Not Finished Yet

Those who have been reading my blog heard about my stressful week last week. Intex was really hard, and when it was over I decided to take a break from school for the rest of the week. My class had been told that we wouldn't really have anything else that we would have to do after Intex, but I still had two oral presentations to give, one of which I hadn't prepared yet, as well three fairly large projects. I still have three finals left to do next week.

Because I had already mentally clocked out at the end of last week, it has been really hard for me to get anything done this week. It was even difficult to go to work. I just felt like I wanted to forget about school and work and relax all day. While I did have time to do that half of a day, I needed to mentally clock back in at the start of the week.

I have learned that I really struggle to mentally clock back in. Some of you may not have this problem, but I imagine that it is a fairly common thing. I need to be very careful about taking time off and make sure that I am not completely clocking out, just going on break. Life is difficult, and we can't just take breaks all day, every day. We need to work and get things done.

In the future, I am going to do a few things differently. Much of the homework I had to do this week I could have done sooner, but decided not to since it wasn't due for a while. I am going to try to avoid having this happen, and do my homework when I have time, while still leaving some time to relax and have fun. I will try to have everything I can done before my huge end of semester projects so that I can actually relax after them, and will force myself to clock back in after taking some time off from homework.

Remote Meeting

My team met for a remote meeting last Wednesday. We used Google Hangouts, and there were a few difficulties. Some of the team members did not have consistent wifi, and one had to join the call a few different times. I discovered a cool feature of Google Hangouts - it focuses automatically on the video of the person who is talking.
It was nice as we were able to meet, discuss our presentation, and finalize our powerpoint in the convenience of our homes.

I Can Do Hard Things with a Good Attitude

This week for me can be summed up in one word: INTEX. If you want to know more about that, ask any Information Systems student. A brief description, though: we got a case Monday morning, and had to prepare a solution by Friday at noon. We then presented the project to a panel Saturday morning.

My IS group spent about 280 hours on this project. We averaged 14 hours a day, and turned in a 105 page report at the end. It was a ton of work, but thankfully I enjoyed doing it. In addition to realizing that I did make a good decision of what to study, I learned that I am capable of doing really hard things.

All semester I had been hearing about INTEX and dreading it. Once the project actually started, however, I was too busy to think about how hard it was and how much time I'd have to spend on it. I didn't really complain about it, and found that I was able to have a good attitude, and the project seemed easier than I'd anticipated it being.

Moving forward, I am going to try to stop being a pessimist. I will remember that I can do hard things, and that they are easier if I do them with a good attitude.

Take a break

This week has been very different from the rest of the semester. My life has been crazy with working part time and all my classes. I've been under lots of stress and at times it has been really hard. This break came at the perfect time, as at the start of the week I had burned out and was physically unable to do all of the things I had planned to do in the first few days in order to have no homework the second half of the week.

After taking the week easy and taking lots of time to relax, I feel much better and happier. I have learned that it is not good to be busy all the time. We need time to relax.

I expect that starting this next week I will be better able to handle all that I need to do. If I just stay busy as I have before, I expect to burn out again quickly and be back to where I was before the break. However, if I take time to relax and have fun, I should be able to continue better and perform at a higher level. Not only will this end up being more enjoyable, but it will be better for me. This is what I hope to be able to do over the last few weeks of the semester.

Elements of a presentation

We had oral presentations again this week in my MCOM class. This week I had to present. I learned lots as I prepared for this. I had spent the previous classes observing and noticing what other people did that worked well and what didn't work very well, and had figured out a pseudo structure that I wanted to follow. As I researched and developed a hook and an agenda, the presentation came together really easily. I was able to prepare a good presentation in a remarkable short period of time. Of course, that only included putting the content together, not actually practicing it.

As I was giving my presentation the next day, I realized that I had actually put together something that was high quality. I spent less than a fourth of the time preparing the content of my presentation as I do the content of a talk in church, and this is significant, even though my talks in church are typically 10 minutes long.

Therefore, what I learned is that f you prepare the proper elements, such as a hook and an agenda, then the rest of the presentation (including a paper or a talk) will come together much faster than they would otherwise. The content of the presentation will also be of much higher quality.

This is important because it allows to to present better quality presentations, which can be a big deal if you want to be influential. I will, therefore, remember these important things and use them in the future when preparing anything I need to present to an audience.

It's not all about content

This week we had oral presentations in my MCOM class. They were pretty interesting. I learned about a wide range of things, such as how to use various types of social media, what trello is, and about my new best friend "MAC".

The most interesting thing I learned, however, was not any of the subjects that were presented. I learned about the importance of things other than content in a presentation. Good posture, clear speaking, pauses, professionalism, energy, and positioning can have a huge effect on the credibility and acceptance of your presentation.

I think many times I worry too much about the content and don't spend enough time working on the presentation. This is something I need to change, since even if you have great content you'll still be ignored if you can't present it well.

One thing this reminds me of is a story my marketing teacher told, of an intern who found that a company was buying many different types of gloves for many different prices. He found a great way to present this problem, by bringing one of each glove with the price paid attached. Just by the sheer quantity of the gloves that were shown, he had already convinced management that a change was required.

Thus I will stop worrying so much about content in all presentations, talks, and projects and make sure I don't forget to prepare the presentation part.

Showing Gratitude

This week was very stressful for me. With 15 credit hours and working part time, I had lots of homework and projects and not enough time to do it all. Thursday night I had committed to joining my family when they went to the opening of my cousin's wife's art exhibit. I had almost resorted to eating cereal for dinner before going, when my mom sent me a text asking if I wanted her to bring down the leftover lasagna from my family's dinner that day. I happily accepted this. When we left the art exhibit my mom gave me the leftover lasagna, along with some salad. I was very grateful for this, and made sure to express my gratitude. 

The next day I got a text from my mom informing me of how touched she had been by my expression of gratitude. It meant a lot to her, especially since my dad has started a diet and no longer eats the food she prepares for the rest of the family. The kids who are still at home are picky eaters who haven’t really learned how to show gratitude yet, so she sometimes feels unappreciated.

From this experience I have relearned the importance of expressing gratitude. It ensures you continue to get food from your mom ;). Jokes aside, though, gratitude really is important. People like to feel appreciated, and showing gratitude also helps you feel better about yourself.

We all need to start showing more gratitude. It can have a great impact on our relationships with others, and can help us feel better about ourselves. This is something I will start doing - putting an extra effort into showing gratitude.

It is interesting that I have this lesson near Thanksgiving. This post is not a Thanksgiving post - not that I don't think we should show gratitude at Thanksgiving, I just think that an increase in gratitude is necessary year round.