The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Finally! We have arrived at the last stage of our journey together. Congratulations. As we know, there are many effective strategies out there to help us procrastinators to better manage our time.  We also know all of the benefits that doing so can have on us college students. But, what happens after we receive our diplomas, throw our hats in the air, and drive off to the deep unknown never to return (until a football game next season)? What happens when we become real people with real jobs- do the strategies change, or do they stay the same?

The answer to that, my friends, like most things, is: yes and no. Some of the same strategies will be effective, but the work that we apply those strategies to is going to change. Depending on what our jobs are, it will be necessary to feel out the new routine and identify what areas have the most perceived risk, or negative consequences that could occur, (Babin, 2016, p. 253) due to poor time management.  Forbes magazine recognizes that there are a wide span of problems a working person may face in the real world, and to that, they offer 30 Time Management Tips for Work-Life Balance, by Frances Booth. I will highlight some of my favorites below:

#19 (according to Booth's list): You can actually get an awful lot done in half an hour. Don’t just float because you’ve only got half an hour until your next meeting or appointment.

This is AMAZING advice! How often do we procrastinate because we convince ourselves we don't have enough time to get "it" done? When considering the awareness set of alternative possibilities when deciding what to do with our time (Babin, 2016, p. 257), it is easy to dismiss the one thing we have to do on the assumption that it is going to take awhile.  Instead, think of every minute with the same potential as the next.  What is the difference between the thirty minutes before your meeting and the last thirty minutes when you were productive? Nothing. There is no time like the NOW.

#9: End your working day at a fixed time. Don’t let work creep to fill your entire evening. You can also have two finishing times. One for an ideal day, and one latest time that you won’t work past.

Another amazing strategy. By ending your workday at a fixed time, you cannot put anything off for later.  Knowing that there is a time limit on getting everything done will force you to be productive and embrace the idea that there is no time like the present.  Plus, when you finish, you are done for the day! No lingering responsibilities or to-do's (unless you are going into investment banking...in that case you're on your own).

Putting things off, no matter how much we procrastinators try to suppress the feeling, causes cognitive dissonance (Babin, 2016, 298). All of a sudden, when you become crunched for time and are struggling to get your work done, you are angry and scold yourself.  Why didn't I just DO IT? To minimize this cognitive dissonance once and for all, it is time to shed the procrastination blanket and never look back, because good time management is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Good luck!



References

Babin, B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., p.253-298). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Gupta, Sunil. "Marketing Reading: Creating Customer Value." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing 8176, 2014.

Links

https://giphy.com/gifs/scared-college-old-bwkE04r0V3s9G

https://lifesjourneyblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/now.jpg?w=292

http://www.gyanibaba.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/459.jpg

Now What?

Welcome back, friends! 

If you are still with me after the last blog post, I congratulate you.  Now that we have both admitted we have a problem, it is time to identify some key strategies that we can utilize in our daily lives, especially in our roles as college students.  As you know from my first blog post, I have tried and failed at certain strategies in the past (refer to The Checklist). Other strategies that have not worked for me in the past include waking up early, setting aside the same time every day to do work, and writing out all of the work I plan to accomplish in one day (a little too similar to The Checklist). These strategies just don't fit into my personality, or emotions, thoughts, and traits that I exhibit consistently that affect my behavior (Babin, 2016, p. 110). So, the following strategies are brand new for me, taken from a great blog from Cengage Learning, written by Taylor Massey in 2013. 

#1.)  Make Your Plans A Public Record

This is a fabulous strategy for college procrastinators.  If you operate on your own schedule, it is very easy to postpone an assignment because there is nobody holding you accountable.  So, if you make plans to work on an assignment with friends or classmates, all of a sudden there is an added layer of responsibility to getting the work done on time.  With other people depending on you, they will peer pressure you, or pressure you to behave in accordance with group expectations (Babin, 2016, p. 159), if you try to postpone the work or get sidetracked (as they should)! If you publicize your plans to your best friends, or any primary reference group (Babin, 2016, p. 158), they will NOT hesitate to crack down on you and hold you to your word- because they love you! With so many people available with whom to share you plans, and with whom share the same tasks and assignments as you, this is a great strategy for college students. 

#2.)  Break Down Your Tasks Into Specifics 

Once I set out to complete a task, it is very easy for me to get sidetracked.  So, breaking down tasks into smaller pieces helps to make the goal easier and less daunting to complete.  For example, if you sit down to write an research paper, identify the first task as "picking the topic".  With all energy focused on picking a topic, and none on researching, making an outline, or diving right into the intro paragraph, it is much easier to get the ball rolling on the assignment.

#3.) Let Momentum Work For You 

Now- don't stop! Typically, once I complete one piece of an assignment, I will take a Facebook break, a snack break, a bathroom break, etc. But, when you really think about it, I 1.) have not done nearly enough work to deserve any sort of break, and 2.) I am merely procrastinating further.  So, in order to push through and continue on to the next piece of the assignment, think about your work being mediated by momentum.  Momentum identifies a force increases speed as an object travels down a certain path.  Applying this to our work means that in theory, once we decide on a topic, the work will go faster if we suck it up and continue headfirst into the research.

These strategies have the ability to work wonders for us procrastinators.  But, if you all are as serious about changing your ways as I am, you cannot employ these strategies for one or two assignments and then call it a day.  In order to have strong attitude-behavior consistency, or a strong relationship between your attitude (in this case, intention to decrease procrastination) and actual behavior (Babin, 2016, p. 136), these strategies must become incorporated into our work ethic.  Once they are, our lives will be changed for the better down the road.  Wait for my next blog to figure out why!

References

Babin, B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., p.p. 110-159). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Links

https://blog.cengage.com/top_blog/avoiding-procrastination-top-time-management-tips-for-college-students/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ceq6azfWsAIcZ99.jpg

http://giphy.com/gifs/uDZexRVCffGww

http://images.tutorvista.com/cms/images/95/conservation-of-momentum-experiment1.jpg

The First Step is Admitting You Have A Problem.

My name is Kitty Crowley.  In the first grade, I developed a habit of leaving important items behind at school.  So, my parents crafted a large checklist for me, made of construction paper.  It listed all of the items I was supposed to bring home from school each day.  Coat? Check. Folder? Check. Hat? Check. Gloves? Check.  Mind you, this was no ordinary checklist.  It was red.  It was laminated.  And it was permanently taped to the back of my cubby. I had a special magic marker for checking off each personal item at the end of every school day.  Let it be known that my cubby stuck out like a sore thumb, because somehow no other first grader was in need of a such a checklist. It was a great idea in theory, but had one drawback in terms of execution: I never remembered to use the checklist.  

As I grew and changed, so did the items on my checklist.  And the problem got worse.

   

Kitty Crowley as of 1st grade, to help you visualize.  Clearly there were other issues related to fashion that needed to be addressed beyond the checklist problem.

The checklist over the years has taken the form of TIME MANAGEMENT and PROCRASTINATION. No matter how hard I try, I find myself submitting essays at 11:58pm for a 12:00am deadline; I am out the door at 10:55am for an 11:00am class; it’s 11:00pm and I have two more assignments to complete before bed; I have to cancel one plan because I’ve forgotten about a previous commitment, and will probably schedule another conflict that overlaps when I forget about the first! What is wrong with me?! Why am I condemned to this madness?!

We as consumers have many individual differences (Babin, 2016, p. 26), or qualities that make us different from one another, such as personality traits or lifestyle choices.  My individual differences place me in the segment of a procrastinator, and the only consoling thought going forward is that I know many of you fall into the same segment.  But...it is time these bad habits are stopped, once and for all.  If I can change, you can too.  

If I have inspired you to come along with me on this life-changing journey, welcome.  Over the course of my three-blog series, I will go into the benefits (Babin, 2016, p. 5) of improving time management skills and why doing so is important as a college student.  Then, I will give specific instructions on how we, the procrastination community, can prevail in our battles against the clock.  Lastly, I will go into the long-term benefits of creating good habits, before we become adults with real careers and real problems.

 In a study conducted by PR Newswire in 2014, 1300 college and high-school students were surveyed on their study habits. Check out some interesting statistics:

• 87% of students responded that they procrastinate
• 45% report that procrastination negatively affect their grades
• The most common reason for for procrastination is distraction (48%), followed by feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start (40%) 
• 56% of college females and 45% of college males reported they are most likely to be found sleeping when they should be studying

 It is no myth that there are a lot of procrastinators out there, just like you and me.  Going off of this study, by working on our time management skills it seems as though we will see in improvement in three areas:

1. grades.
2. stress.
3. sleep.

Improving our grades and our stress levels will provide us with experiential value (Gupta, 2014, p. 6), for we will be psychologically and emotionally lifted through these positive life improvements.  There is no denying the positive emotional gratification of receiving a good grade on an assignment, or the giddy feeling of stress being lifted off of our shoulders. 

Additionally, improving our sleeping patterns provides us with functional value (Gupta, 2014, p. 6), for we will have more time in the day to complete activities, which we would otherwise lose through the opportunity cost of being asleep, or tired.

Now that you have an incentive to make these key lifestyle changes, look out for my next blog post on HOW TO DO IT. 

References

Babin, B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., p.p. 5-26). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Gupta, Sunil. "Marketing Reading: Creating Customer Value." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing 8176, 2014.

Links

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http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/9b/9b045874ef8d86f8a86094146784e4d84d8cc1ddd88d8982029d1ab13bd5342c.jpg

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eighty-seven-percent-of-high-school-and-college-students-are-self-proclaimed-procrastinators-260750441.html

http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/hermione-raises-her-hand.jpg

http://blog.casper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/sleeping-baby.jpg