This morning, I wrote this quick email to a three sophomore from Rice where I’m doing a mentorship program.
Hey!
I woke up thinking that y’all are just a couple weeks from pencil’s down.
I wanted to wish you the best as you enter the home stretch. I also wanted to recommend that you draw out a big calendar and fill it in with all the deliverables you need to prepare by pencil’s down.
My guess is that you still have some design left to do at the moment, but by next week you will have rounded the corner into pure production mode. When you get into that zone, this calendar will help you be strategic and miserly with your time. Be realistic with what you can do. Count your hours. Start with the most important exhibits and work your way down from there. Sometimes that extra layer of polish on that one diagram is what you need to really sell the idea, sometimes you need to create a family of drawings to tell the full story. That’s where an overall calendar for the next couple weeks will really help you choose to spend your energy.
As I mentioned last week, be smart about jettisoning class requirements that don’t advance your design narrative. Everything is about telling your story, the rest is just fluff (just make up any missing stuff after the final review).
Don’t forget to schedule sleep and eating – your body is your engine, and you still need to pace yourself until the last couple days. Plus you need to rest so you can clear your mind and see things with fresh eyes. One summer, I made the mistake of not taking any breaks for the entire six week stretch and it ended quite badly. Even so, with two weeks to go you need to be tactical with your breaks.
I did a quick calc and you have 348 hours to go (if pencil’s down is 6pm on Sunday). Every hour you spend on something is an hour you’re not spending on anything else. Choose wisely.
Good luck, have fun. I know this is a ton of stress, but this is going to be a very, very short phase of your career. Once this semester is over, you’ll be 30% done with your academic studios. Try to enjoy the moment.
Cheers!
PS: After pencil’s down, take the time to rehearse your presentation a few times (if possible pin up your diagrams and really do a dry run). I was a pretty bad presenter for years and this practice made all the difference to being at least decent.