Time Strategies

How to Beat Procrastination mentioned several ways on how to try to deal with procrastination. Some of these strategies mentioned were balancing pros and cons, asking yourself why you are procrastinating, and trying to tie starting a project with a reward. If I am honest with myself, these are all strategies that I have tried. I will say at one point in the beginning of trying these strategies, they used to work for me. The further along in college though, they have stopped working as effectively. Confronting the consequences of not completing a task is often the exact opposite way of how I would get myself to be productive. Once I think about all the bad that can come from me not completing something, that sometimes completely shuts down my motivation, and I am no longer productive. I will say her suggestion of pre-committing early does help me personally feel responsible to more people than just myself to get a task completed.

(Time Never Stops: Pixabay)

The Myth of Too Busy had a nice way of rephrasing "I'm too busy," that I believe is more honest. Life truly is about how you invest your time. I am constantly prioritizing what I believe is important. This can be done in work, school, and relationships. This was eye opening to read, and I actually needed to say out loud, "I've chosen not to prioritize that." Doing this helped me reflect on what exactly I am putting on the back burner. With a schedule full of classes, work, and extracurricular activities, I often choose not to prioritize my mental, physical, and emotional health. I realized this should change for me to have semester not completely full of stress.

I think the strategies I learned from these articles can be helpful for this upcoming semester. I need to be honest with myself about what is the underlying cause for my procrastination. By sorting out why I do not want to do something, I can more quickly brainstorm a plan to make doing the assignment more bearable. Additionally, I want to focus on what I am prioritizing in my life. I know what goals I have for myself, so now it is time for me to appropriately prioritize what I should to make those goals possible. My biggest challenge for this semester will be making sure that I am spending enough time prioritizing myself.