Week 3: Overcoming Obstacles

One thing that has surprised me most has been observing my level of focus and lack of distraction completing tasks here vs. working on assignments and studying at school. At school, I will intermittently check my Facebook and Twitter feeds as I work on essays and study for exams. I've been working on projects at Food Network Magazine that would normally take much more time than a school assignment, but since I have not let myself succumb to much distraction, I get these tasks done much more efficiently.

For example, for the past week I've been working on creating Starch slide decks. Essentially, I take data collected by the magazine about audience responses to advertisements and compile them into PowerPoint slide decks, one per brand. While it sounds easy, and it didn't require a lot of creative thinking, the process was tedious and time consuming. To process the Starch reports for the magazine for October 2013-April 2014, it probably took me close to 15 hours! (Spread over a period of a few days, of course).

I was surprised at how focused I was able to remain while completing the project. I think it was due in part to being in an office environment and being able to complete the task on my own time. The most challenging aspect was not letting myself become a robot as I did the same thing for hours on end, because that would result in mistakes. My boss, Sara, stressed the importance of checking and rechecking my work multiple times. That reassured me that the work I was doing was not in vain; rather something that must be re-checked that much was of great importance and would be shown directly to prospective clients.