Time to get serious.
Looking at my smart goal I chose: ‘Overcoming procrastination to help myself deal with stress’. To stop getting overwhelmed with projects and focus my attention into one thing at a time.
I work best when I’m in hyper-focus mode, when I’m sat down and fully immersed in my work or when I’m forced to work because I have got deadlines to meet; I’ve never missed a deadline, I end up doing the work in time but I procrastinate so much which leads to my motivation and focus mode to shut down resulting in most of my work being done at once rather than being spread out.
This isn’t sustainable and I’m likely to burn out.
Having this goal will benefit my future as I will feel more prepared, I will feel like I’ve taken my time to focus my time and attention into the work I produce instead of leaving it till the last minute and having to rush, resulting in my work not reaching its full potential.
I created a Swot analysis grid for myself at the beginning of this module and will focus on improving my weaknesses, adding to my strengths, looking at ticking off my opportunities list and realising what threats I face.
Strengths:
I’ve recognised my strengths as being able to be flexible with work, being able to work independently or in a team is a good skill to have as you may have to do both of there in a workplace, having teamwork skills like communication and leadership skills makes me good at being able to participate and do my part in a team project. Aswell as being a control freak and liking things done my way I love working by myself so that everything I produce is up to my standard and is completed
I also think I’m quite a fast learner, I usually don’t have to be told multiple times for something to kick in which also pairs well with my good memory and organisation. I like structure, I like having things set out so they are clear for me to understand, things are usually organised chaos as I go through a project, new ideas appear, steps are retaken and progress launches; the process isn’t linear, but it works. One step forward is still forward.
With everything I do, I like to do it well,
I say why aim for the bare minimum,
Why be good at something, when you can be excellent.
Stand out,
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Put the effort in,
And you will excel.
Weaknesses:
My weaknesses as a whole definitely lean towards having no confidence as the main factor. My main problem is that I procrastinate and overthink pretty much everything. I think this is down to my lack of motivation, not having the effort or the ‘want’ to do something puts me off doing it, I lose interest quite quickly with certain things, so if projects are spanned over a longer duration then my mind doesn’t see any urgency or importunacy to them and therefore are pushed aside and replaced with something else.
Setting myself timeframes for certain things to be done by, for example when I know a specific thing needs doing for the next lesson this motivates me to have stuff done but again I fins myself putting these things off for the week and doing it the day before instead of doing in on the day and being able to relax.
Another one of my weaknesses would 1000% be the lack of confidence. Due to this, I keep myself restrained from approaching new things, going out somewhere new and doing thinks by myself as I feel judged and insecure. My confidence also makes it hard to accept criticism, and I take things to heart a lot whereas feedback is supposed to be classes as support I hear ‘your rubbish’. This is a thing I want to learn to accept that everyone is going to have their opinions but if you go about life thinking everyone is a hater then you are setting yourself up for failure.
Opportunities:
Looking at what opportunities I have, I feel being at Uni is quite a huge opportunity to take part it. Being present, getting involved and voicing my thoughts and opinions makes a huge difference to taking in the whole point of attending University rather than just being a listener.
Opportunities I can explore for the future are things like attending talks and design festivals to see what others have to say, another great place to start is exploring, researching, reading; these things are all going to help me have a broader knowledge of what’s out there and what’s to come.
Threats:
Finally looking at threats is important. As graphic designers we always will have threats, whether this be other people fighting for the same job as me or the workplace having a lack of hiring there’s always something that’s going to create conflict. Another big threat is new technologies; the use of AI has grown drastically.
Are we going to be out of jobs?
Will technology take over altogether?
Who knows.
We can only do our best, there’s always limitations to using AI and digital software’s but for us, our only limitation is our creativity.
