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Section 24
Making Time for Alzheimer's & Low-Functioning...
by Finding Your Optimum Activities Work-Style

Table of Contents | NCCAP/NCTRC CE Booklet

Finding Your Optimum Work-style to Alleviate Your Procrastination
Finding your own work-style, rather than working against the grain, can give you a big boost in efficiency and can help alleviate procrastination tendencies. The following questions will help you identify your personal work-style.

•   Do you prefer “hard-to-easy” or “easy-to-hard”? Do you like to tackle the hardest parts of a big job first? Or do you prefer easing into a big task? Neither approach is “right,” it’s just got to be right for you. For those Activity Directors who prefer to ease in, it’s important to make sure you don’t always avoid the tough stuff, which is usually the heart of the matter. Conversely, if you start with the more difficult tasks, don’t forget to wrap up the easy to tackle loose ends.  Previously we spoke about giving yourself a reward for approaching "dreaded tasks."

•   Do you prefer working on a variety of tasks, or are you a one-project-at-a-time person?  Do you prefer writing Care Plans for all of your heavy care residents?   Or do you prefer mixing them up by writing some Care Plans for more alert residents first, then writing Care Plans for the less alert residents?

•   Do you know your tolerance levels? While one person can concentrate productively for four hours straight, another can get fuzzy after 20 minutes. Listen to your body signals. When you’ve read the same Progress Note three times, your neck is aching, and you no longer feel like you care, it’s time to quit. Pushing yourself beyond your tolerance limit is unproductive. Agree? Compare the quality of work done when you’re fresh and when you’re tired.

• Do you work best in a pressure cooker or on a slow flame? Pacing can be key to your productivity. Determine whether you work best by evenly pacing a task, lopping off a large chunk at the beginning, or cramming it all into the tail end. Some of us find that deadline pressure gives us an adrenaline high, while for other Activity Directors, tight deadlines bring on anxiety attacks.  Find your personal pace and make the most of it.

If you are not feeling highly motivated to implement any of the preceding ideas, think again!.  The Implementation of Culture Change requires cooperation from other departments.  You are requesting schedule changes, transporting, and doing activities.  In order to make these requests and provide training for other staff, the more professional and organized you present yourself, the more likely the other department heads, therapists, CNAs, etc. are to treat you with respect and take your Culture Change requests seriously.  Agree?  So I suggest you strongly consider rereading the preceding section more than once.  Sift through it to find the ideas you need to implement.