On 17 May this year, over two months after I'd submitted my application, I received an exciting email in my inbox.  "Congratulations!  You have been selected as one of 20 YouthActionNet Fellows out of 600 applicants!"

I was stoked!  The YouthActionNet (YAN) Fellowship exists to strengthen, support, and celebrate the role of young people in leading positive change in their communities.  In order to achieve that aim, it includes a weeklong retreat of skill-building, networking and resources and advocacy-training, at a selected location (this year, it's in Mexico City!) followed by a yearlong mentorship.  It's run by the International Youth Foundation and is backed by companies such as Nokia and Starbucks.  In total, my fellowship is worth over $20,000!  There are over 400 young social entrepreneurs from more than 60 countries who have been YouthActionNet Fellows in its 10 year history.

Since then, there's been heaps of emails to organise things.

A month ago, we were sent a homework assignment to complete before next week.  The first task was to construct the work I do into a story, including a 4-page guideline of how to do that.

That activity was surprisingly really useful.  I used a variation of it for a speech I gave shortly afterwards, to great reviews, and I've used the structure for interviews since then as well, including this one:  Brains Matter .  I've probably given a variation of that speech 5 times publicly in the past month, so I found that activity really useful and I'm glad I got that task done early!

The second task was to consider what I wanted to learn from my fellow participants during the week, and what I could offer.  This is the list I came up with.  (I like lists).

Can teach at YAN:

1. Setting up an advisory board
2. Managing a team across the world
3. Growing an organization globally
4. Growing an organization exponentially
5. Time management
6. Bootstrapping
7. Setting great goals
8. Really achieving your goals
9. How to make people do what you want them to do
10. How to have efficient meetings

Want to discover new ideas for the following at YAN:

1. Sustainability - creating a structure whereby the organization can live without me and I can exit gracefully
2. Raising money
3. Structure for having staff next year
4. Way in which we can engage all the female engineering students in the world in the organization
5. How to make people really engage with and advocate the organization
6. Ideas for acknowledging people so they keep volunteering
7. Ideas as to how to create a community?
8. How to recruit superstars teams in other locations (recruiting a whole team at once for another location over the phone/Skype)
9. How to find an executive director/successor?
10. How to have a greater mainstream impact

I am flying to Mexico tomorrow for the retreat, and I can't wait to meet all the other participants from all over the world and am so excited to be joining such a large and inspiring organisation.

Just in the past 2.5 weeks, I've seen my productivity shoot through the roof, I have more energy and I feel great about myself (who wouldn't?)

No, this isn't a new fab drug or wonder-pill.  It was just a simple matter of changing the way I see a tiny thing in my life.

So let's reassess where I was 3 weeks ago:

• 3 speeches to write, and submit/ deliver within the fortnight
• 5 assignments and 3 mid-semester tests due within 3 weeks
• I had to finalise trip details to the USA in November
• Plan ahead to get things done before I go to Mexico in a fortnight
• Lots of stuff to send to prepare for my awards
• An abstract to write that was overdue
• Stressed about negotiations taking place

And things were so not going to get done.

I use the HitList, I write a daily plan, but I procrastinated so much it was debilitating.

What usually happens is I pile on all these things to do, don't manage to get them done then delegate them off to someone else at the eleventh hour.  Except I couldn't do that this time, because these were all personal things that had to be done by me.

One night, while I was examining honestly what I do with a friend, I realised that amongst everything else, I also spend a lot of my time time watching television and YouTube videos because I thought that it made me more creative.  I thought, "really creative people made these tv shows and these music videos.  If I watch them,  I can store up good creative ideas for the future".  But while I was saying this aloud, I realised that I study mechatronics engineering and computer science.  If I really wanted to improve my creativity and thinking skills, I could just study my lecture notes or do tutorial exercises.  Because while everyone has access to those tv shows and music videos, not everyone has the opportunity to expand their minds through studying engineering.  And with that, I knew that I would be able to follow my plan, not procrastinate, and get everything done.

Since then, I have:

• Found a casual engineering job for 5 - 10 hours a week
• Submitted everything I needed to, including all my assessments in on time!
• Finalised two negotiations
• Recruited a new Robogals Global team member, participated in two photo-shoots, met up with heaps of old friends and contacts, conducted a few media interviews, etc.

And all I can say is, it feels awesome to finally know myself as someone who can make a plan and make everything on it happen!

So what's in the way to you being productive?  What do you need to get honest with yourself about?

My business partner Mark Parncutt was quoted in this article in StartUp Smart about the state of entrepreneurship in Australian universities.  Happy reading!

http://www.startupsmart.com.au/growth/young-entrepreneurs/2011-06-07/the-state-of-student-start-ups.html

As the Cheshire Cat says, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."

In my Engineering Analysis A class (an engineering maths class), in my second year at uni, my tutor asked everyone in the class what they wanted to do after uni.  Twenty people said they didn't know, one person said they wanted to do business, and I said I was going to be an entrepreneur.

At the University of Melbourne right now, people are criticising a new reform, the Melbourne Model, which is basically a broad 3-year degree followed by a specialised 2-years Masters degree.

One of the main criticisms is that it doesn't let students go into uni and study what they actually want to do.  With only 2 out of 22 people (11.11%) people in the above-mentioned engineering tutorial (a specialist degree) knowing what they want to do, I don't think that the criticism is well-founded.

Now, a lot of my friends are in the final year of their degrees and are getting worried because they don't know what they want to do next year.  Most of them are just applying for every graduate position out there from consulting companies to banks to engineering firms.  Not all of them want the corporate route though.  So here's my two bits of advice about taking the road less travelled:

1. Figure out what your purpose is in life.  Do you want to "have a positive impact on the world", "revolutionise an industry", or "to help people".  I know people with all these purposes.  There's no right or wrong purpose, it's just what's there for you when you philosophise on what you want to accomplish in your life.

It's about figuring out an over-arching goal that drives your life however you choose to execute it.

Bill Gates' purpose was to put, "a computer on every desk and in every home".  He came up with that vision in the 1970s, while Microsoft was just being created, when personal computers were the thing of science fiction.  He then worked his guts out and helped make his vision a reality.

Figure out a phrase that distinctly describes what you want to do in your life.  Make it short and snappy so that you can keep reciting it off to yourself.  If it's too long and complicated, you'll forget it immediately and never use it again.

For me, my purpose is to "put a robot in every home, to make people's lives easier".  Yes, I know Bill Gates wrote an essay called that in a 2007 Scientific America magazine edition (I bought a copy the first day I arrived in Melbourne to study at uni!)  But I'm pretty sure I had that vision before I read the article.  So it was very cool to see that a thought leader and the richest guy in the world also had the same vision as me.

I study Mechatronics Engineering and Computer Science to learn about robotics, I run a not-for-profit organisation Robogals to increase the number of young women pursuing engineering in their tertiary studies and careers, and I hang out at entrepreneurship networking events to keep me inspired and to meet cool people.  It's all aligned with my purpose.

2. Next, what are your interests?  Are you into politics?  History?  Arts?  Software?  Electronics?  Languages?  It's important that you do something related to your interests so that you bring an added level of passion and enthusiasm to your role, that comes from doing what you love.

You might be interested in programming because you spend most of your time coding.  Or else, you might be interested in fashion design, but you don't really know how to sew.  Or you might be interested in French, but you don't speak any French.  Whatever the case, if your interest sounds cool to you and you know how to do it, great!  You're well on your way to carving out a career in that area.  If you don't really know much about your area of interest at all, give in and get amongst it!  If you spend your time immersed and engrossed in your interest, before you know it, you'll feel confident.

When I first started university, I really wanted to start up something, so I founded Nudge.  After I did that, I spent all my spare time reading blogs on the internet about entrepreneurship.  After about a year and a half of reading countless blogs about marketing, raising money, how to write a great pitch, what makes an entrepreneur, countless success and failure stories and everything in between, it just clicked for me and I suddenly just really got entrepreneurship.  It's very simple.  Choose something to do, and work hard.  If you need money for it, fund it yourself or go to the bank.  If you need more money for it than you have access to, make a solid plan and go and raise some dough from angel investors or VCs.

The world is your oyster.  By ensuring your opportunities are aligned with your interests makes the choice easier for you.

3. Finally, join steps 1 and 2 together and create a goal that aligns your purpose with your interests.  Whether that be doing in internship in NYC to get experience in publishing with the purpose of sharing people's stories, being a ski instructor in Japan to learn Japanese with the purpose of helping your country, or being a solicitor at a top firm so you can help people.

Your goal doesn't have to take into account the next 20 or 30 years of your life.  I'm told that my generation is expected to have 7 or 8 careers during our lives!  It can just take into account the next two to three months, with a loose 2-year goal after that.

Interests change.  Goals change.  Opportunities change.

The most important thing is that whatever you choose to do in the next two months, or the next three months, or the next two years is immaterial, as long as it is aligned with your purpose.

For me, I'm going to be at uni until the end of next year, during which time I'll work on Robogals and keep making it better and better.  While I do that, I'm working on my first robotics startup.  I'll do as much as I can while I finish off uni and keep my commitments towards Robogals.  Then, after I graduate - world, look out!  It's going to be exciting!  :)

Having said that, I've told a good friend of mine that if he has a web startup idea that he wants to make happen, then I'll support him with that.  (If I also get to be cofounder and have an equal stake in it.)

Either way, I'll still be developing my entrepreneurship skills in the tech industry to help me fulfil my purpose, so whichever of those two options I choose will still be the right path for me.

I think one of the most inspiring and magical things about this world is that things can change so quickly.  So, the opportunities and options that you have now may be minuscule compared to those you'll have in six months time.  One moment I was in Melbourne with a vision of having Robogals be an international organisation, even though I didn't know anyone anywhere overseas.  Six months later, Robogals was international, after I initiated our second chapter in London.

So don't worry so much.  Choose a direction and follow it intently.  If it's aligned with your purpose, you're going the right way.

If you're delegating tasks and then pulling your hair out over it, then you're probably not doing it right.

Anything that's insanely great requires a team to achieve.  At the simplest level, while one person might need an hour to achieve a task;  with 3 people, the task can be done in 20 minutes.  As well, different team members can focus on different tasks and bring a focus to that task that cannot be achieved if only one person is working on all tasks - having one person focus on marketing and another on sponsorship is going to achieve a lot better results than having one person focus on both!

Last year, I tried to run Robogals Global in a team of three.  There was the secretary, whose job was to keep the books in order, the marketing manager, whose job was to create our website and monthly newsletter, "The Amplifier", and then there was me, who was in charge of everything else.  Everything else included monthly phone calls with all the Robogals chapter presidents (10 calls a month to people all over Australia and the United Kingdom), networking, sponsorships and partnerships, PR and monthly internal newsletters.  This included me flying to London for a week during semester (when I was meant to be studying), attending a conference for 3 days during semester, and dealing with emails and queries that came my way from all directions!  I don't think I thought nearly enough about everything I was signing up to do before I chose not to recruit anyone else into the team!

So where did that leave me?  Stressed, tired, exhausted all the time and feeling like there was no support for anything I did.  I could never relax because there was always a huge burden of all the stuff that I hadn't done weighing down on me.  It got to a point where I was holidaying in Shanghai (I had to take a holiday to de-stress!) and I still had this massive to-do list to do of about 60 things!

Anyway, since then, thanks to a huge boost of realism and enough people in the leadership chain in the organisation, I now have an incredible team who I work with to achieve Robogals' aims.  I always thought that I did decently in my role last year as the everything-girl for Robogals last year.  But now that I have team members who only work on aspects of what I did (like sponsorships and partnerships, PR and chapter president mentoring), I realise just how much I was not coping doing everything last year!

So, how should you delegate?

1. Role description:  The first thing is that everyone in your team should know exactly what is expected of them.  They should have a very clear role description and know exactly what areas their role covers.  In Robogals, everyone in the executive committee at a chapter level has a role training manual that was written by someone who has done the role before.  In the Global team, most people are the first person to take their job on, so they're writing their role manual themselves as they do the job.  This ensures that everyone knows exactly what their areas of responsibilities are and what they are accountable for.

2. Expectations:  It should be very clear to both of you what the expectations are for your team member.  That way, you won't have any false expectations about the work they will do, and they will know exactly what they are required to deliver.  If both of us understand each other's expectations about the role, then we don't get disappointed.  The most important task my secretary undertakes is doing our BAS statement every quarter and doing a financial report every year.  My secretary is uber organised, and while it bores me thinking about doing the BAS statement every quarter and formally doing the books, I know it's uber important.  So as long as my secretary keeps all our books in order and ensures we file our BAS statements every quarter so we don't get fined by the government, then I'm happy.

3. Creating goals and a timeline:  So that people feel empowered about achieving their goals, everyone has a say in their goals and the timeline by which they'll work to.  I always work with the people in my team to set their goals so that we are both absolutely clear about exactly what they need to do, and so I know exactly what to expect from them.  As well as that, I always work with my team to create their goals so that if I think they aren't challenging themselves to grow enough through their goals, I help them see they can raise the bar higher.  It's always better to set the bar high and fail to reach that, than to set it too low and not challenge yourself.  I don't want my team members to just do what they already know how to do, I want my team members to learn and grow and be better people out of working with me.  :)

4. Checking up:  After the goals and timelines have been set, aligned with their role, then I think my job is to hold my team members to their word and support them in carrying out their plans.  A good way to do this is to set up a structure whereby you and your team member meet regularly so you can check up on how they're doing and brainstorm new ideas together.  I meet either once a week, once a fortnight or once a month with my direct reports, depending on the urgency of the projects.  Having a systematic way of communicating is also good for peace of mind as you won't stress about people not getting back to you.

5. Partnership:  It's very important to trust that your team members will do a good job.  You've worked out the goals and the timeline together, you know what the expectations are, and you meet up regularly to come up with better ideas - you're in it together; so trust that they will do their job and trust that they will do a good job.  By giving them that respect, they will rise to the challenge and do a great job!  If your team members need help, they will come to you.

So, how I am going now with delegating?  A lot better than I was last year!  I think the results show for themselves.  This year, I am more on top of my studies at university than I was last year, Robogals is achieving a lot more, I feel better about Robogals, I feel better about myself, and I have a great group of friends in my Robogals team that was formed through all of us working towards a common goal.

Finally, I think the other hard thing about delegating is that, you may think that you can do whatever you're delegating by yourself.  I once read that the lawyer can probably do all of the secretary's tasks better than the secretary can do them, but if the lawyer did all of the secretary's tasks, then she wouldn't have time to do anything else!  So I think a good quote to remember is, "I can do anything, just not everything".