Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, September 2012 issue)

I just returned from the AEJMC annual conference in Chicago, one of the most inspiring summer conventions I attended over the past thirty years or so. What made it so special, in my opinion, was that we not only celebrated AEJMC’s 100th anniversary but reflected on how our profession evolved over the course of a century of teaching journalism and mass communication. One of the sessions the Standing Committee on Teaching offered on Saturday morning was designated as a Centennial Session because we discussed “What We’ve Learned In Our First 100 Years.” This session was audience-driven as the four panelists responded to questions submitted by attendees (in person) and those who could not attend (via Twitter). One of the topics that came up in this session and in several other sessions this year was the notion of work-life balance, or work-life integration, as some researchers call it.

One of the highlights of this year’s conference was an exhibition of products that entered the U.S. market in ca. 1912, such as Oreo cookies, Kewpie dolls, the Erector Set, Life Savers, Morton Salt, Goo-Goo Clusters, Necco Wafers, and many others. Also on display was a selection of books published in or around 1912. Thanks to outgoing AEJMC President Linda Steiner, these books were given away to winners of a special drawing throughout the conference. I was one of the lucky winners and chose the book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett.* The title seemed intriguing.

I never thought I could learn something about time management from a book published 100 years ago, but I was in for a pleasant surprise as I started reading it on the plane home from Chicago.

The premise of Bennett’s book is that time is the “inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible, without it, nothing. (…) You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. (…) And no one can take it from you. It is unstealable. No-one receives either more or less than you receive. Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. (…) You cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow.” (p. 10)

Because of our intellectual curiosity, however, we tend to want to do more than we can fit into a day’s cycle. The wish to accomplish something outside of our formal obligations seems to be common among humans—perhaps especially for academics who have a desire to build knowledge.

Bennett, who lived in the suburbs of London and took a daily commuter train to get to the office, suggests that we consider our 9 to 5 (or so) work schedule as “the day” and the hours preceding and following it are nothing but a prologue and an epilogue. Just take a moment and record the time you spend every day going to work and coming home. Think of these two times as the “bookends” to your day. Unless you are taking public transportation there is really nothing you can do productively while driving to and from your office except, maybe, listening to books on tape or to BBC World on satellite radio to keep your mind sharp and up to date. If your bookends (or “margins” as Bennett calls them) are disproportionally large compared to your work day, you may want to restructure your life. For example, and these are my suggestions (not Bennett’s), you may choose to telecommute one day a week, or spend your designated research day at home, or teach hybrid courses with 50% class time face-to-face and 50% online.

If we wish to live a full life, according to Bennett, we must find a way to create a “day within a day” that we control. By that he means that we need to arrange for an “inner day” similar to a Chinese box inside a larger Chinese box, or a Russian doll within a doll. You may say “I’m too tired for that” to which Bennett would reply that “mental faculties are capable of continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change—not rest, except in sleep.” (p. 22)

Change, or variety, seems to be the key to maximizing a day’s 24 hours. Bennett offers a few general tips on how to make more efficient use of your time and increase productivity:

Employ all of your senses. Set aside some time (yes, put it on your calendar!) to experience something that is aesthetically pleasing or uplifting. This may be a visit to an art museum, or a stroll through the botanical garden, or attending a play, or listening to a piece of classical music, or savoring a gourmet meal in the good company of friends. This will stimulate your creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

Cultivate your own self. Aspire to learn something new that has seemingly nothing to do with your discipline. It will stimulate your mind and may lead to greater efficiency and productivity.

Set aside time to reflect. “We are supposed to be reasonable, but we are much more instinctive than reasonable. And the less we reflect, the less reasonable we are.” (p. 38)

Control your mind. Don’t let worrying steal your precious time! Worrying keeps you up at night. Clear your mind before you call it a day so that you can regenerate while you sleep.

I would like to add three “time-saving” teaching tips:

Follow a tightly written syllabus. If your syllabus has any loopholes, even the smallest ones, your students will find them. From my experience as department chair, I can tell you that most grade appeals come from students whose instructor did not have an airtight syllabus. When a student challenges a grade the appeals process demands extra time from the instructor, the department chair, the dean’s office, and the Appeals committee.

Be firm in saying “No!” If you give in to a sob story by one of your students and you show leniency, other students will try to exploit your generosity. Then you may end up spending the rest of the semester on the defensive, which demands more time and causes unnecessary stress.

Anticipate disruptive behavior and be prepared to respond appropriately. Most of the undergraduate students in our classrooms today are members of a generation called “Generation Rx.” (Millennials already entered the workplace and “Xers” have moved on to be administrators and executives.) The unique challenge educators face with the “Prescription Generation” is that we are often surprised by unpredictable behaviors some of our students display in class. These may be symptoms of a disability such as Autism or Tourette Syndrome, or they may be caused by the fact that a student took his/her medication too late, or forgot to take it, or the medication was being adjusted or switched, or the medication has side effects that cause behavioral changes. While we are not medical professionals trained to know the difference we should know what to do (and what not to do) when a student displays disruptive behavior in class so that we are not wasting anybody’s time. Please ask your university’s office for Faculty Affairs or your Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for information and guidance regarding this matter.

So, whenever we say “Someday, when I have more time, I will do such-and-such!” let’s remind ourselves to maximize the time we have today. Carpe Diem!