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Face It. Right now, just about everyone is scared out of their mind about losing their job, and that’s if they haven’t lost their job already. It’s easy to take the defeatist attitude and tell yourself that if all of your friends and co-workers can’t find a job and no one is hiring, then you might just be wasting your time. This post is designed to get you out of that line of thinking and take a more offensive approach to securing your job, finding a new one, an putting your career on the fast track. [Read more →]
Tags: The Profession
Peter Gibbons:
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can’t see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Bob Porter:
Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons:
Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I’m working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I’d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
What’s the Problem?
The above line from Office Space is actually not too far removed from reality. It is widely stated that the average employee will waste over 2 hours per workday. This is a sever understatement. Office workers, architects included, are juggling so many personal and work tasks that even considering the typical measurable distractions, even more time and effort is wasted in other ways:
- Inefficiency costs due to frequent switching from task to task
- Spending time on tasks that aren’t worth your time, particularly work related.
- Daydreaming about other tasks while working on a single task.
Uni-Tasking
A problem that I have personally struggled with, as I know most people do in their everyday lives, is prioritizing, or focusing your efforts on the things that matter the most. This is a problem that causes increased stress and limits one’s overall productivity. Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits, and author of The Power of Less, first introduced me to this idea and got me thinking about How Not to Multi-Task. In short, distilling my efforts down to the most important task has allowed for me to concentrate all of my efforts towards achieving my real goals.
80/20 Rule
Continuing on the topic of prioritizing, efficiency, and productivity, the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle is a theory that is often mentioned by entrepreneurs and life-hackers. The basic premise behind this principle is that 20% of your work will produce 80% of your results. By prioritizing your life, you can focus on the task that delivers the most results while eliminating everything else that simply wastes time.
In prioritizing your life, it is important to:
- Take a step back.
- Take inventory of your tasks.
- Distill the tasks that yield the most results or value to you.
- Eliminate everything else, including many work tasks.
By doing so, you can systematically become more efficient, clear space in your mental hard-drive, free time in your schedule, and augment your productivity in the tasks that really matter. While I am still working on prioritizing my own life, following the few links that I gave you above should give you more than enough of a start. Also read the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.
Why is this Relevant?
I’m sure most readers are wondering why the hell they are reading about productivity advice on an architecture-centric blog. The fact of the matter is that architects are the ultimate multi-taskers and time-wasters. It may start in college where architecture students lives normally revolve around studio. Our work, socializing, web-surfing, dining, etc… all took place in one room filled with model scraps, tissue paper and stray x-acto blades. This habit carries over into our workplaces once we start our careers.
Additionally, our architecture jobs are generally multi-task oriented by nature. As architects, we tend to accept the responsibility of ring-master as we manage multiple projects, consultants, project managers, etc… This all results in workdays that are activity filled yet yield miniscule results. The art of prioritizing involves cleaning your slate, decreasing the activity, and achieving more with your time.
I don’t even care if you produce more at your job. If your employers felt you weren’t working hard enough, they would tell you or you would at least feel guilty about wasting time at work. Instead, you can use the time to pursue other interests, as long as they are important to you. More importantly, you can have a clearer mind and be able to devote your energy towards things that really matter, like family and friends. Oh and…No more overtime.
Conclusion
While I advocate pushing your career into more ambitious, aggressive and even entrepreneurial realms, it is also important to excel at the things you do decide are important. Please take some time and prioirtize your life: it should be Priority #1.
Tags: Discussion
NikkiP&Co
Many readers that have come to the website and have contacted me have been those that are laid off, recently graduating, or looking for a major change in their career situation. The content that is written on YoungArchitect is really aimed at accommodating these people as there is not much career advice for architects on-line. If you are one of those readers, below is a list of previous posts that might help you find your way.
Tags: Discussion
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chaosfish1
I’m Back
YoungArchitect has grown over the past 15 months; Special thanks to coolboom for the buzz, it is greatly appreciated. This post will signal my return to working on YoungArchitect however, I just want to do a little housecleaning first… [Read more →]
Tags: Discussion
Photo: Zach Klein
As I wrote before, I found myself to be a “C” caliber student in studio throughout my academic career. This was a trend that I just could not seem to escape, no matter how hard I tried to address it. Was it just me or did it have to do with architecture programs in general? [Read more →]
Tags: Studio 101
Photo: svennnnnnnn
Now there are tasks that you cannot avoid doing at a practice that will cause you to hate your job. And then there are tasks that you can pleasantly avoid in order to make your life a lot easier. One of these tasks that you should try to avoid at all costs is 3D rendering.
It sounds like blasphemy really. Most people these days will graduate from their university with a greater knowledge of 3D modelling software than their knowledge of AutoCAD. I really didn’t believe that this could ever be the case but its true. I can say first hand that some friends straight out of such schools as Yale, Princeton, Columbia and SciArc knew nothing about AutoCAD. While this may give you a heads up at Gehry’s office, it doesn’t help you in the overwhelming majority of firms that you will work in.
Here are 12 Reasons why your should avoid rendering in your office at all costs. [Read more →]
Tags: The Profession
Photo: foundphotoslj
While I was in school, I was consistently a C student in my studio classes. This frustrated me greatly as I had always been an “A” student throughout high school and I was doing relatively well in my other classes. I just couldn’t understand why this success didn’t translate into the studio. I wondered whether I was cut out for architecture and if this was their way of telling it to me. I received encouragement however from my dean of all people.
“The C student will be the boss of the A student”
One day, while sitting around and talking after class, the dean came over… he was teaching in our design studio at the time so it wasn’t out of the ordinary. In his wise, if yet rambling way, he started to give us one of those impromptu talks about the “real experience of being an architect.”
In the group that day, there were the A, B, C and D students; we all really knew who fell where and even joked about it at times.The dean saw this as a point of discussion. As he spoke, he made the most startling statement. He pointed to one of my friends who fell in the C student category, and declared that “he will, in the end, become the boss of the him”, as he pointed to one of the A students. The A student didn’t really take kindly to the news but the dean began to explain, and broke it down like this:
A Students
The A student gets extremely caught up in things like theory and relationships and possesses an undying devotion to the architecture profession. It is the constant questioning and endless search for possibility that drives this person, sometimes to a fault. The A student engages in design so much that they often finish too late if at all. Up to the final presentation, their project is in flux.In a professional setting, the A student will still be caught up in the minutia of their projects. Even though they will be extremely thorough, it is this constant state of flux that will impede upon their success early in their careers. The A student will find that his/her best fit is as a professor in academia. This will allow for them to continue to research and foster investigations among their own pupils. C StudentsThe C student is generally talented, as you usually need to be to even get accepted into the program. But the C student’s talents can correlate to any major or profession. The C student, however, does not possess the crippling devotion to the craft of architecture that the A student often does. He/she instead focuses on the completion of solid projects so that they can tend to other aspects of life outside of studio. In effect, the C student does what is necessary to get the job done.
The C student is about efficiency and productivity. While their designs may not be as innovative as the A student, their talents will lend more towards successful completions of real life projects. As the C student continues to meet expectations within a company environment, they will advance into management or even start their own companies.
I wanted to share this little story not as an excuse to strive to be a C student, but rather as encouragement that your academic grades are merely subjective and will not necessarily correlate to real-world success. In my own personal experience, I can say that my bosses have fit fit this “C” student description. They were all very skilled and capable architects and had experienced periods of great success. Their work was buildable and generally safe. I have worked on great projects and very normal and boring projects with these people. It is seldom that the theoretical studies that those A students actively engaged in could actually make their way to reality or profession. Even the greats had to work under the C students early in their life.
What do you think?
I’d like to know what you, the reader, thinks about this. Is my point way off base? Do any of the students reading this post identify with any of the examples I mentioned? What about the architects that are already in the working world? Have you seen this correlation? Tell me if I’m wrong and if this opinion is off-base or even “dangerous.” If you have an opinion, bring it strong in the comments below.
Tags: Discussion · Studio 101
Photo: POSITiv
Last week, I went over some of the interview questions that you should be ready for when searching for a job. As a part of your interview, you should also be pro-active and ask questions that will help you gauge whether or not the position and environment is suited for you.
Here are 5 Questions to ask in order to gain a clearer picture about the position your are interviewing for:
[Read more →]
Tags: The Profession
