I HAVE gotten some things done in the past few days. Not nearly as much as I should have done, but I'm concentrating on small triumphs and victories at the moment. I'm still working on things that were on my list for days ago (a version of the Weekly Assignment List, but not the real thing - I'm thinking about making one, though, after I get done with summer vacation).
One of my big problems is I underestimate how much time it'll take for me to do something. Do any of the other procrastinators out there have this problem? For example, when I put together the test for my Technology and Society (HSS) class, it took me several hours when I thought it should have taken an hour tops (which is why I'm now scared to even work on the history exam, because I already know it's going to take far longer - yikes!). Another example is the emails I'm sending to prospective PhD advisers - it takes much longer than I thought (of course, when I was in the middle of this task last night, I was also watching TV, and I am NOT a good multitasker). The weird thing is, most of these activities I've done before - at least once, but often several to many times before. It makes me think that I need to start timing myself when I do these things, and write down if the time I took to do whatever went smoothly or had a lot of bumps, etc., so that when I go to do it next time I'll have a record of how long it ACTUALLY took the last time, not just my (obviously faulty) estimation. Part of the reason my time management doesn't work so well is because of this very problem.
Anyway, I do want to list out some of the things I HAVE gotten done in the past few days:
- printed out WWII materials for history class
- put all the outstanding grades online
- created the HSS test 2 (!)
- send some of the emails to professors (I'll finish that today, I hope)
- emailed ST about the Cobb house graduate seminar this fall
- got information on upcoming conferences in the fall (man, it's going to be a lot of $$!)
- put Unit 3 reading links online for history class
- exercised fairly regularly (finally!)
- got together a grocery list and went grocery shopping
- paid all bills for this month
I still have quite a number of things to do, but here are the ones I'll be concentrating on today and tomorrow (see, this may seem to be extraneous to some of you - hey, why is she listing all these things when they aren't generally useful to any of us - why should we care? - etc. But, what I'm creating here is ACCOUNTABILITY*. Sometimes I've found that even making someone aware of what I'm supposed to be doing and working on gives me motivation, if only for the simple reason that I feel embarrassed when I haven't at least started something that someone or everyone knows I'm supposed to be doing. I have another procrastinating friend, and at times we'll make lists for each other of what we're supposed to be doing that day/week. Then we have to report back to each other what we got done. This serves the purpose I just said, but it also serves another one for us, since we're both perfectionists/procrastinators who both underestimate how much time something will take - it gives us the chance to tell each other if our respective lists are "doable" or not. It works really well when we actually do it, but often we get so busy that our lists just fall by the wayside. Which is sad, because they do help.) Anyway, here's my list, to create some accountability with anyone who reads this:
- finish sending emails to profs
- create history test 2 (this needs to be taken with the other test to school on Monday to get put into the print shop for copying)
- Jacob Cox project (this is another source of income for me, so I *do* need to work on this, esp now that I've gotten my first summer paycheck and have seen how much of it my monthly bills took away - ugh)
- get Discussion Week 4 HSS PowerPoint together and online
- read and create question sheet for WWII materials to put online
- read one student's essay rough draft and comment
- answer WWII question sheet in preparation for Wednesday's class
- exercise
Now, keep in mind the above has to be done for Mon, Tues, Wed. There are certain ones that have priority, and I'll probably make a mini Weekly Assignment List for those three days, just so I can keep it all straight. In the future, I probably need to start doing estimates of how much time each activity will take (and to do realistic ones, as I mentioned above, I probably need to start making note of how much time I take to do each activity). But all of this I'll eventually work out. Right now I'm concentrating on not procrastinating on each one this week. The other stuff will help with the "not procrastinating", sure, but part of my problem is being in the very bad habit of not even getting started or working on the things I need to work on. So, let's get started!
*If I have some time later today or in the next few days - as long as I'm not procrastinating on other things, ha! - I'll write another blog entry on accountability, because I think it can be an important motivator to get things done, especially when your only other motivator may be the deadline itself.
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