Director's Take
by Dave Hull

You’re swamped. It’s the end of the semester and you have a million things to do before you can go home for the break. Here’s something that can help. Sit down and take out a pen and a piece of paper. Make a list of everything you have to do. Take your time, get it all down on paper so you don’t have to spend brain power maintaining the mental list anymore. This activity is referred to as a brain dump and lots of successful people do this at least once a week.

Look at your list, is there anything that you can take care of right now, in the next few minutes? Focus on those things that you know can be done in less than five minutes and get them done and off the list.

Prioritize the remaining items. Do some of them have dependencies on other items on the list? Do some of them need to be broken down into smaller steps? If so, break out those steps on another list.

If you think of something else later, take the time to add it. Getting your tasks on paper allows you to think about how you’ll get things done rather than having to constantly remind yourself to get it done.

I know this all seems so obvious and it is, but if you’ll actually put this into practice, I think you’ll be glad you did, especially this time of year.

Here are some other things to keep in mind that will help you finish off the semester successfully.

• No food or drink in the labs. If something is spilled on a computer or keyboard, it’s going to mean one less computer in the labs when we need it most, or at the very least it will be time spent cleaning up, when the time could have been better spent working on your projects.
  
  
• One computer per person in the labs. To ensure that you have enough time to get your work done, everyone should only use one computer at a time.
  
  
• No reserving computers. If you need to leave the lab for a few minutes, that’s fine, but if you’re out for more than 15 minutes, don’t expect to have your computer when you return. Likewise, if you’re in the lab waiting and you see someone’s belongings at a computer, take a look at the clock, after 15 minutes, feel free to move the other person’s belongings and take their place.

Please keep these simple rules in mind as we close out the semester. It will help us all be successful. Good luck and happy holidays!