Research_Strategy_Paper

Research Strategy Paper Vicki Fraker Gen/200 Foundations for General Education and Professional Success September 21, 2011 Anita Bodeheimer Research Strategy Paper After sitting down and looking back at my day to day activities I have really pinpointed that my day to day problem is time management. I wake up early in the morning and the first thing I do is sit down outside for my morning cigarette and my daily dose of the news online. I often find myself sitting there longer than I should just because I am not ready to get up and get ready before I wake the kids up. Once I’m ready I go into wake the kids up and will sit down on the bed and turn on the TV so that they have some back ground noise and then wake them up. I often find myself watching the cartoons with them before they have even gotten up to get dressed. I really know that I need to get moving because I am just wasting time because I really would love to just crawl back into bed and go back to sleep. Next thing you know I am rushing everyone to get out the door because we took too long to get up and moving. Once everyone is dropped off at school and the babysitter I start to relax a little bit because one thing is accomplished. When I am at work at the DA’s office things are pretty relaxed so I don’t have a deadline on my work so I don’t worry too much. It’s when I get home that it all starts again. Rush to pick up the kids, come home change for soccer, run out the door for soccer, come home make dinner, do dishes, give baths, make bottles, get the kids down for bed, take my shower, then try and relax. Oh man its 10:30 at night now, I have to try and go to sleep. Yeah right! When I finally realize that I need to do something about my problem I would have to say the first thing I need to do is talk to my support system and find out what they do to manage their time and see what I can get for advice from them. Most of the people that I know have children and a job and school and know exactly what I am thinking about but from the outside looking in it seems like they have it under control and don’t seem to feel pressed for time the way that I do. I think the best thing would be to ask them what their secrets are and try and take from that something that will help me. The world of technology is very useful because I can jump on the computer and look up websites to find ideas and ways to manage my time better. Well I guess I need to make time to do this before it gets too late. After I look search google.com for websites it just becomes a matter of browsing each site to see what will work for me. I will make notes of the website on my note pad as well as saving the website to my favorites so that I can go back to it when I need to. The other thing I will do is print out helpful information so that I can have it handy to read again when I need a refresher. Another way is start scheduling my days in advance so that I don’t feel like I am rushing myself. This will require me to maintain a visual calendar that I can write down the day’s tasks and maybe even a calendar for my children so that they have a visual guide and maybe they can start helping out a little more and doing some things on their own. The way it is now is they always want mommy to do it for them like brushing their teeth and getting them dressed for bed. The biggest problem with that is that I can’t complete my stuff because I am so busy doing everything for them. I think another big issue is having my boyfriend help me out more. I always ask for his help but then decide I will just do it myself because I want it done a certain way and he can’t do it my way. I have to learn to trust others will get the job done even if it is different from the way that I would do it. I think that with all of that into consideration I will be able to start working on managing my time better by delegating tasks and asking for help. Also I will have to start scheduling myself which is something that I don’t like doing because if it isn’t something that is an appointment I don’t like sticking to a schedule. I think once I this is all figured out and everything put into place things will run better at home and I will feel like I am making the best of my time. I found this quote that best fits me because I know it is so true, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” [ (Penn) ]. Works Cited Penn, W. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2011, from Time Management Help: http://www.timemanagementhelp.com/quotes.htm