Procrastination Workshop

Recently I visited the SASC department at UNE on the second floor of the Commons for the first time. I attended the session about procrastination to learn strategies to combat procrastination and also learn why we procrastinate work. I enjoyed my experience with SASC because of the environment there and the instructor. The environment was nice because it was with a small group of people, so everyone was involved and engaged. The instructor was super nice and helpful and made sure that everyone understood what she was talking about. I learned a lot about some reasons why I might be procrastinating, as well as some new planning ideas to limit my procrastination. I am going to give it my best effort to use some of the strategies I learned at the session to help with the problem I have with procrastinating. One specific strategy that combats “Fun” procrastination is a reward system. For me, this would look like giving myself a break after every half hour to an hour of work to be on my phone or talk with my friends as a way to decompress for a few minutes before going back to work. I am optimistic that a strategy like this will help me be more productive and get my work done efficiently. The main way that I procrastinate is through “fun” procrastination, meaning I choose to do something fun like playing video games or hanging out with my friends before doing homework. This is something that I hope to limit in the future and I am confident that this SASC session will help me with this goal.

Study Cycle

I went to a SASC session the other day that focussed on study habits. Specifically, it had a focus on the study cycle and how to implement it to help you study more effectively. The cycle has five key components as follows: Preview, Attend, Review, Study, and Evaluate. Previewing means quickly skimming over some of the material for a class ahead of time if at all possible in order to be prepared for the lesson. This is something that I may consider doing for a class like statistics which I am taking next semester so I can come to class prepared to ask questions that will help me. The rest of the steps are a little more clear in the study cycle. Including actually attending class and being engaged, reviewing the classwork and taking notes, studying using different techniques like short study sessions 3-5 times a week as well as a longer review over the weekend. Finally, after an exam or quiz, evaluate how effective the study cycle method you used was. I took a lot out of this SASC session and was glad that I attended it. It is always helpful for me to learn new methods of learning/studying because the same method does not always work. Something besides the study cycle that I took away from the session was that mixing up how you study for different classes is important. Studying by yourself vs with a partner or group can also have a great impact on your ability to learn information. I think a combination of the study cycle, as well as some of my own previous methods, will be the best for me going forward.