I have so many hobbies, and it can be very detrimental to my ability to get work done because often I’d rather work on those projects then do boring and interesting homework. Often the only reason I do any assignment is that I don’t want to fail the class, very little does it happen where I am actually excited to do an assignment (although I always bite off a little bit more then I can chew on these).  This week, however, we discussed ideas and ways to improve time management, one of my favorite ways was to ask yourself just 3 questions. The 3 questions are Where are you? What do you want to accomplish? and How will you fell when it is done? I believe that these questions will not only invalidate my current activity but also prove to motivate me to switch the more important task and give me reasons to do it. I mean after all, if an assignment takes 20 minutes to do before the due date, why not just get it done with now and not have to worry about it later. Furthermore, we discussed ways to stay on track and even tracked our entire week on a spreadsheet, news flash I spend a lot of time sleeping and working on various projects. However, I did like one of the methods we discussed which was to use a task manager, I already use the carmen calendar for school work and absolutely love getting assignments crossed off but this does very little for everything else I do in my life and so I feel adding a task manager to my life will improve my focus as I’ll have yet another thing to look forward to at end of assignment.

Take care,

Alex

Link: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/top-15-time-management-apps-and-tools.html

To whom it may concern,

This week’s lesson taught me less then I was hoping for and reinforced the fact that I have some good habits already developed when it comes to learning and collaborating online. Of course, I typically fall short in one major area and a very important area, time management. That, however, is something I am constantly trying to improve and hasn’t affected my ability to get work done by any due date. This week’s lessons put some emphasis on effective ways to work and collaborate with a team both online and in-person, but as surprising as it may I have not once had a negative experience working in a group. This can be partially explained by my dedication to group work though, as I will step up(if no one else does) and organize group projects and even set mini due dates just like where suggested in the videos from this weeks lesson. In the past I have relied on everyone to remember and what they are supposed to do and get it done by this time, occasionally checking on progress to make sure everything is moving slowly. Moving forward though I am excited to try services like Trello to organize who is doing what, something I see becoming even more valuable as projects become bigger and more complex.

Changing gears a little, I have never personally used blogs or social media very much because even from a young age (I made a Facebook account when I was 13) I was very conscious about my online presence. I honestly always felt a little weird sharing personal details about my day or week or what have you with strangers on the internet of which literally anyone could see. Today I am thankful that my young self was so mature, as your online presence can have a lasting effect on your eligibility for getting certain jobs with some employers even using it as a way to vet candidates for a position. I have no idea what I’d do if an interviewer asked me what I meant by some off the wall slightly offensive comment I left in the 7th (luckily there are none).

Formally,

Alex

P.S. did you notice this is formatted a professional email should be? (Minus this P.S. of course)

Sources:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQDfFfTekNgYcbrYPPkUhWXlokk8kZ0vBsy6JbPfO6XxCFxAsOpaGwqpZG0YCteIT0UwhNSv2eqpl0e/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

https://trello.com/