During last week's lecture, Dr. Blumin talked about the different ways of how a person can procrastinate. One thing that she mentioned really hit me up when she said, "Whenever I am busy and has tons of work to do, you always think about different distractions such as laundry, cleaning room, facebook, etc..." In my opinion, that is very true. Due to the fact that you have so much things going in your head and don't know where to start your work off, you tend to make excuses such as "I am going to start my work after I put my laundry in." However, this leads to cleaning room next, and then going out for smoke break, and more...
To prevent these type of things from happening, I wanted to find out what kind of activities are the reasons why I tend to procrastinate. Thus, I have used the Time Wasters strategy to find out the time wasters that I use and what kind of tasks I avoid. Since my major is related to science and maths, textbook is all I care about. Thus, whenever I have homework or need to prepare for an exam, textbook is my best friend. Thus, it really gets boring when you study; no pictures, no animation, no video, and only 8 sized font that I have to go through. When I think of this, I tend to avoid reading and do something else such as going onto Facebook to see what my other friends were doing. As well, when I have research paper to write, I make excuses for myself going onto Internet to find resources, but end up playing Korean Poker instead.
The list goes on. I tend to concentrate better when I listen to music while solving Math problems. Therefore, I make excuses to myself that I am going to change the music, but end up surfing the internet to see if there are any new songs which I would like.
After I have used this strategy, I found out the all the social networking sites and softwares were the reason behind my procrastination. By getting rid of online chatting programs such as MSN, Nate-On, and logging off of facebook, I would get my work done a whole lot faster. There is one common thing behind all the reasons and that is my computer. All my reasons behind procrastination has gotten done through using my laptop. Thus, I now have learned that when I don't require computer when doing my homework, by putting my laptop somewhere where I cannot see it will help me to get my work done without any procrastination at all. Overall, this strategy was really helpful for it helped me to discover the different reasons behind my procrastination.
I have also used time waster strategy in my blog posting this week as well. It works well with all around other courses and actually is very effective in identifying and motivating you to avoid those tasks that distract you from doing the work you supposed to. I think it decreases the chance of one's procrastination which is good thing. Who wants to stay up all night studying for an exam and not remember single thing next morning because he or she is too tired? It certainly happend to me more than couple times.
ReplyDeleteYou are very right in that excuses are made up by going into the internet to do some other nonhelpful tasks. Even with my book right next to me in a reachable distance with my arm, when I turn on my computer, I tend to turn on the internet, not to see useful news or emails but also to see what is going on in facebook, youtube...etc. Computer can be helpful as it is very fast in writing, getting through emails butg it can be distracting as it will slow down your process of working on your tasks and maybe not even letting you start your tasks. Just focusing on one thing at a time will let you go through your process much quicker and in an effective way.
ReplyDeleteYes, it seems like every one of us realize that we are some type of procrastinators after listing down either the Time Wasters or Excuses. It can't really be helped. We are humans who want to do things that are not stressful. But, we must also remember that without any pain there is no gain.
ReplyDeleteI also start turning on Internet to search on some sources for my homework, but I usually end up doing something else, such as being on Facebook for example. I always remind myself not to click on the Facebook page, but I end up doing it without my will :( I really need to find a way to avoid myself from Facebook, at least when I am working. If you are feeling the same way, maybe working somewhere without a computer would be a good idea. That is only if you really do not need to use the computer. I started doing this and so far, it seemed to help! :)
ReplyDeleteReally, Facebook is a fun, but dangerous thing. 'Facebooking' really takes a hell a lot of time. I usually waste my time doing facebook. Anyways, the Time Waster is a good strategy to acknowledge the distractions that you often fall into in order to do your works later. Yes, the computer is the evil! It takes our attention from studying!! (Let's play Korean poker, not by facebook but by FACE TO FACE later)
ReplyDelete