I don’t know about all of you, but this is about the time of the semester that I find myself getting VERY busy in my assistantship and am finding it hard to get everything done within my “20 hours/week”.  I know that realistically, most assistantships require more than 20 hours per week–I’m looking at you, housing grads!  Being on-duty aside, I’ve found some practices that help me be efficient during my office hours, which helps me keep my office hours to the true 20!

  1. Get Good at Email: we get A LOT of emails every day.  And let’s not talk about what happens over a weekend or a break.  If you can master the art of email efficiency, it can keep you on your A-game, act as a running to-do list, and save you time.  In my job before graduate school, we had a strict 24-hour turnaround response time on emails, disregarding weekends.  I have tried to stick to that policy during my assistantship.  I make it a goal to have a “zero inbox” by the end of the work week, meaning I answer and archive everything before leaving my last office hour.  I treat my email like real mail; I only want to handle it once.  If you read it, respond and tend to it–don’t let it sit in the inbox and get covered!  When you stay on top of your email, it can become a running to-do list for you–if it’s in the inbox, it needs attention.
  2. “On Air” Time: In a perfect world, we would all be completely dedicated to our work 100% of our office hours–except, we’re human, and humans can’t totally drown out all distractions 100% of the time.  I try to work in bursts of 30-60 minutes, especially if I know I have a big week with a lot to accomplish.  Some people call this “on air” time; time that is completely dedicated to your performance.  This could also be known as time that you don’t allow yourself to be distracted by your phone, email, Facebook, Buzzfeed, etc.  After you spend 60 minutes of unadulterated work time, reward yourself for getting done in a hour what typically takes a day!
  3. Learn to Say No: I am still working on this one, but being a graduate assistant is a great time to hone your skills at knowing how much you can handle in a certain amount of time.  If you are being efficient with your time (see above…) and still can’t seem to find the time in your week to complete tasks, talk with your supervisor.  You might have too much on your plate to realistically get done in 20 hours each week.  YOU are your best advocate, and it is more than ok to say no every now and then!

I hope some of these tips are helpful for you to make the most out of your office hours this semester!