The INFJ Personality and My Career

Many of us have been exposed to the Myers-Brigg personality test at some point in our lives, whether we found it online and took it for fun or we took it for a class. I've taken it a couple times (because my memory slipped me what my precise personality type was) and I am an INFJ personality.

INFJs are known for being caring, creative, and extremely organized. This is highly accurate of myself, especially in the journalism field - my chosen field of study.

In journalism, you have to have some form of empathy. You don't want to interview a murder victim's widow with cold eyes and only focused on the story. I pride myself on having a high level of empathy in any situation. I can listen to a story someone tells me, and - usually - I can feel what they were feeling when the situation happened and/or how they feel at the moment relaying the story to me.

I recently conducted an interview with a man who is the spokesman for a biker group that hold one major ride every year in August. He told me stories of heartbreak, and stories packed with joy and pride. To describe my emotions in short would be impossible, but I could feel everything he felt about those topics, which is something crucial to the field in order to obtain contacts and keep them in your Rolodex. You never know when you're going to need them again for another story, or just to get to know them better.

Creativity is also key to my field. You have to be creative with transitions and descriptions, or you'll quickly lose an audience. I used to make all my stories straight news stories, and now I'm honing my descriptions and making my writing more creative. This is all thanks to not only my journalism professor, but also Rust Hills, who is the author of one of the books we have to read for class. I'm gaining a better understanding or journalism as being short story nonfiction writing, and I'm becoming a better writer because of that.

The last crucial piece to having extreme organization. I won't lie. I'm obsessive-compulsive about certain things, but in a good way. I have to have a clean workspace. If I don't, I can't let my creative juices flow. A cluttered area leads to a cluttered mind, and a journalist's mind is already cluttered enough. I also like having my stories organized as well, using the inverted pyramid, of course. I like having a plan laid out for me as well, one where I can see what's coming up and prepare for it. It makes my life easier because I know when to schedule what.

These are just some aspects of my personality that help me in my industry, of course. I didn't mention extreme determination or passion, which I have about my field or else I wouldn't be going into it. These qualities also carry over into the public relations side of my career, because most of my PR work is derived from my journalism background. It's quite interesting to see how my personality fits in with my field. It just shows that I have made the right choice for me.

Planning the Perfect Planner

I will be the first one to admit this: I was the worst student when it came to time-management there ever was. I went off of memory or little notes on the margins of notebook paper that often got lost. I would spend all my time online and never worry about assignments. It was college. How serious were they anyway?

I learned my lesson quickly during my freshman spring semester. I received three Cs, and my scholarship was deferred a semester. I worked harder on training my memory, and I focused more on my schoolwork. I didn't think I needed a planner, nor did I really think about Google Calendar.

This year, I decided that memory wasn't going to be my main source of time management. I bought myself a planner at Staples for ~$25, tax included. I keep track of work schedule, my internship schedule, and my assignments. It's simple, but it's perfect for my means.

I also have several calendars up on Google Calendar. There's my work schedule (for my part-time job and my internship), my class schedule, my personal schedule (for meetings with friends), an assignment calendar, and a blogging calendar. I keep everything color-coded, and it matches the color code I have laid out for my physical planner.

While these are simple task management solutions, there are other methods of planners out there. For one, you could make your own. You could design the pages using programs like Word 2013 or something similar, and store the pages in a binder. In addition, you could order a planner from places like Erin Condren, Filofax, and Kate Spade.

If you order a planner offline, or even if you make your own, you can - of course - decorate it the way you want. Washi tape is a popular way to label planners for events, or even to decorate the borders of pages. You can also write using markers for color coding. I recommend fine-tip felt-tip markers. Sharpies bleed through easily, even if they're fine-tip, so either use a different kind of marker, or use stronger paper.

The point of this post? KEEP A PLANNER OF SOME KIND. Keep track of your assignments or your to-dos. Not only will it make life easier for you, but it will also prepare you for the real world as well.