There Was So Much Paperwork
Mia gave her overflowing desk a once over glace and tried to will the workload away. The caffeine from her morning coffee had worn off, giving Mia a whole new feeling of exhaustion. How did this pile up so quickly? Just as Mia stood to go get a refill of her coffee, her saving grace of an intern Sophia glided through the door.
Sophia had been working under Mia for the summer and was a driven and productive worker. Her goal, much like Mia when she interned at this company, was to become a marketing professional once she graduated.
Mia welcomed the distraction from the Mount Everest of paperwork piling on her desk. Her smile grew as Sophia set a fresh cup of coffee on the only open corner of the desk.
“Tough morning?” Sophia asked, noticing Mia’s tired disposition and the stacks of papers covering the desk.
“Nothing a caffeine boost can’t fix.” Mia replied. “Was there something you needed?”
“Well, I know it’s still quite early in the summer, but fall is approaching and so is the new term, meaning my time here is limited. I wanted to address this early with you and plan my work schedule around my class schedule.” Sophia explained thoroughly.
Mia had completely forgotten about the fall term, and the thought of not having her stellar intern gave her a jolt of anxiety. This conversation brought Mia back to when she was an intern, standing in this very office, facing her mentor who had a very similar workload.
At the time, Mia thought it would be easy to avoid a desk as messy as that, and the solution was to simply plan out times to do get each task done.
Mia finally understood; the more she organized and planned for these projects, the less she’d have to worry about having this problem. Smiling up at Sophia, Mia explained how she understood the dilemma of college courses and an internship, and how balancing them both can be stressful.
Working under the stress of a finite amount of time and an increasing workload can overwhelm even the most productive employees. Proper planning and prioritizing for tasks can be a reasonable solution to get through a mountain of work and create an efficient workflow. Work will inevitably pile up at some point, but the more you plan ahead, the less stress you will have in the long run.
Planning doesn’t have to be a monumental task. If planning is made a priority, over time it will become a routine. In the next part of this blog series, we will dive further into the process of planning out days, weeks, and months ahead, along with prioritizing tasks to maximize productivity throughout the day.
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