it's 5 in the morning and i'm off to get some sleep. Spent the last 4 hours on a part of an essay and I have 218 words to show for it. But, it's 218 words i don't need to worry about anymore and it's a great feeling. I started out last night bogged down by the sheer number of essays I still have to write, and rushing things wasn't getting me anywhere. Slowly I forced myself to focus on one essay and I got into the zone. Since essays are all I'm going to be doing from now on, I'm going to blog my strategies for attacking these. ( Dunno if anyone would be interested though)

Currently, I am working on HBS essay 2 - what are your three most substantial accomplishments and why ?

This is a hard one because of the word limit. It's 600 words which means you get 200 for each. My first crack at this was BORING. It took a lot of words just to talk about what I accomplished. I realized that to answer this effectively I have to 'let go' in some sense. Though I would love to talk more about what I did, this essay's not the place. So, my current draft (of the first accomplishment ;-) has the actual task described in only around 60 words. I spend a few words on a witty/engaging/creative opening that also describes the situation, then my motivations for my actions, the actual task itself, and why this is so important to me.

Also, the transitions between these experiences are hard, because of the time frames. My original draft just jumped from one to the next, in this one I'm working on good segways. Also, I start the essay directly with the first experience, but plan on having a closing that sums everything up.

And my common thread is leadership. How each of the experiences has taught me different aspects of being an effective leader.

Still got two more sig achievements to work on ... and then 4 more HBS essays ... and 2 stanford ... and ...