From the Alumni of the School of Hard Knocks

So you’ve switched your hat tassel from right to left, and now it’s time to officially enter the work force. Kudos to you—you made it! The world is your oyster! If, like myself, you went to college for design, you learned a host of knowledge to arm the tools of your toolkit. You learned the difference between pixels and vectors and what Adobe program is best for what output—but what else is there? What isn’t taught in school that folks need to know? After working in the design/creative field for over ten years, I’ve picked up a few quick tips to help me stay organized and prioritize my time well. The tips you didn’t ask for but are gonna get:

Tip #1:

Write the email first and add the recipient last so you don’t accidentally send an incomplete email. Bonus, add the attachments first so you don’t accidentally leave them off!

Tip #2:

Keep your files backed up at.all.times. Computer crashes and accidents always happen at the worst time, keeping your files backed up is a great safety-net. I prefer working off of Dropbox.

Tip #3:

If you need to schedule a meeting with someone and you can’t view their calendar, instead of saying “When are you available?” offer three time slots for them to choose from.

Tip #4:

Create a document to track your wins, accomplishments, and feedback. Update it every week.

Tip #5:

Prioritize your work! Every morning, make a brain-dump list of things you need to get done. Choose three tasks based on priority, and focus on only those three for today. If you get those done, sweet, choose a few more tasks and knock those out, too.

Tip #6:

Time block! After making your brain dump list, assign a time for how long you think a task will take, and time block your calendar for that amount of time. Focus solely on that one task during that time.

Erica is Senior Art Director at FoxFuel. She loves bright colors, animals, and lifted trucks (and jeeps... and SUVs).