Monday, January 23 -- Week 4 EARLY CALENDAR

Shout out to Lauren!  She understands the value of collaboration and explained her understanding well in Week 3 assignments!

Shout out to Immonee!  She understands the value of collaboration (of course she does...she is an ESFP) and explained her understanding well in Week 3 assignments! 

Week 3 was due Friday and Week 4 begins today.  Week 4 is due on Friday, January 27.  Starting today, only 3 weeks will be open at a time -- the past, the current, and the next weeks.  Remember to contact me if you have questions -- I am here to help!  If you need access to Weeks 1 and 2 because of a late start, please contact me and I will re-open them for you.

Need reminders of due dates? There are multiple ways to find due dates.

• View Calendar in Canvas -- To help you keep up with deadlines, use your course calendar. Click on View Calendar in the far right column of our homepage.
• Weekly Checklists in Modules -- On the second page of each module, you will find a checklist of assignments for that module/week.
• Remind outside of Canvas -- Sign up for Remind texts/emails.  To sign up for early calendar (EC) reminders, text @ecdettman to 81010.

Need help with text-based answers?  We do not have a textbook however we do have text.  When you are posting your assignments, you should be referring to and explaining what you have learned from the text.  Please read the texts and/or take the analysis quizzes (you have another one coming up) -- skipping the content means you are just going through the motions and not growing as a leader.  This course is not designed to be completion only.  To help you reference the text, I created several resources.  Where can you find these resources?

• Gradebook Feedback -- I attach resources to my feedback to help you with reposting as well as with future assignments.  
• Our Class Website -- Go to https://www.smore.com/18w65 to view the resources outside of Canvas.  
• Attached to This Announcement -- Check out PEEL.

Ready, learn, lead!

Week 4 is focused on time management.  To be an effective leader, you must use your time effectively to get effective results.  You will explore how to manage your time more effectively by thinking about how you use your time now and applying research-proven time management tools.  No better time than the present to get started!

Week 4 Assignment Tips: 

Weekly Planner and Reflection -- The first activity asks you to write down and plan out your strategy for getting week 4 activities done on time. The idea is to visualize and plan an objective so you can make it more manageable to accomplish. There is a portion of the assignment that asks you to analyze how well you were able to keep to your plan, what went right, what went wrong, in order to get a better grasp on future planning. Make sure to do this assignment with great intention, or you may not get what you should out of the assignment. This reflection should happen at the end of the week.  Don't forget to post your Planner and Reflection -- it tends to be the last thing people submit for Week 4, and sometimes they forget! And don't forget the reflection, that's key!

Covey Quadrant and Analysis -- Take your current ‘to-do’ list and sort all the activities into the appropriate grid. Then, assess the amount of time you have to accomplish the lists and, if necessary, reallocate activities. Quadrant I is for the immediate and important deadlines. Quadrant II is for long-term "strategizing" and development. Quadrant III is for time pressured distractions. They are not really important, but someone wants it now. Quadrant IV is for those activities that yield little is any value. These are activities that are often used for taking a break from time pressured and important activities.  Remember that your assignments this week are not just about sending in a planner or this activities quadrant but also to reflect on what you have experienced and learned!

Drive to Completion --  Using your time effectively and having enough focus and determination to finish what you have started -- Week 4 calls it the Drive to Completion. Have you ever started something and never finished it? Perhaps its time to think about ways of focusing your energies on completing what you start!  Please answer each part of the questions -- use the PEEL resource as your guide to be sure you are showing you understand the text.

Test of Time Creation -- You are asked to read and analyze how leaders know when to act on a given set of information. Often times, things don’t have deadlines, and there are no specific rules when something takes place. Great leaders have honed their ability to know “when the time is right”.  Everyone can work on this and be better at doing the right thing at the right time.  Read the article to learn the many ways our use of time is tested -- it goes through the questions you ask yourself to decide if something is worthy of your time.  How do you chose which problem to solve first?  Create a presentation that shares your understanding of the many tests (paraphrased and not word for word) OR create a video.  After posting your presentation for the class to see, reply to at least one of your classmates.  "I agree" or "Me, too" replies without explanation will not receive credit.

Procrastination Journal -- Remember to review the requirements for journals.  State your ideas, explain them, and offer example(s) to show your understanding.  Consider the definition of procrastination:  the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time, sometimes to the "last minute" before a deadline.

Before posting any of your assignments, ask yourself the following questions:

a. Did I follow all instructions?
b. Did I completely answer the questions?
c. Do I clearly reflect that I understand and am thinking about the topic?  Did I use any weekly vocab?
d. Do I clearly reflect that I am applying the topic to my life--asking questions, giving examples, etc.?