Divid By 4 is the Way to Go

using the divid by 4 technique really helps you mange the task you have to get done. I know for me doing this made me get my work done. well I can't say it made me get my work done but it made me more organized and reminded me i needed to get it done. I used the strategy for my college learning skills class and it gave me reminders that I still need to get done. and I went away this weekend so the reminders helped me a lot to get this done. I will definitely be using this strategy again its a fin and easy way to get things done not just homework.    

LIKES: what i liked about this strategy was that you can get things done even if your on vacation for a little. like all the distractions that occurred this weekend didn't really phase me because i still got everything done.

DISLIKES: nothing to hate aboit strategy, only thing is i feel its very similar to the target planner jist a different way to do it.

Do a little TASK MANAGEMENT by hitting your TARGET and DIVIDING BY FOUR!!

OMG!!! I am just a week and a half from finals, but first I got a few papers to write. I am usually good with task management, but this time because it's combined with my regular assignments, out of class work, and my exam preparation time. With these kinds of problems, I am using two strategies that are helping me to finish my papers on time before this Thursday.

Target Planner

There's that famous game of hitting a target. Well this time, it's making your own target by using dates and plans to finish the assignments on time. I used this strategy for my SPA 301 paper, and this allows me to divide the final paper into various parts with dates, all leading up to the due date this Thursday. What I do with this planner is putting it on the wall, which allows me as a visual learner to look at what I have left and when I am supposed to work on a specific task for that assignment.




Divide by Four

Although this strategy is somewhat similar to the Target Planner, it is also useful to manage your task management. This strategy helps you prepare, start, continue, and finish your assignment in the four different ways that I just mentioned. I also used this strategy for my SPA 301 paper and it has helped me divide the task and put specific notes on what I should do for my assignments like preparing introductions and making a bibliography on a certain date.







A little secret...

There is one very good thing about both these strategies, and is that it allows you to CHUNK THE TASK. This allows you to divide the assignment into different parts and do them on a very specific time. That way I don't have to cram one all-nighter working on a paper that I haven't started yet. This is a third strategy that can be put inside into the ones I just mentioned and used. Isn't that great?

My Thoughts

I really, REALLY have nothing negative to say about these strategies. They all worked for me and it can be applied to any course. If you are having a lot of final papers to do, then these strategies are for you. I can say that using these strategies has helped me to save time and sleep more earlier because I knew how to divide my task effectively. I hope this works for you and good luck on finals!!!

Managing your task the EASY WAY !

Are you the type of person who panics when you are given a HUGE assignment that is impossible to do within a day ? Don't know how to manage your assignments ? Tired of wasting your time and leaving your school work for the last minute ? Fed up with PROCRASTINATION? It's all about managing your time the best way possible ! Here's how you can learn how to sit your butt down on a chair and get your act together instead of procrastinating.

How to manage your assignments ?

These are the top strategies that I have learned to follow in order to be successful with managing my assignments.

• First off, you have to work on your hardest course first or the hardest assignment. Why ? Hard courses require a lot of your attention span and concentration, that's why they should be done first. You are more alert when you begin something and your attention span is at it's best.
• Second, divide your assignments into small parts so you can lead your attention span into a guide of hard to easy work. For example, time your self on how long it takes for you to do a reading assignments. Break it down into small pieces so let's say it takes you an 1 hour to read a article for homework. Then chunk it down and read 10 min., break, 10 min. again. See ? Very simple.
• Thirdly, you can alternate other things during your study time. For example, while working on your "hard course project", set a side another task you have to do but that's easier. That way you can switch every so often so it can maintain your concentration.
• Fourth, list your assignments by due dates so in that way you can force yourself to get them accomplish early. The early due dates should have the highest priority assignments.

Divide by 4
One strategy that I have been using lately is the divide by four. Each week i have an assignment for Sociology and it's basically a paper that i have to write every week based on the readings we are assigned to read. Personally, I don't like to read so i would leave everything till the last minute and when the last day would come to give in a certain assignment, i would skim and basically write whatever i thought the article was about. Using divide by far helped me management my assignment. So how did i use divide by four ? When using this strategy, you basically have to remember these 4 concept. Prepare, start, continue and finish.

1.Prepare- I read the article that was assigned from my sociology class, and then i brainstormed idea's what i could write about. How was i going to write it ?

2.Start- I started brainstorming ideas and created an outline.

3.Continue - I wrote the paper, incorporating the main questions that my professors wanted to answer.

4.Finish- I revised it and gave it. Lately i have been getting 10/10 on my papers !

Likes
What i liked about this strategy is that it helped me break down the assignments and i actually learned what i read about instead of skimming which was no good. I also liked how i set little deadlines, like "okay, I'm going to start this on Monday, write the paper 0n Wednesday, and give it in on Friday. It's easy as one, two, three and it's an effective strategy. It's not even time consuming. I even did some of my Spanish homework while the article was started to become more dense because i was loosing focus on how hard it was to understand it. But then i kept switching back and forth, maintaining my concentration and my attention span.

Dislikes
None.

When in Doubt Divide & Use Post-Its!

Can you believe that the semester is coming to an end? I can't. Where has the time gone? In a few short weeks the spring semester will be over. Yay!! Since the semester is almost over it is especially important that everyone continue to use the Task Management Skills that we learned at the beginning of CLS 105. Task management is important for several different reasons. If you are managing your tasks efficiently then you will have time to get all of your assignments done on time so that you will not have to pull all nighters to complete assignments. This week I used the Divide by Four and Post-It Reminder task management skills to help me with finishing my last project for WRT 205 for which I have to make a trailer.

I learned about the Divide by Four strategy at the beginning of the year and I have been using it in my classes during this semester. To use this strategy all you have to do is take an assignment and divide into 4 easier parts. As you can see below I divide my WRT 205 project into four smaller parts so the project is not as hard for me to complete.

Divide by 4 Strategy for WRT 205

The second strategy I used was the Post-It reminder strategy. This strategy is really simple and everyone can do it all you need is post-its. For this strategy you use post-its to organize all the assignments/task that you need to complete. You can use different colored post-its to represent how urgent the assignments are or another way you can use this strategy is to use color coding for a week that tasks need to be accomplished.

Post-It Strategy

Both of these strategies have worked well me this semester by keeping me organized so I will definitely continue to use these strategies to help with my management skills. One reason that I liked these strategies is because I am a linear and visual learner. The divide by four strategy worked well for me because I am a linear learner so information has to be presented to me in a list or sequenced way so that I can understand it which is exactly what this strategy does. The Post-Its strategy helped me alot because I am a visual learner so by using post it notes I am always able to see what assignments I need to finish. As you can see in my pictures I put post-it notes on my desk and on my computer screen so that I always see them and know which tasks need to be completed. I also liked how the divide by four strategy helped me to break down my trailer project in WRT 205 into smaller chunks because when I first heard about the assignment I was overwhelmed by the amount of things that I had to do for this project but the divide by four strategy helped me to see that the project was not as much work as I had originally thought it was. Another good thing about both of these strategies is that they are not time consuming to do, these strategies only take a few minutes of your time. So you should definitely try using both of these strategies because they will both benefit you by keeping you organized.

I hope you the Divide by Four and Post-It strategy will work wonders for you as it has for me this semester. As long as you keep up with your tasks and stay organized you will have no problems completing your end of the semester projects and finals. Good luck with your final exams and do not forget to about all of the strategies that we have learned in CLS 105 this semester.

A Cigarette a Day Keeps the Stress Away

I have many gray hairs. I got my first when I was five years old. Now I know that this is a hereditary trait of mine because I have several relatives from my mother's side that have grayed early. But most of the time, when people ask, I just tell them that architecture is taking its toll on me, and my grays are due to the stress.

Looking at the strategies we learned this week for dealing with this stress, I found that most of them were ineffective and inconsequential. Five-Minute Escape? Really? Like we needed a book to tell us that sometimes we need to sigh. And yes, I did try it, even though I felt rather foolish doing it. And maybe it was due partly to the stress I was dealing with, or maybe it was the fact that my eyes were closed, or maybe it was both of these things, but rocking my head back and forth made me nauseous and my work seem a little more daunting. So you know how I dealt with my stress? I smoked a delicious, wacky-tobacky cancer stick. That's right folks, just a good ol' fashion nicotine high and I was feeling MUCH better.

As for the other stress management methods in the text, getting your priorities straight is good n' all. I wrote out a list each morning for three mornings. (Found it stressful to try and remember to write the list when I was going to be late for class, just a side note.)

And as for the Stress Reduction Plan, I found that a lot of the things mentioned, I already do. Going to the gym when I find the time is a great way to deal with stress, because when one is at the gym, one concentrates only on exercising and the music from his/her iPod (or Zune if one is a weenie). And one feels much better about him/herself when leaving the gym all flustered and worn out. I personally love to get massaged when I'm feeling stressed, or just whenever. Often I'll study with my girlfriend and she always scratches my head when I get overwhelmed, and I of course would do the same.

But an entire "Plan" on this stuff? A simpler way to describe the "Stress Reduction Plan" would just be: "Do some of the stuff you do when you aren't working." It's more a list of interests that a person may or may not have.

But when the day is done, I find that a cigarette and a cup of tea do wonders for managing my stress. Simple as that.

Ways To Reduce Stress

        Their are many ways to reduce stress. methods all over the world get used everyday to chill people out when they've had a long day at work or something. I rarely get stressed out, the only time I usually get really stressed out is when I have a huge tests coming up. i get stressed over tests because I don't get the best of grades but I try to do as best as I can. To do that I have to go to my tutors and study instead of doing other fun things.

      

          I used a the ten minute vacation the first time when asked to use a strategy for stress and that strategy proved to be useful as well the one I used this time. This time I used the Stress-O-Meter I liked this one because it made me think of all the possible things that I could do to avoid all the things that caused me stress at that particular point in time. I was able to maintain my good mood throughout the day and it made practicing a lot easier. It also helped me out with doing homework to. I used to be mad about doing my home work and it would take me longer to do it but im over that. Now I just think about what im going to do after im done with I all. There's nothing I can really say about it that I didn't like, everything comes into perspective for me when I use this strategy. 


          I definitely will continue to use these strategies that I've learned in this class im sure they will be beneficial somewhere down the road and knowing how to reduce stress is the first step to living a healthy life. 

    

Don't even STRESS it !

Stress in General Are you going through any of the symptoms from the diagram above ? Everybody must have went through these symptoms due to a lot of stress. Many stressors can alter a person's life. A decrease in exam grades, loss of eating, poorly attending classes, losing interests in activities, avoiding deadlines etc. This can occur in many college students lives. Stress, who doesn't have it ?

Most college student goes through a huge amount of stress throughout their semester depending on what courses they are taking. When I was a high school student, i didn't understand the meaning of stress..until i got into college. I never been out on my own and i thought that i could handle everything but it took me a while to realize that sometimes i need to breath. But i feel like that's what life's about. Having stress. You just have to learn how to avoid it or deal with it. How? It's all about managing your stress and controlling your reactions to your current situations that makes you want to avoid it. Once you change your reaction to the stressful situation by doing things that you enjoy, it can reduce the stress.

This is how i dealt with my stress maybe it will work for you

In the beginning of my freshman year, the transition was really sudden for me. I didn't know how to balance out my classes, social life and my personal life as well. This semester has a bit of stress for me. My CLS 105 class has helped me see what kind of strategies i can use to avoid stress. What i learned was three important things to stress management; CAUSE, RELAX, ORGANIZE. You have to find out what the cause of the stress is so basically you identify. After you find your stressors, you take a break from it and relax. After you are done taking a break from the stress, go back to it and organize in a different way. In class, i learned about the stress reduction strategies and tried two of them. But first, i used the strategy that helped me identify which are the stressors in my life.

Stress diagram

This strategy helps you visually see what are the stressors in your life and how much of it stresses you by making a diagram. You first write out your list of stress by prioritizing them and then make a diagram. This helps you identify what it the most stress in your life or which is the least. When i wrote down my list of sources i just thought of everything in general that i don't even like doing or handling the situation because i know it's just going to frustrate me and stress me. What's stressing me right now is the finals because i know i have to give in a Global Event Log by the last day of class and i got a Sociology paper/exam for the last day as well. So in general, paper and projects are the most thing that i am concerned about and should address first !

Stress Reduction Plan

I love this strategy so much ! why ? because it allows me to relax of course. What you need to do is make a list on what you enjoy doing a lot or what makes you forget about your problems. It's okay to take a breather. This plan can help you control your stress if you have a huge amount of it. It can be a part of your daily routine or even your weekly routine. For my daily routine for my stress, i would go on facebook and just look at people's pretty pictures and it helps me smile and forget about my stress. So let's say i have to start on that WGS global event log, i could start on it every weekend and just do things to take my mind off it in case i feel tensed from it. I would also talk to a friend about my problems and what i am stressing about whether it's personal stuff or finacial things. I remember i was stressing about not having enough money for next year and i asked my friend for a lunch date at bubble tea because my mom has been bugging me about taking out loans and looking for scholarships. i was having a good time with my friend and then i decided to tell her about my situation and she recommended a program for people struggling finacially. It was good that i actually talk to her and she offered a possible solution in reducing my stress !

Another stradegy that relates to this is...

10 minute vacation

For this stradegy, it's more for people that are doing project or doing a work that requires a long specific amount of time to do. 10 minute can allow you to get away from all that stress of work. YES ! only 10 minutes though. You can go to "vacation spots" like YOUTUBE or ADDICTIVEGAMES.COM etc. Anything that you want to get your mind off and enjoy doing will allow you to release some of that stress away. I would go on youtube and watch and listen to cool music video! One video that i have been attached to watch and listen to is " Her morning Elegance by Oren Lavie".

Conclusion

Honestly i have been doing these things everyday ! i know i cant just keep working and not breath a while. I need to do things that i enjoy or I'll just having those symptoms of the diagram above. i dont think anybody wants that. Everybody has stress, you just have learn how to react to it and not go crazy !

How to control your Stress with control over YOU!!

It's the end of a very long day for me. As I sit down and look at my planner to see what I have to do for today, my eyes just go wild and my mind goes nuts. I am starting to feel stressed out, because I feel that I have a lot of work. I think personally that stress is just a feeling to make you nervous and anxious about everything. But read this: STRESS CAN BE REDUCED!!! Although sometimes you feel that stress cannot go away, trust me: EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION. This week, I tried two strategies that can help you reduce your stress completely.

A Day at a Time

You have control over stress and this is a strategy that really spoke to me and it can speak to you. One night before going to bed, I looked and thought about the things that caused me stressed during the day. For example, I had a SPA 301 test last Thursday that was causing me stress. I studied and took the exam and it's now off my stress list. Also you can see that I have various long-term goals that are causing me stress during some parts of the week that I cannot take away for now. But once that stress is over, it's off the list. It's a great strategy that not only reminds you what stresses you have, but you can eliminate everything that doesn't cause you stress everywhere.

Stress-O-Meter

I personally didn't know that measuring your stress can be that easy. I think the Stress-O-Meter really helped me to measure my levels and attitudes to my academic abilities every day. The idea is simple: measure your stress from 1 to 5 (1 is fine, 5 is super stressed), find the cause of the stress, and put a stress reducer that you use. I love listening to music, so that is a super stress reducer to me. This is a great way to measure and reduce your stress and see how you act against academic situations every day.

My Thoughts

Stress doesn't disappear fully and sometimes it feels that stress always can stay to you forever. But with these strategies, you can reduce stress significantly. My experience was really good while using these strategies, and although I feel overwhelmed, these strategies reduced my stress significantly. I really have nothing negative to say about the strategies. I encourage you to try them and see your yourself that stress can be reduced.

Say No to Stress

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed and stressed with assignments from courses or other things in your life such as extracurricular activities, family, jobs or other things that you just wanted to scream or just give up? I definitely have. This week in CLS I learned 2 stress reduction strategies that helped me with my stress management skills. Both of these strategies will prove to be beneficial to you as well.

Stress management is a very important topic especially since the semester is almost over and the levels of stress are at there highest at this time for college students. In order to manage your stress successfully you need to control your reactions by not allowing stress overwhelm you. To manage your stress you need to figure out what the root of your stress is. For example are you stressing over a project that you have, money, job or family? After you recognize why you are stress then you need to teach yourself to relax in stressful situations and take a step back to take a deep breath so that you can forget all of your worries. Another useful tip for handling stress is organizing your tasks and responsibilities so that you do not get feel stressed. Now that you know a few tips for managing stress I will tell you about the 2 stress reduction strategies that I used this week which were the Stress Diagram and the Stress Reduction Plan. Both of these strategies helped me to stay calm and focused this week because I have been stressed about a paper I have due in WRT 205 on Monday and an exam I have in CHE 116 on Thursday.

Stress Diagram

The Stress Diagram is an easy strategy to use that only takes a few minutes of time. This strategy helped me to realize the things the things in my life that were causing me the most amount of stress so that I could deal with them. First you list 5 or more sources of stress that are present in your life. Then you draw a circle and divide the circle into the number of sources that you have making a pie chart. The sources that are causing you the most stress should represent a larger potion of the pie chart than the other sources do. For example in my pie chart my argumentative essay takes up a big amount of space because it is due soon and it is stressing me out more my other stress sources are.

The Stress Reduction Plan is simple strategy that involves making a list of stress relieving activities that can become apart of your daily routine in college and later on in your life. After using this strategy I realized that I need to start controlling my stress by taking time to participate in activities that I like.

Stress Reduction Plan

I really enjoyed using the Stress Diagram and the Stress Reduction Plan this week because both of these strategies helped me to create a personal plan to reduce stress in my life. Furthermore I liked these strategies because they were easy to use and are adaptable so they can work for just about anyone whether the person is a college student or professional. I can apply both of these strategies not only to my academic life but also to my everyday life so I will definitely continue to use this strategies and make them a part of my everyday routine. In addition, I liked these strategies because I am a visual learner so by writing down all of my sources of stress and stress reducing activities I was able to see the main things that were causing me stress as well as some things that I could do to get rid of stress. These week I have been working really hard on my last paper for my WRT 205 paper which has been a major source of stress for me but these strategies helped me to take time away from my paper so that I could reduce my stress levels. This worked well for me because when I was extremely stressed out I was unable to think of anything to write. I found that after I took time to do an activity that I wrote down in my Stress Reduction Plan that I was able to relax then I was able to go back to writing my paper and I felt refreshed which made me think of new interesting things to write about.

I hope you will try using either the Stress Diagram or Stress Reduction Plan to help alleviate some of the stress in your daily life so that you can make the most of the last few weeks of the semester. Enjoy the nice weather and Remember that "stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life" ~Danzae Pace

Seeking Motivation to End Procrastination

To be honest, I didn't really find any strategies I liked in this section, as I see procrastination and motivation to be two sides of the same coin. In other words, you need to MOTIVATE in order to not PROCRASTINATE.

As such, I found that most of the methods I used during this chapter were from other sections. The 10 minute technique can be in any one of these chapters, it's entirely universal. X-minute comes in handy when you just don't want to read a chapter of a text book.

Also, what I find helps prevent procrastination is having a plan. When working on a project, having an idea of where you want to go with it makes the project less daunting and frustrating and more engaging. The same works for preventing procrastination. If I lay out a plan ahead of time for the day, or even the rest of the week, I know that my work is structured, and that I have enough time to get everything done. Of course, I make sure to schedule in plenty of breaks. With this, I feel an urge, an obligation even, to stick to the schedule, and I know I'll get things done and I won't stress over doing them.

With a schedule in mind, and some handy techniques to help break up my work, excuses are a thing of the past.

Stopping Procrastination!

Procrastination a huge problem in our society today. We need to find ways to stray away from this disease if you will. I think people procrastinate because either we're to lazy or we just have a busy schedule and forget about somethings that we need to do. For me the reason why I procrastinate is because of my schedule not to say I just I don't just get lazy sometimes and put it off until the last minute but I have gotten better with my procrastination. I used to wait until the day my work is due to get it done but that created all sorts of problems for me because doing my work the day of cut into my off time were I would sleep before practice or in between classes. For the first procrastination tech assignment I used chunking the task which helped me out tremendously and the strategy I used this time was Excuse Busting this is also a really good strategy for me in particular.








I used this strategy for my writing 205 class because I tend to procrastinate in this class a little. I needed to type up some paragraphs about my project I'm doing in the class and I didn't want to wait until the last minute to do it all. Doing my home work was easy when it came down to it but then thats the reason i procrastinated in the first place because it was really easy to do. This strategy makes you understand the consequences to not doing my work like getting a bad homework grade that would bring my grade down the class because its a big part of the class since we don't have tests and quizzes in the class. I've gotten all of it done in a matter of 30 minutes, I just had to sit down at my computer and focus enough to get it all done. 






















Likes: I like how this strategy makes you think of all possible consequences at hand so you give your self no choice but to finish it. I also liked that once I was done with my home work it took a lot of stress off of me and I like that because I usually think about my home work while I'm in practice and it makes me unfocused sometimes. 




Dislikes: There wasn't anything I can say about the strategy that I didn't like. It made me get all my work done ahead of time.




Using the strategies I learned will make me a better person and a less stressed person. If someone with chronic procrastination were to use these strategies I feel they would become a better student.

Ways to Stop Procrastinating and do your work ON TIME!!

I don't consider myself a procrastinator. I always like to make all my work on time and with no excuses, even if I have a lot of temptations on the way. But it's never too late or too soon to have strategies just in case any situation happens. Not that I want to become a procrastinator, but I don't want any excuse or anything to stop me from doing what I am supossed to do.

Excuse Busting

Too much excuses, so little time... I might think so many times... "I have errands to do, it's laundry time, and I haven't cleaned my room in days..." And on top of that I have a paper due tomorrow. Too much excuses, right? The Excuse Busters strategy was perfect for people like me who has some school work to do and have hundreds of excuses. I basically put my excuses and made a "translation" of why I don't do my work. This really helps me to understand the way I never do my work on time.

10-Minute Technique

This is one of my favorite strategies. It's really simple to use. Do your assignments in just 10 minutes, and you will get a lot done. But I have a very simple idea that can help you dominate those ten minutes and not waste any time at all. What I would usually do, is set a timer of ten minutes at my iPhone and with that sense, I will be time pressured in order to finish my work in time, after those 10 minutes, another ten min. to have fun, then back to work, fun, work, fun... Just like that and you will get your work finished on time.

My Thoughts

Like I said before, I really, REALLY don't consider myself to be a procrastinator. But I felt that when I was using these strategies, I felt more relieved and confident that I could do all my work on time. The strategies were easy to use and forces me to take action when I am stuck on doing anything for a class. Also in the case of the 10-minute technique, the strategies really help me get motivated. Hope everybody (whom probably is more of a procrastinator than I) tries these strategies and get amazing and better results. STOP PROCRASTINATING!!!

Stop Procrastinating & Get Your Work Done

There is less than a month left of classes so now is the time to break the habit of leaving assignments until the last minute aka Procrastinating. College students everywhere struggle with procrastination including myself. One reason why many college students continue to procrastinate is because even though they stay up late writing an essay or studying for an exam if they get a good grade on their assignment they will continue to procrastinate because they have not experienced negative consequences. However if the same student does the same things but either gets low grades or does not have enough time to finish assignments they might decide to stop procrastinating and change their behavior.

I am chronic procrastinator which is especially bad because since the semester is ending I have several projects, essays and exams to complete so I can definitely not afford to be lazy and wait until the day before or the day these assignments are do to complete them. Sometimes when I have an assignment do I avoid the assignment by doing laundry or cleaning my room just so I can keep myself busy so I will have an excuse not to complete the task. Another bad habit I have is criticizing myself which prevents me from even attempting to study or write a paper because I believe that I can not do the task and I am afraid to fail. The worst thing that I do is when I lie to myself and allow myself to believe that I have everything in control when I know that this is not the case. I know that if I want to change my procrastination behavior and become a better student then I need to stop procrastinating. This week I used 2 different anti-procrastination strategies that helped me to evaluate my procrastination which were Time Wasters and Admitting the Consequences. I used both of these strategies for my WRT 205 class because I have a major 8 page essay due on April 18th that is worth 30% of my grade that I have been putting off and it is important that I do well on this last essay because it is worth alot more than the first two essays were worth. I also want/need to do well on this essay because on my previous essay which was due the Monday after Spring Break I did not do as well as I wanted to because I procrastinated and waited until the night before to write the essay instead of working on the essay during spring break like I should have.

Strategies

The 1st strategy I used was the Time Wasters strategy. Time Wasters are anything that you use to waste time that should be spent on doing an assignment. My four main Time Wasters are Facebook, texting, watching tv, and instant messaging. To use this strategy you make two columns in the left column you write your time wasters and in the right column you write the tasks that you avoided. Below is a picture of my Time Wasters chart.

Time Wasters for WRT 205

The 2nd strategy I used was the Admitting the Consequences Strategy. This strategy forced me to admit the consequences of my procrastination behavior to myself and did not allow me to continue lying to myself. To use this strategy you make three separate columns in the left column write tasks, in the middle column write consequences, and in the last column write rating. After you have created this chart in the left column jot down the tasks that you have been procrastinating about. Then in the middle column you write down the consequences you had as a result of procrastination. In the right column you rate each consequence as negative, insignificant or positive. Next you decide if your procrastinating behavior needs to change or not. The last step is to look at all of your negative consequences and make a plan to stop this consequences from occurring again.

Admitting the Consequences for WRT 205

Evaluation

Both of these strategies showed me that I need to stop procrastinating if I want to finish the semester strong because by procrastinating I am hurting myself and causing myself unnecessary stress. The Time Wasters strategy showed me that I have been wasting alot of time online and texting which causes me to stay up late at night completing assignments. After I realized this I decided to write a page of a draft then spend 20-30 minutes on facebook or texting so that way I do not let these thing distract me. When I did the Admitting the Consequences strategy I realized that all of the tasks that I was procrastinating affected my ability to do the next task. For example since I did find my 3 secondary sources for the paper until the last minute I was unable to write my draft and my annotated bibliograpghy. I liked this strategy alot because it made me rate my consequences which showed me that I do not want these consequences to happen again so I need to make a plan to prevent this from happening in the future. I am a visual learner so both of these strategies worked well for me because I was able to write down all of the tasks that I was procrastinating which allowed me to see that my behavior needs to change.

If you are having trouble with procrastination try using the two strategies I mentioned in my blog. Remember as Benjamin Franklin once said "You may delay, but time will not".

Procrastinating defines your life !

Ever wonder why you procrastinate ? Perhaps the real reason why you do so ?

According to many college students, they do it to avoid doing something that they do not want to do. Of course, it could either be homework, making appointments, study for an exam, writing a paper, going to class, and the list goes on.

What do procrastinators do to in order to avoid doing the above ?

They make excuse to avoid it ! Procrastinators deceives themselves by making a lie that they will do their work on time but in reality, they really don't. One example of a procrastinator is ME.

My Life as a Procrastinator

In my daily life as a college student, I feel like I am really irresponsible when it comes to getting academic work. Honestly, when it comes to homework or big projects to do; I procrastinate but I get the job done. I could stay up till 5 in the morning or 9 in the morning writing a paper but i will go to class and give it in on time, no matter how long i stay up. I really hate doing things at the last minute but then again, it is my fault because it's my choice to do so. If the paper is due Wednesday and i am doing nothing on a Monday, then i will just lie to myself that i have so much time and i can do it on Tuesday since i have one class. The Pro for this would be I get to have some ME time on Monday and do whatever i want but when Tuesday comes, I get hit in the face with so much CONS. Cons as in, writing the paper at the last minute, no organizers, no feedback from teachers, no revisions ! I hate this lifestyle but after a while through high school, i got used to it. Except when i came to Syracuse University. The writing teachers do not joke around when it comes to writing papers. Or when i would have to take an exam, I would have to at least study a 2 days before. For a midterm exam, perhaps a one or two weeks in advanced.

Several answers that helped me..
Several Anti-Procrastination Strategies that I found useful that Professor Blumin provided for PROCRASTINATORS was Time Wasters AND Chunking the Task.


Time Wasters

Time wasters is a perfect strategy that allows me to identify what I tend to put more of my attention to as opposed to my work. After writing down all my time waster, it makes me want to say " DAMNNNN! I waste so much time avoiding my homework just doing this. This is crazy !". I realize what are my time wasters and what not to have around me when i am doing homework. I have so much potential to finish everything on time if it wasn't for these distractions but as i realized, it was only up to me to change that. This is where Chunking the task steps in...


Chunking the Task

This is such an effective strategy that allows me to break up a whole project or a big task, into tiny little pieces ! I can easily use this fir difficult, large assignments that makes me want to avoid them. What i do is just divide the task into small sections so i can do each part everyday and when i break it down, i only put 30 or minutes into the work. When i want to start on a paper, i usually procrastinate to till the last minute. Now that i can break the task into small pieces, i can write the outline one day and then the next day, i can begin half of the paper. I used this strategy for my WGS 201 reading response which is usually 3-5 pages. Breaking it down the task usually gets me high grade, wouldn't you want that as well? This doesn't necessarily have to apply to academic work. It can apply to your personal life as well like me not cleaning my room. I am such a messy person and i rarely clean my room. It makes me feel bad when i have to bring guest over and i just kick everything to the side. Now i have this strategy that i have been using like a couple of week ago. I pick up after myself every day. Like hang up my clothes one day, clean the mirror another day. Clean the dust on my table and vacuum the carpet on a Sunday. Usually it would take me a whole day to clean my room and i would waste so much time but i don't plan on doing that anymore.


Likes and Dislikes

I really like using the Chunking the Task strategy because I use it everyday. I like using the time waster because it shows me what i have to avoid in my study environment.

Ways To Stay Motivated

I keep myself motivated in many ways whether it's out on the field or in the classroom. I've developed certain strategies that help me do what i need to do to be successful. Although.... there are many other motivational strategies that have been taught to me recently and i actually like the new ways i've learned. 

One of the motivational strategies I've learned is called exploring rewards this strategy helps you map out the rewards to doing something that requires that certain level of motivation you need. 

I used this for my writing 205 courses because thats the class giving me some trouble. Don't have test in the class but we get a good amount of homework in there and I started to find myself really unmotivated to do the homework. The class was easy so sometimes I just blow the homework off but using this strategy really helps you put everything into perspective because I couldn't keep missing my homework without any consequences. but now i got my act together and I'm on top of everything now. 

Academic Fears 

This was the second strategy I used and i felt like it had done the same thing the exploring rewards strategy did it just had a different name. 

I used this strategy for my NSD 225 class because I felt I needed a little more extra enthusiasm trying to pass this class. I always feel so sleepy when I have this class, probably because its my first class of the day and its kind of a joke class but that makes it all the worse because I need to receive a good grade in their . Like the exploring  rewards strategy it also put things into perspective for me because I need a good grade in that class also. I'm not worried about passing either one of these classes though because like I said if I were in really deep about to fail I'd shape up right and get everything done with my internal motivation.

Be Motivated!! Don't lose hope!! Great New Strategies

Being motivated in college is a hard, HARD thing to do. Too much responsibilities ahead of time, sleepless nights, and a lot of studying can be the factors for being un-motivated. I have passed through hard times these two semesters in which I felt that I failed in my goals, failed on a paper and/or an exam, and classes were starting to get boring. There is no reason for that and there is a way of being more MOTIVATED. The next two strategies really helped me get back on track and become happy with an amazing feeling.

Academic Fears

This is the strategy that really spoke to me. The idea behind this strategy is to list all your academic fears by ranking them from 1 to 3, and predict the worst outcome for the fears. Then comes the best and my favorite part: predicting the best outcome and making up three solutions to solve the crisis that I am battling. As you can see, the strategy was really easy to make and to me it doesn't have to be in one specific course, it did the strategy by looking at some of the things that were happening in class and in my academic life in the past few weeks.



Exploring Rewards

Out of those best outcomes and solutions, let the rewards begin. As you can see, I really love the strategy because out of all the hard work, comes good things. I listed one reward each for something that is low-cost, high-cost, and a reward that doesn't cost anything. It is good for me to know that I can reward myself for all the hard work and knowing that everything pays off, and you can make those academic rewards disappear. And just in case you were wondering, I DO want an iPad 2!!

My Thoughts

These strategies are not about being a visual or kinetic learner. They are not about using a new strategy that can help you study, but this is all about being motivated. I sometimes feel un-motivated because of situations that I knew that I failed and it takes time to feel motivated once again. I can't say nothing negative about the motivation strategies, because there's really nothing negative about them. It's all about predicting the best outcome, hope for the best, and reward myself. These strategies REALLY helped me and I encourage everyone to try them, post them on a wall where you can be reminded every day and you will be fine. Try them and marvelous thing will DO happen!!

It's Time to Get Motivated!!

M-o-t-i-v-a-t-i-o-n. What does that spell? It spells Motivation. What is Motivation? Motivation can be defined as an action or actions that moves a person towards a desired goal. Almost every college student struggles with motivation on a daily basis in one way or another.

In a few short weeks the spring semester will come to an end. During the last few weeks it becomes extremely difficult for students to stay motivated. It is hard being motivated to accomplish tasks. I have noticed that as the semester progresses I have become less motivated in my courses even waking up in the morning to go to class has become a challenge. The end of the semester is the worst time to become unmotivated because of all of the final exams, projects and other tasks that are due. This week in CLS I used 2 different motivation strategies which were Academic Fears and Exploring Rewards.

The first strategy I used was Academic Fears. I used this in my WRT 205 course because my last essay for WRT 205 is due in two and a half weeks.This strategy only takes four steps which are:

1. List 3 academic fears then rank these fears

2. Next choose your worst fear & describe the worst thing that can happen in the 2nd column 3. In the 3rd column write the best thing that can happen

4. In the fourth column write the action that you need to take for the best scenario to occur

Academic Fears

The second strategy I used was Exploring Rewards. To do use this strategy you just need to make a table like the one I made below that has no-cost rewards, low-cost rewards, and high-cost rewards in separate rows. Then in each column you write rewards that you believe will motivate you.

Exploring Rewards

Evaluation

Both of these strategies taught me several things about myself because they made me evaluate my motivation which is something that I had never done before. These strategies forced me to be honest with myself and made me take action so that I could become motivated. Before I used Academic Fears and Exploring Rewards I would wonder why at the beginning of the semester I was excited for courses to begin and interested in the topics but after the first mid term I was ready for the semester to end. These strategies helped open my eyes and led me away from my pessimistic thoughts that resulted due to my lack of motivation. For both of these strategies I made tables which was very effective for me because I am a linear learner. By using tables I was able to organize the information into a logical way that made it easier for me to understand and since I put used tables I am more likely to look at and use these strategies again in the future. After I used these strategies I finally understood what motivates me to accomplish task which is a valuable piece of information that everyone should know about themselves. In addition, now I know what I need to do in order to motivate myself and what incentives I should use to motivate myself. One thing that I like about both of these strategies is that they can be used in any course. Furthermore these strategies can also be applied to other situations they do not only have to be applied to academics.

After using these two strategies this week I was motivated to write a one page draft for my WRT 205 class for my final essay. I am glad that I was motivated to write this draft because when I was writing it I thought of a few questions that I wanted to ask my profesor to clarify the assignment and now that I have a draft I can go to the writing center & get help to create a better paper. Usually I start writing my essay a day or two before it is due and by then I do not have enough time to ask my professor for help.

Before I read about motivation this week I was very unmotivated about writing my last essay for WRT 205. I even considered dropping the course just because I was lazy and did not want to write the essay. After learning more about motivation I realized that I need to become motivated because what is the point of coming to college if I do not want to push myself to my limits.

I hope my blog has helped you become motivated or at least taught you about two very effective motivation strategies. Just try to stay positive, continue to work hard and remain motivated for the rest of this semester. As Vince Lombardi said "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender".

Avoiding Your Acadamic Fears !

Every single college student has an academic fear, it's just up to the student to overcome it.

Having an academic fear can cause the lack of a motivation to a student. Here are a few academic

Failing tests. Too much absences. Missing homework. Forgot to do a important project. Missing an appointment from a Professor/ T.A Not enough class participation.

These fears can cause a student to stop trying to do better because they are so focused on what had happened so they chose to be a pessimist. THE TRUE FEAR IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT ! A student can be scared but they shouldn't think of the worst, they should think of which is the best,realistic action they can take in order to do better. I feel like everybody makes mistakes and you can always learn from them. If someone is losing focus then you have to snap out of it and get back on the game.


What i did..

I made a table and made separate categories,

• Academic Fears
• Worst Outcome
  
• Best Outcome
• Action Needed

I prioritized what was the most important fear or had the greatest value from 1,2,3.

My first academic fear is not choosing a major before junior year. I haven't been motivated cause nothing seems to interest me. These classes that I am taking makes me fall asleep in class or just wonder off. Since I am undecided, I fear that i will never find my major ! The only action i can think of to help myself is to just keep taking classes or research around. I really don't know what motivates me. I have been doing community service and nothing really sparks out an interest.

My second academic fear was being absent from class this week ! I have been sick and i know i missed a lot for my classes. I was scared that the absences was going to affect my grades because some teachers are really strict when it comes down to missing their classes. I thought my grade would drop and i thought that the information was necessary for me to learn for a test or final as well.The only thing i could do was go to the T.A office hours and just ask them really nicely if I look over the slides. ( Sociology) and for CLS, i ask my TA, if she could go over it with me and she did. I feel like i just got to be motivated to not miss the test cause i was really scared that i was going get a grade dropped. As long as i don't let this happen again, i should be fine.

My third academic fear was not understanding the information in my Woman's gender class. I had to in the essay on Wednesday but before the week i read the readings which are really hard because i have to be analytical about it. The essay is a 4 page analytical paper of the 9 sets of readings i had to do. I would have trouble with certain articles so i would go to my T.A office hours. That was the best thing that i could have done to help myself write the paper. She would break down what the authors purpose was and she gave me a better understanding. I felt proud of myself cause i went to her for help. I didn't do my paper at the last minute so i felt like that benefited me also cause she saw i worked on the paper as well.

Writing down these academic fears and seeing what action i took made me feel proud of myself because i saw that i actually overcame my academic fear of doing "bad" or "failing". It was up to me to take charge, and i did.