On skills and just doing things better

Both my work and being in graduate school have involved moving from project to project (of course with great variations in time frames and continuation). All these make for very interesting learning experiences, not necessarily easy. These are a list of things I have compiled as a reminder to myself to be able to work well on projects (fully knowing that having this list does not mean I adhere to it). I will state at the outset this is a lopsided list, you will notice the focus in mostly on the individual and not the group. This is intended that way. I think of it as lessons from my work in the past (and from the experience over this summer) for myself. Not all of it is right or right for everyone, but I find these useful. If you have any opinions to share, points to add, I would love to know. I like to think of this as a work in progress, just like life!

• The ability to plan: short, medium and long-term: I think of this as being able to see the big picture, plan for milestones to get there and then decide the small steps that everyone needs to take. Personally I prefer to go from having an idea of the final goal to identifying the smaller steps.

• The ability to implement and execute: to my mind this is a continuation of step one - planning and scheduling milestones and tasks, figuring out where things could fail,  being flexible about the small steps while being constant in the goal (as far as it makes sense to stay constant).

• The ability to manage information: I think it is an underrated skill and a very essential one. All of us are busy, often deluged by emails from listservs that are misused and sometimes less than professional, we have a lot to read, videos to watch, a mountain of information to get through. Being able to organize information, prioritize taking it in and responding (things I have learned the hard way: reading all my mails before responding to any emails, trying not to have an individual conversation while hitting the reply all button etc).

• Communication skills: both written and verbal. I am a fan of brevity (In fact I say Brevity Boot camps should be part of all our lives :D). I also try and remind myself to think of what I want to achieve before I say or write something. I won't say I succeed at it all the time but I do try. This just makes it easier for me to get what I want and for other people to respond. Also as a child I was admonished to not waste my words on saying silly, useless things or talking just for the sake of hearing my own voice and I think in general that has served me well. Additional note: Weak words, self-deprecation versus self-dismissive tone when communicating - I have learned to be careful of these over the years because especially as a woman they make it easier for people to take you less seriously. This is of course a personality and fine line aspect as well.

• Patience: I struggle with this the most. I know patience is essential to get things done (as is the ability to do things fast and keep pace). Being calm would be wonderful. 

• Structure (or not?): I have been accused occasionally of thinking linearly. I don't know if I am the best judge of that but I find (and our field experience has shown) that putting some sort of structure in place before jumping into a discussion, a report, anything is helpful. It brings together people who have an idea of what they want versus others that don't. I am sure this is not what people associate with creativity but I find it has worked well for me so far. It helps get things done (and also possibly done well).

• An eye out for being efficient and effective: I think this one is where it is easy to get flayed. But I see no harm in occasionally pausing and asking is this the best possible way to do this? Could this be done in lesser time, with fewer resources? More simply? 

• Learning new skills on your own time: I wish I had put in more effort into learning survey design methods before this experience. We got through but that is a class our program needs to offer before this experience. The lesson for me is to identify the skills I need, which I can usually do easily, and follow through on learning them on my own time individually.

Humor is a key ingredient in all of these. The ability to laugh, possibly mock a little, really does make things easier. I hope to add more to this list over the years!