"I'll have a vowel please Carol" - Not that kind of countdown!
Christmas is usually a time of joy. Sadly not this year. With deadline day looming a mere 7 days away Christmas is the last thing on every ones minds as the countdown has really begun.
This week was the week I was dreading. The last feedback meetings of the semester. An hour long special to discuss the assignments in detail. This could only mean one thing. Corrections.
Of course corrections should be a good thing. After all, I would much rather receive my feedback before handing in the assignment than afterwards and failing for it. It's just so demotivating. One day hopefully I'll get lucky, and find out that I have very little to do. Today was not one of those days.
Although the work I had to do was minor alterations here and there, the repercussions of these changes meant that I had LOTS to do. Adding a reference here and there meant altering every reference, adding an extra line meant moving all my picture content, having the wrong font size meant changing every single number on my screen designs. That's corrections for you.
But life goes on, and I suppose in a way these little corrections are no worse than the num lock key on the keyboard not automatically turning on with the computer, and as Steve said 'If that's the worst thing in life at the moment, then you've got it good'. And in a way he's right. Without getting too political, there are many people in the world worse off than me, who am I to moan about changing work? That's what life is about after all.
With this attitude in mind, my goal for the next few days is to get all my corrections out of the way, and spend the majority of the weekend typing up my evaluations for both A3 and A4 assignments. Hopefully this will then give me enough time to be able to look over my work, and get others to read it through to make sure any spelling errors or grammatical errors are removed ready for a fully finished assignment for deadline day next week.
The weeks also been a much better improvement on the last few...well months. I've managed to get a lot more work done than I usually would get done, and I'm feeling the benefits. I'm not sure if it's the deadline looming over me that's caused 'panic work' or whether Steve's 'Extreme Time Management' has just hit home or what, but I definitely plan to keep it up.
7 comments:
I know how you feel about the deadline presure, i feel exactly the same. Seems like there isn't a lot of work to do, but its the little things that take up a long time.
You also wrote:
"One day hopefully I'll get lucky"
lol hahaha
I also find that the little mistakes take the longest to correct. Having to alter 67 references because I had written number 2 twice is not the best way to spend time whilst the deadline comes closer.
I'm also feeling the pressure, and I too have suddenly had a motivation to get work completed. I think Steve's "Extreme Time Managment" really has started to kick in. I am glad that you intend to keep it up, I know I am going to try.
If you feel like your getting too far behind then you could always come in on Monday or Tuesday. I feel that the work I complete in college is far greater than what I do at home.
I feel much the same way about the time management Craig. While I may have not been recording it all that well, it's worked. I just completely got rid of the neat sheets and started scribbling on blank paper.
It would be interesting to know how you're approaching time planning.
"Extreme Time Management"?
Love the title, Craig!
I agree that the small parts take ages to do. It also feels like we are so clost to being finished, then you realise there is all the CD burning and label design, budget statement, evaluations and the like still to be done. None of these are huge tasks, but just add enough pressure to make it uncomfortable.
Wow, good to see Steve's 'lack of comments' point on Thursday hasn't gone a miss.
Craig, all I'm using for time planning is Steve's time planning sheets. I just make sure I check them quite a lot to make sure I'm on track (though I admit this can be quite late on in the week) and it seems to be working.
Steve - See last weeks blog.
And Julian, the only little tasks I have left are the CD burning and labeling thankfully. But I do see your point about the small tasks. The budget statement is especially easy to underestimate the time needed for it.
I agree, the referances are a real pain when you have to correct them, especially when you have to add or delete some and it's not just a matter of moving but editing
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