I came into work on Monday wondering what happened to my weekend – or rather knowing that I spent it catching up on everything that really needed to be done by the end of last week. I even caught myself thinking that if only I had the time to do it I would go on a time management course.  I’m sure most of you know that feeling all too well.

It’s true that last week was particularly difficult in terms of workload. Just to give you a flavour of the urgent tasks coming over my desk in the latter part of last week, these included all the promotion cases for academics, work on the School Plan, rankings for staff appointments, completion of a patent refiling, responding to grant referees’ reports and revisions on a paper for resubmission to a journal.  At the same time I was giving a talk in Glasgow so needed to travel there and back – a normal part of our external research activity.  All of these tasks had to be completed within very short deadlines; there was no choice about it.

That is the price for being Head of School of course, but I know that most of you will be having the same experience, at least some of the time. In our larger and more diverse School there seem to be more deadlines to be met than ever before.  We all have to develop our own strategies for dealing with the pressure.   When time is tight I do try to prioritise according to what is really important for me to complete, and take into account what might/might not happen if I fail to meet particular deadlines.

Returning a grant proposal to an external funder by the deadline is obviously essential, otherwise it will simply fail. An internal deadline may be more negotiable, and if there is something I have to get done for Faculty, for example, I might contact the appropriate person and ask for a few days’ grace.  Breaking tasks down into more manageable chunks that I can either complete myself or delegate to someone else is another useful strategy – although I’m conscious that effective delegation isn’t something that always comes naturally to me and I have to work on it.

The reality is that we all have to address these challenges in our new School. Work life balance is an issue that we take seriously as an institution, but it can get lost day to day as we run to catch up with ourselves.  The danger then is that work begins to bleed into our home lives to an unhealthy extent.  The past week (and my “weekend”) reminded me of how difficult things can become – I think it exceeded anything I have experienced over the past decade.  That led me to think particularly about our younger staff and to wonder how they are coping.  Over the years most people do develop their own strategies but it can take time to do that, and to find ways of keeping problems in proportion.

First, I think it’s important for everyone, at all levels and in every type of job in the School to know that if they are feeling under pressure they aren’t the only ones and it isn’t a sign of weakness. Second, it is helpful to talk things through to begin to put everything into perspective – that could mean a discussion with your manager or another colleague, your partner or a friend.  Even quite minor problems at work can seem overwhelming, but it’s surprising how telling someone else can help you to see them differently.  And it goes without saying that your own health and that of your family should always take priority.

I’m now preparing to set off for Newcastle airport to catch a flight to Washington DC where I’ll be giving a talk, so you could say this is a case of do as I say, not as I do, but maybe I really will get around to doing that time management course one day.