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Over the past few years, I’ve found it difficult to pin anything down. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that it’s difficult to make anything definitive as it relates to major revelations about life or myself as an individual. In many of my classes, I’ve been asked to complete exercises like outlining my core values, or writing my top three goals for the next ten years. When asked to do so, I always run into trouble. At this point in life, there is so much change. It’s constant, and thus, it’s a challenge to pin anything down definitively in relation to abstract concepts like these.

This past summer, however, I began to realize that when it comes to work, both individual and group, there are certain characteristics that I value above all others. They are not necessarily personality traits that I or my partners embody, but rather qualities of the work itself or the process of creating it that I believe help me make any project I am working on successful.

Of course, there are other qualities beyond the three that I am about to mention that are useful, even critical. However, I find that as I am assigned more and more work and of different varieties, I need some sort of schema to guide myself, and help me navigate the work to a point where I feel comfortable with it and can move on. As such, as I’m working on an assignment, I ask myself if what I’m doing and the process I’m using to do it reflect the following three traits:

Quality It will never be perfect, but is the work of high quality, and would I be pleased having my name attached to it?

Of course, this one makes sense. You don’t want to produce something that’s not worth someone else’s time, and at the same time, you want to do work that reflects positively on you. However, like I said, you can never be perfect. I’ve had to learn that over the past few years as my schedule has gotten fuller and my classes more difficult. I find that all I can do is get myself to a point where I’ve done the best that I can possibly do under the given circumstances and then move.

Efficiency  Was/is the project being completed in a timely manner that’s appropriate for its level of importance in the grand scheme of things?

Again, as busy people, we don’t always have a ton of time to get all of our stuff done. It was painful at first, but I had to eventually get myself to understand that and accept the impact that it has on my work. I’ve adapted, and in the process have learned that being efficient is one of the most important keys for keeping me on track and, of course, sane. This does not mean that I attempt to power through work so that the quality suffers. Instead, it means that I seek a balance between the amount of time I spend on something and the quality that goes into it. There is no need to spend excessive amounts of time on something that in the grand scheme of things does not have a huge impact.

Wisdom Does the work reflect and act as a product of wisdom demonstrated by those creating it?

This trait is more about critical thought than anything else. In short, it is about whether or not I have demonstrated good decision making by considering every angle on a topic I’m thinking about or a project that I’m working on. Everyone is capable of being wise – it is a matter of stretching our minds to ensure that we cover every square corner of the thought process to create the best product possible.

Normally, I am not a huge fan of creating lists like this. I often feel as though they force us into one way of thinking, almost blinding us to things outside of the list itself. However, I also see that this way of thinking, this distillation, was necessary for me. I needed something to help me organize and keep myself on track. Maybe it will last for a while, maybe it won’t. In the meantime, it’s helping me make the most of my experience in college, and perhaps it will help me beyond my time at Penn State as well. Do you have anything like this in your own life? Let me know in the comments below!