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.
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| 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
- grades.
- stress.
- 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
https://i.imgflip.com/bm9j6.jpg
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
