I kept track of my "time management (procrastination)" behavior this week and here what I came up with!
Things due this past week:
Chemistry Lab Report - worked late night on Monday (9/29), finished and printed Tuesday morning (turned it in 2 hours later)
Biology Pre-lab - worked on Wednesday (10/1) morning, quizzed on later that day
Chemistry Lab Report - woke up at early morning to start it (10/2), turned it in at 8ish the same day (have a week to work on it ._.)
Psychology Blog post - did this in the morning on Friday (10/3), due Saturday (10/4) by 8 p.m. (yay! that was a kinda not procrastinated moment)
Psychology comments post - did this throughout the day on Friday and Saturday (no pressure! ^-^)
Chemistry Homework - didn't start on the 14 problems until Monday (10/6) night, due Tuesday (10/7) morning
Chemistry Quiz - Studied Tuesday (10/7) during lab, taken that Tuesday afternoon
Psychology quiz - Spent some of Wednesday (10/8) night reading Chapter 9, work up early to do "ACE the Test", read Chapter 10 during chemistry lab Thursday (10/9) morning, taken that Thursday afternoon
And I think that's the whole list of stuff over a two week period! As you can see, I waited until the last minute for about 6 of the 8 of the assignments that I had to complete, all of which I was aware of in advance and could have spaced out my time to comfortably finish.
I think that this is happening because my behavior (completing the assignment) does not get reinforced until the day that I turn it in. Also, completing the assignment early and completing it just in time is reinforced the same way. There would then be no incentive for me to evenly space out the time allotted per assignment if I get the same grade working furiously for 3 hours, versus working casually for 3 hours for 3 days. The only difference I can see, would be the amount of stress I face. Working casually would generate less stress, but as of now it is not bad enough to for me to want to avoid it.
You guys gave me some really good ideas for how to make the most of my studying time. Most of the things mentioned that I should stop doing, mentioned by Danni and Belinda, including food, music, internet... are all things I enjoy while "studying" (haha). I do know that, this distracts my ability to concentrate (even now I'm chatting with my friends, while playing my mmorpg and it's making it harder for me to finish this post haha). It doesn't SEEM like it'll kill me if I unplug everything and concentrate on something else for 1 hour a day! Thanks for the encouragement (Bernard and Varun)!
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5 comments:
DANG..!! i can never do that! just started studying one or two hours before a quiz or a test! haha..ur good! you can feel the difference right, when you finished earlier the things that you have to do? you feel better and not under pressure when you're doing it. so yeah, it is hard to change one's behavior in a week or two, but keep up the good job!
You are kind of like me. i do things at least minute too, but most of the time is because i forget about the assignments. haha... my bf is just like you, when he is doing his homework, he has to have his TV on, or he won't be able to concentrate. maybe you will not be bored in a noisy environment, and it makes you less sleepy. but if there is a good show on, then you might not be able to concentrate on your work. good luck!!!!!!
What time do you wake up usually? I could never do my homework in the morning!!And I'm always scared of sleeping too late because I might fall asleep when driving to school. Perhaps to control your time more efficiently, you could dedicate a specific time period to doing homework. Like for me, I purposely set hour long breaks between my classes to force myself to do homework (:. Because usually by the time I get home, I have no will power to do anything..
As for waiting till the last second. I tend to do that with reading assignments haha. It's either I read everything last second, or I don't read at all. (Because I think cramming is more efficient than studying over a long period of time >_>) But usually if it's an essay or something written, I like to get ahead. Don't know why though o_O;
Haha, hope this rambling helped you (: What mmorpg do you play? >_>;
I think you should spent one whole day during the weekend to do the Chem. lab report and bio lab report. I have O. Chem too, and it was a bad idea do type out the whole lab one day before the due day because it was never perfect.
For Psyc1AH class, I suggest read the chapter summary from the website 2 days before the quiz, then do the Ace the test one day before the quiz. For every exams, I think they should be prepared for a week, especially for Chem and Bio. Sometimes it will took you 5 days to study for an exam well enough to get at least a B.
Or perhaps you can buy some supplmentary books from barns and noble for the subject that you are having trouble with.
I think what you're trying to accomplish can set your up for a successful future. Keep up the good work! I think an incentive to not procrastinating is getting better grades. This is how I wrote it out in my brain. If you work on your assignments earlier, you can show it to the professor and get some sort of remark on it. He/she can direct your assignment to the pathway of a better grade. Also, when you spend some time on an assignment, you allow your brain to familiarize it with the assignment and pick out any flaws. Thus, also allowing yourself to get better grades!
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