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
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ReplyDeleteKitty,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog and can certainly relate to your procrastination problem. Over the course of your three blogs, I am excited to learn more about the benefits of improving your time management skills, a skill that everyone can always improve. As you move forward, I am curious to see if your want (Babin, 2016, p.5) to improve your time management skills will be a strong enough desire to act on. In order to do so you will need to exchange (Babin, 2016, p.5) activities you prefer to be doing which leads to procrastination, such as sleeping, Netflix, or hanging out with friends, for productive activities that will increase your time management skills. I have no doubt that you will be able to do this and I am looking forward to your process!
Babin, B. J., Harris, E. G. (2016) CB, 7th edition
Hey Kitty, great blog. I definitely agree that procrastination is one of the biggest issues students everywhere face on a daily basis. Personally, I get extremely anxious whenever a deadline is approaching and I haven’t completed an assignment, which has really forced me to do my best to get things well before their deadlines for my own sake. You mentioned three areas that are subject to improvement with proper time management methods; grades, stress, and sleep. From firsthand experience, I can tell you that you are absolutely correct that time management helps get assignments/studying done in a timely manner, which subsequently leads to better grades, less stress about deadlines, and more sleep as you don’t have to work as late into the night to get these things done. The utilitarian motivation behind effective time management is huge for me in that I feel that I’m able to do a better work without the stress of tight deadlines (Babin, 2016, p. 93). I think that my emotional intelligence has definitely recognized the fact that I get stressed out by close deadlines and as a result, I have worked to minimize situations like these (Babin, 2016, p. 103). Overall, I’m really looking forward to learning more about your strategies for effective time management and to see if your fashion choices have improved with time (kidding, of course).
ReplyDeleteBabin, B.J., Harris, E. G. (2016) CB, 7th edition
Hi Kitty, thanks for sharing your post. I would agree with you that procrastination is definitely an issue most students face. Time management is definitely one of the most critical skills to make ones' way through college without missing deadlines or being unprepared. I recently had the opportunity to hear a Professor at The U of M based in the School of Information who created gamecraft, a video game type website that controls your grades. It stemmed from her idea that school should be more like a videogame where there are challenges and it is customized for each individual player, or in this case student. With such a variety of students living completely different lives composed of hectic schedules students should have the opportunity to decide which assignments to complete and which approach they want to take to receive their final grade. I had the opportunity to take a class that used this interface and really enjoyed it. It allowed me to complete the assignments I wanted to complete while I got to watch my score rise to different levels, such as a C to an A. This allowed me to have full control over my grade and gave me a more customized experience that differed from the typical classes I usually take. I found this intrinsic motivation to achieve that A and it would get me excited to continue adding on points to my score (Babin, 2016, pp. 25-26). I truly believe this is the step in the right way in terms of education. With so many distractions available now a days, it is nearly impossible to not procrastinate. I am looking forward to your future blog posts and definitely think that many of these issues stem from time management and our inner motivation to complete our school work over the hundreds of other distractions we face every day.
ReplyDeleteBabin, B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., pp. 25-35). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Kitty, I enjoyed reading your blog a lot, I love how you set it up by giving a cute and personal anecdote, it was really easy for me to imagine and relate to. I think its so impressive that you established a good way to self report (Babin & Harris, 2016, p.99) because with issues like procrastination and time management, I definitely think I'm my own worst enemy. It made the experience even more relatable how you expanded by discussing ways this affects your life now, and then you went on to discuss ways that this affects tons of people in different ways. As I was reading, I REALLY related to the section about sleep, I'm awful at regulating my sleep schedule, particularly because I have to be awake at a different time everyday for class, I'm definitely looking forward to reading your tips for a way to improve with it.
ReplyDeleteBabin, B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., pp. 25-35). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Katherine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing about such a relatable topic. I’ve been suffering from the same types of things as you have my entire life. In fact, my mom made me tape a checklist to take to school because I lost so many things. Time management was never really a problem for me until I got to college where it took me at least a year to get a good system going. I see it all over campus in addition to the workplace where myself and coworkers were distracting each other without even realizing it. I believe that time management now is most effective by external influencers like social groups (Amy Angell 1/16/17). I have the same procrastination problems as you and I have come up with some methods of my own that have really helped throughout college. I am interested to see your solutions and maybe try them for myself. Overall I thought this was an excellent first blog and I really liked the way you kept the reader hanging on until the next blog.