Here is some information for the upcoming STEM Career Fair at Jack Stephens Center on Tuesday, October 12 from noon to 3:00.

Here is the registration link to the upcoming job fair. You will want to have your resume updated before you begin the registration, because there is a place to upload it. Get registered today!!

Register

Go straight to the job fair rather than coming to class. Thomas, Bruce, and Elizabeth will be standing near the door to take roll for our classes. Make a point of looking for them to sign in.

You should always prep before attending a career fair. In addition to registering in advance, check out the list of exhibitors and research them. Keep in mind that companies famous for one thing (ex. a clothing retailer) also has dozens or hundreds (or thousands) of positions that don’t involve folding sweaters.

Here is a page from another university’s website with some great tips for success at a career fair.

Tuesday, we looked at how we spend our time. Fabulous! Now we know what we do with our days. Hopefully, we have found a few things that we do to waste our time, so we can throw that stuff away and have more time to spend on those things we need to do – like our Topaz projects!

So how do we prioritize new tasks? Make long range plans? Short range plans? As a teacher, I do this every semester and what I have for you is a version of how I do that. I call it backwards planning – I’m sure there is some really snazzy word for it, but I’m a simple person and I think backwards planning says what it needs to say. Here goes:

1. Using a clean sheet of paper, list your tasks.
2. Estimate how much time it takes to complete each task.
3. Eliminate unnecessary tasks from your list, drawing a line through each. (Are you doing these tasks because you must or because you feel you should?) Notify others if necessary, explaining that you’re currently too overwhelmed. You’ve already freed up a significant amount of time.
4. Delegate some tasks to others. Are there tasks your spouse, children, or coworkers could be doing? Put a check-mark next to tasks you’ll delegate, or pass along, to others. Write name(s) next to each task. Successful delegation takes some finesse.
5. Prioritize your tasks by numbering them in order of importance. If you have difficulty establishing what’s most important, ask yourself what’s necessary to fulfill your basic needs, what’s necessary to be successful at work, and whether you have any deadlines to meet. If so, write them next to the appropriate tasks.
6. Create an Action Plan for large tasks. If you have a really large task and are working in a team, you can also work with your team to create an action plan. An action plan is a list of steps that must be done to complete a larger task or goal. Details are below.
7. Establish a deadline for the project. For me, it’s always the last day of the semester.
8. Work backwards. Once you have the task that make up the project lined out and know approximately how long each will take, put them in order from last to first and use the time estimate (#2 above) start plugging the tasks into your calendar.

Creating an action plan

To create an action plan:

1. Determine the measure of success for each task.
2. List each step it takes to complete the task.
3. Establish the best way to complete the task. Consider experimenting with different methods and asking for advice.
4. Find ways to multitask, or do more than one thing at once.
5. Assemble the people and resources you need to create your action plan.
6. List possible rewards or incentives.

You’ve made a significant investment learning ways to better manage your time. Do your best to follow through with your action plan. Work with your team to create and fine-tune the plan if necessary. Refer to it when you feel overwhelmed. And learn to say “no” to new tasks. When you’re ready, refer to the list of things you wish you had more time for and begin folding those things into your routine.

Assignment:

There is no immediate assignment for today’s lesson. You will use this information when you begin your team project and be graded on your time mamagement and action plans at that time.

This week, we will be talking about time management and prioritizing our time. There are probably a million ways to do this and what works for some may not work for others. This method is one of the best I have found. It really makes us consider what we find important in our lives and how much time we waste doing things that aren’t really important to us at all. It takes a little time (yep! time management takes time), but it is well worth the effort.

Time/Priority Management
There are many tools to help someone with managing their time. One of the best places to start is to manage your priorities. What is a priority? Well for me, my job is a priority. So are my friends, my doggie, and my hobbies. I also like to eat. Sleeping is important too!
Throughout life our priorities will change and that is okay. Right now, this class should be high on your priority list. So should your health. But we are all different and have different desires in life. What we are going to try to accomplish today is find what is most important to you and how to put that into your weekly schedule.

First, let’s make a list. Write down on a Word or Google doc., in no particular order, what you spend time on during a given day and throughout a typical week. Once you have your list I want you to number this list with number 1 being what you send the most time on, then 2 being the second most time, and so on.

Second, I want you to make another list next to or below the one that you just made. This list is what you think are your priorities. There is a high probability that the same words show up on both lists. Now just like you did with your first list I want you to number your priority list. Number 1 is what you feel is of the highest
priority down to your lowest priority. Do your priorities match up with what you spend most of your day doing?

Third, watch the video below by Laura Vanderkam on TED Talks, How to gain control of your free time. You’ll want to take notes of main ideas or concepts that stuck with you. With the assignment you’ll need to write a few sentences on what you learned.

https://www.ted.com/talks/laura_vanderkam_how_to_gain_control_of_your_free_time.

Here is an article by Laura Vanderkam found on her website that is very useful as well.

Fourth, I want you to make a list of the things you value (love, wealth, family, nature, popularity, freedom, friends, power, etc). Same as your lists from earlier, number them from 1 being what you want to spend the most time on during the week down to the least, or what you want your highest priorities to be down to your lowest priority. Now compare the three lists. Are they the same? Do you spend your week doing the things you value the most? Are your priorities in line? Are you ready to make a change to your typical week?

Fifth, download this excel sheet, Time Management. You will need two copies of this excel sheet. For the first schedule, fill out what your typical week looks like right now (normal work/school week). It should include everything that you do (eat, meal prep, sleep, study, work, commute, play video games, spend time with family, etc.) in your current week. Exactly how you spend your time. Every minute of it. How does it look?

For the second schedule you are to make your schedule based on your values/what you want to make a priority. Hopefully this is very similar to our first schedule, but there is a chance it will be completely different. This should be based off of your priority list. The higher the priority, the more you should see it in your schedule. Now this should be realistic. Make it something that you can apply to your life right now. What can you do to make your priorities and values line up with your typical week?

We want to spend more time on what matters and less time on what doesn’t. We need to understand our values, priorities, how much time we actually have, and how we want to spend it. Let’s make a little change that can have a positive impact on our daily lives.

Here is what you accomplished with this worksheet:
1. A short paragraph (minimum of 5 sentences) of what you learned from the video.
2. A list of what you spend time on today.
3. A list of what you prioritize today.
4. A list of what you want to prioritize tomorrow based on your values.
5. Two schedules, one of what your week looks like now and one of what you want it to look like.
6. A better understanding of who you are and what you spend your time on.

Assignment

See the Fifth step above and prepare your two Excel Spread sheets. Add these to your blog by Sunday, September 19 along with a short narrative of how your restructured your schedule to find more time for what is really important to you. Keep in mind, this is a good way for your possible teammates to see how you well you can prioritize tasks and get work done!

Recap:

Today we talked about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and discovered the distribution of types in our group. We also talked about how a good mix of personality types in group work can make us more successful in our tasks. While there are other things we will examine later in the semester that contribute to creating and supporting effective teams, knowing our own preferences is certainly a good place to start.

Here is the distribution of personality types in the Topaz cohort:

Links to websites we discussed in class:

https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types

Assignment Due Thursday, September 9:

 After using the above links to better understand the personality tool and thinking about the preferences you expressed in the different categories, answer the following questions on your blog. Be sure to add a catchy header to your blog that you think reflects your personality.

1.  Based on what you have learned about your MBTI profile, what do you need/expect in your work environment?
2. What type of leader do you expect to be and how does this profile reflect that?
3. When working on a team/in a group, how do you think knowing the other people’s profiles would change the group interactions?