15 May 2020

I’m on a roll.

Every week I send my manager a list of completed and upcoming tasks, and never before have so many tasks made their way to the “Completed” column.

Last week – despite it being a 2-day work week due to public holidays – I managed to finish many, many things. And this week – a full 5-day week – I pretty much moved every major task from “Pending by end of May” to “Completed”.

A few bits and bobs remain here and there, but 2 major projects have completed transition to their new owner – with all stakeholders informed.

1 major project is about to transition – the transition pack is just undergoing reviews from the team before being sent to the new project owner.

And my biggest project – the Employee Engagement Survey – is transitioning smoothly with an expected cut-off date of next Wednesday.

I even finished updating 10 articles on the People Team’s Help Page site yesterday, a task I didn’t think I’d get around to until the last week. It took much less time than expected (though it wasn’t any less boring).

Oh, and on top of that, I reviewed 2 learning courses and helped test our new Agoda Careers website.

I’ve ticked off so many tasks that I’ve started asking for new ones, and promptly received one yesterday. It’s an interesting task that will add value – and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute.

A colleague yesterday said that I’m experiencing the “pre-exit productivity high” and she’s absolutely right. I even feel the mental buzz, the excitement of tasks accomplished and (I think) well done.

On the non-Agoda front, I’ve also been spending my mornings before work applying for jobs. (It feels okay to do that now that I’ve submitted my resignation and have a clear end date) The job applying thing began almost as a coincidence, but once I got started the ball continued to roll.

I’m actually quite enjoying updating my CV to highlight achievements tailored to every new role I’m applying to (and the roles are wide-ranging) as well as writing the cover letter to go with it.

I’m averaging about one job a day, though today (unless something really catches my eye) I plan to take a break and catch up on my Economist newsletters which I’ve neglected for much of this week. They’re piling up in my inbox – I don’t like when things pile up in my inbox.

So yes, that’s about where I am right now. Buzzing away at work and on LinkedIn.

How is life for you? Are you also looking for a job? Focused at work?

Love,

Val

9 May 2017

Today has been a super productive day so far.

I woke up at 5:20, got up around 5:30, drank coffee and chilled for half an hour, then did subtitles work for 2 hours straight.

And translated exactly 425 lines. You may not know how much that is, but it’s a massive amount. I usually average just above 100 lines per hour.

In minute terms, I was taking 4 minutes to translate each programme minute. That’s like a million light years away from my speed (as of Saturday) of 1 programme minute every 7 minutes.

That’s like… WOAH.

Then after that I prepped my class for tomorrow; I’m teaching two students at 7:30 and 10am. I finished prepping the first and outlined the steps for the second. Then I got tired of working so I stopped. It was about 10:47am. (Ok fine, it was exactly 10:47am.)

So I did one-third of my current subtitles project and finished more than 60% of my class planning in less than five hours, with a half-an-hour break in the middle watching Hannibal.

That’s an incredible improvement on the 4th of May, which I wrote about here. I blame George Lucas. The Dark Side must have been at work.

So yes, I had an amazingly productive morning, which I’m super happy with. Then I got ready and left for town.

I decided to take the bus the whole way today rather than the usually bus-purple line-MRT-BTS combination, and lo and behold, it was faster! At a fraction of the cost! I’m only taking the bus from now on outside rush hour.

And here I am now, one hour away from my “Amazing Service at Reception” training, blogging in a café. I wonder what they’ll train us today. I’m prepared to be amazed.

After the training my friends from school are having dinner to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I haven’t seen them in many months, so that should be nice too.

Today’s set to be a good day!

Time for me to go work on my second short story. It’s called “One Seventy-Two” courtesy of my friend.

Love,

Val

31 March 2014

I’ve been revising like a possessed woman.

In marked contrast to the slow and forced process of the past three days, today’s revision was fast and effortless. I’d even say automatic.

It just happened.

And I’m not done with it yet. It’s 4pm and I haven’t had a proper lunch, save for that pork pie (it’s smaller than it sounds) at 12pm. So right about now is when I’m going to take a lunch break.

I wonder what revision will be like post-lunch. I’m planning a change of lieu. I’m moving to the reading room, which is where my productivity usually spikes. I’m expecting the favourable ambiance the room to help me submerge in my flow. So I can plunge into the eurozone (today’s reading pick).

I love that room. It’s large, bright, high-ceilinged. Full of people (middle-aged to senior) who are actually reading (with the occasional napper). All the properties that make a perfect reading environment. Not to mention the large rectangular wooden table that serves as a communal work/reading area. Sufficiently large that you don’t feel squished in between fellow readers/workers. That’s where I’ll be firmly planted for a few hours after lunch. Three, maybe four.

Then, if that goes well, I’m going to go plop myself in one of the comfy armchairs in the lounge after. And read my fun book while waiting for the traffic to clear so I can drive home. Hmm…

In the meantime, I revel in the success of the morning. I did so much. 

Last night through to this morning (before the revision mega-session happened), my mind had been going over and over – like a broken record – thoughts along the lines of: ‘I did so little the past few days, need to do more’, ‘Need to revise faster’, ‘Need to finish those notes; them hanging over me stresses me out’, ‘Need to go through more of those lectures’, so on and so forth.

It’s such a wonderful, wonderful feeling when you accomplish what you set out to do. Especially when what you set out to do was actually a lot. Far above average, in today’s case.

It’s such a buzz.

I wish I could continue so that the buzz would never stop. At times this morning, it felt like I could go on forever if I didn’t stop. What a wonderful thing that would be.

But all magic revision sessions, like parties, must come to an end.

I have revised, and now I must eat.

Until tomorrow – I shall be back to let you know how the rest of today (and maybe tomorrow) will have gone,

Val