A Student’s Point of View: Staying Productive in this Unusual Time
Are finding yourself with a loss of things to do? Feeling unproductive as a creative or photographer? Wondering how you can stay productive with limited activities when you are not at RIT or school in general? Well, there is plenty that I discovered about those thoughts while being at home. I wanted to share some things that I did!
It took some time to find answers to these questions and thought it would be nice to share my ideas. We are all in the same boat and that is to be the best we be and help each other when we can.
What does it even mean being productive? I think it depends on your individual goals. I believe it’s a step or steps that helps you work towards your goal. Staying creative is a way to be productive. I talked about this idea in my last blog and you should check it out.
So while I’m going to share what I’ve discovered, I want to also remind you there is no rush to start being productive at this minute. The goal of being active is to provide benefit and not more stress. The goal of this and other activities is regain the feeling that you are in control of your situation. When we can’t control the circumstances around us, it can be discouraging.
You can control how you approach challenges and how they affect your organizational skills. My mind is filled with endless ideas and sometimes it can get out of hand. My thoughts and files can become misplaced, photos scattered all over and just constantly searching for that one thing. Well, it might be a great time to reorganize all that clutter or discover a better way to manage your files. For those of you who took Photo Technology One, we learned how to archive folders and now you can put that knowledge to good use. I would recommend investing in a good hard drive or use a website like Google® drive to store all your photos. It would save your laptop the time and space, trust me.
Another way to stay productive is to recreate your resume, update and improve the information on it. Staying on top of this has been a great feeling. Even recreate, update or improve your website or portfolio can be a great project! Invest in yourself or I would like to call it, self-love. Updating these parts of my life reminded me that I am getting closer to my goal. During that time you update your portfolio or website it’s a good time to go through your photos or work you haven’t processed yet!
Once you complete some of your goals, I think it is always a good idea to be researching internships, jobs, scholarships and start to apply for even the stretch things. Even if your resume or portfolio isn’t perfect, showing your work is good practice and the experience will make it perfect. Plus, you should not be surprised if you get some positive results. At the end of the day, it’s really about the effort that defines you. If you are invested in only time you are investing in yourself. I
It is during this time, when there is more you can do because of the circumstances that ordinarily would not have been the case. Take advantage of this situation. I always remind myself, when you are in control, and it is going to get better. I hope I inspired you to try something and I enjoyed writing this blog. If I forgot something or you do somethings special that could help creatives and photographers to stay creative or productive, please share and email me – ehs4981@g.rit.edu.
Thank you and remember to social distance.
About Emily SuDock
Emily SuDock is a second-year advertising photography student who is also cross-registered in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. I have been hard of hearing most of my life. I was born in China adopted by my loving family. They are a big part of life. I have a Nikon 600 with a 35 mm lens which I love taking portraits with.