Doing your bit!

I was reading an article in one of the magazines I produce for work and while it was aimed at lawyers ‘changing the world’ it really struck me and I felt it should be shared. It was about the idea of ‘doing the bit you can do’ and not telling yourself you can’t change things or can't do things just because you’re not the top in your field.

The idea of doing the bit you can do can relate to a lot of areas of our lives and it relates a little to the conversation I’ve been having over Twitter with some other bloggers about our ideas of perfection. How we’re never happy enough with our work and forever seem to have Tall Poppy syndrome. Constantly feeling that other people are better than us and because of that there’s no point releasing work that isn’t good enough. When in actual fact to others your work is good enough.

Do the bit you can do.

You may not be an amazing illustrator who can sell millions of prints, or have hundreds of people seeking commissions each week. But you can make prints, and you can sell them, and you can get super excited when a few people love them and buy them. Because in most cases there will be those few who love them and soon those few numbers will grow. 

The idea is that, if the 'something' you want to do makes you terrified or worried then you probably need to do something that is a bit smaller or even things that prepare you to do the initial thing. We tend to work with things we ‘should’ do but this idea is what you can do, not what you should do. You 'should' make a print collection that never eventuates as it's too much to handle, but you can make a couple of fab prints, so do that! 

Don’t do more than you can do, only do the bit you can do. Don’t let the size of the thing you want to pursue put you off doing the little things needed to pursue it. Little steps will eventually take you up and up so you can see over those tall poppies.

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5 things to remember with group projects.

I've been involved in a lot of group projects at the moment at university and sometimes there's a moment or two that just makes me want to scream, cry, or just eat lots of chocolate. Don't get me wrong, working as a team can produce amazing projects it's just those few moments throughout that were either low in sleep, sugar, or just general food, when things get a bit iffy. These past two weeks I've been on holiday but our university calls it a break from university, not a break from work, I've been in uni almost 3/4 of the time working with groups. From this I've learned these five points that may help you in any upcoming group tasks:

Get to know each other's habits. 

If you make a team meeting at 9am when most of your team are late sleepers, then you're going to get less work done than if you make your meeting start at like 1pm, as they're still half asleep. From the very beginning one of my teammates mentioned that she works really late night shifts so sleeps in until midday when she can, this allowed us to; half agree that we'd love to sleep until midday too, and all agree to meet in the afternoons to achieve the most work.

Contact is key.

You may not want to constantly be meeting up with a group of people outside uni hours but believe me you'll get so much more work done from just getting together and getting on the same page for an hour or two or six. Contact doesn't just mean meeting up several times a week either, it also means keeping in contact while you're alone too. Come up with a way that you can share ideas and sketches from home, either a Facebook group or a Google Drive. Also for heaven's sake tell people if you get sick and can't work!

Provide snacks.

Now the one point during this entire group assignment that impressed me the most was when one of my teammates turned up to one meeting with a heap of lollies and other snacks. Each of the meetings after that she brought more along (I brought some too to help us along) but she mentioned one meeting that she was vegan and actually couldn't eat most of the snacks she brought and they were solely for the other teammates to enjoy. They did go down well though, everyone loves food! So I recommend snacks, just maybe ones you enjoy too!

Let others express themselves, help them, and commend them for it. 

Sometimes a member of your group may not be the greatest at something but they really want to give it a go, let them. You might know that you could do a much better job but it's university it's time to try new things, maybe there's something you want to do that you're not too good at either. If it's a major part of the project then help them out, guide them along, tell them your tips and tricks. Don't wait to see them fall flat on their face so you can stand up and 'save the day', that's not how group work works!

Above all, Compromise. 

You're never going to get anywhere if the five or so of you have different thoughts and won't budge an inch, you have to compromise. Sometimes the best ideas come from merging several, write down everyone's ideas and see if you can incorporate any.  Decide on a voting system from the beginning and a way that everyone can voice their opinions on other peoples ideas without seeming rude or demeaning. This way if someone's idea isn't used they'll be able to see that it wasn't that their idea was bad it's just that another one was more suitable or was easier to achieve.

These are what I feel at the moment are a great way to work in order to have a happy team and therefore a good result! They're mainly aimed at school/university projects but most are important in work life too, just maybe not the meeting at the 11am point when you have proper work hours...

What do you think, am I missing any tips?

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Twenty Fourteen

I know a lot of New Year posts may be overkill but I feel like 2014 is going to be my year. Although I've already had some ups and downs and I know it's going to have one awful death in the family but it seems I've finally found my place.  

I'm really excited to move back down to uni, less because of work but more because I'm flatting with my friends. Last year I lived in uni halls which were 5 bedroom flats so I didn't know my flatmates before I moved in with and it was so lucky that I got on with them and I got on with two of them so much they were like family by the end of the year it was fabulous. I don't know if living in the same flat as my friends will now make it a bit awkward as last year I had some where to go to to get away from if I needed some Sophie time and now I wont. I'm sure it'll be fine though as they all lived on their own last year so they'll be wanting their own time too. Think we'll have some great memories in that flat and hopefully stay there for the next three years of my degree. I'll also be living with my boyfriend which we'll see how that goes as we agreed to live together before actually getting together as I'm really for the whole not living with people you're dating but we'll see. 

I'm hoping my second year at uni will go much smoother in classes having got past that freshers first year of learning all the new things and will finally crack down on classes specific to our degrees. I'm incredibly excited for a class I'm taking called 'Character Design' and really think it'll be so much fun as all I love doing in my spare time is drawing Disney so if I'm able to go down that kinda style route of animation I'll be so happy. I really hope to take my confidence to the next level and allow myself to actually ask for help and work while people are around me and let them see my progress works instead of hiding away until I finish my final piece.

Last night I made a huge purchase which has taken me years to finally cave into something I've really wanted ever since using one for the first time about 4 years ago; an iMac. Frankly I've heard some really good and really bad things about apple and I just wanted to make my own decision about it so just went for it. Deciding on a desktop instead of a laptop as my laptop is still pretty decent but my desktop really does need replacing as I never bother using it as it's useless. I'll just leave it up here when I move back down so I can use it in holidays and not have to bother carting my laptop back and forth as it's a bloody nuisance. 

As for my resolutions it's now the 8th and I'm doing pretty well at most of them, as you can see from this post.. well better than I thought I would personally.