Customer comments on this selection.
 Excellent for all faculty
A must read for all faculty experiencing overload. Wonderful suggestions about how to consciously make time for what you want, not be more productive to do more.
Critical advice for all
In our often complicated and frenetic age, this wonderful little book should be read, and internalized, by all faculty and administrators in higher education, who are under a lot of pressure from many sectors. The most commonly heard complaint is, "I don't have time for that...." With years of good and varied experience in higher education and sage insights, Douglas Reimondo Robinson offers advice and practical suggestions for addressing this complaint, for changing one's way of living, for improving teaching and learning and one's own satisfaction with work activities and results. The prose is well writtena and easily readable; and there is clear and evident good humor and a strong sense of concern expressed for people as individuals.
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br /Don't miss this one if you're in higher education! (And even if you're not, it's well worth reading as the thoughts and suggestions can be transferred to any sector of activity.)
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br /Kay Gillespie, Ph.D.
Exceptionally useful for any college instructor/professor
It is no exaggeration to say that the author of this book changed my life. I teach at UNLV, one of three universities at which Doug Robertson established a faculty development center. Before Doug's arrival, I considered myself a fairly good teacher and had won a few teaching awards. In fact, however, I was incredibly ignorant of the principles of effective teaching. During Doug's three years at UNLV, I attended nearly every workshop he offered to faculty on various aspects of teaching and learning. These workshops opened my eyes to the existence of whole universes of knowledge about teaching and learning, and started me on a path of studying and practicing the principles of effective college teaching.
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br /One of the amazing things about attending Doug's workshops: at some point during the workshop, you realize that he is not only teaching you about some aspect of teaching, he is modeling it for you, on you, so that you experience this teaching technique from the students' viewpoint. Very cool!
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br /Based on all this, I had high expectations for Doug's new book "Making Time, Making Change," and was especially interested because I have "time management issues." The book surpassed my expectations.
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br /The book is organized into two major parts. The first, "Making Time," consists of six chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of managing your time. It is loaded with practical tips, many of which you can start using immediately to save time.
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br /Implementing some of these ideas involves replacing bad habits with good ones, something that many of us fail to do despite our best intentions. This is the issue addressed in the two chapters that comprise the second part of the book, "Making Change." These chapters present a well-researched framework to help you understand what is causing you resistance to changing your habits. Basically, this framework involves "hunting" the deepest reaches of your thinking for the assumptions that motivate the behavior you are trying to change, and "testing" these assumptions. When you see that the assumptions don't hold up, then the resistance to changing the behavior disappears or at least diminishes.
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br /The book is very well-researched. The author clearly has a strong grasp of the relevant literature (and has made important contributions to it). Also, the author wrote this book after leading dozens of workshops on this topic to hundreds of college faculty around the country.
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br /This book about time management also respects your time - it is short and easy to read. I devoured my copy in just a few sittings.
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br /Will "Making Time, Making Change" change your life? I am certain that, at the very least, it will in small but meaningful ways.
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br /And possibly in big ways.
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You Can (and should) Make Time for This!
"Making Time, Making Change" is the latest publication from Dr. Douglas Robertson, Director of the Teaching Learning Center at Eastern Kentucky University. A Fulbright Senior Specialist, Robertson has authored a number of successful works on the developmental process of teachers, and currently serves as Senior Editor for New Forum Press's "Practices for Better Teaching" Book Series. He also serves on a number of editorial boards, as well as maintaining an active schedule of consulting and presenting to educational, business, and govenrnmental organizations.
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br / Geared primarily to the active college professor, "Making Time, Making Change" provides a very practical and objective rationale for the re-organization and prioritization of one's professional (and personal) time and effort.
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br / The book is not difficult to read (or retain), and the practices suggested are not particularly difficult to implement. It is very easy to apply one's own needs to the information given.
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br / In my experience, it is quite rare to find this combination of insight and practical application in a text geared toward higher education. I would not hesitate to reccommend this book to those outside the teaching field, as the concepts discussed are universal in nature to most all professions.
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br /Joe Allison, DMA
br /Associate Professor of Conducting
br /Director of Bands and Foster Music Camps
br /Eastern Kentucky University
This is a must read for faculty!
This is an easy-to-read and put-into-practice kind of book, useful for any faculty member. As department chair, I provided copies to the faculty and staff in an effort to encourage a healthier and more productive work environment and saw results right away, especially in better management and use of time (Chapter 2). Most ideas are practical, however, readers may find limited administrative support for some of Dr. Robertson's suggestions discussed in Chapter 5. For other readers, this book will provide confirmation of practices already in place.
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