During the fantasy brief, I found that scheduling and organisation was the backbone of my work, and I relied on my planning methods a lot more than I anticipated. Having an overview in a specific period of time or even a simple checklist made me feel more prepared and motivated to work, as well as the obvious benefit of knowing when everything has to be completed. I took my personal favourite scheduling methods from that brief and am using this for the culture one, as I have tried quite a few and have determined which ones work best for my work ethic. Unlike the last brief, however, I want to use my organisational documents as efficiently as possible, meaning I won’t fall behind and rush to finish a few blog posts at the last minute like the previous time. My goal is to be more goal-oriented and follow my targets proactively, instead of relying on my mood and sudden bursts of motivation to do work. I also want to avoid procrastination altogether, although this proves to be difficult when there are menial daily tasks to complete. I will go through some of the ways I am fighting this below.
SWOT Analysis
Firstly, let’s look at my SWOT analysis. SWOTs are a great way to assess where you are personally since they make you think about your individual strengths and weaknesses, and ways you could improve yourself. After all, all work starts from you, so to have the best standard of work, you have to be the best version of yourself, and analyzing this, allows you to take the next steps towards self-improvement.
Strengths:
One of my main strengths right now is my ability to efficiently organise my work and use scheduling for my project according to my goals for certain aspects of the whole process. I also put a lot of detail into my blog posts, which is usually research-based but can also be applied to self-management and idea development. I also believe that I am good at spotting hindrances to productivity and making the right choices to eliminate them.
Weaknesses:
A weakness that I have noticed which is disrupting my workflow is my daily routine. I am typically most inclined to work late in the evening, which leaves me a very small period of time with which to get things done. I am working to change this by adding//removing certain habits I have regarding my sleeping schedule and morning routine and am slowly becoming more productive during the day.
Opportunities:
The opportunities that I have recently taken advantage of are the writing competition hosted by confetti and challenges set by tutors to improve my skills. I had a go at animating a walk cycle with an obese character. Whilst I did not finish it in time to enter, it helped me get used to fbf a bit more and a more specific type of movement, which helps with the current brief as I plan to do a fbf animation.
Limitations:
Some potential drawbacks for this project would be my inclination to procrastinate and put important work off (I have gotten much better at not doing this, but it still happens from time to time) and spending too long on the blogs, not leaving myself enough time for production as a consequence.
My analysis has shown me that most of my negative aspects (weakness, limitations) stem from bad habits I have developed since secondary schools, such as going to bed late, procrastinating and not balancing my time correctly. To change these, I have created a new daily routine for myself, which focuses on working during the day and giving myself enough time to wind down, read and sleep for a minimum of 8 hours each night, without going on my phone before bed and after waking up. In order to focus for long periods of time, I use a timer and study by the Pomodoro method, which is 25-40 minutes of solid study, a 5-10 minute break and then study again, repeating the cycle about three times before a longer break and then starting again. I have been using this method, and following my routine for about 4 days now and I have noticed a massive improvement. I get up earlier thanks to a more restful, fulfilled sleep, and not going on my phone straight away helps me feel more energized throughout the day, which then helps with concentration and work. The breaks also remind me to take some time away from the screen every so often so I feel that I have nailed a healthy balance! I still need to work on balancing my time better, however, as blog posts take too long. To improve in this area, I am working on learning to type faster and also cut back on ideas, such as the animation, which I usually hate to do.
Scheduling
Onto my scheduling methods. I use four methods to help me keep on track and as on top of my work as possible. The first is a Gantt Chart. For the last project, I used a daily Gantt chart, which I found myself repeatedly coming back to, but not following. I have figured out that this is because I liked having a plan to look at which covered a big chunk of time, but because of my tendency to put work off, I didn’t stick to the pre-formatted schedule and did what I felt like instead, which ultimately put me off course. This is why for this brief, I am trying something a little different.
In Excel, I created a Gantt chart with a weekly overview, spanning from the start to the end of the project. As I predicted, I have found this layout so much more useful, as I can decide what I need to do, or complete, and still follow my outlined schedule. I feel less stressed out, more in control and more motivated to do my work thanks to this. I chose to give myself two weeks for the production, in case I ate into my time and didn’t finish my blogs by the due date, which is currently happening because of certain personal events/inconveniences. Thankfully, I know how to cut back and scale down my animation idea to give myself enough time to complete it. Despite being behind, I feel much more confident than I did in the fantasy project, which shows how much I have learned about how I work and what methods aid me best. I also didn’t put the final five days on my chart because I aim to finish early, but since there is only one blog post that will be left to do after the production, I don’t mind working on the media products for an extra day or two, as the post will not take the whole working week to complete. Overall, I am really happy with my decision and I can already see the difference.
The second method I use works hand in hand with the Gantt chart, and that is Kanban. I learned of this technique for the first time last term and used it throughout most of my project. I find Kanban useful because where the Gantt chart gives me an overview, the three columns allow me to add in tasks in as depth as I want. Meaning, I can break down a blog post or piece of production into parts and shuffle them as I work. This way, I can see how far in I am for each part of the project and what I have already completed and could possibly later come back to. An example of this is one of the tasks I added after taking this screenshot which is ‘Finish risk assessment table’.
At the moment, my Kanban chart is quite basic because I update it as I go, for example, my production work doesn’t need to be broken down because I haven’t started it. The posts I have started/am doing are pretty straightforward, and like most blog posts, don’t need to be broken down into chunks either, as I have a good understanding of what I need to do. I can also add in extra tasks as I go, such as the ‘project trailer’ which wasn’t initially part of my plan, but after our lesson recap on Premiere Pro, I would like to finish it and group it in with either my pre-production or production. This flexibility is a big part of why I still continue to use Kanban and the simple three-column structure makes it easy and quick to work with. Another thing I really like is that I can see all of the tasks I have completed and it makes me feel accomplished and determined to add to the green section, and any source of motivation I can find, I will definitely grab a hold of.
Next, we have highlighting the brief. Originally, I did this through PowerPoint, but recently I installed a chrome extension called Weava, which is specifically for highlighting and adding notes to PDF documents. This method isn’t 100% necessary for my organisation but is more for my reassurance that I am completing all expected tasks. It also reminds me to always refer back to the brief and keep the main client goals in mind.
The reason that some of the blog names and tasks are highlighted differently is because I consider the tasks as anything to do with the blog post (e.g. research) and the ‘blog name’ category as the blog post itself. I do this to make it easier on myself to see what exactly I have started and still need to do, in terms of doing the task itself or writing about it. Here is my colour key:
Pink – To do (haven’t started)
Orange – Doing (started)
Yellow – Almost Done (technically completed but I want to add more)
Green – Done
Using this key, I am able to essentially apply the Kanban method to the brief so that it is more visual and I can see the percentage of completed work in terms of the brief itself.
Risk Assessment
Another aspect of production management is assessing possible risks and creating contingencies in case such problems occur. Using Excel, I created a table outlining 8 different risks and how to prevent them or what to do if they occur. By determining their likelihood and severity, I also know which ones are of greater importance, consequently which plans I should focus on more to prevent them.
Some of them are extremely unlikely and since I didn’t have any of these problems during the fantasy brief (except perhaps data loss, but it was quite minor in terms of the project itself) I am not concerned about the risks. Some of them, I can be sure will not happen, such as a family event, since there are no foreseeable celebrations that my family has in the upcoming month.
The main steps that I am taking to prevent any possible incidents are using the Pomodoro method, which gives me time for regular breaks, backing up my work and avoiding dangerous situations. Any important work is uploaded onto my Drive, as a copy, and I am also keeping a plan B for my project in the back of my mind, in case it doesn’t work out. I doubt this, since I am very passionate about both aspects of my idea, and it is very unlikely that I will want to change anything. I am confident that no matter the problems that I encounter, I will find a way to pull through.