On Being Superwoman

What does it take to be a superwoman? First of all, be involved with the right thing at the right time. I mean, you have to be involved with something that would demand so much from you that you wouldn't have any other choice but to be superwoman.

Take building a Science Museum, for example.

I've been barely four weeks into the Science Museum project. For this, I dropped my world of beer and bacon back in Ortigas. It was a place of complacency, but I had to give it up and take a big leap.

It's only been three weeks since I got into the Science Museum project, but I probably learned and did more than I did for six months where I previously worked. I've met and interacted with probably more than a hundred different people from different fields -- arts, science, design, construction, management, and what-nots. I've monitored 120-plus email threads -- not just individual emails but email threads averaging around 5 responses for each. I'm running out of pages in my everything-im-doing-at-work notebook. Hard copy of important files are starting to pile up in my file folder. My electronic files, on the other hand, have also started to accumulate, but not before I could segregate them into 10 or more different folders.

I practically have to be on top of everything that's going on with the development and execution of the science museum. I am the project development assistant... and for this I am superwoman.

So much demand. So many different challenges to face. For one, I had to learn about the different aspects of designing a special-purpose building. It was something entirely strange to me, an industry I have never encountered before. The past four wednesdays have been a crash course for me, and somehow I think I'm starting to catch up. It is also part of my responsibility to ensure that we are able to obtain all the permits and licenses we need for the project on time. On top of all, I have to be involved with monitoring the budget and the timeline for the project.

I somehow knew what I was getting myself into. I've anticipated this much demand from the work before I even started. Because of this, I made it a point to devise a way to monitor everything I'm doing and everything I needed to do, since I'm just bad at remembering things. I made a system, and somehow the OC person in me just resurfaced:

- The OC notebook. Mark with the date (compulsive date stamping, actually). Write down one by one everything that has been done or has to be done or has been discussed for the day. Refer to for the next day. Make sure everything that needs to be done is addressed.

- Post-its, post-its, post-its.

- Gmail is my ultimate tool.

- Paper clips and more post-its. I put together all related documents and clip them together, then mark their purpose. Makes looking for files a lot easier.

- Task list. An excel file with different task items categorized according to different aspects of the project.

- My lovely laptop. Without which I am nothing.

My system somehow works. There's still a lot of keeping up to do, however. And everything is just bound to become more hectic in the days to come. I'm bracing myself for that.