Internship is an excellent training ground for students (who are used to be a carefree student lifestyle) to transition to an office life. One of the biggest challenges for interns is to discipline themselves to concentrate on task completion after years of having to answer to mainly own self for college/ university assignment. As a student, one decides when to study, how many hours to study daily and how many hours to play. But when working in office, even if the office has flexi-time, there is a set amount of time that must be allocated by an office worker per day or per week to complete office tasks with quality.Often, undisciplined interns are overwhelmed with things to do and getting anything done on time.
Ways that help you focus and get things done:
1. Pick an organizer
Your phone, tablet, or PC will all have an organizer. Pick one you like best and use it exclusively. This means all your stuff is in one place, so you won't miss messages or tasks that have to be done.
2. Quit procrastinating
There are tasks assigned to you in the office, but you think you can do it next week, or later or after you finish your personal social media activities, you don’t seem to find the time to complete them…
Well, put some ‘self-discipline’ in yourself. Every day before you start work, list at least 1 major task and two mini tasks you should complete. Or give yourself a deadline to finish a task by a certain date.
3. Quit multi-tasking
Internship is an excellent training ground for students (who are used to be a carefree student lifestyle) to transition to an office life. One of the biggest challenges for interns is to discipline themselves to concentrate on task completion after years of having to answer to mainly own self for college/ university assignment. As a student, one decides when to study, how many hours to study daily and how many hours to play. But when working in office, even if the office has flexi-time, there is a set amount of time that must be allocated by an office worker per day or per week to complete office tasks with quality.Often, undisciplined interns are overwhelmed with things to do and getting anything done on time.
Ways that help you focus and get things done:
1. Pick an organizer
Your phone, tablet, or PC will all have an organizer. Pick one you like best and use it exclusively. This means all your stuff is in one place, so you won't miss messages or tasks that have to be done.
2. Quit procrastinating
There are tasks assigned to you in the office, but you think you can do it next week, or later or after you finish your personal social media activities, you don’t seem to find the time to complete them…
Well, put some ‘self-discipline’ in yourself. Every day before you start work, list at least 1 major task and two mini tasks you should complete. Or give yourself a deadline to finish a task by a certain date.
3. Quit multi-tasking
Look back honestly over yesterday and ask yourself, "How often was I on personal Facebook or Instagram or WhatsApp, or watching You-tube videos for entertainment when I should have been working on tasks assigned to me?" “Why did I need to answer every friend and acquaintance’s social media messages instantly when the notices came?”
Bet you wasted a few hours of work time on personal matters.
Thoughts are scattered when you over multi-task, between your computer and smart phone’s various platforms. If you are assigned to handle a task that needs concentration but you spend most of the time on personal social media, your brain energy for office task will be unfocused, so the quality of your work will be affected.
So how to stop friends from complaining that you are not on social media during office hours? Inform them that you are concentrating on your career growth through an internship, you will reply them at night or during non-work hours. They will understand if they are your real friends who are also into their own career growth.
4. Set limits
One of the problems of being connected all the time is that you're tempted to work when you should be having fun. If you're concentrating on your work for x hours a day, deserve some fun. Resist the temptation to "just this one". If you don't let your brain have some time off and recharge, it won't work right.
How to help yourself:
To avoid temptations to do personal things, check your list of things to do at the start of each day - and then switch off your phone, or put your phone away and check only once an hour. Turn off your FB or Whatsapp notifications and everything else that might distract you. The world will not fall apart because you've disconnected.
