Procrastinating -JM

Procrastination has always been a huge issue for me. I truly am the biggest procrastinator I've ever met. All of the distractions in college make it even harder to avoid procrastinating all of my assignments until the very last minute. I will do just about anything to avoid my work. I always get distracted by my phone, the t.v, my friends, and my messy room. I found that a good way to avoid procrastinating and putting things off to the last minute is to plan ahead. I started using the monthly calendar in my planner, to write down important dates to remember for when things are due. The calendar has the due dates, and the daily planner has a specific amount of work for that assignment. The daily planner is a good way to spread out the work I have for the assignment so I don't leave it to last minute. I know my best focus lasts about an hour so I spread out the daily work based on that. I have a project in my COU 101 class due this Monday, where I have to make a job portfolio and give a presentation on it. In the assignment description, there 5 are bullet points of what to include in the assignment. I started working on the project 6 days before it was due and did one of the bullets everyday. Then when I was finished with the bullets, I prepared my presentation. I found this to be a much more productive way to use my planner and avoid procrastinating. It also helped me to give myself little rewards for doing the daily work on time, rather than putting it off. I mostly reward myself with relaxation time, where I can just watch t.v or hang out with my friends. It was helpful for me to tell myself that I couldn't watch a show until I finished my daily assignment. It gave me more incentive to get it done. I also used the Target Planner. I have a big exam coming up in my HST class, which I need to know a lot of information for. In the Target Planner, I made 7 circles, each circle representing a specific date. I made 7 because I wanted to start studying one week before my exam, the middle target is the day of the test. In each circle, I wrote a daily plan for how to prepare myself for the exam. I wrote down the pages in the text book and the dates of notes I needed to study. Though it was a good way to schedule my preparation for the exam, I feel using the monthly and daily calendar was more effective for me. I am always writing things in my planner so I'm constantly reminded of what I need to do for that specific day. With the target planner, its on my desk, so I'm only reminded of what I need to do to prepare for the exam when I'm at my desk, which isn't often. I probably won't use the target planner again, but I definitely plan to keep up with my daily and monthly planner for future exams and projects.