Managing Effectively means to be able to complete things you need to get done in an efficient and high-quality way. It also means to be organized and to make sure you are leaving time for feedback and revision on your work, as well as knowing when and how to ask questions. Not only is Managing Effectively about having good time management skills, but it is also about putting effort into your work and having something that you’re proud of at the end. Your end product should show your understanding of the subject​, as well as the care for quality you’ve had with your work.

My Understanding

In my personal life, one way I use Managing Effectively is with my planner. Every night before bed, I make sure I plan out everything I need to do for the next day, as well as writing down how long each task will take me. This sets me up for success for the following day because I already know all the things I am going to have to complete. At school, one way I use Managing Effectively is by trying to use the time I’m given to the best of my ability and get as much work done as I can.

Some counter-examples of Managing Effectively would be procrastinating about your work and not managing your time well, trying to take on a whole big project at a time, or not staying organized. Some examples of Managing Effectively could be time blocking your after school hours to make sure you get all your homework done, keeping your desk, binder, and notebooks organized, and making sure you do your homework first thing when you get home to make sure you don’t forget about it. Managing Effectively could be shown in many different ways, but these are just a couple of examples.

This skill is important to me because I feel it's one that’s really close to home. I think in some ways it's one that's always been very easy for me, in terms of staying organized and staying on top of (most) of my work. But I also think there are some parts of the skill that are things I struggle with like managing my time well and making sure I have time for feedback and revision, and so this skill also really pushes me to do my best. I sometimes struggle with these things because I get easily sidetracked and end up wasting time, as well as not wanting to ask for feedback because I’m worried I’ll do badly. Now that I am aware of the meaning of Managing Effectively, I am able to overcome this by trying not to get sidetracked/procrastinate on my work, and not getting too scared to ask questions and ask for feedback. Another reason I like this skill is because I think it's something that everyone has to learn to be able to do in order to be successful. I also feel like if you used it in the right way, it could really act as a tool for you to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

My Growth

In sixth grade, I believed that Managing Effectively meant essentially what was in the definition. I didn’t think about it further than just staying organized and managing my time well. I think that in sixth grade, I was able to utilize certain aspects of Managing Effectively in my life. I kept myself decently organized and I was okay at managing my time, but I don’t think I had mastered how to break a big project down into smaller steps or knew how to ask questions and get feedback.

Now, as an 8th-grader, I understand that this Sustainability Skill goes deeper than just staying organized and having time management skills. It's about putting your best effort into your assignments, even when you don’t want to, and having something you're proud of at the end. A lot more goes into managing your assignments than I first realized, and when you do this then you can open up more time for other things.

I think that there are some parts of Managing Effectively that I’ve always struggled with, like time management. Coming to SEEQS, I had almost no exposure to screens. My family has never owned a TV (we still don’t) and I never had a laptop, Ipad, or phone. So when I was given a Chromebook, I would often get distracted by doing other things on the internet instead of my work. And even though I still struggle with that, I think I’ve gotten a lot better.

Because I struggle a lot with procrastinating on my work and getting distracted with things online, I think it carries over into a lot of other parts of my life as well, including my writing. For example, for our novel project in ELA, I found characters struggling with similar things that I struggle with. In one of the passages I wrote, one of my characters named Bailey Singh sat inside to eat lunch because it was too cold outside. She was planning to try to get some homework done, but ended up watching a show instead. Then, she decided that in the evening she was to go to a gathering at the dorm of a boy she liked. I think that in this scenario, she could have managed her time better by not watching a show and instead just actually getting to work. Another way she could have managed it is by deciding not to go to the party and instead stay in her dorm and try to finish all her work. I think that I often struggle with balancing homework and my social life, but finding a way to do both is really important.

Though I’ve struggled with it in the past, I believe that the project I elaborate on below and many others have taught me to manage my time well. Now, I use my planner to make sure I know how long each task is going to take me, which is very helpful. Going along with this, I think I’ve grown in not procrastinating on my work as much as I used to, and trying to get any homework I have done as soon as I get home from school so I don’t forget about it. Another thing is making sure I put effort into every assignment that I complete because I know it will be worth it later. Effort is a big part of Managing Effectively, which I didn’t realize at the beginning of my time here. In Mr. Miller’s Math Class in 7th Grade, we did a reflection after doing our Tessellation Project that really helped me understand how effort and care for quality plays into this skill.

Teachers and my family are also very helpful in managing my time well, because they can remind me and guide me as I work.

Also in my earlier years at SEEQS, I would never ask questions or ask for feedback on my work because I was too shy and scared. I think that this past semester, especially because we were online, asking questions and getting feedback has been very beneficial. I also think my work is turning out better, because if I’m confused I’ll just ask, and if I want to improve the quality I can ask one of my teachers or friends to tell me what they think. Getting someone else’s point of view is really helpful because they might have thought of things that you never would have. I think I’ve grown in that part of Managing Effectively throughout my time at SEEQS.

Now that I am aware of the meaning of Managing Effectively, I find myself using it more often in both school settings and in my personal life.

I believe that although I have grown a lot in many aspects of Manage Effectively throughout my three years at this school, I still have a lot to work on. I know that in the future I will use this skill and hopefully grow in it as well, which I hope to do with all of the Sustainability Skills. Specifically with Managing Effectively, I want to work on improving my time management skills, as well as making sure I'm disciplined and put my best effort into all of my work. I also want to make sure I’m focused on my work, and leaving time for feedback on everything.

Overall, I feel that from sixth grade to now I have grown a lot in this skill. Not only in my understanding of it, but also in my execution, I believe that I am now able to appreciate and recognize it to its fullest.

My Project

A project I had during my time at SEEQS that helped me deepen my understanding of Managing Effectively was our Novel Writing Project in 8th Grade for ELA. The purpose of this assignment was to practice our writing and creativity skills by writing a novel. It also challenged our ability to take a big project and break it down into smaller steps that were easier to complete. Along the way, I had to learn how to use proper grammar, think creatively about my story, and overcome writer's block, among other things.

Since my favorite genre of book to read is teen murder mystery, I decided to write a story in that genre. I also thought it would be a challenge to write from multiple different perspectives, so in the end my novel was called Who We Were Before and was written from the points of view of four different characters: Milo, Bailey, Tate and Everest. I also had a lot of fun coming up with clues about who was the murderer and figuring out who would be most surprising to readers when their true identity is finally revealed, as well as having characters that were very diverse and different from each other. I based my story off one of my favorite book series, called Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson.

I struggled with this assignment in the beginning, because I was indecisive and I couldn’t choose a topic for my story. I restarted three times with three different ideas, which led to me being stressed and behind in the beginning of this project. I think the reason for this is because I wanted my novel to be perfect, and something I could feel really proud of in the end. I believe I can overcome this in the future by knowing that when being assigned a large project meant to be completed over a long period of time, I can’t just leave all the work to the last minute. I need to set a goal for myself each day and complete that, getting further and further as time goes on until I reach my goal. And I know that if I ever run into a similar situation, I will think of this assignment and it will force me to do better.

Since this was such a large project, we had many other assignments along the way such as checking in with characters, a book cover, and a back cover blurb, as well as other things.

While writing, I used a novel tracker to make sure I would hit my word count goal. Every day after I was done working, I would fill in the number of words I had written that day to see if I met my daily goal. At least, that’s what we were supposed to be doing. As you can see from the photo below, most days I forgot to fill in my novel tracker, and sometimes I even forgot to write entirely. I definitely didn’t use this as much as I would have liked, and I think if I had it would have helped in the later days when I was having to rush to reach my goal. I don’t think I used this because the whole project was overwhelming to me, and once I already hadn’t been using the tracker for awhile, I just didn’t feel like starting to fill it out. I think if I used this tool more I would have been a lot less stressed about the project overall, and I might have had an end-product that was more high quality because I wouldn’t have been rushing, and I would have felt more proud. This evidence connects to Managing Effectively because it shows how I had to break a large project down into smaller parts so it was easier to complete. It also shows how I don’t think I used this tool as much as I would have liked, why I didn’t use it, and how I think that filling it out would have helped me to do better.

If you can see in the photo above, when I started out my daily goal was 500 words. On the 24th, it went up to 900 words a day because I hadn’t been consistently hitting my daily goal. You can also notice that I only filled out my “actual count” three times throughout the entire month, and that on the Friday of the first week of writing my goal went up to 1,000 words, probably because I hadn’t been writing everyday. I think that at some point, even filling out the tracker started to overwhelm me, and so I lost motivation to even fill out that. Looking at it and noticing that I hadn’t been filling it out at all just increased my stress. Having a tool like the novel tracker was very important in terms of staying organized and hitting my goal in the end, but I don’t think this specific one worked for me. If I’m ever in a situation like this again, I’ll now know that timing works better for me than word-counts. Not every tool is for everyone.

I think that this assignment has helped me grow in my personal understanding of Managing Effectively because I learned time-management skills and discipline. Since this was such a big project and we had a set time to complete it, it really forced me to write at least a little every day even when I didn’t want to. I feel that this project has been very beneficial in helping me to grow in my understanding and execution of this skill.

Relation To Skill

The novel project demonstrates that I used the Sustainability Skill of Managing Effectively because I had a goal and a time period to complete it, and I was able to reach it. I am able to show this by, at the end of the month, having a finished novel to present.

A time where I didn’t use Managing Effectively was when I didn’t use my novel tracker to plan out each day of writing. This resulted in a lot of catch-up work in the end. In the future when I’m not using a tool that is helpful, I can quickly make a list so that I know all the things I need to do. Planning, thinking over or writing down everything that I have to do is really important for me or else I’ll get overwhelmed and not do any of it.

This project used Managing Effectively in a couple of different ways. First of all, it was a large project that we had to take into our own hands to break down into smaller parts. In order to have a finished novel that we were proud of at the end of the month, we also needed to use our organization and time management skills, as well as putting our best work into every chapter we wrote.

Since I’d gotten off to a slow start at the beginning of writing my novel, I was already behind. Having 3 different story ideas before I was actually able to start also didn’t help. So when you put those things together, I definitely struggled at the beginning of this assignment.

The last week of November, me and my family went to stay at the North Shore for a couple of days for Thanksgiving. I had a lot of writing that I needed to do, and so that week I really forced myself to write as much as I could even though I was on vacation. I would set a goal for myself, like in the next 30 minutes I’ll write 600 words. Usually, since I knew I had a specific goal, I would end up going over it. This was a really helpful way to manage my time well and end up hitting my word count in the end. I also think having a change of scene may have been helpful for me.

Overall, I learned that not only completing and hitting my goals were important, but also the aspect of consistency because at some point it just became a habit. And at the end of the month not only did I successfully hit my goal but I actually went over it, which I was proud of. In the future, I hope I can use Managing Effectively in many different aspects of my life. In high school, college, and beyond, I believe that Managing Effectively and my knowledge of how to use it will be very beneficial for me. I feel that I can leave SEEQS with a handful of tools (Sustainability Skills) that will help me to succeed as I continue on my journey.

View Other Sustainability Skill Reflections:
Reasoning Analytically
Communicating Powerfully
Collaborating Productively
Thinking Systemically