The Priority List

Whenever I start my work for the night I never know where to actually begin. Sometimes I just start with the first entry of my planner but usually that is not the most important thing I have to do. Prioritizing my list has started allowing me to accomplish the tasks most important first and saving the least important items for last. Especially with my upcoming Calculus test, Biology lab practical, and CLS project due I could not seem to find a way to start it all. I knew I had to study for my math test and biology lab practical and do the CLS project, but which one did I need to start first?

As I went down my list I knew that the CLS project is due Monday so I decided to start with that considering it needed to be the first task on my list accomplished. Because I allowed myself to start with this class first, I was able to get it check it off my list and feel as if I had accomplished the largest task.

My next priority on my list was my math 285 test. This test is the last one of the year and the hardest one yet. Throughout the semester I have seemed to understand most of what is going on in class, but as the semester has progressed the material has gotten more challenging. Because the material has become harder, I have not been able to feel as confident on tests as I used to therefore my second task had to be studying for my math test.

The last thing on my list is studying for my Biology lab practical. It is still an important part of my priority list, it just comes last for me to do. This practical is a large part of my lab grade, but I feel like I almost fully comprehend all the information that is going to be put on the test. This class is the last on my priority list, but it is just as important as the rest of the tasks.

The priority list has allowed me to gather my information and see what I need to accomplish first, second, third, etc. I was able to get my work done and use the list effectively. I know that using the priority list in the future will help me continue to better my task management skills.

Priority List

Being the last week before finals, I found it important that I make a list of priorities for my last week of school and finals week. I have four classes this week : SOC 355, SPA 102, CLS, and AAS 112.

The class I need to focus on most is SPA 102 because I think I am doing worst in this class. I would definitely rank this highest on my list of priorities because I really need to do well on the final exam to do well in the class

. I plan to spend the most of my time the next few weeks studying for the final exam.

Next I would rank AAS 112 as my second most important task because although I am doing good in the class, with a little more effort I am sure I can get an "A" in the class. We have a final exam project this week so I plan on spending a lot of time on it so I can get the best grade possible.

Third on my list would be SOC 355 because I have a quiz this Thursday but I am not very worried about it because I am doing very g

ood in this class. I plan on spending little time for this quiz because we have been preparing for it in our class the last two weeks.

Last on my list would be CLS because I finished my project for the week so I am pretty much done with this class. I will do whatever work we have left but it will be the least amount of work compared to the rest of my classes.

Task Management


A task management strategy that i have been using throughout the semester is divide by four. This strategy requires you to divide an assignment into four parts, prepare, start, continue and finish. When you separate a big, overwhelming assignment into four parts, it not only allows you to finish it without procrastination but it also increases your efficiency. This past week i used the divide by four strategy in my history 102 class for a paper and my cls class for the major exploration project. For the history 102 paper i broke it up into the four parts the first, brainstorm, then i made an outline, i then wrote statements of the key ideas for each topic and finally i wrote the paper and revised it. Below is an example of the outline that i made for this paper. Usually when i write a paper i leave it all to the end and just write it without making any outline or anything like that. I leave it in one part and it is overwhelming and the quality of the paper usually isn't up to the standards i am capable of.

nges of living style during the early decades of the twentieth century

1. Previous style of housing

a. Victorian

b. Fantasy hard upkeep

c. Stressful on women

2. New style of housing

a. bungalow style

b. less keep up

c. easier on women

3. Problems with previous living

a. expensive

b. hard on women

c. useless

4. Women freed up from constant housework

a. women have free time to get jobs and bring income

b. more time to take care of children

c. allows women to have a “life”

For the cls project i broke it into four parts. The first part of the project i did was list six different places that i was going to get information on my possible major and a few questions i had for them. The next step was to make appointments with these people and places that i was going to meet with. The next step after that was to carry out these meetings and finally the write up after to tell all i learned about my potential major, economics. Using the divide by four strategy for this it allowed me to actually get something out of this project instead of rushing to finish it just to get it done. The thing i like about this most is it helps reduce procrastination, something I have always struggled with forever.

Stress!

Stress is undoubtebly one of the biggest issues people deal with, especially college students. Mid-terms, papers, Final Exams, and if your an athlete, sports are all examples of the things us students have to deal with that causes stress. In my opinion, the best thing one can do to combat stress is to try techniques that decrease stress or bring enough awareness to it to where one can figure out how to eliminate that stress factor for happening. Stress will never be 100% eliminated but one tecnique I used to help with my stress is the Stress-o-Meter. The Stress-O-Meter is a graphic organizer designed to 1.) List the days of the week your focusing on, 2.) Check off how stressed you were that day on a chart of 1-5(least to worst), 3.) list what caused that stress and 4.) What stress reducer you chose to eliminate that cause of stress.The stresses in my life are pretty consistent week in and week out therefore using this method helps alot. Here's an example of mine:

The biggest thing to understand with stress, and I said this before, is that it will never be totally eliminated therefore you can learn to understand how to make it as minimal as possible. Thats what the technique does for you, it helps to show why you were stressed and what you can do to reduce it. There are so many things that stress me & for me to list them and see what I can do to change that is a big step

Stress Management

College students everywhere all experience stress, especially towards the end of the semester. As the semester begins to wind down, papers, exams, and projects all seem to be due around the same time. Dealing with stress is very important because stress can significantly impact a students ability to simple tasks such as write a paper or study for an exam. Students often feel crammed and overworked due to high stress factors in everyday college life.

Stress management has been very important to me because I often feel like I have everything due the same day. For me to be able to take a break from studying or writing a paper allows me to come back to the assignment much more fresh and relaxed. This week for SOC 305, I had paper due on Tuesday that I did not start until Monday night. I was very stressed when writing this paper but by using the 10 min vacation strategy I found that I was very refreshed when I came back to writing the paper. Instead of trying to cram the essay and finish as fast as I could, I took my time and took breaks often. For SPA 102, I had an exam on Thursday and I found that by studying gradually over the week allowed me to retain more information instead of just cramming the night before. I was very stressed for this exam because I know I need to do good on the exam in order to get a grade I will be happy with. I found that by controlling my stress I was able to study much better because I wasn't cramming and I felt a lot less under pressure.

Stress is something that effects student and people worldwide. In order to deal with stress people must accept the stress and find ways to deal with it. I found that video games, T.V., Internet, and talking to my friends was the best way for me to deal with my stress. Hopefully in the future I will be able to cope with my stress and avoid the negative effects.

Stress Management

Being stressed out is one of the worst feelings to have. I used to not be able to manage stress so it would just keep building up. I had no relief until I started to be able to use different strategies like Putting It all Together: Stress Reduction. It helped me to see what I should do when I have too much stress building up. The strategy allows me see what I should do for daily stress, weekly stress, exam time stress, workload stress, relationships stress, and other stress problems. I have the chart hanging up in my room in order to relieve me at the times I need it the most.

It worked extremely well when I had to do many readings for the Sociology class. The readings were extremely long and boring and on top of reading I had to finish a painting for my art class and study for my weekly math quiz. For my daily stress I know I could relieve myself in certain ways and combine these relief factors with the workload relief mechanisms. I was able to take 10 minute vacation breaks until I finished my readings and hang out with friends while I ate dinner. After I ate I continued to do the rest of my work and study for my math quiz. The 10- minute vacation really helped me because I know if I worked for a certain amount of time I would have 10 minutes to break from my work and do what I wanted. It was a relief to know I could take time out off of studying for a few minutes. I was able to complete my painting and study efficiently for my math quiz. I feel as if I am now able to manage my stress in a more effective and appropriate method.

Stress Management


As we are nearing the end of the school year, the stress levels are on the rise. Final exams are just around the corner, final projects are due and that small light at the end of the tunnel, summer, is keeping me going. This past week i used the stress-o-meter, this helped me to acknowledge my stress levels, and visually see whats causing me stress, as well as what is helping to reduce this stress. I used this strategy for my cls and political science classes. I used these classes because i found that a lot of my stress does come from these classes. I found that during the week and on Sunday my stress levels are pretty high. This week they were high because i had a political science test on Thursday that stressed me out all week. I also had reading to do for political science on Tuesday. My stress was on the rise until this test. For cls, this past week i have been working on the major exploration project which has been causing me stress as well as the final journal and practicing stress management strategies. I found that stress relievers for this were working out, watching tv, and facebook. Taking a break from all the stress and doing little things such as these i found relieves my stress. Visually tracking my stress and seeing what causes it as well as what relieves it made it easier for me to control it.

Day	1 Smooth Sailing	2	3	4	5 Out of control	cause	Stress reducer used
Mon			x			Psc homework, Test thursday	Take a break
Tues				x		Cls journal, read,psc test thurs	Watch tv
Wed			x			Psc test tmm	facebook
Thurs		x				Psc test, read for psc	Workout
Fri	x					No school	none
Sat	x					No school	none
sun					x	Leave all my work for the week until today, blog	Workout Tv nap

Procrastination

Procrastination is so common among people (everywhere) that I would consider one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Though the reason may be different, we all are guilty of procrastination. Unfortunately, and Dr.Blumin alluded to this in our CLS class, we (society) don't view it as being so negatively powerful so there isnt great effort to attempt to eliminate procrastination; But there are tools helpful to bringing awareness and change to our procrastination. This past week I used the Time Wasters method to help bring some attention to it and to just write it down and see what I'm stopping myself from accomplishing. The Time Waster method is a two sided organizer that divides on one side your Time Waster and on the other, what that Time Waster is stopping you from accomplishing. For me, my key Time Wasters were Talking on the phone, listening to music, Online Shopping, and Cleaning Up my room. These things stopped me from accomplishing CLS 105 homework and WT 205 and PHI 107 papers. Here is an example of mine:

This method is useful because it simply brings awareness to what your doing. It serves as a beginning stage to changing procrastination habits and in doing so it allowed me to rethink things I would tend to procrastinate on. Listening to music wasnt necessarily a distractor but playing around with my clothes or shopping online or talking on the phone while I had an assignment due the next morning wasnt really helping my situation. So the Time Wasters method serves as the perfect catalyst to improving one's procrastination habits.

Procrastination

By using the time wasters strategy this week, I found that I procrastinate greatly, and spend a large majority of my time doing other things besides my work. By recording my time wasters for this week, I am finally able to figure out what distracts me when working. Hopefully I can target these time wasters and begin to avoid them in the future.

For my SOC 355 class, I found that I waste a lot of time surfing the internet, especially Facebook. This is due to my large usage of the internet because a lot of the information for these class is found on the internet. During my search for facts for the class, I usually drift away from school work, and find something on the internet that entertains me. Facebook and ESPN were the two largest sites that distracted me, and I have learned now that I need to limit my access of these websites when I am doing school work. I had a take home quiz for this class, but I wasted a lot of time surfing the internet on various, unrelated sites. I also had to study for a quiz we had Thursday, but i spent a lot of time playing video games instead.

I wasted a lot of time for my SPA 102 class because I really dislike doing my homework for this class. The work is always repetitive and is very time consuming. I had homework due everyday from the workbook, and I found that almost everyday I found a way to procrastinate from the work. Monday I spent countless hours on Facebook and left my spanish work for later. Tuesday I worked hard on the assignment and got it done very efficiently. Wednesday I left the homework for late and night and watched a movie with my friends instead. Thursday was my last day of work and I got the work done quickly because I had to go out for my friends birthday.

Procrastination

I need many types of ways to stop myself from procrastinating. I decided to do use the Admitting the Consequences technique as another way of helping my procrastination problems. I used it to help myself with my Biology test, math quiz, and sociology readings. These are the three classes that I procrastinate in the most. I started off by identifying the subjects I procrastinated in the most. Then I identified the consequences that I would experience as a result of my procrastination. For biology I had to study so my consequence would be earning a poor grade on my exam. This consequence is the same as for my math class because I have a quiz and if I did not study then that would result in getting a bad grade on the quiz. If I do not read for sociology than I will not earn participation points during class.

I rated the consequences for Biology and Math 285 as positive because they make me want to study and earn good grades. The consequence I have for Sociology of Health and Illness is ranked as negative because not earning participation points does not really affect the way I do my homework. If I can get out of reading an extreme amount I will and participation points will not force me to do the readings. The consequences I have for not studying for a test have forced me to study so I will be able to do well. Earning poor grades is not something I want to do. This technique works for when I have tests, but not if I have readings or homework I have to accomplish.

Procrastination

Thia past week i used the procrastination strategy time wasters for my political science and math class. Time wasters are the activities that you are doing instead of homework or other tasks that need to be done. My goal when using this strategy was to find out what time wasters i usually have and to first minimize them, and eventually rid myself of them all together. What i did was list the time wasters and the tasks being avoided, when thinking of this and what i am avoiding to get done, it gave me an incentive to finish. I found that a lot of my time wasters were the same types of things, and i tend to avoid all types of work. I go out of my way to find something to do that will keep me from doing my work. This strategy allowed for me to realize in what ways i was procrastinating and gave me incentive to avoid these time wasters and actually get my work done. In terms of lame this strategy would be good for kinesthetic visual learners, by making these tables and going over what makes you procrastinate allows these learners to see in front of their eyes what is distracting them as well as practice eliminating them kinesthetically.

PSC 121

Excuse	Translation
1) facebook 2) talking on the phone 3) watching tv	1) reading assignment 2) writing a paper 3) reading/paper

Math 221

Excuse	Translation
1) Television 2) video games	1) take home quiz 2) study for test

Motivation

Being motivated is what makes me work hard to do well and is a key factor in becoming successful. Throughout my high school career, I worked towards attending a good college, which is basically what motivated me to do well. Being a freshman in college and knowing what I want my major to be, helps me become motivated to do well. My Academic Fears are what help to motivate me also. As I wrote down the list of academic fears I face, I realized that if I continue to fear them, I will be able to do well and continue being a Biology major. I explore my rewards everyday and think to myself if I get a good grade on this test or paper I know I am that much closer to earning my rewards. I fear failing a test or quiz, failing an entire class, skipping class and missing an important discussion or pop quiz, getting a bad GPA, and disappointing not only myself, but also my parents. All of my academic fears motivate me to learn new material and succeed in each class.

In particular my BIO 123 class is a requirement for my major and relates to my major the most out of all my classes I am taking. My motivation to do well in this class is so I can stick with my major and either go to medical school or dental school. I know that if I do well in this class I can do whatever I want once I graduate college. Exploring my rewards for doing well helps to motivate me to do well.

I have to do well in my MAT 285 class because it is a requirement for my major. Not only will it bring down my GPA if I do poorly, I will not be able to advance far in my major. I have to do well in order to achieve my lifetime goal after I graduate college. I am motivated by my academic fears to do well and achieve my rewards. I know I will continue to be motivated by my fears throughout my life.

Motivation

I used two Motivation Strategies this week for my SOC 355. I started by listing my Academic Fears for the class which included poor exam preparation, lack of attendance, and an overall bad grade. Next, I used the Exploring Rewards strategy to help me realize that by studying hard for exams, showing up for class, and reviving an overall good grade will benefit me significantly in the future. Because this class teaches me about the inequality of the American society, I can use this information widely as general knowledge. Also, because I am planning on going to law school, knowing the inequalities in the U.S. can help me because I will be aware of many flaws of the U.S. society. The no cost reward for this class would be being able to obtain the information I learned and use it in my daily life. My low coast reward for this class would be getting god grades on the exams because it would prove that my studying showed off. The high cost reward would be an overall good grade because it would make me fell really good because it will reward me with the feeling that hard work pays off.

In SPA 102 my Academic Fears were a little different than SOC 355 because I find spanish a lot harder and definitely more challenging for me. My Academic Fears for spanish involved me not being able to fully comprehend the language. I am very scared of this because if I do not fully understand everything we are learning, it will hurt me in the future

because I have to take SPA 201 which is the third semester of spanish. Also, this is the class I am most struggling with. My main motivation for this class would be to get a good grade because I do not want this class to bring down my GPA. Another academic fear would be that if I do bad in this class I will not be able to speak spanish. This would be very bad for me because it would mean I wasted over a year of hard studying and my hard work did not pay off.

Motivation is something that has been an issue with me and my success in school. The problem i have is finding the motivation to study instead of watch tv or finish a paper instead of go out. Those are some examples of the issues i have but are not limited to those things, another issue i have is the motivation to go to class. Finding the motivation for these things has been a problem all my life, so i tried the motivational strategy exploring rewards. This strategy requires you to list the no cost, low cost, and high cost rewards that come along with succeeding to find the rewards that motivate you. I used this strategy in my history 102 class as well as my political science 121 class, this being that they are the hardest classes for me to get motivated for. For my History class i listed these no cost, low cost and high cost rewards. I used these at different times and tried to find which one was most motivating for me, and it was the low cost rewards that motivated me the most. These low-cost rewards were things like getting good grades and getting my work done early so i dont stress later and can go out instead of having to stay in and finish work. When using this strategy for my political science class i felt that the low cost rewards was the thing that motivated me most as well. Like i said before these are things like getting assignments done early so i have more free time later or receiving good grades. I feel this assignment and using the exploring rewards strategy has helped me to learn what motivates me to do better in school.