Avoiding Derailment

Avoiding Derailment

Like many of you, I usually begin my day with a nice tidy list of to-dos. I grab coffee, share some good mornings’ with my colleagues, get situated and last but not least, open my inbox. Now, I have nothing against the inbox, email is such an important and efficient tool for communication, especially on a college campus but for the purposes of discussing derailment, this has to be the number one contributor to my to-do list collecting dust right around 11am.

It is so easy to see someone in need of our assistance and drop everything to be sure they know we see them and are working diligently on their problem, but what about self-preservation? If I am all over the place and behind in every area that’s important to me, how can I be my very best or give my very best to others? The truth is, we can’t. We rush to answer the emails and rush to respond to the needs of others, while barely noticing we have been derailed and it will likely happen the next day too, as long as we let it.

There are three really good ways to avoid being derailed, that I have put into practice and would love to share with you:

1.       I shorten my “to-do” list to a “must-do” list. This sounds counter-intuitive, of course less work would be smoother. But it’s not really about doing less work, but more about just prioritizing the most important work. Each day there are only so many fires we can put out, and being able to use our best judgement to decide which fires require our immediate attention can really keep us remain focused.

2.       I stay away from that inbox for at least the first hour of the morning. There is something about allowing the inbox to breathe that helps us slow down and sink into the day. Often when we first get in, the momentum of our movement is still pushing us to move forward, when just a few moments of collecting ourselves and staying on task would change the trajectory for our day.

3.       I limit my morning chat time with coworkers until closer to lunch or after lunch. While morning chat time is a great opportunity to discuss the traffic we encountered on our morning drive, grumble about parking far away or recount how the Texas weather is so unpredictable; these short conversations can expand into discussions about every facet of our lives if we aren’t giving it much thought. Before we know it our mind is off-track and getting back to the place of productivity is much more challenging.

Avoiding derailment is such a common issue in most places of employment. Since our goal is to do the best job that we can, while delivering the best quality we have to offer; it’s important to take deliberate action to stay on track. When we are able to check something off our to-do list that has haunted us for weeks on end, the feeling is nothing short of amazing. Not only can you avoid being derailed but you can also avoid derailing others too. Good luck with staying focus and fruitful.

Jameelah Ra'oof MIS, MS 

Coordinator of Teaching, Learning & Academic Excellence

Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE)

Texas Woman's University