How I've developed my soft skills

Hey there!

Got a pretty small blog for you to start the week. So I'm almost finished my second last trimester at uni, currently in my final week!

Between doing 3 months worth of audio work across two modules, making sure everything I make and blog about falls in line with what needs to be done for assessment, maintaining the Jbox project and other external work and commitments; I've done a huge amount of stuff lately.

Working for myself from home, and since a lot of things are on a project-by-project basis, it can be quite difficult at times to keep on track. However, in recent times I've really pushed myself to become more proactive about my work ethic and a lot of that is really understanding that I'm doing it for myself.

So yeah, time management has been one of those bottlenecks of my workflow in the past. Since moving down to Brisbane and living independently at the beginning of last year, I've gradually improved on this front over time and I think now I'm starting to get in a good rhythm with how I manage what's ahead of me.

Firstly, sorting my life outside of actual work is equally as important, as it will directly impact my performance anyway. Things like this: I've pushed myself into the habit of walking for an hour almost everyday at the end of the day. It re-injects positive energy into my body, it gives me time to relax and listen to music or podcasts, and since its routine for me now - I feel as though I need to do it, and feels good when I do. Living on my own (albeit in a share-house), it forces me to organise myself daily in all aspects. I feel as though when you get into the mindset where you're fully responsible for how you go about your day, and no one to depend on for things like meals and cleaning etc., it has really translated through into my work ethic with music, audio work and my overall maturity.

It has really clicked recently when I just remain calm and get my ducks in a row - sort out what needs to get done in what order, how soon and just making sure that I'm doing a killer job at what I'm doing and with a positive attitude. In the image above you can see some sheets of paper I blu-tacked to the wall behind my monitor, listing everything I need done and a brief description on exactly how to achieve it. I know there's plenty of technology that does this better, but for some reason writing it down on paper and always having it sitting there (rather than hidden in a web-browser tab or in something I have to sign into) allows me to stay focused and constantly track my progress. Colour-coded sticky notes also fantastic. If I had a ruler and smaller notes so that I could more cleanly cover things that were complete. it would probably look a lot better, but either way it worked for me!

So here I am at the other end of a trimester, where initially I was almost overwhelmed with what I had to do - especially when I was uncertain about how I was going to do it. Now I know that I've smashed all the stuff I needed to do, and did so efficiently and to a high quality. I feel in life there's always going to be obstacles ahead where you won't be sure as to how you'll scale them; but I feel like rolling with the punches has always worked for me, and just motivates me even more to do something better. The way you react to anything that happens to you in life is crucial. Like I mentioned above with my daily walk, starting a new healthy routine and having that as something you can go and do, is a great way to relieve stress and provide yourself with mental first aid after something happens that doesn't go your way.

I hope this little bit of personal insight has been some good inspiration to kick your week off!

- Lachy :)