Task Management

     Wow! Can't believe it is our last blog post already the semester flew by so fast. That being said I have learned a lot about not only myself but about my learning habits. I realized that I was an avid procrastinator who is unorganized. However, throughout the semester I have acquired many skills that have helped me grow as a leaner and I am confident will help me for the rest of my academic career.
    This week with task management I revisited a strategy that I had used in the past that really helped me with completing my homework assignments. Chucking the task, is something I will forever use. Since the first time I used it I was able to complete my homework assignments in a much more timely fashion. It allowed me to exactly map out when and what I was going to do and ensure an end time. One of my biggest problems with homework assignments is sitting down and completing the task. This strategy allows me to split up my assignments into manageable sections. This week I decided to use chunking the task for two of my courses PRL-206 and IST-195.
    For PRL-206 I have a huge paper coming up that requires me to interview a professional in the field. Therefore, this isn't a paper that can be done the night before let alone a week before it is due. That's why chunking the task was a great strategy to use. I was able to make a chart and literally list everything I had to do. In addition to this I made a target planner and channeled some of the things I used during my paper experiment in order to ensure success. In one column I wrote my goal and in the other column I broke down all the tasks I needed to accomplish. Although, the paper isn't due yet I have made a lot of progress and I am confident I will finish the paper and receive a good grade.
   The next course I used chunking the task in was IST-195. We received a project with a very short time to complete it. The assignment was to teach someone either older than 25 or younger than 17 to use a computer program of your choice. Then we must create a powerpoint presentation with 15-30 slides explaining the process. I knew that with my procrastination skills I wasn't going to complete this entire project in one sitting so I chunked the task and decided how I was going to complete the entire assignment. In addition, I knew I had to get it done by a specific time because I wasn't going to be around on the weekend to do it.

   Chunking the task has helped me with not only these two assignments but a lot throughout the semester. I plan on using this strategy for not only assignments throughout college but for things in life after I graduate.

Task Management

     Wow! Can't believe it is our last blog post already the semester flew by so fast. That being said I have learned a lot about not only myself but about my learning habits. I realized that I was an avid procrastinator who is unorganized. However, throughout the semester I have acquired many skills that have helped me grow as a leaner and I am confident will help me for the rest of my academic career.
    This week with task management I revisited a strategy that I had used in the past that really helped me with completing my homework assignments. Chucking the task, is something I will forever use. Since the first time I used it I was able to complete my homework assignments in a much more timely fashion. It allowed me to exactly map out when and what I was going to do and ensure an end time. One of my biggest problems with homework assignments is sitting down and completing the task. This strategy allows me to split up my assignments into manageable sections. This week I decided to use chunking the task for two of my courses PRL-206 and IST-195.
    For PRL-206 I have a huge paper coming up that requires me to interview a professional in the field. Therefore, this isn't a paper that can be done the night before let alone a week before it is due. That's why chunking the task was a great strategy to use. I was able to make a chart and literally list everything I had to do. In addition to this I made a target planner and channeled some of the things I used during my paper experiment in order to ensure success. In one column I wrote my goal and in the other column I broke down all the tasks I needed to accomplish. Although, the paper isn't due yet I have made a lot of progress and I am confident I will finish the paper and receive a good grade.
   The next course I used chunking the task in was IST-195. We received a project with a very short time to complete it. The assignment was to teach someone either older than 25 or younger than 17 to use a computer program of your choice. Then we must create a powerpoint presentation with 15-30 slides explaining the process. I knew that with my procrastination skills I wasn't going to complete this entire project in one sitting so I chunked the task and decided how I was going to complete the entire assignment. In addition, I knew I had to get it done by a specific time because I wasn't going to be around on the weekend to do it.

   Chunking the task has helped me with not only these two assignments but a lot throughout the semester. I plan on using this strategy for not only assignments throughout college but for things in life after I graduate.

Task Management

One of the hardest parts about schoolwork, is managing your tasks. I always find myself writing down every assignment I have, but never the steps to complete tasks individually. When given an assignment, I think one of the most important things you can do before starting is sit down and simply write out the steps to completion. This technique helps a lot because not only does it organize your assignment, but also it creates less stress because you can physically see each step written out neatly.

I did the Things-to-do strategy for my PSC 121 class. My priority is to study for my final exam, which is approaching soon. I then proceeded to list everything I needed to do in order to complete the task of studying for my final. Previously to making this chart, I did not really know what I was going to do or how I was going to study for this test, however, now that it is written out, all I have to do now is follow through and complete each “to-do.”

I also did was the Putting It All Together: Course Matrix strategy. I used this for my PHI 192 class. I found that this strategy would have been more helpful if I did it in the beginning of the course. Then I could have been able to see every detail right from the beginning. This strategy definitely helps to make you realize what you need to do and how you should study for certain courses. I would definitely recommend doing this technique for every course in the beginning of each semester.

L A M E

I am the type of Learner who needs things to be written out and organized. The Things-to-do strategy, which is the Action I took, definitely helped me visualize each step so I knew exactly what I needed to do. The Materials I used was a chart, for both Things-to-do and Putting It All Together: Course Matrix strategies. My Evaluation for both strategies is different. I definitely benefited from Things-to-do and would have benefitted from the other strategy, if I had completed it earlier in the semester.

Task Managment

In my opinion task management is one of the main reasons for success in college or any other academic setting. Being able to rightfully manage your time and tasks is crucial for many reasons. If you can manage your tasks properly your stress level will be lower and your grades will most likely be higher. Two strategies I implement for task management are sticky notes and making a study calendar.

Sticky notes are great because I am a visual learner. I know I have mentioned it before in a blog, but Apples sticky note app works wonders for me. It is right there on the screen every time I log on. Also you can change the colors so I make blue my daily reminders and the yellow ones for the rest of the week so I can stay on top of my tasks. The material I use it for range from school work, to phone calls, to even emails- whatever needs to get done I put on a sticky note.

Going along with theme of Apple applications, iCAL also is very helpful. Because I am a visual learner having the visual of a calendar with the specific tasks I need to accomplish (also with the times listed) is extremely beneficial to me. I used this for my psych class. This is because I have a very big test coming up, so I divided up the workload (as shown above). The study calendar has kept me on track and will hopefully lead to success on this exam.

Task management is underatedly one of the most important aspects of doing well in college. This is because it incorporates time management as well. As a student you have to be able to make time for all your tasks to be completed properly. CLS has taught me how to do this not only by techniques such as sticky notes and study calendars but also by: 10 minute vacation, and most importantly chunking the task. Learning these will not only be helpful for my time in college but for life in general.

Time management

     When I did the faculty interview project, I asked a same question to professors. It was what the most important thing in college life is. Surprisingly, professors said same answer, time management. First semester in college was the most difficult time to me. In college, no one controls my time. I have to coordinate schedule, attend classes, do assignments before due dates, do extra curriculums, and do everything by myself. It gives freedom to me; however, it gives responsibility, too. Now, I can understand why professors said that time management is the most important thing in college life. So, in this tech assignment, I am going to write about my time management strategies.

This is my scheduler that I bring all the time.
     First, I schedule realistic amounts of time for doing assignments. Of course, it is hard to estimate realistic amounts of time, however, it is a quite important strategy. It saves time a lot. At the beginning of the semester in each of my classes, I scheduled myself on a typical assignment to determine the actual amount of time required for assignments in that class, and then plan accordingly. As a VPA major student, I have lots of art project. Professors usually give a quarter of the semester for a huge project. So, it is so important to schedule realistic amounts of time for doing projects.

      Second, I use my prime-time hours. I realize that I usually forget something easier than others. So, I bring a scheduler all the time. In the scheduler, I write the most urgent assignment with a red pen. I also write the time of the day that I am most alert. These are my prime-time hours. I use those hours for doing the majority of my work. My concentration will be the best during that time. I pay particular attention to doing these hours. I feel comport in the evening as my prime-time hours. So, I use my prime-time hours for difficult assignments and huge projects.

      Third, I schedule short study breaks. When I do assignments for a long time, I feel stressful and difficult to concentrate. So, I schedule short breaks between my studying. In order to plan when to take breaks, I consider a logical stopping point in the topic or a reasonable time span for my work. I schedule a 15 minute study break for every 60 minutes of studying. It can be different depending on my studying/project and level of interest. Short study break is essential to me. It gives me time to think about the studying, get re-energized, and concentrate next studying.


     Every people have 24 hours in a day. However, it can be short, long, and reasonable time depending on how to use time. When I use my time without scheduling, I usually waste my time for needless things. When I use my time with the time management strategies, I can use my time wisely, do assignments with best conditions, and finish projects before the due dates. The time management strategies help me a lot to adjust in college life. I want to recommend these strategies to others.

I schedule short breaks that help me to concentrate next studying,

Use prime-time hours wisely for doing assignments.

task managment

I have used many task management strategies. Lots of strategies help me to focus better on studying. Among those task management strategies, I have continuously used 'Divide by Four'. Especially for Japanese class, which is my hardest class, this strategy has worked well. This strategy helps me to organize my work. I'm a student who was not used to do work by organizing. For an instance, when I wrote an essay, I just wrote the whole essay at once, without much thinking. This always causes bad results. After using 'Divide by Four', however, I can write an essay more efficiently. Also, it helps me to deter procrastination. I do not think of other things such as doing computer while I'm doing 'Divide by Four', because I have to do my work step by step. For this week, I use 'Divide by Four' for my Japanese essay. The picture below is my 'Divide by Four'.



There are four sections at 'Divide by Four', which are (1) prepare, (2) start, (3) continue and (4) finish. For the (1) prepare, I brainstorm all the ideas that I'm going to write on the essay. Then, I put those ideas and make into sentences for (2) start. For (3) continue, I put more information and make examples to make the sentences longer. For the last step, (4) finish, I write the whole essay with introduction, body and conclusion. I also reread the essay and correct the wrong parts. With this step, I can get much better grade on Japanese essay. I also find it easy to write an essay with this division than just write it. Since I'm a kinesthetic learner, I like to do something like this, which I can do actively. By dividing four sections, I do not feel boring while I'm doing it.

I often use 'Divide by Four' with 'Priority List', which is another task management strategy. I first do the 'Priority List', decide what I need to do first. Then, I do the 'Divide by Four'. For an instance, if I decide to do Japanese essay first, by 'Priority List', I use 'Divide by Four' to write an organized essay. I need to write down all the lists I need to do, and decide the priority thing I need to do. The priority ranking is often decided by the due dates of the task and the importance of the task. For this week, I also make the 'Priority List'. The picture below is my 'Priority List'.



I put down the three things that I need to complete in this week. Then, I put numbers. Number one is the most important thing to do, then the second, then the last one. Then, I draw number of stars, which indicate the importance of the task. After that, I put down the due dates. By doing this strategy, I do not need to remember all the things I need to complete. Before, I used to forget one of my homework. However, after doing this strategy, by looking at the note, I can know what I need to done. Also, I find out that my works are done faster with 'Priority List'. Before, I did the half of the Japanese essay and start to do other homework. This was not helpful and I could not focus well. However, after doing ‘Priority List’, I am able to complete work efficiently.

The two strategies I have been used, 'Divide by Four' and 'Priority List', help me to concentrate on studying and complete the work much better.

Stress Free Zone

Usually when I’m stressed I do not do anything productive. All I can do is be in a bad mood and have anxiety. However, this is not the way to deal with stress. Surprisingly, stress can make you organized and a fast worker. I used the 10-minute vacation and stress diagram techniques to help me deal with my stressful end of the semester assignments. The stress diagram helped me get out of my system everything that is stressing me out. By seeing on paper all of my assignments, and how much time I need to exert to each one, it takes a little bit of pressure off. It also helped me organize my time and realize what I need to focus on.

The 10-minute vacation helped me not procrastinate as much and simply get my paper done. Before I started the paper, I was stressed because I did not know how long it was going to take or when I’d catch a break. By taking a vacation, this stress does not exist because I knew that after I finished a paragraph I could take a break and relax.

L A M E

These strategies worked for me because I am the type of Learner that needs to write out a list of my assignments and earn rewards. The Action I took, with these needs in mind, was the 10-minute vacation and stress diagram. For the stress diagram, the Materials I used were graphic organizers. My Evaluation of these strategies is very positive. The techniques not only helped me eliminate my stress, but also helped me to procrastinate less.

Stress Management

Stress…everyone has it especially in college. Sometime I feel trapped or even suffocated from it and think there is no way out. Every day there is a constant struggle to keep up with both your school and personal life and you are bound to forget some of the things you have to do. When I first came into college stress was a very common theme among my every day life. I liked to leave all my assignments to the last minute as I have mentioned many times before. I had never been on my own before and let things that my mom or dad would usually take care of pile up. I didn’t truly know the meaning of living on your own. I quickly became aware of the things I would need to do in order to be a successful college student but that didn’t mean I would be able to deal with them in a stress free environment. Cue the stress. I was constantly overwhelmed with work, which ultimately made me freak out and get run down and sick.

However, after taking CLS and starting to implement certain strategies that helped me with problems such as procrastination and study habits I was starting to reduce the amount of stress in my life and now with these stress management strategies I am confident I will be able to tackle stress for now on.

The first thing the textbook had you do was list your sources of stress and rate them from high stress (H), low stress (L), or (N) for not an issue. I was able to conclude that my highest sources of stress were grades, summer internship, money, friends, relationships, and my sorority. This was a helpful task because I never before pin pointed my stress areas. In the back of my mind I knew where they rooted from but I never physically wrote them down and was able to see them.

The next thing I did was a stress diagram. This helped me take the high stress sources I identified above and break them down into which causes the most amount of stress. I based this upon how much time I spend thinking about these things a day and which I constantly find myself worrying the most about. I concluded that my grades and money are the two things that I think about the most throughout a day in college. I would say this strictly pertains to college because when I am home for example for the summer I don’t have to think about work and in addition I don’t have to be as aware of all the money I spend because I will be living back with my parents.

            Lastly, I have been more aware of integrating activities into a stress reduction plan. Before reading the chapter I always thought of all the things listed as ways of procrastinating but through this course I have realized its all about a little bit of giving and taking. If you work for a significant amount of time your allowed to reward yourself with a movie or a TV show. I think the next time I am feeling stressed out I am going to try either taking a walk or run.

            I am excited to use these strategies in the future and ultimately reduce the amount of stress in my everyday life.

Stress Management

People deal with stress in numerous ways. Some people freak out (like me), and others stay cool, calm, and collected and get the work done. There are many different strategies that relinquish the pressure. Some of these include: one day at a time, chunking the task, using sticky notes, study calendar, and most importantly 10 minute vacation.

There are a couple of specific tactics to relieve stress. They include: getting your mind off the work, and most importantly getting your work done early. The best way to get your work done early is to create a study calendar and to adhere to it. If you get behind on your calendar that is when your stress will pile up a lot.

Because I am a visual learner something that eliminates stress is my screensaver. If you ever get the chance and have an apple computer, the paradise screensaver is unreal. This visualization relieves stress like you would not believe. This visualization is compounded with my 10 minute vacation. Because often times instead of surfing the web, I would rather just relax.

Also another remedy thats relieves stress is the one day at a time technique. I keep my list of tasks that I have to do on the sticky notes on my desktop. I keep them in priority order and when I am done I either remove them or cross them out. Because I am a visual learner the image of the sticky stays in my mind at all times. The action I take to do this is simply to make a new sticky note per day. The material can range from homework to phone calls I have to make; it is probably my favorite technique.

Stress is a very powerful and infectious mindset. Once it sets in, it is very difficult to remove it. That is why you must keep on top of it at all times and try to not let it get out of hand. Every person will experience stress, however, not everyone knows how to deal with it.

stress management

I had lots of stresses this week. There were so many works and exams. Also, I had a financial problem. I spent all the money that I should use in April. I knew that positive stresses were good, but the stresses I got this week were not the positive things. I even felt headache because of the stresses. Academic pressures increased a lot as the final exams are coming, but my motivation seemed to decrease. I felt hard to catch up certain class. For Japanese, I got some As but some Bs at the exams taken in three weeks. Therefore, I have to get a good mark on Final exam to get an A as final result. The anxiety increased over final exams. Also, there were many works I needed to complete.

I learned in CLS 105 class that I needed to understand the cause, relaxation and organization of stresses. Therefore, I tried to do stress diagram as cause of stress, 10 minute vacation as relaxation of stress, and organization to organize my stresses. To make sure what my stresses were, I made a stress diagram. I first list the sources of stresses. Then, I made the pie chart and divide those into four sections. At the each of the section, I wrote down my stress. The bigger the section, the bigger my stress was. The below picture is my chart.



By doing the stress diagram, I could clearly know the reasons of my stress. The four stresses were financial, school works, coming exams and major. For major, I was not 100 percent of my major but I had to choose the subjects for the next term. I, therefore, had to decide what I wanted to do in the future so that I could decide subjects relate to the major. For financial, I all of my money so that I could not buy anything such as snacks. The stress diagram helped me to find out what was my biggest stress. My biggest stresses were final exam and school works. Especially for Japanese, I had too much homework. Also, I was so sure that the final exam would be very hard, since the exams I had taken were hard. I knew that I could not remove all the stresses. Therefore, I decided to decrease those stresses.

I did the 10 minute vacation as relaxation of my stresses. It helped me to get away from the work for 10 minutes. While I was doing my Japanese homework, I felt headache. Then, I decided to use this strategy. I started to do Facebook for 10 minutes. At first, I thought it was not good way to do other activities for 10 minutes. However, after doing 10 minute vacation strategy, I did not feel headache and it helped me to concentrate on homework better.

The last thing I did was an organization. To organize my stresses and find out stress reducers, I used the chart at page 27l of CLS book. The below is picture of it.



Every day, I talked to my friends about my stresses. Then, they listened to me carefully and tried to give me the solutions. Even though those solutions were not perfect, my stresses were decreased while I was talking with my friends. For weekly, I wrote down all positive events on the diary that happened in the week, such as getting A grade on Japanese exam. Then, I felt happy and did not feel much stresses. For exam time, I made plug in note and tried to concentrate on exam. Making plug in note for Japanese exam was always very helpful that after making plug in note, I did not feel much stress of coming exam, because I knew that I could get good mark with good plug in note. If I had too much work, I used 10 minute vacation and took relax. For my major, I talked with my advisor and tried to choose what I really wanted to do. Having a conversation with my advisor was very helpful to me, because now, I'm 90 percent sure of my major, which is psychology.

Since this is almost the end of the term, to reduce stress is very important. I was not used to control my stresses. However, after doing stress management, I can decrease my stresses. Now, I can study hard for coming exams without much stresses.

stress management

      Controlling stress is one of my weaknesses. When stressful situation happens, I don’t know what do to, don’t speak, and cry all day. My freshman year in college is remembered as a stressful life to me. College life is so different with high school life. Although college life is busy, I have to manage time and do everything by myself. Most of all, I have to control my reaction. When I was depressed and sad in high school, I could talk with my parents and advisor. However, I can’t do that in college. I realize that as a college student, I have to control myself. Although it is still difficult to me, I am trying my best. So, stress management will be a practical and valuable learning to me. Through this assignment, I want to learn how to manage stress.




      Every people get stress. However, stress management involves controlling their reaction to stressful situations. That means, we can control our stresses. If we change our reactions to that situation, then we minimize their effects and reduce the stresses. To minimize stress, we need to understand the causes of our stresses, learn how to relax, and organize our surroundings and responsibilities. Among some of stress reduction strategies, I chose stress diagram (cause), 10-Minute vacation (relax), and organization (organize).

     Stress diagram can help me prioritize the causes for my stress and help me identify the issues I need to address first. First, I wrote down the list of the sources of stress that I am currently experiencing. My current stresses are relationship, grade, father’s health, future career, and course registration. Then, I divided the pie chart into the number of sections that corresponds to the number of stresses. Each section of the pie represents the relative amount of stress it is in my life. I labeled each section with the source of stress. Through the stress diagram, I could realize the priority of the causes for my stress. Now, I can understand the causes of my stress clearly.

     The 10-minute vacation helps me get away from the work I am doing for specific amount of time. Initially, I thought 10-minute is too long time. However, it is not a long time, but it is enough to help get me reenergized. I visited the “vacation spots.” Among them, I like youtube.com and pinkisthenewblog.com. The websites are good to relax for 10-minutes. Through this strategy, I learned how to use break time wisely.

   
     Finally, I organized my surroundings and responsibilities. On the chart of page 271, I identified the stress reducers I implement in the categories.


     Actually, I face stressful situations every day. However, the important thing is how to control the stresses. It is absolutely important to learn the reaction to the stress in my life. Although sometimes I have stresses that are more severe than others, knowing how to handle the stress in my life can help me to control my responsibilities efficiently.

No More Procrastination!

ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS TO DO when doing work is to stay focused and not let facebook or television distract me. I always want to just watch ONE show and then start a paper, but one show turns in to two and two to three and it goes on and on. Then it’s 2AM and the only thing I’ve written is my name. It helps a lot to write out your usual time wasters and see how you can avoid them. This strategy helps because if you follow the rules, then starting or finishing an assignment becomes a lot easier. I found this helpful because within itself, it’s a way to procrastinate starting something, but it motivates you to stop putting off an assignment and start working. By identifying what makes you procrastinate, it is easier to make sure those activities are not accessible or available.

Another great strategy to avoid procrastination is chunking the task. This technique helps you write out exactly what you need to do and chunk up the assignment in to little parts. By doing so, the assignment seems smaller and more manageable. If you have a hard time staying focused and off of facebook, like I do, this is a great way to only do a little work at a time, yet still get a lot done. I find that by breaking up work in to parts it is easier to accomplish and less procrastination happens.

L A M E

These strategies worked for me because I am the type of Learner that needs to be organized and concise. By eliminating my procrastination habits and chunking my tasks I am able to visually see everything I need to do in order to start and do an assignment. The Action I took was making the Time Waster chart and Chunking the Task chart and the Materials were charts. My Evaluation of these strategies is very positive. They help me as a learner to sit down and do my work and stay focused.

Procrastination

Procrastination is something that nearly every student has done. There are three different types of procrastinators, they include: arousal or thrill seeker, avoiders, and decisional procrastinators. The arousal or thrill seeker procrastinator leaves everything for the last minute to obtain the high that comes with completing a task at the last possible time one can. Avoiders are concerned with what others think. They would rather be perceived as showing a lack of effort rather than lack of ability. Finally, decisional procrastinators cannot make a decision for the simple reason that they do not want to take responsibility for the outcome. There are many different types of procrastinator but one thing remains certain, all are destructive to ones learning.

Procrastination has plagued me since 6th grade. I often wait until the night before to study for an exam or write a paper. I do not know why, but if I had a guess, it would be because I am a combination of a thrill seeker and I just have a lack of motivation. However, in the past couple of years my procrastination has steadily declined. I attest this to just being generally aware. This is because I realize I cannot get good grades in college with the study habits I had in high school. I have adapted by studying earlier and much more frequently. One of the ways I got motivated to do so is by making a plan that was detailed and had the rewards I would reap from accomplishing this plan. In this case it is for LPP. I want to ultimately be a lawyer, so my parents made a bet with me that if I get A's in both my law classes they would take me on vacation. This is my motivation and I made a detailed plan on how to get it done.

When it comes time to study I all of a sudden become someone who loves to clean and work out. While it might seem negative, it is not too bad as long as I get the work done in a timely manner. However, I should be able to get those things done before I have to do work; not in substitution for it. Because I am a visual learner, I feel visual things also stop my procrastination. Apple has an app on the computer that allows you to leave sticky notes. It is the first thing I see when I log on, and it sticks in my mind all day. For example, today on my sticky notes it says to start my spm research paper, finish this blog, and to study for psych. I apply this by not doing anything until I finish this work. I would say this is a great way to avoid procrastination because the sticky notes are constantly in your face and are constant reminders.

Procrastination- time wasters

     I know that sometimes I procrastinate from doing assignments. Instead of doing assignments, I usually hang out with friends and watch TV shows. I think procrastination is about consequence. I procrastinate doing assignments. Finally, at the end of the week, I have stacks of assignments to do. Then, I do the assignments all night long. I am so tired in the next class. It is kind of a vicious cycle.

    Procrastination tends to occur as avoidance behavior and self criticism. First case is avoidance behavior. After dinner, I sit down at my desk and open a book. However, I usually decide to do other things, such as laundry, reading magazine, or watching drama. These things provide me a diversion from studying. While I am doing other thing, I rationalize myself that it will be OK to do others first and then come back and study. Second, self criticism occurs when I don’t attempt the assignments because I think there is no chance I can accomplish it successfully.

     Among several excuses that I procrastinate, time waster is the biggest one. So, I am going to use time wasters strategy. Time wasters support procrastination; they are the activities that I involve myself instead of accomplishing the work that needs to be done. Essentially, they are needless things, such as watching TV, chatting with friends, and online shopping. I really wanted to eliminate time wasters before. However, it was really hard to quit them. Because I completely forgot the determination, while I was doing them.

I waste lots of time doing time wasters.

My time wasters columns.

     In time wasters strategy, first, I made two columns, time wasters and avoid tasks. Second, in the left column, I listed the time wasters that I use. I wrote messenger, watching TV shows, fatigue, phone calls, and online shopping. These consume lots of time but they are needless. Third, in the right column, I described the task I was avoiding. I wrote 2D project, team project, ILL research paper, CLS journal, and 3D project. These are urgent and important things. I have to finish them before due date.

     I knew that time wasters consume lots of my time and I procrastinate doing assignments while I was doing time procrastinations. However, I realized more clearly about time wasters and avoided tasks through the columns. After I did time wasters columns, I wrote down time procrastinations on the post-it and put on my desk. Every time before I start assignments, I will remind that time wasters consume lots of my time and make bad consequences.

procrastination

There were lots of homework and exams this week. However, I found really hard to concentrate on my works. After the spring break, I felt myself becoming very lazy. I did not put much effort on my homework and exams than before. April is a time when I have to study very hard, because it's almost the end of the spring term. I, therefore, tried to find out my problem. By learning about procrastination in CLS 105 class, I realized that there were lots of things that disturbed me from studying. I also learned that 'Procrastination is about consequences'. I agreed with this idea, because at this week, I did not have enough time to complete my work and got lots of stresses. As a result, I got B on my Japanese exam. Therefore, I thought it would be necessary for me to find out my procrastination and change my behavior. I tried the 'Time Wasters' to solve my problem. Since I could not focus on studying this week, I really needed to know what things disturbed me from studying. I first made a chart. Then, I wrote don the time wasters on the left column of the chart and on the right column, I wrote down the avoided tasks. Below is the picture of this chart.



By making the time wasters, I found out that I spent too much time on the computer. Before, I did not even know that I spent much time on doing something with the computer. Since Japanese was my hardest subject, I always did not want to do it, because I knew that it would be hard and took lots of time. Therefore, I tended to do Japanese homework at the last minute. Also, when I was doing the computer, I felt that time went so fast. I felt that computer was very addictive that I should spend less time doing it. I knew that I needed to open my laptop to do my homework, so that it was impossible to not do computer at all. I, therefore, decided to minimize the time of doing computer. At this week, I only did the computer when I needed to do my homework, and spent less than 30 minutes to do some other activities such as messenger. After realizing that spend time on computer was procrastination and decrease the time of doing computer, I felt that I could concentrate on studying much better. I thought that electromagnetic wave from the computer also affected to the studying, because when I spent much time on computer, I felt headache that I could not focus on studying. After reducing computer time, however, I did not feel headache that I completed my Japanese homework and memorized Japanese words much faster than before. I did not know that realizing procrastination would be this helpful. I made a study schedule that I used before, and compared how much my behavior changed. The below picture is my study schedule.



On Monday and Tuesday, my behavior was not changed yet. I put much time on computer that I did not have enough time to complete my Japanese homework and prepared for the exam. After I got B on Japanese exam on Tuesday, I decided to change my behaviour. On Wednesday and Thursday, I used computer only when I needed to do write an essay on computer. Then, I found that I had enough time to complete my homework and study for an exam. I could even sleep faster. I realized that I made an excuse to myself, that I did not have a time to study, but it was not true. If I knew that I wasted time on certain thing, I could do my work much better. Therefore, on Japanese exam that was written on Friday, I could get an A. I think I should use time waster and study schedule together for the coming exam so that I will not put much time on time waster.

Procrastination

     It was as if someone was reading my mind this week. I am a colossal, massive, giant procrastinator, the words could go on and on. This is something I have always known about myself but have always regretted admitting. I have been repeatedly told from my mom and dad that I have a problem, and have often been asked "When are you going to realize you procrastinate?" However, denial no more! I am fully admitting to my weakness and declaring defeat. I decided I was going to confront my troubles face on and attack them.
     After reviewing the chapter in the textbook on procrastination, I realized I couldn't use these strategies in a specific course. Rather, I would use a couple of them and see what happens when I sit down to complete work for multiple classes. I am the type of person who doesn't like to sit down and only do one assignment. If I am investing in a trip to the library I am going to spend a substantial amount of hours there and get everything done. However, this calls for a lot of time for procrastination in my book and this week I need to figure out how to stop it.

     The strategies I used this week although I admit haven't completely eliminated my procrastination tendencies they have definitely reduced them. The first one I used was the excuse buster. I am full of excuses whether to my friends, parents, or even to myself. I make up excuses as to why I can't just sit down and do my assignment. After writing them down on the page it forced me to see the stupidity of my actions and jump start and change them. It was a bit of a struggle at first but I forced myself to get through it.
     The next anti-procrastination strategy I used was the Time Waster this is similar to the excuse buster in some ways but very different in others. This also allowed me to identify all the things I do when I avoid my actual work. However here I wrote down what task I was actually avoiding. In this case, this week I have been crammed with studying for tests. I had one in IST and SOC both these course require detailed study guides. My goal for using the Time Waster was to show myself how much time I could save if I just sat quietly and did all my work and focused.
     One thing that I do use religiously and has saved my life forever is Self Control. This website allows users to download a program to their computer that they can then open and block specific websites. For someone like me who needs to constantly check the internet for information this program saved my life. Now, instead of having to turn off my entire internet or even closing my computer I can block the websites that distract me for forever long I want starting at 15 minute intervals. That way I can guarantee to myself I won't be looking at Facebook. Granted, there are many other ways to be distracted but this eliminates my biggest enemy.
     There are a lot more strategies in the textbook that I have not touched upon in my blog however, are very useful and in my opinion cover every area of procrastination needed to convert the hardcore procrastinators over to conscious studiers.

The key to getting homework done...a cookie!

In order for me to get motivated I have to be in an organized, neat environment. I also need a reward; something waiting at the end of the tunnel pushing me to get through my work. So before I start my work I have to clean my desk and bedside area. Once everything is clean, the assignment I’m working on has to be organized and neatly spread out across my workspace so I can see everything that I’m working with.

Although this does motivate me to start my work, I need something else to keep me going, which is where rewards come in. I always say to myself if I do this work, then I can go to sleep early, watch a movie or have a cookie! Something that I enjoy that makes me genuinely want to finish my assignment. I also reward myself with good grades; I say to myself: if I do well on this assignment then I can buy a new shirt or go out for dinner. This helps me because while I am in the process of working, if I ever have a weak moment I automatically think of the reward and that motivates me to keep on going.

L A M E

This works for me because I am the type of Learner that needs to constantly read and write information multiple times. This can get very tedious and I often need motivation to keep going. The Action I take with this is motivating myself with cleanliness and rewards. The Materials I use are rewarding myself with things I enjoy doing like sleeping and shopping. My Evaluation is very positive! This system works very well for me and helps me during my weak moments, which are the worst.

Motivation

I personally believe the hardest aspect of studying is getting motivated. It is extremely hard to get off your couch and start reading or interpreting facts. It's not something I want to do by any means, but it is something I realize I must do. Honestly, in a perfect world, I would never have to read another textbook again and occasionally read the newspaper. Well, this world is not perfect so this scenario will most likely never occur. So, this brings me to the topic of how to get motivated to get my schoolwork done. There are both internal and external factors that can lead to motivation, and both are beneficial in their own ways.

My biggest internal motivator is to simply be successful. I have been blessed with a pretty good life, and I realize it is because my parents worked extremely hard from a young age. I need to implement this same mentality of diligence into everything I do. Simply put, the thoughts of my family and success are my main motivators for doing well in school.

An external motivator does not have to be something big by any means. For me, it is a poster I have hanging in my room. It reads: Justification For Higher Education. There is a picture of a mansion on the water with a lot of awesome cars in the garage. Is this a materialistic mentality? Yes. But it is what helps me get motivated.

Now- to the school work I got done as a result of these motivating factors. I only have one test this week and it is Thursday. Since I am a visual learner, after using the visual of the poster I applied the 20 minute technique to my Sport Management course to start making a study guide. The motivation did work quite well because the poster is literally right above my desk. So every time I got a little sluggish or started looking around, my eyes met the poster and I got right back into doing the assignment at hand.

Motivation- Academic Fears

          I think, motivation is the most important and powerful thing, when we want to accomplish something. Motivation is a kind of force that takes us apathy to activity. It makes us inactive to active. If we experience achievement, our motivation level goes up. As we can see the big difference between motivated students and unmotivated students, motivation is a quite important thing.

There are two ways in motivation, external and internal motivator. External motivators are those that come from a source outside of us. Internal motivators are those that are within us, such as feeling of accomplishment, learning for sake of learning, feeling a sense of satisfaction, and experiencing a sense of pride. The below picture is the chart of my external and internal motivators in 3D class. Both motivators are important, however, I think internal motivator is more important. It is controlled by us because the motivation comes from within.

Among several motivation strategies, I chose academic fear. I think the one reason for a lack of motivation is the fear that is generated by the impending consequence. In last semester, I took time art class. I was not motivated the class. In time art class, I usually learned computer programs and technical skills. However, I was not used to use computer programs. I had a fear generated from computer programs. Although I paid concentration on the class and professor’s lectures, I still didn’t understand computer programs. It seemed like that I was behind the class. I was fearful about the class. The fear is about what will happen next, such as grade and final portfolio. I talked with professors and got some helps from T.A. So, I finished the class well. However, if I knew this strategy, it would be easier.

The way to make academic fear chart is easy. First, I listed three academic fears and ranked order them as the above picture. My academic fears were do not understanding computer program (1), getting behind the class (2), and failing final portfolio (3).             Second, I chose worst fear. In the second column of the chart, I described the worst thing that can happen in the situation. My worst fear was that I would get C or D in the course and cannot make a good final portfolio. Third, in the third column, I described the best thing that can happen. My best outcome was that I talk and get some help from T.A. and professor. The finals step is describing what I need to do to make the best scenario happen. My action needed is that I talk with professor, read directions carefully, and talk with classmates.

After I made the chart, I regretted that I didn’t know the strategy before. If I knew it before, time art class was much easier to me. If I have another difficult class in future, I am going to use the chart. Through the chart, I realize my academic fear, worst outcome, best outcome, and action that I need. So, finally, I can make the best scenario for the course. Although I already know my academic fear and outcomes, it is better if I make a complete chart.

Motivation

By reading page 278 of 'It's all about choices', I found out that I was one of the students who were unmotivated. As it was written on the book, I tended to prefer homework that was easy to complete. Also, I gave up thing easily if certain subject was little bit hard to me. I realized that I need to have a motivation so that I can study harder with positive attitude. I, therefore, started to look for what motivated me the best to complete my course works. I chose one subject, Japanese, which was the hardest course for me and the course that sometimes I did not really want to do. I checked the reasons of attending to class that were listed on page 280 of 'It's all about choices'. The picture below is my check list.



By doing it, I could know that I actually had motivation of taking this course; I just thought that I did not want to do this course sometimes because there was lots of hard homework. I realized that I was personally interested in this course. I also did the checklist of why I am motivated to attend college. By doing it, I could have time to think of my motivation of coming college. Before, I did not really think of my motivation, and that way the reason why I thought I was a student who was unmotivated. Also, by having busy days in college, I tended to forget why I came to university. I was highly motivated at the start of the college life, but it seemed to reduce. By doing this checklist as below picture, I could think again about my reason to come college that I remembered I had enough motivation to come college and I could do better at university.



To know exactly about my motivation, I looked at external and internal motivators. The picture below is my external and internal motivators.







For external motivators, I wrote down Grade A test of Japanese test at Chapter 7 and 8. Since getting A on Japanese tests was very hard thing for me, to get an A at test motivated me to study harder. Whenever I wanted to give up studying Japanese, I looked at those tests and had encourage that I could get A again. Getting A on for all Japanese homework motivated me the most, because whenever I was doing Japanese homework, I wanted to give up. It was too hard to understand and there were always too many pages to do. I, however, knew that if I finished it by trying my best, I would be able to get A, because I always had A on all of my Japanese homework. I, therefore, did not give up and kept trying. For my internal motivators, I felt that I could speak Japanese much better than before. This made me to study more, because I knew that if I try harder, I could do much better in the future. Also, I satisfied that I could write more words in Japanese, and more sentences. This made me feel good and by thinking future, that I might be able to be able to write an essay in Japanese, I did not want to give up. After finishing my Japanese homework, which was the hardest homework in all of my courses, I felt accomplishment, and I was proud of myself, since I did not give up.
By writing down these external and internal motivators, I found out that there were many things to motivate me to study harder. Before writing it down, I did not know that there were this many things that could motivate me. Also, by the fact that this week was after the spring break, I felt myself to be less motivated and always felt tired. By looking at these motivators, however, I even became more motivated than before. After I was highly motivated, I felt myself to concentrate better on classes. At this week, I used plug in note and 20 minutes test prep to prepare my Japanese exam. I did not do anything special, but by being highly motivated, I got better grade than the last week. I found the strength of being motivated. I should keep continuing to be highly motivated until the end of semester, so that I could finish my semester with getting all ‘A’s on all courses.

Memory

     Memory is one thing that I have always prided myself on. I come from a performing arts background so everything I have done throughout my life has consisted of memorization. From song lyrics, to lines in a scene, and even dance moves. In addition, I went to a performing arts high school that tested these skills everyday therefore, making memorization a crucial part to my success.
    One of the things that I did throughout high school that really helped me was make up songs to remember information. My teachers allowed us to gather in small groups and create songs to radio hits incorporating information that we learned in class. Ever since I have gotten into the habit of either creating songs or rhymes to help me remember things.
   After reading the chapter about memory I was excited to read about similar strategies I have used now for a very long time. However, there was many modifications to these strategies that I had never thought about before that would ensure greater success then ever before.
   The strategy that I decided to apply to two of my courses this week was the acronym sentence. The reason I choose this was because I have used acronyms in the past but I wanted to explore this approach more.
   The first course I choose to use it in was PRL-206. The reason I choose this class was because it is a lot of memorization. The tests ask you to draw up a lot of definitions and recall what they mean. I was able to use this for things such as the page principles that asked you to list 6-7 principles that are crucial to the Public Relation field.
   The next course I used it in was SOC-101. This course also requires you to memorize a lot of information and apply them to basic theories and practices. This strategy is helpful when making notes and studying for tests.

    The only thing about this strategy is that it is hard to go into detailed information with the acronym abbreviations. Other than that I think it is a really helpful strategy that I will use in the future.

Dogs Drink Milk while Lassie helps people

WHEN LEARNING facts or chunks of information I always used to try and memorize it without associating them together. I always found myself studying for hours and hours and forgetting things I had studied. Studying with note cards was helpful for me, however I never combined information or connected it to make remembering facts easier. I would just quiz myself until I knew it all. But when I started to make mnemonic devices for chunks of information, this is when remembering facts was 100 times easier. For example, in my PSC 121 class we learned about the problems of democracy. There are 5 reasons but when I would quiz myself I could only remember to list 3 or 4, even though I knew the fifth problem, I never remembered to list it. I made an acronym for the problems- Dogs Drink Milk Like Slobs. By remembering this sentence I will not only remember 5 problems, but also it is much easier for me to recall the problems by knowing the first letter of each one.

ANOTHER TOPIC I have trouble remembering in my PSC 121 class is Culture Wars. Whenever we are asked about this I find myself blanking out and not able to come up with an answer. I decided to LINK the questions with the answers. So when I am asked about the culture wars going on regarding class I immediately think of the dog Lassie, who always helped people, as does healthcare. Little reminders and connections like this are the thing I need to spark my memory and remember an answer.

L A M E

As I've stated before, I am the type of Learner who needs to constantly write information out to remember it all. With these little tricks, writing out and remembering every detail is much easier and makes learning simpler. The Action I took was creating acronyms and linking words to absurd phrases. These strategies make studying chunks of facts go much faster. The Materials I used were charts that laid out all of the connections neatly and in an organized manner. My Evaluation of these strategies is very positive! Anything that makes studying easier and faster is a great strategy in my book!