A colleague of mine and I had lunch today at an Indian restaurant in Fairfax. We are thinking of writing a book together and the discussion was going back and forth over the different threads that we might include (more on that at some other time). By the by, I was complimented over my time management. I guess the idea was that it must be difficult for an institute director to contemplate writing a book while running a science enterprise at the same time. Must be the time management skills. After thinking for a moment I responded that the only possible way I was able to manage my time at all is having a superb support staff (both here at George Mason and in Woods Hole).
One trick to time management in senior positions is getting comfortable with the power of a scheduler. You give up some of your autonomy (the ability to set your own calendar) in return for the coordination and flexibility that comes from having one central node where all the competing time commitments can be dealt with. The advent of reliable (and free) on-line calendaring systems and then the ability to push that calendar information to mobile devices has also helped make the system work for us.
Jim
Discoverers and Discoveries 