Day 188: Never Have I Ever... Been Completely Unprepared At Work

I have recently been a part of a series of meetings with the executives at my work.

For one of these meetings, my boss at the last minute asked me to prepare some screenshots to go along with a competitive analysis. So of course said I'd do it, worked on it for a bit, and then decided to go to lunch thinking I'd have plenty of time to finish the presentation before the meeting.

So when I got back from lunch, my colleague asked me if I was ready to go to the meeting. I told her I'd be ready to go to the meeting later in the afternoon, to which she responded that the meeting started in 10 minutes.

Panic.

Fortunately, last-minute deadlines motivate me more than anything else, so I was able to scramble and do more in 10 minutes on the presentation than I probably would have been able to do had I had more time.

Unfortunately, I felt extremely unprepared, which probably was obvious, as I was the last person to walk into the meeting, I was wearing flats, and was holding a crappy old notebook and regular ballpoint pen. (I always wear heels and bring my leather binder and sleek silver pen with me to meetings in the main boardroom.)

There was a point when I looked down at what was in front of me (blank page in crappy notebook and unused pen) and what was in front of everyone else (leather binder, research papers, notes, etc.) and just said to myself, "I have never felt so unprepared. This is such an uncomfortable feeling."

Fortunately, I was not asked to present anything, though I am sure I would have been able to somewhat confidently wing my way through it. But I'd much rather be prepared.

Lesson learned.