WBL Journal #4

Directions​: Write a reflection for each of the questions/statements posted below. Answers must be
typed in complete sentences with correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation and grammar.

Entries can include activities, training, observations, instructions, personal notes, etc. You can include
things that you saw and did and what equipment and technology was used. Your responses may be
shared with your mentor. Please be complete in your reflections/thoughts/answers.

Part 1:​ How well do you feel you manage your time (work, school, social)? What are some strategies you
use to effectively manage your time? What strategies could you use to better manage your time?

I feel like I manage my time relatively well, but I can still improve. Some strategies I use are knowing my
schedule, setting reminders on my phone for when things are different, making lists when applicable,
and communicating with people of when I have overbooked myself and am unable to do it all. To better
manage my time, I could be more aware of things happening in the future instead of going day by day
and get out of the habit of multitasking.

Part 2:​ Explain one time you managed your time well and one time you managed your time ineffectively.
What did you learn from each of those situations?

I feel I have managed my time very well each Wednesday of this semester. I have work until four o’clock
and have piano lessons at five o’clock just five minutes down the road. Instead of wasting time going
home or playing on my phone, I sit in a restaurant nearby and get forty-five minutes of homework done.
This helps me to lighten the load so I don’t stay up late working on homework. One time I did not
manage my time effectively was during a Nutcracker weekend a few years ago. Nutcracker weekend for
me is a very busy time where I don’t have much time to focus on anything other than Nutcracker. I do
have time, however, backstage between dances. I had a lot of homework that weekend and I didn’t
bring it with me to work on at the shows and ended up staying up very late that Sunday night trying to
finish it all while I was exhausted from the weekend. Both of these situations have taught me to take
advantage of the shorts periods of time I have nothing going on, instead of wasting them.

Part 3: ​How do you spend your time at work (give examples of tasks and the amount of time you spend
on them)? How do you manage your time at work in order to complete your duties and responsibilities?

Because I intern at a physical therapy clinic, most of my time is spent observing my mentor working with
patients. When we don’t have any patients or the patients are independently working on exercises, I use
that time to clean tables, check if laundry needs to run, and fold laundry in the dryer. When all of those
things are taken care of and my mentor is working on notes, I ask the other physical therapists and their
patients if I can observe what they are doing. In order to manage my time, I make sure I am paying
attention when my mentor is working with a patient, and do as much as I can in between patients. The
hard part for me is when my mentor does evaluations with new patients. Those take an entire hour
where I observe and help input data into our system when my mentor takes measurements. During
those hours, I cannot leave and do other tasks so I have to make sure I get them done after the
evaluation is finished.