Read Online I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know by Kate White - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Kate White
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project before and confirm what those steps are. Perhaps it’s the person you’ve replaced, who has just moved up in the department. Go to him and say you heard he did a brilliant job and you’d like to pick his brain.
If no such person exists, look through files and old records to see what they might tell you. Nothing there? Get as much info as possible from those you will be interacting with. Let’s say you’ve been given the task of organizing a luncheon for your boss. Tell the caterer or restaurant manager that this is your first time and you’d love her to provide you with a to-do list and also any information you might not think of. She can tell you, for instance, the date by which a final head count is needed.
Morgenstern says that one helpful strategy for kicking off an overwhelming-seeming project is to figure out the first three steps. “It’s as if you’re focusing on just the things you can see with your car headlights,” she explains. “So if you’re setting up a luncheon, those first three steps will be (1) determine the goal of the event, (2) decide on a theme, and (3) pick the venue.”
It’s extremely important to factor in deadlines. Figure out how long each step will take and then work backward rather than forward. Let’s stick with the idea of arranging a luncheon. If the date for the event is October 25 and the restaurant has told you it needs the head count by October 18, you will need to have “RSVP by October 16” on the invitation to allow time for stragglers. The invitation will need to go out around two to three weeks in advance (the length of time you give people to respond depends on the field and the age of the invitees; the caterer can help you with this number). It takes only about fifteen minutes to create an e-vite with Paperless Post, but you will need a day or two for your boss to review what you’ve created, so you must complete it by, let’s say, October 2. You get the idea. All the dates and details go into your “plan.” Keep track of certain details on your calendar.
Determine your concentration threshold. Morgenstern says that this is essential. If you try to do too much on any project in one sitting, you may end up procrastinating. Break down a big task, such as writing a report into three sessions, for instance—one for the draft, one for the revise, and one to review.
If you hit a roadblock, try jumping ahead a few steps in your plan. Sometimes you can end up stalled on a project not because you’re procrastinating but because there’s a sudden impasse or someone isn’t getting back to you. A trick I like to use in those situations is to proceed to step 4, let’s say, instead of staying stuck at 3.
Here’s an example of what I mean. For two years I tried to arrange for Rihanna to do a second Cosmo cover. We’d been the first major magazine to feature her on the cover, and the issue had sold brilliantly, but then everybody else wanted her and we had to wait our turn again. We were due for another cover, but after Chris Brown assaulted her, she decided to keep a low profile. My project was to score another Rihanna cover, but I wasn’t having any luck.
So I decided to get out ahead of the situation. I told my photo editor to see if she could find some great shots of Rihanna that had appeared on a European magazine but hadn’t been released in the United States. I thought that if we went to the singer and said we had a cover-worthy photo and she had to do only the interview rather than the interview plus a photo shoot, she might be tempted to consent. We had never gone with a cover photo we hadn’t commissioned, but I wasn’t opposed to doing it once.
Well, we found a nice set of photos that had been shot for a European magazine and were available for purchase, as long as Rihanna’s publicist agreed to let us use them. So we asked Rihanna’s publicist and, sure enough, she agreed to let us use one of the photos for the cover and arranged for us
If no such person exists, look through files and old records to see what they might tell you. Nothing there? Get as much info as possible from those you will be interacting with. Let’s say you’ve been given the task of organizing a luncheon for your boss. Tell the caterer or restaurant manager that this is your first time and you’d love her to provide you with a to-do list and also any information you might not think of. She can tell you, for instance, the date by which a final head count is needed.
Morgenstern says that one helpful strategy for kicking off an overwhelming-seeming project is to figure out the first three steps. “It’s as if you’re focusing on just the things you can see with your car headlights,” she explains. “So if you’re setting up a luncheon, those first three steps will be (1) determine the goal of the event, (2) decide on a theme, and (3) pick the venue.”
It’s extremely important to factor in deadlines. Figure out how long each step will take and then work backward rather than forward. Let’s stick with the idea of arranging a luncheon. If the date for the event is October 25 and the restaurant has told you it needs the head count by October 18, you will need to have “RSVP by October 16” on the invitation to allow time for stragglers. The invitation will need to go out around two to three weeks in advance (the length of time you give people to respond depends on the field and the age of the invitees; the caterer can help you with this number). It takes only about fifteen minutes to create an e-vite with Paperless Post, but you will need a day or two for your boss to review what you’ve created, so you must complete it by, let’s say, October 2. You get the idea. All the dates and details go into your “plan.” Keep track of certain details on your calendar.
Determine your concentration threshold. Morgenstern says that this is essential. If you try to do too much on any project in one sitting, you may end up procrastinating. Break down a big task, such as writing a report into three sessions, for instance—one for the draft, one for the revise, and one to review.
If you hit a roadblock, try jumping ahead a few steps in your plan. Sometimes you can end up stalled on a project not because you’re procrastinating but because there’s a sudden impasse or someone isn’t getting back to you. A trick I like to use in those situations is to proceed to step 4, let’s say, instead of staying stuck at 3.
Here’s an example of what I mean. For two years I tried to arrange for Rihanna to do a second Cosmo cover. We’d been the first major magazine to feature her on the cover, and the issue had sold brilliantly, but then everybody else wanted her and we had to wait our turn again. We were due for another cover, but after Chris Brown assaulted her, she decided to keep a low profile. My project was to score another Rihanna cover, but I wasn’t having any luck.
So I decided to get out ahead of the situation. I told my photo editor to see if she could find some great shots of Rihanna that had appeared on a European magazine but hadn’t been released in the United States. I thought that if we went to the singer and said we had a cover-worthy photo and she had to do only the interview rather than the interview plus a photo shoot, she might be tempted to consent. We had never gone with a cover photo we hadn’t commissioned, but I wasn’t opposed to doing it once.
Well, we found a nice set of photos that had been shot for a European magazine and were available for purchase, as long as Rihanna’s publicist agreed to let us use them. So we asked Rihanna’s publicist and, sure enough, she agreed to let us use one of the photos for the cover and arranged for us
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