Did you know that I am taking a course in 20th Century Literature? Apparently not a lot of people I talk to daily actually knew this. I guess I tend to discuss other aspects of my life more so than my scholarly gains. Anyway, my contract date for this course is up October 31, 2011.
Which is only 18 days away.
Which, with everything else going on in my life, is coming way too quickly.
To receive credit for the course, I need to complete two assignments, the midterm and the final. Don't worry. The midterm is done AND (as of last night)the first assignment is completed too. I won't go into the details of my analysis on two distinct ways the authors I studied used writing the beginning of their novels, let's just celebrate that I 100% completed it! I have also scheduled my final exam for the 22nd. So, in reality, I am pretty much on track.
I get side tracked. I need to check my email, my facebook, my twitter account, Googleplus, etc. etc. etc. The essay I completed last night (finally) should have taken me maybe two days from start to finish. But I stretched it out over a week (because remember last week when I was thankful for completing it...I may have been slightly over-zealous that i would have the editing part finished that night). And I probably wouldn't even have finished it last night if I didn't yell at myself. And promise rewards for finishing it. And finally set a timer for 20 minutes and told myself I only had to focus for those 20 minutes on my paper and then I could do whatever I wanted.
You know all of those web pages that offer tips to help one focus? This "setting of a timer" seemed to be a consistent trend. And because I was wasting so much of my time focusing on research about how to focus, I thought I would give it a go.
And now I am a raving fan of setting a timer. I was able to finish up my paper in two 20 minute sessions last night. And completing this task that has been hanging over my head for the last week (or year...however you want to look at it) exhilarated me. I wanted to keep going! I started to organize study notes. And created a plan of action for assignment two. I felt so responsible that I took 20 minutes to de-clutter my office space (also known as the kitchen table!). And woke up this morning feeling ready to take on all of the tasks thrown my way.
One of the things I am super fabulous at is procrastinating. And I found the thing that may work for me. And I wanted to share this knowledge. Maybe us procrastinators can unite, and make a plan to take over the world by completing all of those tasks that are haunting us.
We can start tomorrow!
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