Week 12
This is the final week of my PDB (Personal Development Blog), this week I have continued to develop my proof reading and reading the brief smart targets. In relation to my proof reading the smart target I have made some more progress towards refining this skill, this is due to the fact that I have started to include an invoice in my spreed sheet assignment, this requieres reading through a paper copy of an example invoice, then using the example to create an invoice. This process requires an abundance of in depth prood reading, therefore this is a useful way to improve the continuity of the smart target. I have found this to be accurate over the past week, I believe that this amount of in depth proof reading has allowed me to be more consistent with my proof reafing. Therefore allowing me to ensure that my work doesnt contain any errors. The second smart target that I have created and developed (reading the brief) has been considerably more involved than last week, due to the fact that I wasnt able to develop this smart target any more due to the fact that the tasks that I had to complete didnt include any written briefs to read. However, I am pleased to say that this week I have been able to complete tasks that require reading written briefs. The task that I mentioned above (creating an invoice), required a reading a brief in order to complete the task, I believe that thi taskl has helped me to improve this smart target due to 2 specific reasons. Firstly the brief that I had to read included a large of small but relevant details, therefore if I missed any of these details I wouldnt have the knowledge to complete the rest of the assingment. Nevertheless this has refined my 'reading the brief' smart target, due to the fact that I am now able to select and understand small but relevant details that I would have previosuly missed. Overall I have gathered a lot of experience from this process and I will continue to implement and develop these smart targets in order to continue to the refining process and ensure that my work continues to remain a high standard.

Week 11

Week 11
In order to improve my smart targets even further I have decided to continue working on them for an extra two weeks. I have reached this decision due to a number of different factors, firstly I realised that I need to continue using a different program in addition to Microsoft office word. In order to test the strength of the targets and determine how successful I have become at developing them over the past 10 weeks. Secondly from a personal perspective I decided that I wanted to continue working on the development of my smart targets, because I feel that they need to be more developed in order for me to claim that I have completed them. Therefore I have continued to use Excel in order to advance my Smart targets (proof reading my work and reading the brief), this week I have started to incorporate advanced formulas into my work. Advanced formulas require inputting a large quantity of data into the formaula box, therefore if there are any errors in the formula it won't work correctly. Based on this fact I have had a perfect test for ensurnig that I have improved my proof reading skills, I have found that this process has refined my proof reading skills to an extent this is further than the end of the initial 10 weeks. This is mainly due to the fact that the amount of in depth proof reading required to ensure that the formula is correct is very high, therefore I have been able to refine this skill. In the future I am going to continue to use this skill in order to ensure that I constantly proof read my work, to limit the amount of errors present. Moreover in relation to my second smat target reading the brief I havent had the same amount of opportunities to refine this skill, mainly due to the fact that I have been following instructions the teacher has delivered to the class. Therefore there hasn't been any written briefs for me to use, I am hoping that next week there will be more written briefs for me to use to enhance this smart target.  

Week 10

Week 10
This is the final post for my personal development blog, overall over the 10 weeks that I have conducted this blog I have noticed some major changes in the way I work and my work ethic. The two smart targets that I devised have made a huge difference to my work ethic, in particular proof reading my work. As I previously mentioned this is something that I have struggled to do, this is due to the fact that I have struggled to the see the point in performing. After completing an assignment I lacked the motivation to spend extra time proof reading through my work. Nevertheless this issue is something in the past, due to making this one of my smart targets and creating a strategy to help me achieve my smart target. The strategy was to proof read every section after I have completed it, in order to avoid accumilating a huge amount of work to proof read after I have completed the assignment. This method proved to be successful, allowing me to be flexible about when I proof read my work. Therefore proof reading my work began to become less of a burden a more of a neccessary step to completing the assignment. I am currently still using this process to help me complete all of the assignments that I complete, proving just how successful this method has become. Furthermore the second smart target that I set for myself to complete was paying attention to the brief, this was also something that I struggled to perform. I would simply read through the brief once and then begin to work on the assignment, this increased the possibility of making mistakes because I wasn't always aware of the brief. Fortunately I no longer have this issue because I created a strategy to help achieve this smart target-writing down all of the important pieces of information on a separate piece of paper, meaning that I could refer back to it. Therefore stopping the previous issue from occuring. 

Overall I have noticed a major change in the assignments that I complete and my work ethics, based on the fact that I have achieved the smart targets that I set out to complete. Subsequently improving my work ethic and the areas that I set out to complete.   

Week 9

Week 9
This post will serve as a evaluation of the time I have spent using excel in order to achieve my smart targets. Overall I have made excellent progress towards completing my first smart target, proof reading my work. Excel has helped me to achieve this target through improving my precision when proof reading my work, meaning that I am now able to spot small errors in my work that I was previously unable to. This is mainly due to the fact that reading through numerical figures in order to ensure that they are correct requires more precision than proof reading text, this is because when reading through numerical data you have to ensure that every figure is in the correct column or row. Increasing the required level of attention to detail that you have to have, this has improved my ability to proof read text because it is significantly less time-consuming than reading through figures. Therefore when I read through my work I feel more confident about my proof reading abilities, proving to me that proof reading my work is an important part of completing an assignment. Secondly I haven't made as much progress with my second smart target using excel, but this is only based on the fact that excel doesnt actually impact on reading the brief. The method is exactly the same as proof reading the brief for an assignment in excel. However I am adamant that using the same method as before (writing down important pieces of information on a separate piece of paper) hsa improved my ability to proof read my work. I adamant of this because the constant repitiion of using this technique is a useful way to improve this skill, and therefore this method has helped to improve my abillity to use this skill. On the other hand one major difference that I have noticed is that using this technique is something that I have become desensitised to using. Meaning that I don't have to question or try to remember why I am using this technique, it has become normal.

Week 8

Week 8
This week I have continued to work on developing my smart targets through excel, as I mentioned in my previous post I have started to develop my smart targets through excel. As I believe that this will increase my efficiency in completing both targets which I have set. Firstly because I believe that proof reading numerical figures which help to increase the precision of my proof reading, meaning that I will be able to spot small errors which are normally difficult to identify. Increasing the precision of my proof reading skills. On the other hand reading the brief is exactly the same for this assignment as it is for an assignment completed in Microsoft Office Word, therefore continuing to work on this smart target using the exact same method will continue to improve my skills. Due to the fact that repetition is the best way to improve a skill. Currently I am aiming to continue working on my smart targets using excel, excel has helped me to improve the smart targets which I created and I would like to take this even further, until I am completely satisfied with the level that I have reached. Presently I am using the strategies that I developed in order to help me complete my smart targets, for example for reading the brief I will write down all of the important pieces of information on a separate piece of paper in order to refer to them if I need to. This will prevent me from forgetting important pieces of information about the brief. In terms of my other smart target I have had to make a modification to the method I created in order to aid me in completing my smart target, when proof reading my excel assignment I have to check the row or column before I read the data. To ensure that the correct data is in the correct location, I have to repeat this procedure 3-4 times in order to be accurate, otherwise some mistakes may still remain. In my next post I will discuss the evaluation of how helpful excel has been in relation to my smart targets.     

Week 7

Week 7
This week I have mainly focused on applying my Smart targets to spread sheets, and the various situations in which they could to solve problems when using excel. Or generally help me to improve my skills in relation to spread sheets. I have decided to focus on this area because I am currently working on an excel assignment and I have a limited knowledge of excel and its functions, therefore I thought that it would be relevant to do 2 things. Firstly improve my knowledge of excel by using my smart targets to help me improve my knowledge, and secondly use excel to help me complete my smart targets. Currently I have started to implement this into my work method, I started to do this on Wednesday, when I was working on my excel assignment. I have found that the methods that I created to help me complete my smart targets can be difficult to implement into excel, due to the fact the interface is different. For example reading through the brief is no different using excel, however proof reading my work is very different to when using excel. This is because there is only a small amount of text to read, and excel uses number-based data, therefore proof reading through work is quite different. Mainly because the level of attention to detail has to increase in order to identify small errors, however this is a useful skill to posses because it allows the user to identify very small mistakes which cannot be identified by simply scanning through the text. Therefore this is a skill which I would like to be able to utilize in order to achieve this smart target. Overall I am making excellent progress towards achieving both of my smart targets, I am satisfied that the methods I am using are working sufficiently and they are helping me to become a more successful student. I am now looking for extra ways to enhance my skills in relation to my smart targets in order to try and fine-tune them  even more.

Week 6

Week 6
This week I completed/started working on 2 different assignments that have helped to make progress towards completing my smart targets in different ways. The first assignment which worked on and completed was P1 (different components and procedures of Excel and how they can be used to solved problems), paying attention to the brief was a major factor in completing this assignment. Due to the  fact that I have a small knowledge of Excel, therefore the pieces of information in the brief that provided information about Excel were a necessity in completing the assignment. Furthermore another way in which the assignment helped me was the research that I had to do in order to find out the relevant pieces of information that I needed. Reading through the references helped me to concentrate on the relevant details and use them in order to ensure that the correct facts were in my assignment, in conjunction with the strategy that I developed  in the previous post this proved to be very valuable experience. The other assignment which I began working on this week was an Excel task, which requires creating a spread sheet to store the data for a tyre shop. This task helped me to develop the 'paying attention to the brief' smart target, by listening to the tutor and carrying out their instructions on my assignment this target was involved. By listening and transmitting the information into the spreadsheet I was also improving my ability to pay attention to every detail, which was a very useful skill to engage because it is a necessity to have when creating a spread sheet. As I continue to progress through the weeks I am going to continue to develop my smart targets and use my assignments in order to progress them. Even at first if I am not sure how they will help me to meet my targets.