Thursday, December 07, 2006

Extreme Time Management

The week started with a free day to simply work. A lot of work had to be done, and a lot of work did get done. Before the start of the week I still had my feedback meeting changes to complete, and my digital screen designs to design. By the end of the day it was done, and 99% of my B2B assignment is now completed. Hurrah.

Then Thursday rolled around. For some reason I always say that I like Thursdays. I'm not sure why as there always seems to be something that happens that wasn't expected. This week 'Extreme Time Management'. Steve has always said it should take no more than 2 minutes to do a thumbnail, and if it takes longer, we're taking too long. OK a given, and I'll be the first to admit that I do fall behind on thumbnails and it can take me up to 5 minutes to do 1. So when Steve said, 'right, 2 minutes to do a thumbnail' for our banners, I was slightly worried, but non the less, I got it done.

'Right, 1 and a half minutes to do your next thumbnail...go'. Oh er. The pressure was slightly on now, only 1 and a half minutes? What possible thing can you do in...'1 minute for you next thumbnail...go'.

A minute? Surely we would need more than a minute for our thumbnails? Half as much as Steve's maximum time, and 5 times shorter than my usual rate. I was worried. But somehow I managed to pull it off and get my thumbnail, though slightly scribbly, done.

'A minute is obviously too long for some of you, 30 seconds, starting now'. I began thinking to myself 'You're taking the pi...' but realised this was using up valuble seconds, and I let scribbling commence.

Once the designs were done, Steve told us that it was 'Industry Standard' how we had been working, and I knew that my working speed had to improve. I thought back to Wednesday. I thought I'd got alot of work done. But had I? To be honest, I'm still not sure.

Over the coming week my time planning will be extremely strict, no cutting corners, no leaving things to last minute, 16 set hours - no messing. I can't afford to fall behind this late in the assignments. I've got a week to get both assignments up to submission standard, and I've still got quite a bit to go, especially on A4.

If I could do the whole week over, I'm sure that my A3 assignment would be finished, because now I know Steve's idea of 'An hours work', it's hugely different to my idea of 'An hours work' before hand. I picked up the pace largely on Thursday, but Wednesday now seems such a waste, despite me thinking I had done well. I feel quite sick thinking back to the time I must of wasted in previous weeks.

Never the less, it's one week until submission standard, and a mere 2 weeks until deadline day. The 12 days of deadline will soon be upon us.

3 comments:

Craig Burgess said...

I know exactly what you mean about the realisation that you've been wasting weeks at a time. I feel the same. I look back and think "god, if I'd done even 10 hours that week I'd be in a better situation now".

But at least you've realised now, and not two years down the line when it's probably too late.

Craig Allington said...

Thing is, I thought that I had been doing 16 hours a week self study. Although now looking back at it, it seems more like 8 or 9 because I don't think I've worked as hard as we did yesterday morning at all yet. Hence me being up bright and early on a day off, to get some work done.

Ben Waller said...

I thought that I had been doing the 16 hours a week self study too. It just seems like everything has all crept up at once this week and after feeling quite relaxed last week I am much more aprehensive now! Things such as screen designs which I though would only take 30 mins/1 hour have ended up taking much longer!