Problem Solving, One Step at a Time

Ever feel like the work is piling on and you are falling into a never ending abyss? I do, a lot of the time. It's Sunday at 3 PM, the next day you have a project due, and two tests. The weekend went to waste and you haven't prepared. I know that feeling. But before you fall into this pattern you have to take action, one step at a time.

ONE STEP AT A TIME: The one step at a time method is a strategy that places a focus on the consequences of a problem. When you examine the problem through the consequences, reality strikes in quickly, and you want to eliminate the problem quickly. Thus, possible strategy's are created and ultimately, the best strategy implemented. Thi

s method works wonders.

My Problem:

This week, I waited until the last minute to do my Buddhism readings, a poor decision. By noon, every Thursday, I am required to have completed a reflection about the readings for the week. This week, the readings were not only many in number, but very long. The social me decided to put this off to the last minute, but cramming Buddhism on a Wednesday night was not the ideal solution.

Tackling the Problem:

After CLS on Wednesday, I headed to the library to confront this issue. I laid out the consequences of what would happen if I did not hand in the reading by noon, Thursday.

1) I would not do the readings, not turn in a reflection, thus lowering my grade.

-Certainly this was not acceptable.

2) I would skim half the readings, thus compromising my knowledge of the materials, or write a poor reflection.

Then I made a list of possible solutions.

1) I could read an article from Blackboard and an article from the book then write about those.

2) I could split up the readings into chunks throughout the day, then write the reflection.

This seemed like a good idea, but still chunked a lot of work into one day. So I decided to tweak it. I would do as much of the readings over the course of three hours in the library. Anything I did not finish reading, would be covered on thursday. I then decided to leave the reflection for thursday morning. Some might question this decision, but it makes sense for me. I do not sleep late, so I might as well get a lot of work done in the morning. So I put this strategy into action, and through tough work and procrastination, I eventually got my reflection done on time.

Why it Works:

This strategy works because it places the consequences of your actions right in front of you. This method is especially good for people who tend to procrastinate, such as myself. Also, it inspires you to think of solutions quickly and makes waiting until the last minute seem like a bad option.

Frittering my time

I wasted my time during the day. Although I have a lot of free time, I did use this time properly and thus affected my academic output. Then I was introduced to the Fritter Finder.

The Fritter Finder is a tool that lays out how much free time I have during the day. The parts in purple are the times during the day that I have free, while the rest is classes. It is evident that I have a lot of free time during my day, and I should use it to make progress with my work. Before I began using the Fritter Finder, I found that I was behind in both my Maxwell 123 class, and my buddhism class. I thought before that I would do my assignments at night, but the problem is I am not a night person. The fritter finder showed me that I have a lot of free time during the day and I should use it. The fritter finder also showed me that on the days that I have breaks between classes, I should use that time rather than waste it by doing nothing. I have found the time between Buddhism and CLS very useful to either get some CLS work done or make sure I am caught up on all of my work.

The fritter finder has been very effective in helping me better use my time. For example, I only have one class on Tuesday, and I have to have all of the readings done for my MAX and REL classes by Wednesday. Before frittering my time, I would have elected to do my MAX readings on tuesday and save my religion reading for Wednesday, the last possible day I had to read. After Dr. Blumin recommended that I use the Fritter Finder, I have found ways to get my work done very early in the day, so I have a lot of time at night to relax, rather than stress out about my work load. I chose this strategy because it really allows me to see all the time I had been wasting and makes me regret my past decisions.