As I said in my post before this: "What is Procrastination?" essentially everyone has procrastinated at some point in their life. Oftentimes, procrasintatig is easier than doing the work one has to do. But how do we get rid of procrastination and stop it from happening in the future?
Writing down the task you have to do helps greatly. Seeing the task in writing and having it right in front of you constantly reminds you of what you have to do and eventually, you'll get down to to it. Releasing any emotions you might be holding onto also helps. Doing homework and being angry at the same time does not always go well. And last but not least: elminating destructive thinking. Destructive thinking stops many people from doing their assignments because they believe they cannot do it. Stopping thoughts like that will ensure procrastination doesn't happen.
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Procrastination. This is the student's worst enemy. Procrastination is in one sentence a person saying "Hey I can do this assignment later," even when they have time to do the assignment right at that moment. Many students procrastinate, including me. I didn't realize how much I procrastinated until I was in highschool, writing the bulk of a research paper the night before. I had had at least a month to write it, but for some reason had waited until twelve hours before it was due. So why do people procrastinate? Oregon State University listed a few reasons as to why people feel the need to procrastinate.
1. "I don't feel like doing it." This sentence is most likely number one for a reason. School assignments often are not fun things to do, so students put them off until the very last minute. 2. "But, I don't know how." Excuses are a large proponent of procrastination. Students, including myself, will often use an excuse to not work on their schoolwork. 3. "But, what if I can't cut it?" Number three is a fear of failure. Many students would rather not try at all than try and fail. 4. "How can I top this?" Maybe a student had a recent success in school. They wrote a great paper or did great on a test they studied for. In number 4, the student is afraid that they won't be able to do any better than they have already, so they procrastinate. 5. "This stuff is just plain boring." I feel like number 5 coincides with number 1 in the sense that the student simply doesn't feel like doing any assignments. 6. "You can't make me." Number 6 probably occurs more often in highschool than anywhere else. Feeling the need to rebel can cause a student to not do their assignments in school and out of school. Aesop was a man who was said to have lived as a slave in ancient Greece. He gained fame because he came up with theses stories, known as fables, to tell to people. Fables are like stories except all of them have some type of moral, or message at the end. As a kid I used to read Aesop's fables all of the time and in this blog I just wanted to list some of my favorites.
1. The Horse and the Stag. In this fable, a stag damaged a horse's pasture that it had been living in. Wanting to get revenge on the stag the horse turned to a human and asked help in seeking revenge. The human agreed, but only if it could ride on the horse's back. The horse agreed, but never got his revenge. And from that time on, horse was a slave to the human. The moral of this fable is that revenge always comes at a price. In my life, I relate this to holding grudges. If I'm angry at someone about something, then holding a grudge won't solve anything. While staying angry and holding a grudge does seem easier at some points, it only affects me in a bad way. Staying angry all of the time wears you down after a while. 2. The Quack Frog: In this short fable, there is a frog proclaiming that he can cure any type of ill or sickness one might have. As he is shouting this a fox strolls by, looks down at him and asks why he then can't get rid of his splotchy frog skin and limping gait. Moral of this story: Test a man's professions by his practice. I take this story to mean that people's actions speak a lot louder than words. While people may say they will do something, that doesn't necessarily mean they are telling the truth. From my very first day of preschool to my very last day of high school, I attended Catholic school. Catholic school meant that for fifteen years of my life I never had to worry about what I wore to school because that was chosen for me by the school I attended. Every single girl in Catholic school at one point had to wear an awful jumper with a peter pan collared blouse. It was inevitable. There were some benefits to wearing a uniform, although. No one was teased or bullied for not wearing the "right" type of clothing. Everyone wore the same thing, everyone had to look like they were dressed in a potato sack.
From preschool up until sixth grade I attended Saint Joseph's elementary school in Collingdale. I was a pretty normal kid as far as those things go. I had friends, I did well in school, and I liked playing soccer. One thing that made me stand out, at least to my teachers and relatives, was the fact that I liked to read. No, not liked. I loved reading. Reading was an obsession of mine. Instead of asking for toys for Christmas when I was younger, I would ask for books. I read all of the time, whenever I could, wherever I could. I read in the car, I read at home, and I read at school. I was the kid that the teachers had to yell at to stop reading because I was always reading when they tried to teach. Up until sixth grade I was always praised for being such a bookworm. I brought at least one book with me everywhere. Whenever I had a spare moment, I would flip open the page I had left off on, and read. At the end of the school year, in 2010, Saint Joseph closed down and I transferred to a different Catholic school, Saint Eugene in Primos. By this time I was twelve years old and just starting seventh grade. I was pretty much the same kid I had been when I had been in sixth grade. What I didn't realize was that things were different in seventh grade. In sixth grade, most of the girls in my class didn't put much thought into how they looked. In seventh grade at Saint Eugene, I came to the realization that the girls believed their looks were everything. Makeup, something I had only worn in random musicals that I had performed in, was worn everyday. Girls straightened their hair and had their ears pierced. Nails were painted bright colors and hair was dyed. Soon, I was an outcast, because I didn't have any of those traits. My hair was a dull brown color that I wore in a ponytail everyday. My ears weren't pierced, and my fingernails weren't painted. On the contrary, they were bitten to the quick. I didn't straighten my hair because I didn't even own a straightener. I wasn't even sure I knew how to put makeup on. So, I was that girl. The girl who no one really wanted to be seen with because she was so unbelievably uncool. Once I realized what everyone judged me to be, I became insecure. I stopped bringing books to school because my peers thought reading was dumb and boring and who actually liked to read for fun anyway? Pop music was cool. Twitter was cool. Harry Potter was stupid and why would you read when you can text and play games on your phone instead? So I tried. I tried constantly to fit in. I painted my nails, I bought a straightener and straightened my hair. I refused to wear a ponytail anymore. I got a real touch screen phone and texted all of the time. And, by the time I was in eighth grade, I was accepted, and everyone picked a different new student to bully. Even though I was accepted by my peers I wasn't happy. Not even close. I longed to bring a book into class and read after I finished all of my work. But I didn't. I couldn't because that wasn't cool. This went on until about my senior year of high school. Throughout high school I had my own friend group with people who accepted me and thought I was cool. Then at the end of my junior year, the group got into a fight, and many people chose different sides. I refused to choose a side in the argument because I was friends with everyone. Eventually, they all stopped hanging out with me because I refused to choose between one side or the other. It was at this point that I realized how unhappy I had been all along. I should have just been myself the entire way. True friends would accept me for who I was. So I changed. I wore my hair the way I wanted, I began to read in school again. And I was happy. True, I didn't have as many friends, but the friends I did have I knew would stick by my side. So: moral of the story. Be yourself. Be weird, be unique. Be different. Being yourself, is better than trying to be someone you're not. Fitting in is overrated anyway. Hey everyone! In this blog I explain why I find books so interesting. Enjoy! When asked why I read and write, I explained that I do those things to escape reality. What I didn't say was that I also write as a form of communication. When I write, especially into a journal or diary, I am communicating with myself. Sometimes, when I have a lot going on my life, it is almost as if I cannot get my thoughts straight. Writing helps me to express my thoughts and feelings and figure out how I really feel about a particular situation. For many, writing can be extremely therapeutic. Writing helps people make sense of the world around them and get their thoughts infinite an order that makes sense.
The question above is something that I've asked myself since I began to write. How long does it take to really get some inspiration? The dictionary defines inspiration as "the process of being mentally stimulated to do something, especially to do something creative." One can argue that everybody needs some type of inspiration to write a story, a short story, or a book. But how does inspiration occur? Do we have to wait for it, or do we have to work towards it and attempt to inspire ourselves?
In my opinion, some of the best short stories that I've written, I made up on the spot. In a creative writing class I took in my senior year of high school, we had to create an original short story in the short span of forty five minutes. The story I wrote that day is the story that I still believe is my best. So, in my opinion, working towards inspiration doesn't work. Although some might disagree, I believe inspiration is something that comes naturally, and you can't force it to happen. I say that because there were some days where I really wanted to begin a new story, but I couldn't come up with any original ideas for it. I had the motivation to write, but i couldn't figure out what I wanted to write about. So what's your opinion? Does inspiration take time, or does it randomly happen? In the beginning of this semester, I thought myself to be an okay writer. I believe that I know how to write a research paper, a summary, and other things. What this English Composition course has truly taught me is how to write personally. Blogging is about putting one's personal views out for other people to see. Through all thirteen blogs that I have written thus far, I have put my opinions and views out there. Making writing more personal is key for everyone who wants to be a successful writer. This class has shown me what it takes for my writing to be understandable, coherent, and successful.
I have also realized that asking questions is key to writing an assignment. Asking questions and figuring out the answers is essentially what makes a good paper. From this English Composition class, I have figured out that by asking and answering my own questions, I can pretty much create well written and well rounded papers and assignments. For the assignment based on the movie LUV, I worked by myself. This was the best choice for me personally because working by myself ensures that I get all of my work done, and not become distracted by other people around me. Although sometimes working with others is good to get new ideas, I believe that for the most part, working by myself is best for me. The most difficult part of my writing process for this specific assignment was the fact that I did not have an article or a "hard copy" of the assignment in front of me. In previous assignments, such as the Academic Mindsets assignment, I had to write an argument and summary based on two articles. I could read and reread those articles at any time that I wanted. With this project, however, I had to answer a prompt based on a movie, and that wasn't something I could go back and read again. Yes, i could watch specific clips from the movie again, but to me it wasn't the same thing as reading and understanding the material. In order to overcome this issue, I made sure that I wrote down exact notes about the movie and the characters' personalities. This greatly aided me when I went to write the assignment.
I wrote most of this project in class. This was an extremely useful approach because I felt as if I got more work done than I would have been able to at home. In the classroom there were less distractions, and it was very quiet. The classroom helped me focus in on what I needed to do. I chose to write about my specific topic because I found it interesting and it was something that I felt strongly about. In the future, if I have time in class, I will definitely write and do most of my assignments in class. As I wrote this assignment I realized that writing in a classroom betters my composing skills. |
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