On March 20, I attended the Procrastination
Domination workshop at the Vrooman Center, conducted by Jessica Pratapas. This
workshop was very beneficial for us students, because we all procrastinate,
right? It started with a video explaining how we tend to do things that will “help
us get other stuff done”, but really have no purpose. The main causes of
procrastination were discussed in depth. They are time management, lack of
motivation, lack of interest, perfectionism, and fear of the unknown.
Most students have time management problems. They
have misconceptions about time and how long something will actually take. If a
teacher assigns a project, it obviously can’t be done well in a few hours. Everyone
has tried to do that before at least once. This can be fixed by using a planner
and breaking projects up into parts so you can work on them on selected days.
Lack of motivation is when you don’t have the willpower to start something. A
solution to this is to “scare yourself” by thinking about how you will fail if
you don’t get to work. Lack of interest can be fixed by doing the most
uninteresting subjects first, and also by rewarding yourself with short breaks
after a set amount of time. If you have assignments for a class you like and
also for one you don’t like, try to intermingle the appealing and unappealing
tasks. Perfectionism isn’t a good thing when you are trying to get something
finished on time. It is referred to as “paralysis through analysis”.
Perfectionists are usually afraid of failure and how they will be evaluated.
The main assignment should be completed first, and then small issues should be
addressed last. Fear of the unknown is another common problem. The teacher will
assign a project, and it just seems like so much work that you could never
finish all of it, so you never take the time to read exactly what you have to
do for it. You get intimidated by the work and you really don’t even want to
know what the project consists of. Chances are it really isn’t that bad if you
work on it in increments.
Other topics discussed in the workshop were good
places to study. The majority of students study in their rooms, but if things
get too distracting, it’s best to head to the library or a computer lab. At the
conclusion of the workshop, worksheets for planning out assignments were
offered to everyone. These allow you to break an assignment up into parts and
select a day you are going to do them, and then you can check off each box
every time you finish something. Before we left, we were reminded that we had
to change something in our habits to defeat procrastination, and we were shown
a pledge to be procrastination free.
No comments:
Post a Comment