Ok I'm really bad at decision making. I'm very indecisive and if I can I will leave the decision up to other people. I guess the biggest reason, that I'm bad at decision making is the fear of consequences. At least that's what stuck out to me the most, because I over analysis every consequence that could come out of a decision. The problem is if I can find even one bad consequence that could come out of it I don't want to make the decision. So, I guess the next thing that stood out to me was what Tamara said about leaders being risk takers. Because if you're a risk taker than you have to overcome the fact that there might be some bad consequences. So, my new goal is to be a risk taker and not focus on bad consequences.
The other thing I probably need to work on is limited time. As I've probably talked about before, I have a tendency to procrastinate a lot. And after the lecture I started to realize how much procrastination effects my decision making. When you don't leave yourself enough time, you severely decrease your ability to make decisions and it in general makes your life harder. So, now my second goal is to procrastinate less so that I can have more time to make decisions.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
One Fish, Two Fish, Green Fish, Blue Fish
So this week we learned about balance and time management. I feel like every time we have a new lesson afterwards I'm like "Oh, I'm really bad at that". And that's basically true for this one too. I'm not very good at time management. I procrastinate a lot and don't always spend my time in the wisest ways. I like to be social and will usually put off doing homework to hang out with my friends. Also, this will lead to sacrificing sleep to do homework. In the end it's a bad cycle where I should have just done my homework first.
Now, in our labs on Monday we talked about how sometimes when you get a lot of information you have to just try and take a fish, or one particularly important bit of information, away from it. I want to talk about the fish that I caught this week. The first one is to spend more time in Quadrant II. We learned about how there are four different quadrants: Important and Urgent, Important and Not urgent, Not important and Urgent, and Not important and Not Urgent. Quadrant II is Important and Not Urgent and it is a very good quadrant to spend you're time. Things in this quadrant usually have to do with keeping you're life balanced, like reading your scriptures or sleeping. They may not always seem like they need to be done right away but they still need to be done. I know that I have a hard time staying in this quadrant because I never feel like I have enough time to do the smaller important things. Also, in this quadrant are assignments that have a deadline that is far away. My problem is that I will usually leave these assignments alone until they have moved into the Important and Urgent quadrant. I feel like my Important and Urgent quadrant is always very full, but I can change that by spending more time in quadrant II. So, my new goal is to spend most of my time in quadrant two and hopefully it will make my life more balanced. I got an app on my computer that is like a calendar that will help me see when everything is due and hopefully help me plan ahead for when I should do things.
Now, in our labs on Monday we talked about how sometimes when you get a lot of information you have to just try and take a fish, or one particularly important bit of information, away from it. I want to talk about the fish that I caught this week. The first one is to spend more time in Quadrant II. We learned about how there are four different quadrants: Important and Urgent, Important and Not urgent, Not important and Urgent, and Not important and Not Urgent. Quadrant II is Important and Not Urgent and it is a very good quadrant to spend you're time. Things in this quadrant usually have to do with keeping you're life balanced, like reading your scriptures or sleeping. They may not always seem like they need to be done right away but they still need to be done. I know that I have a hard time staying in this quadrant because I never feel like I have enough time to do the smaller important things. Also, in this quadrant are assignments that have a deadline that is far away. My problem is that I will usually leave these assignments alone until they have moved into the Important and Urgent quadrant. I feel like my Important and Urgent quadrant is always very full, but I can change that by spending more time in quadrant II. So, my new goal is to spend most of my time in quadrant two and hopefully it will make my life more balanced. I got an app on my computer that is like a calendar that will help me see when everything is due and hopefully help me plan ahead for when I should do things.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
What's Gonna Work? Teamwork!
I know this is super silly, but since I am the oldest and have younger sibling, kid shows are always playing at my house and I know the theme songs for must of them. Now, when I think of teamwork the first thing that comes into my head is the Wonder Pets theme song. The lyrics I think of are What's gonna work? Teamwork! What's gonna work? Teamwork! We're not to big and we're not to tough, but when we work together we got the right stuff! I know these lyrics may seem very silly, but to me they accurately represent what teamwork is. I know that I am never the biggest or the toughest, but luckily that isn't what teamwork is about. Teamwork is about working together, just like the wonderpets said.
Teamwork has actually been something that I've always though I was good at. I'm good at trying to make everyone feel like equals, which in a group I think you need to be. I am also usually more than willing to pick up the slack if someone is struggling or isn't putting in enough effort. I like teamwork because I feel, if done right, it will build people in a group and can form great relationships.
When it comes to dysfunctions of a team, I think my main one is fear of conflict. As I've said before I hate conflict and will basically try to avoid it at all costs. In a group setting I can be very compliant because I don't want to even accidentally start a conflict with someone. However, this definitely makes it so my ideas don't often get heard because I either don't say them or don't stick up for them. I know this is something I need to work on, so that I can strengthen the groups I'm in.
Finally, I think that were my group in this class falls is Forming. I think that we are all in the initial stage where we're not really sure where we stand with each other and still haven't gotten to know each other that well. Everyone in the group is still very polite to each other. I don't think that it is bad that we are still in this stage, since we haven't actually worked together that much yet. Plus, I think that after we get to know each other we will definitely move to the other stages. Right now we are still getting to know each other, but I think that we're all really good and teamwork and are going to make an awesome group!
Teamwork has actually been something that I've always though I was good at. I'm good at trying to make everyone feel like equals, which in a group I think you need to be. I am also usually more than willing to pick up the slack if someone is struggling or isn't putting in enough effort. I like teamwork because I feel, if done right, it will build people in a group and can form great relationships.
When it comes to dysfunctions of a team, I think my main one is fear of conflict. As I've said before I hate conflict and will basically try to avoid it at all costs. In a group setting I can be very compliant because I don't want to even accidentally start a conflict with someone. However, this definitely makes it so my ideas don't often get heard because I either don't say them or don't stick up for them. I know this is something I need to work on, so that I can strengthen the groups I'm in.
Finally, I think that were my group in this class falls is Forming. I think that we are all in the initial stage where we're not really sure where we stand with each other and still haven't gotten to know each other that well. Everyone in the group is still very polite to each other. I don't think that it is bad that we are still in this stage, since we haven't actually worked together that much yet. Plus, I think that after we get to know each other we will definitely move to the other stages. Right now we are still getting to know each other, but I think that we're all really good and teamwork and are going to make an awesome group!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Conflict is Positive
This lecture was actually really interesting and during it I kept thinking about how it applies to my life. When we took the test in class I found that my personal approach to conflict is Compromising and my secondary one is Accommodating. I scored in the high range in compromising so I'm going to answer those questions.
The first question is whether I concentrate so heavily on the practicalities and tactics of compromising that I sometimes lose sight of larger issues. I personally do not think that this is true. I find that in compromising I'm usually pretty assertive. However, this is only is a work/school setting. In a personal setting I am a lot less assertive and when compromising I won't compromise my standards but I will usually let the other person get their way more.
The second question is does an emphasis on bargaining and trading create a cynical climate of gamesmanship? I have definitely never felt this way before. When I compromise it is usually a good thing and everyone feels pretty happy about it. I feel like when I compromise we are usually trying to make everyone feel like equals so the bargaining isn't the main focus of the compromise.
So, I find that I am actually really awful at conflict resolution. In a business/work/school setting I'm honestly not that bad at it. I find it easy to work with groups in a setting like that and that I don't have problems coming up with resolutions. However, even though I scored in compromising and accommodating I think that in my personal life I am very much avoiding. I hate having to confront people and I would rather pretend that the problem hasn't happened then try to talk to the person about it.
It's funny because in the couple a days before the lecture a big conflict was starting to form between another girl in my ward and myself. I'd been think about how I needed to talk to this girl and how I really didn't want to when we had the lecture. In the last week I have been basically avoiding confronting the conflict, because I really can not see any bright side at the end of the tunnel if I talk to her. However, now that we have had a lesson on conflict I realize that if I just keep putting of the issue it is just going to get a lot worse. Even though I really don't want to talk to her, I now realize that I have. I haven't yet, because I'm not sure what exactly to say to her, but I plan on it and now I feel a little better prepared for the conflict. I am going to try to remember that conflict can be positive and that hopefully working things out will be better than avoiding it.
The first question is whether I concentrate so heavily on the practicalities and tactics of compromising that I sometimes lose sight of larger issues. I personally do not think that this is true. I find that in compromising I'm usually pretty assertive. However, this is only is a work/school setting. In a personal setting I am a lot less assertive and when compromising I won't compromise my standards but I will usually let the other person get their way more.
The second question is does an emphasis on bargaining and trading create a cynical climate of gamesmanship? I have definitely never felt this way before. When I compromise it is usually a good thing and everyone feels pretty happy about it. I feel like when I compromise we are usually trying to make everyone feel like equals so the bargaining isn't the main focus of the compromise.
So, I find that I am actually really awful at conflict resolution. In a business/work/school setting I'm honestly not that bad at it. I find it easy to work with groups in a setting like that and that I don't have problems coming up with resolutions. However, even though I scored in compromising and accommodating I think that in my personal life I am very much avoiding. I hate having to confront people and I would rather pretend that the problem hasn't happened then try to talk to the person about it.
It's funny because in the couple a days before the lecture a big conflict was starting to form between another girl in my ward and myself. I'd been think about how I needed to talk to this girl and how I really didn't want to when we had the lecture. In the last week I have been basically avoiding confronting the conflict, because I really can not see any bright side at the end of the tunnel if I talk to her. However, now that we have had a lesson on conflict I realize that if I just keep putting of the issue it is just going to get a lot worse. Even though I really don't want to talk to her, I now realize that I have. I haven't yet, because I'm not sure what exactly to say to her, but I plan on it and now I feel a little better prepared for the conflict. I am going to try to remember that conflict can be positive and that hopefully working things out will be better than avoiding it.
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