Provost Takes Time to Give Time Management Tips

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Provost Sharon Gaber (center) poses for a photo with (L-to-R) Alex Clark, Briana Leniear, Alice McMillan and Klassic Hopson.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs Sharon Gaber may be the busiest woman on campus. Not only does she oversee every academic department at the University of Arkansas, but she also manages the institution’s enrollment, diversity and economic affairs.

She often works six-day weeks, 12-hour workdays and receives more than 250 emails per day. And on top of that, she’s mother to three teenagers.

If anyone knows how to successfully manage her time, it’s the provost. And that’s why a group of students in the Sam M. Walton College of Business invited her to deliver a lecture on time management in their Selling and Sales Management class.

“Given everything that she is responsible for and oversees, Dr. Gaber is a great person to talk to about time management,” said Alice McMillan, a senior in the Walton College Honors Program. “Her success depends heavily on her ability to manage her time well.”

“If you look at what she does for the university there’s no one better to explain time management both in a real world setting and in a classroom atmosphere,” said Alex Clark, a senior marketing major.

After informing the class of her extensive duties, Gaber highlighted some of the techniques she uses to best manage her time. She stressed the importance of prioritizing, delegating and setting deadlines.

“I end up managing my time most frequently through either triage or prioritization,” she said. “I do try to delegate, and if I do that I always give due dates. What I’ve found is that in some units people don’t set due dates and what happens is that [the project] just sort of lingers out there in the netherworld.”

Gaber’s work history is diverse and she hasn’t always been able to delegate her work. She started her career as a faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and eventually became a department chair. Then, she was hired by Auburn University as an associate dean where she later served as senior associate provost and associate provost. She was hired by the University of Arkansas in May 2009.

By the following February, Gaber said she was just getting the hang of her new position when she was diagnosed with cancer. She underwent intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments. But even through these trying times, she still found a way to handle her heavy workload.

“If I wasn’t organized, if I didn’t have a great team working around me and if I didn’t stay in constant communication things probably would have gone awry,” she said. “This has been a very humbling year for me to actually learn my limits.”

Healthy again and on the rebound, Gaber spoke with enthusiasm, humor and sincerity when giving her advice to the classroom full of business students. Based on the hearty applause and lengthy Q&A session that followed the lecture, Gaber’s words did not fall on deaf ears.

“For us to get that face-time with her and an opportunity to ask questions and see the hard work that’s going into our university was a really enlightening experience,” said Hunter Poole, a junior studying marketing and political science. “It’s something that not everyone on this campus will get the opportunity to do.”

Editors note: Read more about the provost’s lecture at the Honors College Blog