With all of the classes I'm taking this semester, there's a ton of reading... What was I thinking? 40 pages of psychology every week. 40 pages of communications due for each class- if I'm lucky the professor spreads the reading out to 40 pages a week. There's readings that are suggested for nutrition, but to be totally honest, I haven't even opened the book.
I'm a very linear person, meaning I need to see the situation, break it up into manageable tasks, in an order that makes sense. My classes take exams about every five weeks. Last week was the first round of exams and I learned as I sat down to study for each one, that I could not keep putting off my reading until the last minute li
ke I had this past time. I used the problem solving strategy, "One Step at a Time" this week to identify my problem and various ways to fix it.
With all of this reading I get overwhelmed and then end up putting it off until the last minute. The problem with this, as outline in my pictur
e, is that I run out of time to read so I miss some of the information. Also, I lose a lot of sleep before the exam because I'm busy cramming everything that we were supposed to have read and learned in the past five weeks. The possible things I decided I could do to make the reading more manageable are as follows: I can use my weekly D's Do and Due to chart out times for me to do some reading in small amounts. If that doesn't work than I was thinking I could give myself one day a week where I can get caught up on specific classes. I only have one class on Thursdays and a no classes on Fridays, so that would definitely be manageable. If all else fails and I continue to procrastinate, the least I will do is get caught up on my reading at least one week before the exam, so when it comes time to review, I know, or am more familiar with the material.
I found this problem solving strategy to be fairly useful. It worked well with the D's Do and Due Organizer, which I clearly am a fan of. It was helpful because it helped me to break my strategies down and then I could check things off as I got them done. Read pages 1-10 of COM107... CHECK!! Finish chapter 1 of COM107... CHECK!!
The other strategy I tried out was ranking my priorities. I love lists, but I didn't find this strategy very useful. For me, I already know what's important and get it done. Ranking things a, b, c, 1, 2, 3 was pointless. I felt like I was wasting paper. Why would I list something as a C, aka "optional", if it needed to be done? In my mind things either need to be done or they don't be. Priority is based on when things are due and I have my D's Do and Due to help me see when things are due and what I have to do to finish them.
I love this title, very catchy. I am happy this strategy worked for you! I don't have very much reading for my classes but if I do I will surely try this out.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, great title. It's great to see you incorporate the D's organizer into problem solving. I'm sorry the ranking priorities strategy did not work for you. I agree if everything has to be done then why rank them. Keep up the good work Allie.
ReplyDeleteI am a linear person as well and I can only function completely when I have things mapped out for me. Breaking assignments down always makes them seem less stressful in the end, and the stress levels definitely go way down. I used the One Step at a Time method once and it worked, but overall I am not too into it because I am more of a list girl. I do agree with your thoughts that tasks either need to be done or not, but for me ranking priorities helps me out when I write optional because the thought is in the back of my head but never necessarily something that must be done.
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