Congrats on graduating by the way… but it’s time to get to work!
We’ve all been there. You’re under an immense time constraint with what seems to be a million and one things to do and the clock is ticking. However, the stress that comes with being a student is vastly different to the stress you must deal with at work.
As a student, it’s your personal grade on the line. If you don’t submit your essay on time, it’s you and only you that’s going to suffer the consequences. Over three / four years you develop your time management skills to whatever works best for you, either that or you get used to the fact you may need to pull an all-nighter occasionally. I graduated in July confident in my time management skills. Now, as the Marketing Assistant at Push Start Marketing I have found the transition between student time-management and work time-management to be particularly stressful and almost a whole new skill to learn.
When I was a student, I used to get assignments that were set with about one month to complete them. There were no time constraints as to how long it should take me to complete said assignment; only its due date. So, I could spread my time as and how I wanted, working at different times of the day and night (when it suited me) to complete the task. Now, as the Marketing Assistant, I’m dealing with a whole new ball game of time constraints. At Push Start Marketing each client is given a set amount of time (stated within their contracts) each month that we spend as a team on their Marketing, PR, Social and Graphic Design. For some clients, we spend as little as 4 hours, for others it’s a massive 60+ hours.
There’s often 3 or 4 of us working on different aspects of the client’s requirements for the month – so let’s do the maths here: If for example our 60-hour client is spread between us equally – that’s 20 hours each a month. Which is approximately 5 hours a week; which should be less than 1 hour a day.
Logically, it shouldn’t be stressful; but consider it this way: You need to schedule 1 months’ worth of social for 3 small clients this week, at the same time you are dealing with multiple tasks for 2 of the bigger clients. Yes, you are all working on these tasks but each of you have several tight time constraints which need to be met because you have 3 meetings this week which are going to take time out of your days. Hours wise, these meetings may take a full day of work (or more) away from the time you spend on the smaller tasks you need to complete; not to mention when you leave those meetings you have brand new tasks that you now need to add to your never-ending list.
So how do you manage that?
I’ve worked at Push Start Marketing for a month now and I’ve only just started to get the hang of this. Trust me, there’s still a long way to go and I’m still spending about 8-10 hours on some clients when I had hoped to only spend 6. However, I am slowly learning a few things that I can do to reduce my stress.
Firstly, give yourself a break and remember that you’re new to this. Stop beating yourself up about going over the allotted times because this type of time management is different to the skill you’ve been developing at university.
You’d rather the task was done fully and correctly. Don’t rush the tasks just because there’s a time constraint; if the task is done incorrectly because you have rushed the completion to meet the time, the quality of the completion is not going to be good. You’d therefore have to go back onto that task and complete it to a better standard (or maybe even start from scratch). That task then becomes a waste of time rather than a good use of it.
Work better, not quicker. I’ve recently begun writing a long list at the end of the week as to what I need to get on with the next week. That way, I can enjoy my weekend knowing I’ve got a set list of things that I am prepared for on Monday. I’ve also started making smaller lists each morning as to what I need to get done that day. The priorities go at the top and the less important items that I would like to get done go further down the list. If I get those top tasks done and have to leave the bottom for the next day, then that’s fine. At least my most important tasks are now done. Just ticking these tasks off the list when complete helps calm me down and there’s less stress on my shoulders.
Ask for help or discuss time constraints with colleagues. If you’re struggling to get a prioritised task done, then ask for help. At first, I didn’t want to seem like I couldn’t do what I had been asked to. Since discussing feeling stressed with Lucy and Hilary I have felt so much better. For example, Hilary reminded me that next week I only really had 2 days’ worth of time to complete my tasks because of several meetings and other out of office activities. So, to help ensure all the prioritised tasks would get done, she offered to take one of my scheduling tasks which was a huge help.
Try not to feel guilty about needing a coffee or lunch break during busy periods. Sometimes I have worked through my lunch break to get tasks done. I don’t mind doing that at all and working through lunch or staying a little later than my hours state does help with the stress. However, sometimes you need a break and you shouldn’t feel guilty about that. Luckily, I work for a company that believes in flexibility, so I am free to pop out of the office to clear my head if I need to.
Finally, do healthy things. I recently joined the gym which for me is great because if I am having a stressful day I can look forward to the possibility of taking it out on the treadmill later. I have also been trying to drink more water and less coffee (to tell you the truth I am failing at this one, but I like hot drinks so let me off); I’m also attempting at getting into a better routine of going to bed at a decent time (again, failing at this often).
In all honesty, I probably need to take my own advice. I am in no way perfect and probably not in the position to tell others how to improve on their own stress management because I’m notorious for being a worry and stress monster. However, writing this blog has helped me notice that there are some places where I think I am improving, but when I take a step back and look at myself I probably need to try harder to do them. I’m certain that my time management and stress levels will improve with time as proven over this last month, but for now, it’s still a bit of a climb.