Setting false or early deadlines is an excellent strategy both for survival and motivation. Here’s why:
Survival
· If you plan to print your paper right before you leave for class you can be sure one or more of the following will happen at least once in your academic career – you will run out of paper, out of ink, the printer will not work, etc.
· If you wait until the last minute to actually write the paper you can add getting sick, family emergency, car trouble, misunderstanding the directions, lack of information, or the most fun social event of the semester happening as you sit down to write.
Working ahead can also help with motivation
· A sense of accomplishment is a great motivator!
· Less stress because you will avoid all of the above problems.
· The finished product will be better because you have time to revise.
· We do better work when our brains have time to “mull over” what we are working on, and we often think of better plans for the paper or project.
It is a simple thing – just plan on getting the work done one or two days before the due date. Write that earlier date in your planner as well as the due date.
The next blog will deal with motivation. There is often a slump during the semester, but time is so short and the semester moves so quickly that there is not time to have an extended period of no work. The blog will give you some ideas about how to keep motivated even when you do not feel like doing the work.
*****
First Semester Success: 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an eBook and hard copy from amazon.com and a hard copy from wordassociation.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment