Time Strikes, We Strike Back: Time Management for Female Computer Science Students

Stacy Branham, Laurian Vega

Center for Human-Computer Interaction, Virginia Tech 2202 Kraft Drive Blacksburg, Virginia 24060

{SBranham, Laurian}@vt.edu ABSTRACT

Time management is a critical skill that, especially for women in a high-demand field such as computer science, is necessary for survival. One of the most effective ways to transfer this skill is for successful time managers to share their strategies with others. In this Birds of a Feather (BoF) proposal, we suggest a panel session and short collaborative activity that will provide a forum for women to share experiences and connect with one another for support. Our session is specifically tailored to female students, both undergraduate and graduate, who oftentimes have limited time management experience, highly stressful time demands, and shallow support networks. The outcome of this session will not only be an audience empowered with new time management techniques and social resources, but also a set of blog posts that can encapsulate lessons learned for broader Internet audiences. time management strategies will have to be adjusted as their work becomes more self-structured and self-paced. While time management for productivity is the main topic of this BoF proposal, we believe that we cannot talk about time management without talking about stress management. Indeed, studies show that the two are one and the same; better time management results in lower levels of stress [1][4][5]. The increase of student stress nationwide is accompanied by the reality that female students experience higher academic stress and anxiety than men [5]. Stress has many negative effects such as a lack of productivity [5], poor physical and mental health [3], and is correlated with poor academic performance [4]. Several studies recommend time management education and development of support groups to foster better time management, and in effect, better stress management (e.g., [1] [4] [5]). Past meetings of the GHC attest to the importance of sharing time management techniques within the community. For example, in 2008, there was a session titled The ABCs for ABDs that emphasized the importance of time management and balancing life and work. Again in 2009, there was a session titled Time is on My Side that introduced tools for managing time. The recurrence of this theme reflects both its importance as well as the persistent need to pass lessons learned on to the next generation of women in Computer Science. Our approach in this session is to present a panel of both graduate and undergraduate students that can share their time management struggles and strategies with the audience. The successful students on our panel can serve as role models and social resources for the audience, and they can encourage audience members to create their own time management support networks.

1. INTRODUCTION
Time management is widely recognized as a critical skill for career success. We believe that time management becomes even more critical for women in Computer Science. As a male-dominated field, Computer Science presents a culture that is often hostile to women, one that is insular, isolating, and out of balance [2]. Furthermore, despite the great strides toward sexual equality since the 1970s, research continues to report that women still do more household labor than men [6]. So, not only do the women attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) have more demands on time than their male counterparts, they also have to contend with a field that particularly lacks a culture of life balance. In this session, our focus is on female undergraduate and graduate students as opposed to women in industry. Having recently experienced the challenges unique to undergraduates on the one hand and graduates on the other, the authors believe that these are two important life stages for time management skills development. As undergraduates, students have to manage their time independentlywithout the help of care giversfor the first time in their lives. Additionally, they have very strict demands on their time, such as regular class attendance and short and long term assignment deadlines, not to mention extracurricular and leisure time activities. When undergraduates transition to graduate school, many of their

2. PLAN OF ACTION
We would like our BoF session to be first and foremost a forum for sharing real-world time management experiences and inspiring and guiding one another to improve our strategies, especially our stress-management strategies. To achieve these goals, we plan to include the following in our 60-minute session: a short introductory presentation, an allstudent panel, an audience question and answer session, and closing remarks from the moderator.

We will begin with a short 5-minute presentation. The organizers will introduce themselves and the problems women face regarding time management. Next, we will hold a panel session. We think this format will help acknowledge the diversity of successful time management techniques by providing four unique role models for the audience. Because undergraduate and graduate students have very different demands on their time, the panel will be comprised of two graduate students and two recent undergraduate students. Potential panelists are covered in the Panelist Section. The panel discussion session will last about 30 minutes and will be guided by a moderator. We will give panelists a set of core questions that we plan to ask in advance so that they can adequately prepare. Panelists will begin by introducing themselves and describing a typical day in their shoes. We will then ask them to share some of their core time management and stress management strategies, including specific examples. One of the themes we would like to emphasize throughout the session is the importance of developing a support network, so we will ask panelists to specifically comment on how such networks have impacted their ability to manage time effectively. Even the most successful time managers have difficulties, so we would like to also ask panelists about challenges they have faced and how they overcame them. Finally, we will ask panelists to each share one actionable piece of advice with the audience members to help them improve their time management. We will have additional questions prepared if time allows, and we plan to ask impromptu questions that take advantage of the setting. For example, because we have the privilege of being amidst mostly women at the GHC, we will look for opportunities to discuss issues specific to technical women. After we have heard from all of the panelists, we will have at least 10 minutes for the audience to ask the panel questions. We will also invite the audience to share their own experiences and advice. To round out the session, we would like to direct a short 10-minute activity to engage and empower the audience. This activity aims to encourage the audience to take the diverse set of advice they have just received and identify ways to instantiate a small subset of those in their own lives. We will ask audience members to divide into groups of 2 or 3 and discuss their own time-management situations with one another. They will be asked to introduce themselves, discuss what time management techniques do and do not work for them, share advice, and identify at least one new concrete practice that they would like to incorporate into their current process. They will be asked to write this down onto a piece of paper and submit it anonymously at the end of the session. During this time, panelists will be walking around to listen in on conversations and join in where appropriate. These last

two efforts will help us evaluate what strategies seemed most useful and tenable to the audience. As the session comes to a close, the moderator will share some final words of encouragement. She will invite the audience members to share contact information with their partners and to copy the panelists and organizers contact information for follow-up advice and support.

3. OUTCOMES
The most immediate outcome of this BoF session will be the sharing of time management experiences and strategies from one woman to another. But, we also aspire to have a more persistent footprint. First, the session will emphasize and foster the development of social networks that can continue beyond the conference. We hope that these networks may serve to support successful time and stress management. Second, the session chairs and panelists will be asked to write blog posts to capture the advice given and knowledge gained during the session. These reflections will include a description of the session format and thoughts about how to improve upon the format in future efforts. We hope that these blog posts will be useful documentation for those who attended the session as well as useful guides for the broader Internet audience.

4. PANELISTS
Stacy Branham: Stacy is a 3rd year Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Stacy uses a mixture of what she calls "the buddy system" and "coffee shop isolationism" to motivate herself and get work done. Kathleen Tuite: Kathleen is a 3rd year PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Washington. Her time management approach involves what she calls "productive procrastination" and the incorporation of "awesome side projects to re-energize" herself. Laurian Vega: Laurian, the moderator for the panel, is completing her PhD in May 2011 in Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Laurian believes in a rigorous calendar system and setting small milestones.

5. REFERENCES
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coping behaviors in at-risk populations: The effects of time-management instruction and social support in women from dual-earner families. Behavior Therapy, 1986. 17(1): p. 57-66.
[4] Macan, T.H., C. Shahani, R.L. Dipboye and A.P.

Phillips, College Students' Time Management:

Correlations With Academic Performance and Stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1990. 82(4): p. 760-768.
[5] Misra, R. and M. McKean, College Students'

American Journal of Health Studies, 2000(Winter 2000).

[6] Sayer, L.C., Gender, time and inequality: Trends in

Academic Stress And Its Relation To Their Anxiety, Time Management, And Leisure Satisfaction.

women's and men's paid work, unpaid work and free time. Social Forces, 2005. 84(1): p. 285-303.