Allow me to start with a little honesty here, "time management" is a concept that is outside my vocabulary. Perhaps I've exaggerated a little, but seriously, this is one of my weaknesses both professionally and personally.
This third blog is going to discuss how I struggled with time management during the course of my Internship at Go Communications, in Malaysia, and how I eventually overcame this.
Even though the working hours were longer (9-6 pm) in Malaysia, I often struggled with getting everything done by the end of the day. My workload was a lot, as to be expected as an intern, however, the root of the problem was that I fell victim to the following two mistakes;
1) Spending too much time on one task, and forgetting to attend to other tasks.
2) Jumping from one task to another, and forgetting to complete the initial task.
I know what you are thinking! These are two completely opposite problems, and how could I possibly struggle with both at the same time! well, let me enlighten you.
Firstly, I found myself spending too much time on research projects (i.e. finding contact details of firms and schools that would be interested in Ricoh Malaysia's 3D competition). This was an ongoing project that I should've done little by little, but I put too much time and focus on it at the beginning, and this led to me neglecting my other tasks.
The second issue started to occur when I realised that I was spending too much time on certain tasks. I therefore tried to juggle all at once, but this wasn't any better! In fact, I was more stressed and confused!
The solution came in the form of a WIP (Work In Progress) Timetable! My supervisor encouraged me to set up a weekly timetable, and record everything that I needed to complete by the end of the week. I also went the extra mile and constructed a daily 'to do list' in my notepad, with a time limit on everything.
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| (Photo from ineedmotivation.com) |
My time management skills began to improve after this, and I now feel like I can add "time management" into my vocabulary, even though it's still a working progress.
Stay tuned for my next blog for an update on my Malaysian PR experience.
Thank you for your time.
Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.
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