Research_Strategy_Paper

Research Strategy Paper Foundation for General Education and Professional Success A major problem that I encounter on a daily basis is time management. This has been a thorn in my side for years due to the many activities I am involved with. Time management is a term that refers to various skills, techniques and tools that are used for time management when accomplishing certain projects, tasks or goals. Time management includes a wide variety of activities. These activities include allocating time, setting various goals, project planning, delegation of tasks, analizing time used and organizing. In the beginning, time management only reffered to work or business tasks, however, it eventually widened to include personal tasks. Due to the nature of the various daily activities I am involved with makes it very difficult to determine what information that I need that could help my time management problem. The store where I work releases weekly work schedules every Thursday. Using this schedule, I can determine what times I may be able to use for other tasks. However, these hours are always subject to change. I have specific projects that are lined out for my company and have tried to set aside certain times of the day for applying to these designs. These times are also subject to adjustment because of new customer criteria, material availability, etc. I have set aside certain times that I devote solely to my college work and I try to not make any exceptions to these times. We have a fifteen yeay old boy that is very involved in many activities such as Boy Scouts, Police community work, church association, etc whih requires my attention also. I will be trying to find information on how to work various activities into ways that can compliment each other so I may be able to use the same time for different tasks. I have a subscription to a magazine that deals specifically with time management and how to implement it into a system that will work in almost any situation. The articles that are presented in this magazine are written by professionals that have been dealing with this subject for many years, therefore, I think I can feel comfortable with what I read. There are many websites that deal with time management as well as other types of management areas. Some of these sites are excellent sources of reference. When using the internet, I will have to be careful how I evaluate these websites. This will have to be done by researching the author, the experience, and decide if the information is sound. I have been working on time management for several years and have made some remarkable improvements. I think with a lot more research and program development, the process will continue to become a lot better. Evaluation is another step that can involve its own research time. Many program evaluation ideas can include a large variety of methods, depending on the gathered information and how it is to be applied. You can find many books and other materials that can detail in-depth evaluation analysis, methods, designs and many other aspects, however a person does not have to be a rocket scientist in all these things to make and use a program evaluation. The proven program that I use is the “20-80” rule. What that means is that 20% of the effort usuallu generates 80% of the results that are needed. I am one of those people that would prefer to produce an average effort for the evaluation of a project, than to do no evaluating at all and really mess up. There are many ideas that I have come across over the years for improving time management. Recently, there has been computer software developed specifically for use in this area. Some of these programs have been designed to elliminate repetitive documentation. By using calendars, plannars, spreadsheets, etc. I can properly set up timeframes for various tasks (as long as there are not any major changes) and be able to follow them in an orderly fashion. By keeping a monthly agenda of my son’s activities, I will be able to coordinate and organize our various tasks to compliment each other. I feel that if I can improve just 20% on the way I manage my time at the present, I will be very satisfied. Reference Carter, C. Bishop J. & Kravits, S (2007) Keys to College Studying: Becoming an active thinker (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River. NJ: Prentice Hall