Monday, February 27, 2012

Climbing the Mountain

Procrastination is a problem that I feel many students (at every level of education) have to deal with on a fairly regular basis. This problem is exacerbated when you are forced to do work in a subject area that you really don't care about. Last night I had a five page paper to tackle, that was an analysis of an advertisement. Needless to say, not my cup of tea. 
I was recently inspired by one of my Youtube Subscriptions - a man who goes by VagabondSteve. He recently came out with a video on self discipline that included a strategy for becoming more productive. The method is very simple, but worked incredibly well for me last night. You set a timer for half hour intervals, and alternate work with free time. Work for half an hour, and have the next half an hour to do whatever you like; read, take a walk, surf the web... whatever. I found that I could easily focus for half an hour at a time, and was much less distracted during the periods I designated for work. I think the biggest problem many of us face when beginning a long arduous task, like writing a paper or beginning a school project is the 'mental mountain' we envision in front of us. Breaking it down into blocks of time can help you conquer that mountain bit by bit. 
Obviously the time periods can be adjusted for your personal needs, and would depend on the nature of the project you're undertaking.

 Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Also, take a look at Steve's channel. He's an interesting guy. 
His twitter is here as well.

1 comment:

  1. SO interesting that you used that strategy for dealing with your assignment. I'm glad it was successful! You never quite cease to amaze me G!

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