Tag Archives: organization

Forgetfulness and the Importance of Organization

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This week I was reminded how much I benefit from writing everything down. Whether it’s homework I have to do, meetings I have with professors, or meals that I was planning to have with specific people, I always do better when I am organized, and for me, that means that it needs to put in writing for me to remember to do it. On Monday, I had a job application due and I had finished the last parts of it on Sunday night and was ready to turn it in by 5pm the next day. Unfortunately for me, I did not write this down in my planner. I had written down several other things that needed to happen that day, like going to my math professor’s office hours and going to Student Health Services for a TB test. I was locked into my planner and the schedule that I had written down and realized twenty-three minutes after 5 o’clock that my application was already late.

That moment of panic kept me stressed for the next 45 minutes, where I emailed all the pieces of my application to the woman in charge and apologized profusely for being late, but also understanding if she would decide not to consider my application. After thinking about it, I realized that, because it was something so important to me, and something that I had spent so much time on, I assumed that I would remember to turn the application in, regardless of whether or not I wrote it down. To know that, made me even more frustrated, but hoped that the woman in charge would understand my mistake and still accept my application.

Because of this incident, I have drafted a few rules for myself so that I can make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.

  1. Always write something down on a piece of paper, or in a planner, even if you don’t think you’ll forget. There is a lot going on for most students, and it is easy to think that you will remember important things, like job applications, but in fact, it is very easy to forget, and writing it down will ensure that what needs to get done is accomplished.               
  2. Turn things in early, if you can! Oftentimes, professors would rather you turn assignments in on the day that they’re due because it makes it easier for them to organize all the documents being turned in, but if they’ll allow it, do it! This way, there is no way that it will be late or forgotten.
  3. If you remember something that you need to get done, either write it down, or just finish the task while it’s still on your mind. Even though it may be interrupting something else I’m doing, as these thoughts often come to me while I’m in the midst of working on an assignment, I know that if I don’t do whatever it is I’m thinking about in that moment, there is no way I will remember to do it at all.

‘Tis The Season

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It’s that time of year again. Every ad on TV has a new spin on Santa or the perfect gift of the season. Even though it seems far too warm (for my East-coast self) to declare it the holidays, the houses decked in golden twinkly lights and pop-up Christmas tree lots have decided otherwise. My Spotify has started suggesting the ‘Holiday Hits’ playlists again, but it feels hard to get into a festive spirit when I glance at my planner.

Every day that my countdown-to-home calendar ticks down, my stress levels rise as it means one day closer to home, but one day fewer to finish the remaining mountain of papers, projects and finals. The more I stare at my planner, the less and less plausible it seems that there enough hours left to get everything done. Along with thinking about internships, study abroad and staying on top of extracurricular commitments, I’m sort of searching for the “pause” button on the world (and cursing the evil-Kermit inside me who thought it would be okay for me to take a break over Thanksgiving).

evil-kermit-the-frog-meme-dark-side

Me: You should start getting ahead over the Thanksgiving holiday. Me to me: “You’ll have plenty of time after break. Ignore it all.”

Not gonna lie, I reached that time of year when I found myself in a professor’s office, reaching for the blurry outline of a Kleenex box through barely-suppressed tears. Partially because I was confused about the assignment, but mostly because I had let myself think about everything due for the rest of the semester at once.

Seeing page after page of inevitable work stack up and loom over me at once is a great recipe for me to curl up in bed in the fetal position, scrolling through BuzzFeed until I’ve mindlessly absorbed every article and Tasty video published in the last week.

New plan. As unreliable as Post-It notes may be as an agenda, I needed to break down projects into smaller parts. A tip slightly stolen from my wonderful roommate, I took a sticky for each project so I could see it on its own, and broke the project down into smaller parts. Smaller blocks makes it a little easier for me to see progress without drowning in everything all at once.

If online is more your thing, Trello is also an awesome tool to make due dates seem less daunting. It allows you to create cards or checklists for each element of a project that you can color code and “cross off” your list each time you complete a part of the list. Something about the fact that it’s an app makes the agenda look more fun and less-frenzy inducing than my planner sometimes does.

Breaking everything down into bits helps, but not nearly as much as being surrounded by a supportive environment. The positive Post-It notes scattered around Toll are a tiny reminder that it’s all going to work out, and that I am truly lucky to be in this space, as stressful as it feels in this moment. Friends and bosses at work have made sure to remind me that grades do not define you, that the majority of campus is also in a similar state, and that it will be break very, very soon.

We’ll make it through the next few weeks, even if it’s just one little step at a time. In the meantime, I’ll trying to play a few Christmas carols to try and channel that positive holiday spirit (maybe interspersed with my serious studying playlist?).

https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/7CG7k1hXjVmeYMdt8lQRa7

 

What You Need to Get a Job

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Yes, this post is a little preemptive; I don’t have a job yet. But I’ve created a pretty good system. Hopefully, you can get some ideas or inspiration!

 Organization

Spreadsheet: I’ve applied for a LOT of jobs and started to lose track, having this spreadsheet made everything so much easier. I used Google Spreadsheets, but I’ve created a mini-version below!
Screenshot 2015-04-27 10.41.14

Dropbox: Save everything to a Dropbox folder. You can get it for free, and trust me when you FINALLY get those accomplishment statements just right, you don’t want to lose them to spilled orange juice on your computer. I use separate folders within my Dropbox to make sure everything is easy to find.

  • Burrito Resumes: CP&R teaches us to make a Giant-Chipotle-Burrito-Resume containing everything we’ve ever done on it, and I have one. However, I also found it easier to have a Recruiting Burrito Resume, HR Burrito Resume, and Diversity Burrito Resume. This way, I just open the one that is most related to the position I’m applying for, save it as the name of the new position and make edits according to the position there. Saves me a lot of time!
  • Current Applications: Any companies that have “Priority Positions” have a folder within Current Applications, which helps me remember what I still have to do.
  • Finished Applications: When I finish an application I move that folder from the Current Applications to Finished Applications and change the name of the folder to the name of the organization and the date (ex. Google (4/24/15)), to help me keep track of when I should follow-up about various jobs.

To Do Lists: I run my entire life through Tasks on my Google Calendar, so that’s no different for job applications. Every Sunday night I look through my priority positions and plan when to apply for each and I factor that into my homework schedule.

Networking

LinkedIn: Use the Advanced Search feature! It helped me find connections I would NOT have found otherwise. Click Advanced Search, enter the company name, and search for current employees. Then when you find a second-degree connection, ask your first degree connection to set up an introduction. Yes, it’s awkward. But I guarantee that it will be worth it. Plus, your LinkedIn connections almost certainly want to help you, or they wouldn’t have connected with you in the first place.

Talking: I mean just what I said, talk to people. Tell your friends, family, and coworkers about jobs you’re applying to or companies that you’re interested in. They might know someone there, they might have other connections, etc. By not talking about it, you could be missing out on those connections!

Back-up

Weirdly, I’m not talking about saving your applications in multiple places (… but do that too please). I’m talking about the people who back you up. Job searches are ridiculously frustrating and disheartening. There are constant ups and downs. Make sure you have those people who are going to scream and jump around your room when you get the interview you’ve been waiting for, and will find a way to get you there, no matter how inconvenient. Don’t try to start a job search without a person who reads every single cover letter to catch all your typos and constantly reminds you to flaunt your accomplishments. Most importantly, you need to have the people you can cry to when everything falls apart. These are the people who will relentlessly remind me that it’s all going to work out, even when it seems more likely that I’ll finally get my Hogwarts letter than have a job by graduation. These people let me mope and watch Netflix when I receive rejection notices, bring me chocolate, and post notes around reminding me that it’s going to work out eventually. I would not have gotten this far in my job search without them; don’t try to do this alone.

For Posterity

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Leaving instructions and guidance for future holders of your position is something all employees should be thinking about. What advice can you leave for them? What things weren’t explicitly mentioned during training that you had to learn over the course of your time there? What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?

The intern before me left me notes for me everywhere—on the computer, on sticky notes, in note pads—and she even stopped by the office after I started to give me as much guidance as possible when I was just starting out. She told me a lot: everything from where things are stored in the office and where important files are located to what to do when someone hostile calls and what our boss’s favorite drink is (so I can stash some in my bag if I get to travel with her).

When I googled the word “posterity” the first hit was John Adams. Happy 4th, everyone.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about what I can pass on to the next person who has this job. Doing so may seem a little premature. Why would I already be thinking about the next intern when I’m not even a month and a half into the summer? Well, I’m realizing that there are things I can be doing throughout the internship to make my successor’s (and my own!) job easier. Curious what I mean? Here’s some tips that I’ve rounded up so far!

1. Get samples of good work and save them in a convenient place.

Pin this on your lapel. Everyone will know what you mean.

Whether you’re working on correspondence (as in my case) or some other process that changes from situation to situation, it’s a good idea to get some examples of the job done really well. Lucky for me, everything our office sends out gets saved into a database that I can access. It’s also a good idea to ask your supervisors for samples of strong letters that they’ve written and stash those somewhere handy. I also save copies of documents my manager or our office director have edited and revised for me (including my original copy with the changes tracked!) to that folder so that future interns have an idea of how to do it when they’re starting from scratch.

2. Learn the technology and processes related to your job better than you have to.

If you find this button, ALERT US ALL.

In this job, I’m working with legislative software that isn’t always especially user-friendly. I was lucky to get good training on the everyday basics of the software, which meets my needs about 90% of the time. But every once in a while I need to do something different than what I’m used to, so I call our tech support folks for help. They can do whatever I need remotely if I ask, but instead I always have them walk me through it and take detailed notes of the process as they describe it. This way our office has a permanent copy of these notes and won’t need to call tech support every time, and training new interns will be just that much easier.

3. Keep things organized.

“You can get ALL this for just THREE easy payments of $19.99!”

You never know what’s going to happen or whether you’ll have time to clean things up before the next person steps in. You might be scrambling to tie up all your loose ends before departing, or there may be days when someone needs to take over your work because you’re gone. Making everything organized and easy to find will make sure your successor (or substitute) can do their job efficiently. Label files, documents, and folders, and try not to tuck things away in mysterious places. Lists are also everybody’s friend. Before I leave for the day, I try to make a list of what I need to do the following day. This jogs my memory when I get in garishly early in the morning, and it provides a potential substitute clues about what I’ve been up to. The previous intern left me with a brief list of projects she hadn’t been able to finish before she left, and this gave me a place to start when I was still learning the ropes, and make for a smoother transition from her to me.

4. Keep a record of everything.

You may want to type up your notes if you’re not sure people will be able to read them.

This is in the same vein as #3, but a little more specific. Luckily for me, the documentation software we use allows for users to record pretty much everything we do and makes it available for anyone to see. If I’m working on a case for someone and can’t finish it, someone else can open the file in the program to see all my correspondence with them and any notes I made about what I was doing. The more detailed I am, the more useful my notes are to everyone involved. If you don’t have such a system in your office, make one for your work. For whatever you’re working on, make a list of things you need to do, and check tasks  off as you do complete them (rather than crossing them out). Save the list even after you’ve completed everything you need to do. Store the list in a place where it will easily be matched with the project it goes with. This little bit of maintenance will save the day for anyone who wants to access your work later—whether they’re trying to pick up where you left off or just wanting a good example of what to do in a similar situation (think of #1!).

5. Leave your contact information for your successor.

TIME WARP.

The previous intern and I exchanged information when she stopped by to show me the ropes. It’s been so comforting to know that she just a message away in case I have any questions or concerns I don’t feel like I can ask my manager. Getting to know people who have held or will hold your position isn’t a bad idea either, especially if you’re just starting to work in your target area. In the short time we chatted when she was in the office, my predecessor clued me in to a couple of other really interesting internships in the area and talked with me a little about her decision to go to law school. Don’t pass up this opportunity to get to know to other young professionals with similar interests!

Do you think there’s value in planning ahead to help your successor? Or does it detract from getting your own work done? I’d love to hear your thoughts!