Introduction:

This blog will contain all my timetables and action plans, which will be updated/edited throughout the project accordingly. It will also double as a diary and will help me to track the progress of tasks from beginning to end.

Gantt Chart Timetable failure:

Above is the Gantt chart I made when we were first given the FMP brief. Running alongside the brief was our ‘Individual Project’ for Welsh Bacc and later our ‘Specialist Study’ unit. Although Gantt Charts have been very useful to me in the past, having so many projects going on at once meant I struggled with juggling everything. The time limits on tasks are very vague on the Gantt Chart and I failed to keep other projects in mind when plotting out each individual task. Throughout February to the end of the Individual Project in March, I realised I had solely been focusing on the Individual, forgotten about the Specialist Study altogether and wasn’t tracking my progress for FMP.

I’m writing this blog on Wednesday 1st of April, 16 days into Quarantine and have decided to change my timetable to help me stay organised, go into more detail on tasks and separate different projects better. Since this current Gantt Chart isn’t working for me.

New Timetable:

I created a timetable that focuses on the days in the week rather than the weeks in a month. This way I can go into more detail and dedicate each day to a specific project. Mondays and Tuesdays will be dedicated to the ‘Specialist Study’ whereas Wednesday to Friday will be all about the FMP. I was inspired by the Crosskeys calendar and created a timeframe with designated activity periods based on how long my lessons would have been if I were in college.

Working from home has been difficult for me so far, I get distracted very easily. However, this timetable has already helped to give me structure. I’ve taken away the choice of which project to work on and when – since it risks project favouritism and one getting left behind. I’ve given myself strict rules to follow. No FMP work on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. When the specialist study is complete I will swap those dedicated activity periods to be FMP-centric so that I’ll be working on it Monday through Friday.

As deadline approaches, the timetable will likely go through another change. I’ll extend activity periods as well as start scheduling work to be done on the weekends as well.

Productive Hours:

I recently read a very interesting article by Jory Mackay called “How to find your most productive hours of the day.”  The article talks about energy cycles and how to work out when you’ll be at peak performance in the day. It says,

“What matters more than the length of time you put into a thing is actually the intensity of focus. Because if you have an intensity of focus you can actually reduce the amount of time spent doing it to get the same or better results.” – Srinivas Rao.

What this means is that you’ll take longer to finish a task if you lack motivation and focus compared to when you’re super alert and awake and ready to get things done.

Although I did not follow all of the in-depth steps into finding that perfect time in the day where I am most productive. I do know when it’s the best time of day for me to start working and that is 11 O’clock. By then, I am fully awake and ready to get everything done. Even in college, I was much more productive during afternoon lessons that began at 11 rather than the early morning ones.

So I scheduled each activity period in my timetable to start at 11. The time when I am most active and eager to work.

Action Plan:

During this course, I’ve learned that I work best by focusing on the journey rather than the end goal. So I’ve decided to make an Action Plan dedicated to each week rather than a Plan spanning over the whole of the project.

Each Wednesday until the Specialist Study is complete, I will make a small Action Plan containing all the FMP tasks I want to complete that week and the steps/objectives I need to do to achieve them. I will then write a short diary entry on how the week went as a whole.

To make sure I don’t forget any tasks, I will write a master post on every single little task that needs to be completed during the project. I’ll then go more in-depth on how to achieve a chosen task in my weekly Action Plan.

 

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Weekly Action Plans + Diary:

01/04/2020 – 03/04/2020 Weekly Review:

This week went well, fairly productive in terms of blog posts and preparation. I decided to review and tweak my time table to be more strict and precise. I found that the Gantt Chart was too broad for me and I struggled to make the decision on which project I should be working on each day. I’m really pleased with my new time table – it helps me to stay on track and I don’t get distracted as much now thanks to the breaks I have scheduled between every hour- two-hour shift.

I felt that my evaluation proposal was lacking as I didn’t have a lot of feedback to go off of. Since I first pitched it back in February, I decided to improve my proposal based on whatever feedback I had from Gareth and repitched it to Kelly. Doing this took up a lot of my time, but it was worth it.  Kelly gave me some very useful feedback and brought up some interesting points such as adding foley sound to the scene to add more atmosphere.

Since I edited and repitched my pitch, I didn’t have enough time in the week to write up my rationale. So the task will carry over onto next week. Overall, I am very pleased with my progress. It feels like I haven’t been this productive since self-isolation began.

08/04/2020 – 10/04/2020

A fairly easy week in terms of work. A lot of it was collecting and organising work I’ve already typed up in different documents.

It was fun re-reading and analysing the responses I got from my chosen artists. I was so nervous messaging them, but they were all so polite and understanding. If anything, this experience has shown me that I shouldn’t be scared about messaging people higher up than me. I’ll definitely be messaging other artists for advice in the future – project or not.

Overall, the most time-consuming task I had to do this week was starting my Bibliography, Reference List and Appendix. I’m glad I didn’t end up leaving these tasks until the end of the project like I originally planned because they were a pain to make. The majority of links/research was on my pitch blog and that alone took me 3 hours to collect everything. Safe to say, from now on I’ll be updating the list more regularly so I’m not caught off guard again. In hindsight, these lists should have been the first blog I made at the start of the project.