://www.OwningWordsforLiteracy.com

(c) Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. – AKA ‘The Ph.D. of Productivity’(tm).

Three sources (and early warning signs) of toxicity include negative attitudes, gossip, and intimidation/bullying.  In this article, I’ll share some ideas on each and what to look out for. 

Negative Attitudes

When someone is down for a day, you might notice it and try to cheer them up.  A week of being negative would start to become more noticeable.  If you work with someone who has negativity that seems to seep from their pores, you have a potential problem.  Even in a large office, one person’s negativity can affect others – and even more worrisome is the fact that their negativity may grow and pull in others, as well.  When you are planning to maintain a positive academic work environment, you might feel sorry for someone if he/she is his/her own little unhappy person – but just keep it to themselves.  On the other hand, once it starts to radiate beyond, that’s when the trouble starts and you have to step in.  

Gossip

Gossip is certainly a source and a sign of potential problems in the workplace. It i’s an insidious issue and is one of the first ones that people could take a stand against.  When you take a stand against gossip, you are exhibiting leadership that others will remember – and will someday thank you for (even though that is not why you’re stepping up). 

First, you can refuse to participate in gossip.  If you hear someone gossiping, you can walk away.  If you are offered a ‘juicy item,’ you can let the person know that you prefer not to hear gossip. 

Secondly, if you hear gossip (or something that has the potential to be gossip), shut up about it and refuse to pass it around.

Thirdly, be more bold in exhibiting leadership in this area.  At a staff meeting, bring up gossip and encourage everyone to have a gossip-free zone at the office (and related to the office).  If you have individuals who are gossip hounds, speak with those individuals privately to let them know that their actions are damaging to human beings and the to the work that needs to be accomplished in this office or lab. 

Gossip never helps anybody.  Unfortunately, it’s one you will essentially always see in a toxic environment.  And gossip is clearly linked to the intimidation and bullying (or haven’t you seen or read any news lately)? 

Intimidation/bullying

Just recently somebody told me about a higher level administrative person spreading malicious rumors.  Everybody was believing these stories and talking about the situation – and it was untrue, but the damage was done anyway.  If you think about it, it will remind you of junior high or middle school shenanigans. 

Academics, or those working in an academic environment, will often use words as the way of intimidating and bullying others vs. the physical intimidation and bullying that we might see in other settings.  With words, once the untruths, half-truths, or even truths that are meant to cause pain or to demonstrate power are ‘out there,’ you can’t take them back.  The damage is done.  No matter what is done to retract or to demonstrate that something is not accurate, some will always harbor those little questions, “What is s/he really…?’  It’s toxic!

As somebody said recently, “You can’t un-ring a bell.”

Toxic academic work environments, characterized by bullying, intimidation, gossip, and negativity keep productive people from their work and give non-productive people an excuse not to work. As a leader, do everything you can to create and maintain a positive academic work environment.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a 90+ minute teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to ** http://meggin.com/academicladder.php where you can freely download the handouts and recording.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm).

Putting pockets into your life can make the difference between being ‘calm’ or ‘crazed.’  What are pockets? Visualize each of thefollowing to help get the concept in your mind…

• Picture yourself getting an old purse or wallet out of your
  closet and finding change in a pocket.  You got a surprise
  of some extra money!
• Think about a time when you reached into a winter coat or
  spring jacket and found folded-up money. You received a
  surprise of some extra money!
• Remember a time when a three-hour meeting was canceled at
  the last minute and you found out you had a ‘pocket’ of
  time you weren’t expecting. A wonderful surprise!

When you have ‘pockets’ in your life, big and little surprises (of the positive kind) can result. 

Let’s look at it another way by considering these scenarios:

• A boat capsizes and people are trapped underneath.
  They can survive for a time because of the pockets of air
  that exist. 
• A quarterback is protected by the pocket created by
  his offensive line.  Without that pocket, it’s unlikely he
  could withstand the rush of the defense. 

This concept started to take hold in my life as I noticed my lack of pockets. At that time, I was the Director of the Excellence in Teaching Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. See if my situation was similar to one you have in your own life.

If I had a 10:00 meeting across campus, and I knew that it took me ten minutes to walk from my office to the Provost’s office, I would leave at 9:50, working right up until the moment I needed to leave. I was, of course, thinking how efficient I was. WRONG! A 10-minute walk across campus would only work if:

a) I didn’t see anyone I knew along the way (and that wasn’t going to happen after 15 years on campus),

b) I didn’t notice something interesting to look at (students doing something, a new set of plantings, a poster that begged to be read), and

c) I didn’t need to take a quick restroom break on the way (also highly unlikely since I’d been working all morning and drinking coffee!)

So, in order to be “on time,” I’d be charging across campus, barely greeting anyone I knew and purposely ignoring everything interesting that might distract me (and of course, not stopping in the bathroom). Harumph! This was not a smart or efficient way for me to behave.

So, I made a decision: I decided to make that year (and it’s a constant, continuing quest) the year of time “pockets.” If I had a breakfast meeting that started at 8:00 and I knew it took 15 minutes to drive there, I would leave at 7:30. Gosh! What if I got there early?! Here’s what happened: I was calmer and more ready to meet, pay attention to my colleagues, and think.

So, what I want you to do right now is to read through the following list, and ask yourself whether you have any pockets in one, all, or any of these areas. 

1. Time o you have any time pockets, that is any type of reserve of time–be that daily, hourly, weekly, or monthly–or are you just crammed every second of every day, every year?
2. Wealth:How about “money” pockets? Do you have any cash or credit pockets–or are you just hoping that nothing breaks and that the overtime continues? Not having any money pockets causes extraordinary stress on individuals and families (and companies, too).
3. Stuff:Are all of your “things” on their last legs? Are you in a situation where your appliances, your flashlights, your office equipment, etc. are all working–but just barely. This means your pockets are gone.
4. Home, kids/family o you have any emotional, energy, and time pockets as far as your home life and family are concerned? Or, are you strained to the breaking point? Is everyone ‘on edge’?
5. Work:Regardless of whether you are self-employed or employed by another person, consider whether you have any pockets in your professional life. You know you don’t have any pockets if you feel you might snap at any point. There’s the thought that if someone gives you one more task to do…well, you fear what might happen. Or, possibly you are a manager and every one of the people working for you is less-than-qualified. You have no pocket of ‘excellence’ in your work setting. You are likely to be able to think of other areas where your work pockets have disappeared or become quite slim.
6. Health:When your health pockets are gone, then all the other pockets run the risk of disappearing altogether. If you are way behind on your sleep (and have been for weeks, months, or longer), if you have a nagging cough, ache, headache, rash, or who-knows-what-else that has been hanging on for awhile, or if you know you are ignoring your weight, cholesterol, or high blood pressure, then you are deliberately tossing away any pockets you could hope to have.
7. Energy:Your energy pockets are related to many of the other pockets on this list and at the same time, you can tend to your energy pockets in some different ways. Check and see if you feel you have an abundance of positive energy. Are you excited about your life, your projects, your relationships, getting up every day to see what might be in store for you? Or, do you feel dread and despair as you think about these aspects of your life? Ouch.  Pockets are non-existent if the latter is true.
8. Ideas:What’s your idea pocket? Are you replete with ideas or experiencing a dearth in that direction? Notice whether this is a change for you. If you used to have TONS of ideas but now have very few, think about what might have caused the change.

I hope thinking about your pockets–be they wide or narrow–is useful to you.

Pockets are “the difference between calm and crazed.” To receive weekly tips about pockets, just go to http://pumpernickelpublishing.com/ where you can sign up to receive one tip per week in one or more of the following series:

**Tips: Putting Pockets in Your Personal Life

**Tips: Putting Pockets in Your Professional Life

**Tips: Putting Pockets of Time and Energy into Your Life: Tips for Teachers

Tip: If you are interested in more than one, it’s better to sign up for one at a time…or at least only sign up for one today and then a different one tomorrow. That way, you really will only get one tip on a given day and you’ll have a chance to implement that before you get the next one.

Find other helpful ideas check out…

**From the Desk of Meggin McIntosh (http://fromthedeskofmegginmcintosh.com/)

(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity” ™

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting. Visit her site: http://meggin.com/.