Organizing the Way I Work

Making a schedule is often one of the biggest steps to creating a successful plan. Schedules provide a method to organize time and get everything in order. Having a concrete schedule is important for project management as well, as every project needs to have timelines for when individual departments or people have to get their parts done. This helps make sure the project can meet its goals and deadlines and ensure it will be the best it can be.

For this assignment, I utilized Trello, a popular project management tool, to block out each learning module for my Foundations of Graduate Studies class. When deciding on a project management site, Trello seemed like the obvious choice. It was one of the only recognizable sites that had my peers' approval, with many of them using Trello in the past for Game Design projects.

Getting started is always the hardest part, and with this task, getting our entire class schedule into a single project was daunting. Luckily, Trello makes it easy to get started, giving template suggestions and providing sample projects to help build out something that works for you. I started by making a list for each learning module and getting some of the basic information in there. I knew I needed to have any of the assignments for that week, but having auxiliary information like the learning objectives or zoom meeting link can also be helpful. After adding the core information, I proceeded to add due dates on assignments, make checklists so that I can check an item off as soon as it's done, and give labels so I know when I have a blog post due or reading and viewing still to be done.

After using Trello for the week, thus far it has been extremely helpful in keeping track of what needs to be done. It is great that you can add quick notes or comments, attachments or links, or any other info that can help in there so you can quickly revisit it when needed. It also helps you plan out your time better, and know what's coming up so you don't have to wait until the last second to turn an assignment in.

Even though programs like these are untraditional for me, they provided a great insight into the ways that teams can work together and collaborate effectively. Project management sites help organize people and give clear tasks and due dates so that even when a team grows, everyone knows what is going on. I know for certain that this Trello site will come in handy especially as I start working on midterms in the coming weeks, helping me get my time better organized.