Time Strategies
I'm going to start by saying that time management is a particularly weak point for me. I have always gotten my assignments and tasks done on time, but not necessarily in a timely fashion, often completing assignments the day they are due. I once wrote a 10-page research paper within a day and a half due to procrastination (though this is an extreme case, as I did have some personal issues going on at the time as well). Sadly, the mythical land of tomorrow is where most of my assignments end up pushed to as I progress further into the semester, as I am better at managing my time at the beginning of the semester. Many courses that I have taken have discussed effective time managing, as it is essential for the college student toolbox, but I just seem to have forgotten my toolbox in the trunk of my car. I feel like I have gotten better about managing my time and completing assignments before they are due, but I still have a few that will sneak up on me throughout the semester.
The 2 articles I chose to read:
The Important Habit of Just Starting
In The Myth of Too Busy, the author covers a solid point: we perceive ourselves as 'busy' by the way we prioritize our time. Often times, I may say that I am too busy with school work to go out shopping with friends or I am too busy with one assignment so I have to delay another. However, this supposed state of being busy is caused by the fact that I have 220 hours currently put into a game called Stardew Valley, which I often end up playing when I want to procrastinate work (though approximately 150 of those hours are from a period of a month in the first semester of my sophomore year). If I were to put off playing games until I have actually completed my work, then my idea of busy would vanish into thin air. The way we prioritize our time definitely has an impact on what we believe ourselves to be capable of accomplishing.
The second article I read, the Important Habit of Just Starting, really struck a chord in my procrastinating brain. There are many assignments I just haven't gotten started on, even though they are often pretty simple assignments that can be completed within an hour of starting them. This article has a similar theme to the first I read, as they both touch on the fact that we are in control of how we spend the hours of our day and that we can evaluate what time we spend efficiently. The 'diet in a candy store' example that the author utilizes definitely resonates with me, though in my case it is using my laptop, which holds all my games and access to videos, to complete my assignments. The temptation is constantly there and overcoming it can be quite difficult sometimes. The author also mentions how we can feel even more pressure simply from not starting than we would if we were to just suck it up and begin. Last semester, I had a course that was entirely online, in which we had to watch prerecorded lectures at our own pace. The most challenging part for me was simply starting the videos, finding the time to sit down and actually watch through an entire lecture, but I made it, and hopefully, I can be better about getting started during this semester.
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