Whether it’s against the clock, other members of the team,
other consultancy’s or your personal best it’s a hard game!You have to be resourceful with your time and efficient whilst still being on the ball.
Here is a guide that I set my day by while at my internship that I've found really works well to ease nerves, make anything seem achievable and help maintain professionalism.
Keeping to schedule
It's really important to estimate how long a task is going to take you and keeping to that deadline. When you have a busy day planned you must otherwise things won't get done that with either put you back the next day or missing a clients deadline. This also means not getting distracted by other tasks even if they appear more enjoyable or you have pressure on those tasks.
Planning
Don't spend too much time planning your day however 5 minutes before you drive into your tasks and are checking emails etc. create a list of tasks with those that are most important or have deadlines at the top and those that aren't as critical at the bottom and start you day there (unless otherwise advised of course!). As you day goes on quickly check back at your list especially if urgent tasks are thrown your way that need to be dealt with straight away meaning you need to quickly adapt.
Helping Others
It's always not only a good feeling and rewarding once you have finished all your tasks for the day to ask if other staff members need help. Consultancy's work as a team and providing that extra hand is overall helping your clients. It means that you get to learn more and if ever you need extra help more than likely if there is the time your team will support you.
The End of Day Stress
Your looking at your to do list and it's still got lots of items on it that really need completing by the end of that business day (i.e. 5pm or earlier if its for an eastern states client). Take a deep breath and approaching your supervisor or other staff members is the best idea. Sometimes the tasks that we are given as interns as really large and it's completely understandable that you might need a bit of help. An example is a database of over 200 names that I had to call and confirm our system contact details were correct, that's 200 phone calls and a lot of research to complete to even be able to contact them (due to new numbers or websites etc). I had a lot of other urgent tasks to do so unfortunately it was postponed to the next day however this was completely fine as my placement understood the enormity of the task .
Any way hope these can help you! or you can identify with these processes.
Cass
