New Year, New Grind
Looking Beyond Auld Lang Syne
Setting the Scene
Holy shorts, I never thought I’d get to this point!
In the last quarter of 2021, I put myself through uni, got my sweet degree paper, joined the rest of the throbbing hordes in the Great Resignation, left my secure but wholly unsatisfying job in retail, and found entrée into the world I had only years before dreamed of entering.
I was now in start-up culture; I was on the team, on the grind, on the warpath towards scaling, pivoting and growing.
To be frank and sure, there’s been learning curves a-plenty. For starters, they’re a software tech firm. I’m a right-brain, artsy kinda fella. I can use the software programmers build to make kick-ass content, but I’d have a hell of a time telling you how they built it. But in my new position as a content marketer, I have to convey to potential customers the finer inner workings of our service, while at the same trying to understand what GraphQL and APIs are and where the selling points lie.
Hoo boy!
Secondly, while I have ideas of what a good advertisement is to me, I haven’t come off the streets of Madison Avenue, let alone been anywhere near New York. I often joke that I couldn’t sell water to a thirsty, dying man, even if I tried. I still need to learn even the fine points of social media market campaigning.
Geez, why did they hire me again? Still figuring that one out…
Despite all the resident self-doubts that come with the new job, there’s also a lot of excitement looking ahead, especially since it’s only been Month 2 on the job. I’ve only thought about New Year’s goals in terms of all the usual suspects: exercising more, eating better, saving money, yadda yadda yadda. But in terms of career- and self-improvement, start-up culture has helped give me new, more concrete goals to work towards in 2022.
Giving a (Frequent) Account
Since my workplace is a virtual one now, existing only on Slack and ClickUp, work accountability takes on a whole other dimension than showing up in the office to have your boss scream in your face.
I mean, they can scream at you over a webcam, so the principle is still there, but the presentation’s different.
Communicating with the team is also different: there are many structured meetings, but just as many spur-of-the-moment ones. Check-ins from supervisors may be infrequent, which could lead to some slacking on the job. Not pointing fingers here, but…it happens.
What I’m looking to do better in is being over-communicative in all facets: asking questions, giving progress reports, the whole nine yards. Supervisors and leaders respect the hell out of people who take the initiative with no eyes having to be on them. I used to be fearful of being a nuisance or being intrusive by being over-communicative. Once I discovered not just the acceptability, but the encouragement of it, I tossed that fear on its arse once and for all.
Soaking It In
In college, my Bachelor’s program was in interdisciplinary studies. For as simple a summation as I can make: it’s a research method that allows somebody the skill to dig through info from multiple disciplines, make requisite connections and present solutions to complex problems using this disciplinary inter-marriage.
I didn’t think much of its practicality before, but gee, do I feel different now!
Another of my professional goals for 2022 is to learn as much as I can on the job; not just in a content marketing sense, but in a programming sense as well, given it’s an area I’ve never explored.
I used to be intimidated by confronting a subject area, concept or skill that seemed so daunting, so imposing, that I’d shy away from it. I’m not a software programmer! I’m not smart enough to understand how all this works. I’ll never get it!
Listen here: telling yourself you’re not smart enough to figure something out is the surest way you’ll never become smart enough to figure that thing out. Simple as that.
Allow your brain the credit it’s due, find a good enough entry point to get started, and put in the hours to discover and learn.
In my capacity as a content creator, I’ve learned so much and retained so many techniques central to how I work simply by viewing and archiving YouTube tutorials that walk me through the Adobe creative suite; I have playlists for each software being covered in depth. It’s amazing the things you can learn and retain in under ten minutes’ worth of walkthrough.
The same goes for advertising concepts: I’ve been researching what goes into writing good copy, how to boil your “message” down into its most attractive essence, and visual tricks on formatting eye-catching ads on social media.
My new employers are not only my supervisors, but also my teachers. On Friday mornings, we go over a customized sales curriculum to help sharpen our client relation skills. And they’re the only company I know of so far that has its own curated wiki with articles explaining all these mind-boggling software and programming concepts for someone like me to get right away.
In short: a lot of disciplines (technology, creative design, software development, and marketing, to name a few) come together for me to do my job.
I’m blessed to have an environment where education is encouraged, but even if your work culture doesn’t support that, that’s no reason to stop yourself from learning what you need to on your own. I fully stand behind self-education, and the goal for me in 2022 is to not only keep at it, but get better at finding the right info I need to succeed.
Shiromani Kant on Unsplash
It’s Time!
Oh, Time, that most fickle of commodities. How easily we have it and how easily it can slip away.
I’m not gonna kid you: I’m nowhere close to a time management guru. But I can share what’s worked for me in the hopes of inspiring others.
Time and organization go hand in hand; everyone knows this. If you’re organized, you’ll be more effective with the time you have. Which is why giving yourself boundaries and frames of mind to focus and work in can stop you from burning through the precious hours you have.
While for myself, my efforts have been the mental equivalent of taming a wild stallion, I have seen success for someone as scattered as I can be. My biggest goal in this realm is not so much discovering all new time and productivity habits, but remaining consistent in the ones that I’ve found and work great for me.
In college, my biggest accountability tool was my planner. Not a digital one, easy to overlook or forget to access on my desktop or smartphone, but a spiral-bound, need-to-write-in-it weekly planner. It sat open to each week on a corner of my desk where I couldn’t miss or ignore it and would have to see what my due dates were. It saved me from forgetting to study or miss turning assignments in, and I probably wouldn’t have graduated Magna Cum Laude without being accountable to it. I will die on that hill, darn it!
I fully intend, before January 2022, to buy and use one, not just for work tasks and due dates, but life organizing in general: appointments, calls, meet-ups, dinners, what have you. The same recommendation goes for anyone else who needs to work within a secure structure.
I used to never believe in using a timer for work, but ever since I discovered the Pomodoro technique, I work most efficiently when I segment my working time into block periods of work and rest. The first time I ran a Pomodoro timer, I was amazed at what I was able to get done in four 25-minute segments with the breaks in-between.
Instead of looking at time as this monolithic current we just coast through, where we never really take advantage of it and just go about doing our daily tasks as we feel like it, time should be seen as this thing to be wrangled, to be conquered, to be subdued, so that we’re as effective with it as possible.
Both of these techniques are good at time management, but a key ingredient is consistency. They have to be done, or else they’re worthless ideals. My goal is 2022 is to better hold myself to plan out my schedule; not just week-by-week, but planning far enough in the future so I have tasks to look forward towards and remind myself of. Using the Pomodoro timer can’t be only relegated to a few days’ usage and then I get burnt out on it: I need to work within the confines I set for myself, even when I don’t want it. That’s the only way it’s been successful for me.
These are what I’ve decided to focus on this coming year. I’m sure I’ll fail at them at some points, but there’s no shame in picking yourself back up and continuing where you left off, a wiser person this time around. As I heard a great guy say once: “Success doesn’t teach you anything. I’ve only been taught by failures, and the fact that if you give up, you’ll be defined by failure, and you’ll never have the chance to be defined by success.”
Pretty smart guy, there’s a reason why he’s a legend in his profession.
What are your goals for 2022? What are you hoping to learn for yourself and share with others? Let’s have a discussion in the comments! Until then, have a great New Year!
