Issue link: http://ncumarketing.uberflip.com/i/889209
Emily Schmittel, PhD Full-Time Faculty Department of Marriage and Family Sciences As you know, one of the most important strategies for teaching, especially in an online format, is staying organized and focused. I find that I often go through cycles where I am more and less successful at this. I am most successful when I am using several strategies that maximize executive functioning. Years ago, while working with a client who had difficulties with attention and organization, I came across a workbook on executive functioning that offers a number of strategies that have been helpful to me in my personal and professional life (Tuckman, 2012). Executive functions involve many of our brain's process- es for staying focused, remembering information, plan- ning, keeping track of time, and completing tasks (Tuck- man, 2012). There are two main strategies for improving these skills including increasing the visibility of the task that is most in need of our attention and decreasing visibility and access to those things that distract us the most. Some of my biggest struggles during the work week related to executive functions include getting distracted, getting stuck in a task too long, and low motivation to complete certain tasks. The following teaching tips, as a result, are related to tackling these problems. Dealing with Distractions Working from home, you know it can be easy to be distracted from your job. Distractions come from family, housework, pets, and enjoyable activities that are readily available in your home and on your computer (e.g., Netflix, Facebook). You've probably already found that in general, having a clean workspace and telling family that certain times are considered 'do not disturb' can be really helpful in addressing these issues. I recommend identifying which distractions you most commonly get hooked by and prioritizing the use of strategies that specifically target those problem areas. Here are some examples you might consider: • When grading a chunk of assignments, turn off your email and phone. All of us are steadily getting emails throughout the day, and I find when my email is open I'm interrupted and distracted every few minutes. While this can be helpful if an urgent issue arises, it also makes it more difficult to get back to whatever I was pulled away from. Schedule yourself regular times to check email, and the rest of the time keep it closed. • Use your computer to help you stay focused. While helping my client, I discovered that you can put apps on your web browser to decrease distractions. One example is LeechBlock (Anderson, 2017), which can be set up to block a site like Facebook from 9-5 or to only let you browse certain sites for a limited amount of time during those hours. This program will also keep track of how much time you've spent browsing these distracting sites so that you can have an honest record of how much sites are a problem for you. School of Social and Behavioral Sciences TEACHING School of Social and Behavioral Sciences TEACHING