EMT Competences: Personal and interpersonal

Time management

Through working on volunteer translations for Translators Without Borders, I developped personal skills. Most important of which was time management: many times, translation work was posted 24/48h before the deadline, letting little time to do the work. For this reason, managing my time well, using strategies such as time-blocking and breaking down translation tasks into smaller tasks has served me well to produce high quality translations in that context.

I was also able to make use of these skills again for my studies and academic translation work, where, again, deadlines were often quite tight when considering the other work I had to do in parallel. Using these skills, I have been able to submit my work in due time, while not being overly stressed, and having personal rest time.

This skill has been especially useful as I have started to look at other areas of studies and research (e.g. NLP, programming, etc.) that are not widely covered by the main academic programme I am following. Finding the time to fit all those tasks is quite challenging, but generally intellectually fulfilling.

I also found that to manage my time well, I should also schedule time to reflect and plan ahead, to block out time appropriately depending on my motivation for each task, its deadline, and importance. These are also times where I aim to reflect on and improve my workflow, and develop techniques to avoid repeating work too much, as well as automating anything that gets in the way of completing my tasks.

Ergonomics

In working from home on volunteer contributions and on my Master’s dissertation, I have truly noticed the importance of a well-organised workspace. Using various online resources¹, I have managed to significantly improve my workspace, allowing me to be more focused on my work, and thus more productive.

In practice, this means taking the time every day or other day to clean my desk, empty bins, and sort through piles of paper. I trade 30 minutes or so of “house chores” in the mornings for one or two hours² of more work, which I would not have been able to do otherwise, because my computer set-up would get uncomfortable. It also feels like my mind is more at ease when my workspace is cleared, once again helping me focus on my tasks.

This work extends beyond the physical space too: I take care to maintain my virtual workspaces in my computer in the same clean state. I have shortcuts for all the tools I need to use regularly, and can switch task quickly during the day. I make sure I am only getting notifications for relevant and necessary information to not overload my brain with unnecessary information, and I take the time to customise the UI of the tools I use to hide features I do not need.

Overall, this has resulted in making my work more enjoyable, and my output better!