Time Strategies

     For this assignment, I chose to read The Important Habit of Just Starting by Jory Mackay and The Myth of "Too Busy" by Tim Grahl.  I definitely think both articles were useful.  It almost felt as though they were specifically addressing me, as I feel as though I have gotten worse and worse with time management as I've grown up.  It was reassuring to see that I was in the 95% of Americans that tend to procrastinate.  I think the habit of just starting was an article that I really needed to read.  Mackay was accurate in that procrastination is more painful than actually doing what needs to be done.  Once you start, you realize it's not so bad.  I realized that this does not have to just apply to school.  I have recently started getting more and more into health and fitness.  I wanted to change my diet, however it was difficult since I've been a pretty picky eater all of my life.  Just in the past week, it dawned on me that I needed to start or it would never happen.  And it honestly hasn't been as bad as I thought; I even feel a sense of accomplishment for not eating out and cutting out junk food.  The Myth of "Too Busy" made me realize for the first time ever that "busy" is a pretty unrealistic concept.  We all choose to prioritize our free time with whatever we like.  I think making a schedule would help me plan out what I need to do when I know I will have the free time to do it.  I think my biggest challenge this semester will be balancing the workload of three online classes.  This is the most I have ever taken at one time.  For online courses, you really have to go out of your way and be responsible for your work when you have free time.  It really is quite different from taking a course in a standardized classroom.  For this semester, I have already gotten down the schedule for when the work for my two other online classes are due.  This will allow me to plan ahead and finish the work for those courses in a timely manner, hopefully a couple days before the assignments are even due.  I think  making a schedule for this class was very helpful.  I like the schedule I set up; it fits around when I am in work and school, and it forces me to knock out the weekly load in small portions all throughout the week.  In the past, I always flew by the seat of my pants when it came to managing my time for class.  Unfortunately, it worked in that I still received good grades.  I am sure this only reinforced my bad habits.  However, this semester is the first time I can remember using a planner for all of my classes.  I think it has allowed me to organize my thoughts on paper.  It also gives me no excuses to get behind on my course work.  Being more organized this semester will hopefully allow me to feel less stress overall. 

This picture shows a completely organized bookshelf.  I hope I will be able to keep my course load as organized as these books are for this semester :)

Source: Flickr