In preparing for next year's performance evaluations a few things come to mind:
1) buy a watch, in case you haven't noticed many jobs are cracking down on cel phone use anyway. A $25 dollar watch is cheap insurance versus a 90 day delay in uprate.
2) get a sense of urgency. Some of the complaints about time being inadequate come from people who dawdled through 2/3 of the time before they kicked it into gear
3) If you don't have a method expect madness. There really was no excuse for people getting lost in code calculations this year. There was plenty of notice to have practiced the necessary planning, which ties into:
4) If you haven't gotten experience in your soon to be tested skill, say motor control, it isn't so much of an excuse as a wake up call. If you have spent three years without what makes you think if you wait without doing anything that things will change? A lack of on the job experience isn't an excuse when you know ahead of time and had the opportunity to come in and practice.
5) Keep the hand outs we use for test prep. Seems like a no-brainer but you would be surprised about the number of people who come in to practice and don't have any of the materials we use for prep and need copies.