A Master in the Making

Learning about project management this week has been really insightful and has helped me gain a whole new perspective on planning and organization. In general, time management has always been quite the challenge for me. Creating and sticking to a schedule is not easy—especially as a college student where there are so many things that happen unexpectedly daily. Even running to the dining hall for what I plan to be a quick lunch can end up costing me hours that I could have spent doing something elsewhere. I never knew there were this many techniques that could help me to gain better habits and I would have never learned if it wasn’t for my coursework. I also think researching more on this subject has allowed me to recognize that this is not just a challenge for me, but one that is difficult for many others too. 

Last year, I did a little of my own research, trying to find something to use to help me stay more organized. I didn’t know at the time that I was actually looking for a project management tool to use. I stumbled across the software Monday and spent a couple weeks playing around with the different features that the software offers. At the time, I found using the site helpful but wasn’t sure if I was going to stick with it. I didn’t want to pay for the subscription and noticed that the app became less useful with most features requiring the premium version. Coming back to Monday now and relearning how I can use the features has been extremely helpful, and I have to admit I’m now considering a subscription to the premium version.

After I set up the workspace and added all of my course modules to the main dashboard, I spent some time playing around with the software and looked at what I could add to the space to make everything even more organized. I found the subitem option on Monday to be my favorite of the features that are offered. This gave me the ability to break things down even further from the main assignment and gave me the chance to look at things in a less stressful way. I often get overwhelmed by the bigger picture of a project or assignment, so having a subcategory helped me see things in a more controlled manner. Additionally, I like how I am able to add a status of where I am in completing a task. Switching an assignment from “working on it” to “done” has been really satisfying and lets me celebrate the smaller wins, even if it’s simply completing one of the subitems. I look forward to potentially trying other features that I haven’t got to try yet and am excited to find more strategies to help me to stay on top of things.

My course load is a lot different this semester than it has been in comparison to other semesters. While I’m taking the same amount of classes, the workload is much heavier and requires more planning and structure. More specifically, I am taking a class that has me working directly with clients and requires me to work closely with the rest of my classmates/staff members to produce work promptly. Our classes only happen on Mondays for a couple of hours so most of the work being done is communicated about and completed outside of the class time. Our professors set us up on the software Slack, where we can communicate in different group chats and can text directly with each other. I have also noticed that on most software sites, there is an option to upload information from one project management software to another. I think this will be something I will be able to benefit from as I continue working with both Monday and Slack. It has been really interesting to learn how to use project management software in group settings in addition to individually, and I am glad that I can incorporate everything I’m learning into my other classes as well.