• Schedule every bit of your time. Don't go into the office in the morning without an accurate plan as to how you will spend your day.
• Keep track of what you need to do. Use a calendar for daily commitments. Make a project chart for longer-term commitments with due dates. Planning in these ways leverages time through focus.
• Try to leave at least one day in your schedule with no meetings.
• Schedule structured time with your colleagues and graduate students.

• Discover your preferred work environment. Yes, you teach in a classroom, your meetings are all over campus, you meet students in your office during office hours... But make sure you have a determined place for all other work where distractions are minimized.
• Do not check your email or answer the phone during time set aside for a specific task such as writing, course planning, or thinking. Protect this time.
• When an unscheduled visitor shows up, stand. It helps end the interruption faster.

In his book The Time Trap, Alec Mackenzie presents a list of 20 most common "time robbers" based on survey data. In recognizing your "time robbers," you are better prepared to control events by developing, adopting and implementing a time strategy. Here are some examples relevant to faculty life:

• Leaving tasks unfinished
• Socializing
• Telephone interruptions
• Attempting too much
• Drop-in visitors
• Personal disorganization
• Inability to say no
• Procrastination

• List tasks and prioritize them. This allows you to reasonably say no to new commitments. Use a project chart to remind you of your priorities and their relative time commitments.
• Delegate as much as possible. Choose tasks carefully so that time for instructions and amending work is limited.
• Learn to say no. Only take on new projects that directly dovetail into something you're already working on.
• Monitor all of your duties as a faculty member related to Teaching, Research and Service. Be aware of the time each activity takes and remember to keep them prioritized appropriately.
• Maintain a list of accomplished tasks. It gives you satisfaction and also saves time when compiling annual reports.

•  Keep your email in-box empty. Delete, answer or move messages to folders as you read them. 
• Transform email messages into tasks as appropriate and add them to your task list.
• Monitor your time on the internet and social networking sites. 
• Back-up all your work with hardcopies and on thumb drives.

•  Limit the number of different classes you teach (number of preparations) to one or two per semester. 
• Arrange your teaching schedule such that your classes meet on the same days. This arrangement will allow for uninterrupted blocks of time on other days.

•  Create a master syllabus with boilerplate text and calendar dates and update it for each class.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Teach a course that has been taught before, either by you or by someone else, and start your preparation with existing materials. Use the textbook and its ancillary materials to your advantage.
• Don’t over prepare. Limit your teaching preparation time. There’s only so much material you can fit into a 50- or 75-minute class. Monitor your prep-to-teach ratio and make sure you aren’t spending eight hours preparing for every hour you teach! A 2:1 ratio is appropriate for familiar topics. 
• Use technology only when it adds value. You may enjoy learning new technology but monitor how much time you spend converting thoughts to floating boxes in PowerPoint. 
• Occasionally substitute other activities for prepared lectures - class discussion, review, group activity, guest speaker, video, etc. This allows for reduced preparation time. 
• Stagger your due dates. Collect major tests/assignments from different classes on different weeks so you don’t have everything to grade at once.