Thanks to a college education, I have developed a love-hate relationship with writing.

I love writing, but I hate writing essays.

I feel that I am rewarded for lengthy personal reflections at college rather than clear and concise sentences.

Most of my motivation for these monotonous essays is indeed the desperation to meet a deadline (once, I skipped class just to avoid turning in the assignment).

At Pearl Lemon, I don’t have to write essays, and my motivation is certainly not purely based on a deadline— I have learned to love writing again and, despite the difficulty, construct a blog based on SEO and the audience.

 

My Experience

A month ago, I was offered to be a part of the Pearl Lemon programme for only 10 hours a week (instead of 20) to focus on school as well.

I was ecstatic to know that, despite my college classes, I could still take advantage of this opportunity to improve my writing that is not only something that is NOT academic writing but something with which I can help others.

So far, I get to write at least two or more articles per week, depending on how many words they are and other tasks I need to complete.

Most of my tasks consist of checking emails, watching a ton of training videos, participating in team meetings when I can, and learning how to use new tools.

Of course, I still have deadlines to meet, but they are not my sole motivator like they are during college.  My motivation is to learn to be a better writer and a faster researcher, provide information, and make a company look its best!

 

What I love about working with Pearl Lemon

I was first attracted to Pearl Lemon for the experience I am getting but for three other reasons.  These three reasons have helped me learn more about other skills than just writing.

• The culture

Not every mission statement aligns perfectly with its company logo.  Pearl Lemon says that they exist “for when life gives you lemons…”  Once I joined, I realised that the team lives by that mission statement.

Just like me, each person is here to work hard and grow while doing it.

Here at Pearl Lemon, we are always seeking to improve, and we never stop learning.

Here at Pearl Lemon, we are committed to growth, and I love it.

• The feedback

Throughout my life, I have often asked friends or family to offer constructive criticism (as uncomfortable as they were doing it) because I wanted to know how I could do better.

During team meetings, Deepak is very straightforward with the team and sometimes puts us in the spotlight, so we have a chance to learn from practice (rather than the lectures I am used to in college).

This training type (even though it makes my introverted self want to hide) makes me excited to learn and bounce back from mistakes rather than dwelling on them as I have in the past.

• Working remotely

It does not matter what I am doing, whether it is writing or figuring out how to get my inbox to zero— I can reach out to anyone almost at any time because of all of the different time zones.

Not only is it easy getting ahold of a team member, but I also develop skills I have been striving to learn, such as self-motivation, time management, and discipline.

Although I was homeschooled my entire life leading up to college, these three things haven’t come easily to me.

However, through training videos and learning how to block out parts of the day to do my work, I have gotten extraordinarily better at these three skills.

 

My Future Goals at Pearl Lemon

As I continue my work here at Pearl Lemon, I am looking forward to three things:

• Connecting with the team.  As I said, each person at Pearl Lemon seems so dedicated to their work, friendly, and excited to learn.  I can’t wait to know more of my team members and continue to produce great content with them.
• Be self-disciplined.  Even though I have been better at time management and self-motivation, it is still challenging to master at times.  When I say I’m going to do something, I break the promise to myself too often.  This month, I plan to do something one of our content writers mentioned in a training video: write when I don’t want to.
• Getting organised.  The picture below is how my brain usually feels on a daily basis:

Although things are fitted into their little compartments or tied up with the exact string, it still feels like a mess.

It still looks like everything will topple over or come undone or like nothing is in the right place.

Even though I write goals down and plan out what I need to get done in a week, it usually changes due to spontaneous activities or unplanned events or an assignment that took longer than I expected.  

I end up scrambling to finish a project I put off or stressed out because I didn’t get everything done I needed to.

This month, I want to be better organised and learn how to manage my tasks better. I think the answer might be developing a more realistic schedule (I’ll find out in a month).

 

All in all, my experience working at Pearl Lemon has been a huge learning curve when it comes to self-discipline.  I can’t wait to improve my writing (especially when it is hard), my conversational skills, and my keeping promises to myself and my schedule.