Final Post: Task Management

Second semester has almost come to an end. I can't believe that this is our final blog post. I've encountered so many incidents during 2nd semester, yet the whole semester has passed by with a blink of an eye. The last blog post is about task management. I pondered why the last topic would be about task management above all the things we have learned in CLS 105. We learned so much about task management, but now that I started to write this post, I think I may understand why the last topic is task mangement. It is to refreshen the last part of second semester as if it is an another new beginning. Finals, projects, etc are all coming up and what we need the most is preparation and motivation for these tasks, and I cannot think of any better topic than task management.

To properly prepare for all the upcoming tasks, I used the Divide By Four strategy to complete my task management process. I used this strategy for two courses: CLS 105 and CFS 388.

CLS 105 Major/Career Exploration Project

Starting with CLS 105, I have a one major project: Major/Career Exploration. This project, which is due on 25th, was to be divided into four parts using the Divide By Four strategy. So I divided into the following four parts: proposal, 6 strategies/options, documentations, and reflections. Though the project wasn't as complicating or difficult as the previous projects in CLS 105, this strategy made the project much easier to approach and follow. This strategy has assisted me in keeping track of the project along with organizing in a much friendly manner.

CFS 388 Final Exam

Next was CFS 388 exam, which I chose to be the most time consuming out of all the final exams I am going to take. CFS 388 final is on May 9th. So I have plenty of time, but this can cause a problem of procrastinating. Just like the Major/Career Explorartion, I used the Divide By Four strategy on it and broke up into the following parts: gathering terms, outlining topic, making a practice questions, and reviewing by speed-reading the text book and lecture notes.

The strategy is really easy to use, and it grants the user an organized plan along with steps telling him/her what to do next.

The Divide By Four strategy has been a total success, as I have finished the CLS 105 project and am on good pace with preparing for CFS 388 exam. As the finals week is coming closer, I am pretty sure that everyone's stress level will increase. I hope everyone will continue to make good use of stress relief strategies we have learned in class along with the motivation/reward strategy to avoid procrastination.

Turn Your Task into a KIT-KAT

We are nearing the end of the year, and we still have so many tasks to manage and complete. There are efficient ways to complete each of these tasks within compact amount of time. But this is only if you know the correct ways and the steps to accomplishing tasks. I have used Divide By Four in two of my classes, for both Preparing for Exams, and Working on Projects. They have worked well for me because I knew the four exact steps that I had to make in order to achieve my goal for the two tasks. In my CFS 255 class, I have an exam this upcoming wednesday for three chapters, and I divided the process of studying for it into four exact steps. This made my studying more efficient and I was able to spend a good amount of time on it. I have an ongoing project throughout the whole semaster in my HTW 221 class, and I was able to divide it into four equal parts, which helped me greatly. It helped me to know exactly what was it that I needed to do, and let me stay focused on what I was supposed to be doing.

For preparing for my last CFS 255 exam, I divided the task into four different steps. The steps are all related to each other, but I was able to perform them in a shorter amount of time, mostly because I did not procrastinate. If I know exactly what I need to do for the hour, I will get right to it, without hesitation or laziness overwhelming me. It is different than just studying without thinking and planning because if I do not plan ahead of time, I usually procrastinate till the very end, which will make me not be able to study efficiently. If I do not plan ahead, I will not see the end of the process of studying and it will just put too much pressure on me, which will make me become less motivated. Dividing the task by four, took away the procrastination and put motivation in me.

I was also able to use this strategy in working on my year-long project in HTW 221. As the semaster is nearing the end, our projects are also nearing the due date. By using this strategy, I was able to see my project as just 4 different parts. Because I planned it out this way, I was able to see it as a whole, and I knew exactly what it was that I needed to do. I just needed to find the right topic, then get to researching and writing down the information, then just organizing them into a paper. After I divided them into four different steps, they sounded very straight forward as easy for me. I usually take projects as something complicated and I usually do not know where to start. But by using this strategy, I knew exactly where I needed to start, and was able to go on to the next step as soon as I was done with the prior step.

I was able to get done quickly and easily without any obstacles or procrastination distracting me.

Dividing a task by four is not a hard step, nor it is something that takes a long time to do. Little bit of thinking is involved in this process, and it makes the tasks become a whole lot easier for you to handle. It is like cutting up a 200 pound rock into four pieces so that you only need to handle 50 pound of the beast every time, just for four times. It makes you see the task as a whole, but at the same time, if you only look at one step before taking another step, the task becomes so much easier so that it makes you become motivated, and deter procrastination. This strategy is something that I would like to continue using in the future that it helps me complete any task with ease and not put too much pressure on me. It makes a heavy burden into kit-kats.

AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, I AM GOING TO MISS DOING TECH ASSIGNMENT EVERY WEEKEND........

iTask Management

Task management is one of the most important skill to understand in college. If you are good at task management, you won't have much problem adjusting to heavy workload in college. If you manage your time and task in efficient manner, you won't have to worry about finishing your works on time or feel overwhelmed by amount of work you need to get done. Without all these pressure, you can focus on one task at a time and succeed in that task which leads to academic success. If you are successful in academic career, you will feel confident to succeed in other areas as well, which ultimately leads to better future. To accomplish these goals, you need efficient strategies. I've used Divide by Four strategy for my CLS 105 class and for CFS 388 class.

Divide by Four strategy is useful for diving a task into manageable parts. It makes task much easier to accomplish because essentially this strategy divides a task into four parts; prepare, start, continue, and finish. For CLS 105, I've utilized this strategy for Career Project which I divided into four manageable parts. First, I prepared for the project by reading instructions and really think about ideas to how I will present the information and what kind of strategies I will be using for the project. Then I started working on the project by using 6 strategies I've chosen. I continued on the project and gathered documentations. Finally I've wrote a reflection paper and double checked everything to meet the guideline. This strategy made this project easier and more manageable because it divided the whole project into smaller parts which made me focus on one section at a time. I followed similar step for CFS 388 research paper. I've brainstormed the topic and ideas for the paper and gathered information and research topic related news articles. Then I wrote a paper and revised it afterwards. This was all done in a divided sections and over gradual period of time. I've used to work on projects overnight but using this strategy I think I will plan ahead and do it over time by dividing it into manageable sections.

After using Divide by Four strategy, I learned that prioritizing and knowing what needs to be done when and dividing works into smaller parts to focus on things that are more important. As a visual learner and also kinesthetic learner, I've found this strategy very helpful because it's both visualized and require you to take actions to create the list and execute them. I would definitely recommend this strategy to my friends and use it for my other courses in the future.

Last Tech Assignment with Task Management

As the last class is quickly approaching and as the long weekend is near the end with finals coming up, task management is an important part of the learning and success. Due to the fact that I have finished my career experiment project 1 week early, I had time to prepare for the upcoming exams this week. As the final is approaching, professors bombarded me with last exams this week; containing math exam on Wednesday, Chemistry exam on Thursday along with Biology Lab Practical. Yes, it is a really busy week for me and chunking and managing my task is critical.

To approach the exams, I have used the divide by four strategy for chemistry and biology which take place on the same day, back-to-back. For both chemistry and biology, the first thing I needed to do was collect all the lecture notes and necessary resources. Then, I started memorizing all the formulas, vocabulary, concepts, equations that were part of the learning. To continue on the work, I referred back to online resources and textbook for more detailed information to better memorize the materials more specifically. Finally, to top it off, I will review the notes and diagrams for biology, and for chemistry, I will try to solve all the multiple choice questions on exam review sheet that was given out by Dr. Freedman.

So far, following this strategy has worked great as I knew exactly what I had to do and went along with it. Once my nice trip here in Toronto ends and when I get back to Syracuse. I will start focusing on the studying more. This is considered as hell week for me as I have total of three evaluation within 2 days. Although it is tough, if I manage my time correctly and wisely, I will be able to handle it with good grades.

Let's End the Semester with Task Management!

As the last week of class approaching, finals coming up, our

CLS blog has come to a last entry. After many blogs talking about many different strategies, our last blog touches on the last strategy, the Task Management. Because we have learned a lot of strategies so far from the class and many of them very effective, the task management might not be very new or different compared to other strategies. However, it is never useless!

As the finals approaching, and many projects, exams, and papers are either due or beginning, it was really helpful when I kept the Divide by Four strategy, which is a great one to manage our tasks. For this strategy, I applied two courses on it: CLS 105 and HOA 106.

For CLS 105, the last project, major/career exploration, was due on the 25th. And the last HOA exam was the earliest exam coming up. In order to complete these two in a successful way, I had to somehow organize them. So, for major/career exploration, I decided to divide into four pieces: The proposal, organize, execution, and reflection. With this order I began my project, which helped me keep on track. This helped me in finishing the project for it made me finish it a lot quicker than my regular pace. In fact, I turned in the project last week.

Because I ended my CLS 105 project early, I had plenty of time to start preparing for my HOA 106 exam, which is in two weeks. First, I created flash cards for they were the most effective study guide for this class. And I started memorizing and pictures, which was the second part. The third part was to look over the lecture notes and textbook to read the information of the paitings in more detail. The last part of this strategy was to review the memorized contents. The importance about this part is that while I am reviewing is that I can prepare for the essay questions for the information I put from my study guide for they will be critical when I write the answers for the essay questions.

So far, this strategy has been working perfectly well! After the long weekend of Easter Break

ends, we will all be back into focusing in school and especailly the finals. The end is approaching, and this is the last blog. Even though all the assignments from the CLS 105 is over, I hope we all can remember some of the strategies that were mostly effective to us and continue to use them in the future. Good to work with you all! Great job

Task Management

Finally, this is the last blog for this class. For the past few weeks, we have been using a lot of strategies that can boost up our grades or can help us have the right studying habits. There were several strategies that were really helpful and were effective; some strategies were not that much of a help, but they were still worth a try. There were also some strategies that I have used before I learned them during class. I was glad that I had an opportunity to share my experiences of using the strategies. For our last blog, we are able to discuss any Task Management strategy that we continue to use but did not discussed in previous blogs. So, I want to talk about the Divde By Four strategy.

The Divide By Four strategy was a really effective strategy in accomplishing my Major/Career Exploration project. I was able to complete the project step by step by using this strategy. In this project, a person can divide the tasks into four sections: prepare, start, continue, and finish. In the prepare section, I filled out and completed the proposal. I wrote the current condition that I am in, and 6 strategies that I can use in order to fulfill my goal. I also wrote the plans of each strategies, so I can put them in action. The second section, which is start, I wrote my proposal in words and began to start using the 6 strategies that I decided to use. After that, I went over to the continue section. At this section, I gathered the documentations and informations that I need in order to acheive my goal. Since my goal is transfering into Newhouse next semester, I gathered informations that I could get. Finally, in the finish part, I wrote my reflextion paper, which is a summary of what I have done, what I need to do, and what have I learned during this project.

This strategy helped me finish the project in an organized way. I was able to finish this project effectively and quickly. I strongly recommend using this strategy when you do not know how to start a project or study an exam.

Contain Your Stress!

Stress is probably the #1 problem for college students like us. Dr. Blumin introduced 'stress' and strategies we can use to relieve from stress. Stress can be very dangerous as it can lead to actions that we may not normally do when we are not stressed. The stress-level is probably getting higher as of this moment for everyone as the semester is ending and final exam week is getting closer. I don't want to think about how much stress I had first semester. I was taking only the core courses that already had the reputation of being a difficult courses. Though I overcame the stress, I knew it wasn't healthy for me both physically and mentally. That's why I chose to take less stressful classes like ENV010 which is a choir ensemble. I can definitely say that the stress-level in second semester is lower than that of first semester. However, stress still exists and it is steadily growing once more as I am reaching closer to the end of the semester.

The two strategies I used to prevent the stress from overwhelming me are: Stress Diagram and Ten-Minute Vacation Plan. The two most difficult courses that I am taking this semester are: CFS 388 and ECN 203. I chose these two plans for these courses, but these strategies are flexible enough to be used for other courses as well as something that is not academic at all too.

Stress Diagram is similar to identifying time wasters. By using this diagram, one will know which element provides stress to him/her. Everything gets much clearer once you have a visual graph or a diagram of something. So I listed down the potential factors that might be stress-friendly. For me, and most of other people I am assuming, grades are probably the most stressful factor in college life. After grade comes my family-issues that I am currently dealing with. I guess this is the reason why I still feel stressed when the stress I get from GPA isn't as high as last semster. Now that I completed this strategy, I have a clear diagram of what gives me stress. As expected, GPA and family-issue seems to be the big problem. My stress from GPA will be relieved as soon as I am done with my last final exam on May 9th. But, for the family-issue, I just have to hope for the best.

The second strategy, 10 minute vacation plan, can reduce the stress instantly. I used this strategy when I was writing a major paper for CFS 388 and studying for ECN 203 quiz. If the Stress Diagram Strategy is for long-term usage, 10 minute vacation plan is more like a short-term stress relief system. Everytime I finish a paragraph for a major paper in CFS388, I would grant myself a 10 minute break. During those 10 minute, I can surf on the web, go to youtube or facebook. I would not recommend sleeping for 10 minutes, because 1. you will not fall asleep within 10 minutes, 2. if you do fall asleep you will not be able to wake up. After the ten minutes are up I will go back to writing another paragraph. This system not only relieves you from temporary stress, but also gives you a slight motivation. You would want to work faster in order get another 10 minute break. For studying ECN 203 quiz, which covered 3 chapters, I will make a list of terms I need to memorize. The number of terms I needed to memorize for this quiz was about 30. So everytime I memorized 10 terms, I would grant myself 10 minute break. The 10 minute you get may sound really short, but it really is better than pulling a straight 3 hour of unstable working mode.

I hope my fellow bloggers also identified their sources of stress and countered it well with strategy like 10 minute vacation plan.