It takes just 7 steps

Writing a report may look like a tall order, but if you follow the 7-step process below, you should be able to come up with a good report without sweating too badly (unless youre writing it in a room without a fan or airconditioning hehe..)

STEP 1 Study the terms of reference
Know the purpose, scope and audience. Having a clear understanding of the these will help you stay focused and will provide a clue to the kind of language that you need to use in your document.

STEP 2 Plan
Prepare a written plan by allocating time for key activities such as research, writing and reviews. Here's where you create the framework of your report, which normally would have a title, summary, TOC, intro, methodology, findings, analysis, recommendation and appendices.

STEP 3 Research and analyse
List out all the topics on which you will need to collect information. Understand all the measurement and targets that you will use. Interpret data, identify trends, and make sense of all the information you have.

STEP 4 Write the first draft
Insert any illustration, diagram, charts and tables where necessary. Since generally reports need to be presented before anyone reads them, determine whether the report needs to be presented in slides (MS PPT) on top of the written report document. If yes, the first draft would be the slides. Focus on this first. Once this is reviewed and finalized, all you need to do when writing the document is just expand the analysis and recommendations.

STEP 5 Revise
Reports can take as many as 4 to 8 revisions. while revising, ask yourself these questions, for starters:

1. does it serve the purpose?
2. is the info accurate and sufficient?
3. is your measurement logical and correct?

STEP 6 Package it
Make sure the report looks professional and impressive.

STEP 7 Present
Cover the key points and remember to use the language that fits the expectations of your audience.

ENJOY THE PROCESS!

What do you say?

Don't know much about your life.
Don't know much about your world, but
Don't want to be alone tonight,
On this planet they call earth.

You don't know about my past, and
I don't have a future figured out.
And maybe this is going too fast.
And maybe it's not meant to last,

But what do you say to taking chances,
What do you say to jumping off the edge?
Never knowing if there's solid ground below
Or hand to hold, or hell to pay,
What do you say?

I just want to start again,
And maybe you could show me how to try,
And maybe you could take me in,
Somewhere underneath your skin?

And I had my heart beaten down,
But I always come back for more, yeah.
There’s nothing like love to pull you up,
When you’re laying down on the floor there.
So talk to me, talk to me,
Like lovers do.
Walk with me, walk with me...
Like lovers do.

What do you say to taking chances,
What do you say to jumping off the edge?
Never knowing if there's solid ground below
Or hand to hold, or hell to pay,
What do you say?

Don’t know much about your life
And I don’t know much about your world...

Are you a fox or a hedgehog?

Isaiah Berlin wrote about how the world can be divided into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable: "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."

The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog. Every day, the fox circles around the hedgehog's den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. The fox waits in cunning silence at the juncture in the trail. The hedgehog, minding his own business, wanders right into the path of the fox.

"Aha, I've got you now!" thinks the fox. He leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The hedgehog, sensing danger, looks up and thinks, "Here we go again. Will he ever learn?" Rolling up in to a tight little ball, the hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, sees the hedgehog defense and calls off the attack. Retreating back to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new line of attack. Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins.

Berlin extrapolated to divide people into two basic groups; foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity . Compared to the foxes' 'scatteredness' or diffused way of moving on many levels and not integrating their thinking into one overall concept of unifying vision, hedgehogs reduces all dilemmas and challenges to simple (or even almost simplistic) hedgehog ideas. For a hedgehog, anything that does not somehow relate to the hedgehog idea holds no relevance.

I'm ok with the underlying logic behind this story. However, to just be a hedgehog all the time? I'm not so sure. And I'm thinking -
maybe,
not everything is so black and white.
maybe,
the best way is to use what works for each case while at the same time maintaining one core intention or principle that I'll always maintain my integrity in solving what I need to solve.

and maybe, just maybe -
I, too, have the potential to be great.