I just finished edits on a report I have been working on, meant to inform development of an online exhibit. The report covers case studies of a variety of virtual exhibits and the websites of multiple museums, based on a template provided by my internship. I found the template did not completely offer answers to what works and does not work, so I added a literature review on how virtual exhibits should be evaluated — and was surprised how thin the results were in JSTOR — and the NCPH guidelines for writing reviews of digital projects (NCPH Digital History Project Reviews ). Full disclosure, a discussion at my full time job’s weekly staff meeting covered the topic. So a success is using tools in one part of my professional life to influence work for the other.

I have been struggling with two challenges I did not anticipate. I started the semester with a plan for time management of work and internship. But, as the saying goes, no good plan survives first contact with the enemy, in this case, life in general. I allowed myself to get overly distracted by some challenges in my personal life, and fell behind. Paying attention to my personal life is important, I just became a little too laser focused and lost track.

The second challenge I am fighting through is communication with my internship supervisor. We had to reschedule a few weekly meetings, which would have been less impactful if I had asked for more guidance earlier. We have been using the Planner app in Office 365, which is great for tracking due dates, but I have repeatedly run up against not fully understanding what is expected. I asked at the weeklies when I was unsure, but need to improve at communicating questions and asking for clarification in between. I think that I am working on research and writing outside of business hours got too much in my head as not being business hours – sending an e-mail in the evening is all right, as long as the expectation of an answer is not expected quickly.

As I am catching up on hours and work, my goals going further are to get back on track with managing my schedule and get back into the habits of not being afraid to ask a question regardless of the clock.

I will be putting that in action immediately, as I started an assignment for the next part of my project and realized I have no idea of what they are asking for. So that will lead off tomorrow’s weekly update and my mental reset.