Using the Job Crafting Exercise to Craft Your Life as a Student

Your life as a full-time student is similar to having a full-time job in that both of these roles mean that you are expected to carry out an assigned set of tasks. In addition, just as employees often have degrees of freedom in how they think about and perform their jobs, you have flexibility in choosing how you approach your life as a student. So, you can craft your life as a student in much the same way as full-time employees can craft their jobs. Although the Job Crafting Exercise is intended to help employees redesign their lives at work, the same instruction booklet can also help you identify opportunities to craft your life as a student to be more engaging and fulfilling.This document will help you do just that by providing you with examples of each stage of the exercise from a student named Emily (to supplement Dr. Hansons examples from the instruction booklet). As a general rule, throughout the exercise, think about tasks as both the academic and extracurricular activities that you do in a typical week.

Please Note: This document is a supplement to the Job Crafting Exercise instruction booklet (pictured to the left) and not intended to be a stand-alone resource. Job Crafting Exercise instruction booklets can be purchased at: www.jobcrafting.org.

2010 Regents of the University of Michigan . Berg, Dutton, & Wrzesniewski . Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship

Note: Emilys Before Sketch includes both the academic and extracurricular activities that she does on a weekly basis in her life as a student.

PART 1: Emilys Before Sketch

TASK TASK

TASK

MOST AMOUNT OF TIME, ENERGY & ATTENTION

Required reading

Studying for exams

Writing papers

TASK

TASK
TASK TASK

MEDIUM AMOUNT OF TIME, ENERGY & ATTENTION

Weekly homework assignments

Group project

Marketing Club meetings

TASK
TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME, ENERGY & ATTENTION

TASK TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

Reading for pleasure

Going to professors office hours

Applying to summer jobs

Intramural soccer

TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

TASK

Note: Emilys After Diagram depicts a more ideal (but still realistic) version of her life as a student.

PART 2: Emilys After Diagram

Rather than thinking about her motives, strengths, and passions with respect to a job, Emily has listed the outcomes she would like to achieve (motives), the personal assets she could utilize (strengths), and the activities or topics that most interest her (passions) in her life as a student. Notice that Emily wrote notes in parentheses in several of her Task Blocks, switched Reading for pleasure and Applying to summer jobs from small to medium blocks, and added the task of Attending free campus events and lectures.
PASSION

Required reading

Going to professors office hours

MOTIVE

Creative writing

TASK

TASK

TASK

Good grades
STRENGTH

Organizational skills

Writing papers (challenge myself with more creative topics)

TASK

MOTIVE

Personal growth

TASK

Studying for exams (create a schedule)

Weekly homework assignments

STRENGTH

Writing ability

Role: Challenging myself to do my best in required coursework.

Marketing Club meetings (take on some organizational work)
MOTIVE PASSION

TASK

MOTIVE
TASK

Helping others
PASSION

Stay in shape

Intramural soccer

TASK

STRENGTH

Large social network

Applying to summer jobs (do more networking)

Be well-rounded

Group project (offer to help teammates)

Learning new skills

2010 Regents of the University of Michigan . Berg, Dutton, & Wrzesniewski . Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship

TASK

MOTIVE

Reading for pleasure

Personal growth

Attending free campus events & lectures

TASK

TASK

Role: Developing as a well-rounded person outside of the classroom.

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