It feels weird to think that this is my second-last day at OPR, and that on Monday I'll be back at Curtin (which now seems so much more laid-back than previously thought ...)
Reflection seems like the most obvious thing to be doing right, but in fact I'm still running like the Roadrunner, but I only wish I could move as fast as him! The manager for our PR team is going away on Friday, so today is really the last day that I have to get approvals etc from her. So much to do, so little time.
One of the biggest lessons I've probably learned during my time here would be just how essential planning everything is. A lovely collegue explained to me that when your in a flow, the small things get glossed over because you're so used to doing them, but with planning everything, even the smallest detail needs to written down and dated. A great piece of advice I received was "plan backwards". Have you planned deadline, and work backwards from there -then you can see when you need things like drafts finished, when you need approvals from the executives etc.
It takes a while to get into the swing of things with this planning method, and made my brain slow down a little, but I really hope to implement this when I start writing my report during the semester. Fingers crossed it all goes well.
Short post, but I need to go! Good luck to everyone else who's completing their internships, and to those just starting up.
2 comments:
I can understand how 'planning backwards' could be very beneficial to PR practitioners - both when working solo or in teams.
Working as in individual, it is hard to make sure every little detail is up to scratch - while working in a team, it is often hard to delegate and make sure everyone is working towards the same goal.
I'll attempt to try this out in my next project during my placement, or this semster at uni!
What a great idea, "planning backwards." If only it were easier said than done. During my placement, it is frequent that we get last minute requests. Due to these last minute requests, we are often driven off course and we fall behind schedule.
Time management was quite the challenge for us in the PR, Communications and Events department, especially since there were only three of us in the team.
The company is quite young, though. It's only in its third year. They still have space to grow and improve. Then again, time is of the essence. They have become so distinguished in such a short period of time that things are quickly piling up for the department. Hopefully, now that the department is growing in size, there were two additions to the team after I had left, they can cope up easily with the tasks ahead.
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