Time Management: 4 Rules to Go By

I'm not saying I'm great at time management or that I follow this all the time, but here's what I've found to be important:

1. You can never do anything perfectly.

No matter how hard you try, someone will always be able to do the work better.  Don't waste too much time trying to make it perfect.  Settle for excellent.

2. Prioritize:  What is the most important for your future?

When you're juggling so many tasks and projects, you have to figure out what is most beneficial for you to do well.  Work on those first, and then move on to the less important things.  Right now, I'm on internship, working part-time, and I'm in an online class.  First comes my internship. That is the most beneficial thing to my future.  Next comes my part-time job because, well, I like eating as opposed to starving.  Last comes my online class.  All I need to do is pass that thing.  My GPA is high enough to take a hit from one class.

3. Set goals for yourself.

If you write down your goals, you are statistically more likely to actually achieve them.  If I had written down that I wanted to get an A in my summer class, perhaps I would've been trying harder.  Writing it down serves as a constant reminder as opposed to just a mental note.

4. Always do quality work.

There's no point in doing anything if it isn't quality.  Don't ever rush through something to get through everything.  Work with your priorities.  That's why you have them.  I wouldn't rush through a project at my internship to get to my part-time job on time.  They understand that I'm here to intern, not to work for them.

Why Fall Semester is draining

The desk is my life.  I’m having the best weekend though.  I made a good life choice and gave up my night shift on friday night so I could take a night off from my life at school and visit some of my good friends in Kalamazoo.  I met my friend’s new boyfriend, who is really nice, and we all watched a really cheesy Halloween movie that was made in 1987.  It was so nice not to care for one night and just relax with good friends.  I don’t ever go to parties at school, and me and my friends don’t drink.  I like being focused on my future at school, and aside from that, when you have to work at 2:30am every night on the weekends, it’s really stupid to drink.  

Being focused all the time gets tiring, though, and I really needed that one night to not focus on school.  I didn’t even bring my laptop to kzoo.  Now, I am drastically behind.  I have a test on Monday and another on Tuesday.  When I’m not in class this week, you can find me doing promo for Autumn Alive (which is on Thursday).  After Thursday, my motivation (which is already running low) will plummet.  Once you work a cool show like that, you don’t want to go to class anymore, you just want to graduate so you can do that every day (and get paid for it).

So, I’ve had my night off, and I came back to school just in time to work a couple hours this afternoon.  I then proceeded to sleep from 4pm-7:45pm.  I now have to be at the desk until 7:30am, so I guess that kinda worked out?  Welcome to my sleep-deprived life.  One can only hope that I can be somewhat productive tonight.  It's already been 4 hours and all I’ve done is watch the new Big Bang Theory episode.  

My motivation levels require a fall break (like that’ll ever happen).  Regardless of my hatred of Fall semester and its lack of breaks, I’m still having a good weekend.   :)

Work and a Worldwide Media Revolution

So I'm at work right now.  If you didn't know, I work at the front desk of my residence hall.  It's a pretty sweet job.  We can basically do whatever we want at work.  Even update a blog. :)  I usually try my best to do homework, but that doesn't work out a lot of the time, like right now.  Most of my hours are weekend night shifts. So last night, while you were fast asleep, I was working from 2:30 am to 5:30 am.  The problem with trying to do homework during a night shift is: 1. You're tired.  It is so unnatural to wake up in the middle of the night for a few hours.  and 2. There's always 2 people working at the desk on a night shift.  So would I rather do homework or talk to my friend that I'm working with?  I feel like that's not a very hard decision.  I have to be very determined to get work done on a night shift.

Now usually, on Saturdays on B weekends I work 2:30-5:30am and then 1pm-5pm.  However, I wanted to go home today to help take care of my mom again, and so I switched hours with Jenna and now I work 9am-1pm instead of 1-5.  Needless to say, I haven't slept much.

While my original plan was to do homework right now at the desk, I am instead using my time to update my blog and watch the very first episodes of "FRIENDS."  It's already been three hours, so I'm doing pretty well so far.

I also wanted to post this awesome video that was shown last week at a Public Relations meeting.  My friend, Alex, who is a PR major posted this video, and I really enjoyed it.  Alex just came back from a week-long internship for a designer during New York Fashion Week.  Want to know how she got that internship?  Twitter.

I know that people have their issues with the pointlessness of Twitter, but it doesn't have to be useless if you use it right.  A lot of companies will post job openings on their Twitter pages.  Want to know about that opening first?  Follow them!  I also think that Twitter is a great source for other information.  I am kept up on world news since I follow my local news channels as well as CNN, Huffington, etc.  As a music major, it's also important for me to keep up on music news, so I can follow my favorite artists, my favorite venues, and many other music news sources to stay updated.  As this video points out, we don't have to search for news anymore, news finds us.

I used to think Twitter was pointless too.  I understand more and more as time goes on that it is a very useful asset.

Aside from the fact that you can follow people and places that are important to you, also think about who will follow YOU.  A lot of people follow me that I don't know, but a lot of them also have connections in the music business.  If they know what I'm up to, then when I'm looking for a job or internship, that might just be one more opened door.

So if you still don't want a Twitter, that's fine.  So long as you don't mind losing a few dozen (at least) job opportunities.

-AK