Time to Kick Some Task

This is it guys......The last blog post of the semester. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean school is over. We still have a solid week of exams and projects to work through. We've got to finish strong because you don't jog through a finish line, you sprint through it. Put that into perspective as we study and work throughout these last weeks.
That's What I did this week as I did my CLS 105 project. The project contained 5 different approaches to what my major or career could be. I could do research, talk to professors, go to career services, and many other opportunities. BUT HOW WAS I GUNNA MANAGE MY TIME FOR THIS TASK?!?!? It didn't take me long to figure out that I already knew how to solve this problem. I had to use a target planner to plot out all the things I was going to do. The target planner was an obvious choice for me because I am a visual learner.
At the center of the target, I put the due date which was 4/25. From there I surrounded that circle with other circle that represented things I had to do along with a date that I thought I should have the task done by. I made the more important stuff more toward the outside of the planner because I wanted them done sooner and over with.
Another great strategy for visual learners is Post-it Reminders (seen below). I wouldn't say that I am a forgetful person. I like to use the post-its because I can color code them and that makes everything I am doing more organized. I use the Post-Its mostly for my math class to remind me of quizzes and tests that are coming up.
It is a great feeling when you can take down that Post-it and rip it in half because you are done with that task.
Both these strategies are easy to use and I would recommend them to anyone who wants to get organized and turning things in on time

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Divide by Four, You'll get More!

Probably the most difficult task in tackling college homework is actually completing a given task. There is a simple and very effective way to chunk out a given homework assignment that we learned about in CLS class. This method is called: Divide by Four.
The strategy is quite easy to understand and apply to any assignment in any class.
It works like this:
1) Prepare
2) Start
3) Continue
4) Finish
Chunking up your tasks like this can help you eliminate procrastination and stress very easily.
This technique can work for a test preparation, a paper, a project, or even a speech.

I personally used it very effectively for my Presentational Speaking course, CRS 325.
I had to write and then memorize and present my speech that I composed about how Americans should be conscious about our environment and the pollution we are responsible for.
The following image shows how I used all four steps to properly divide my assignment into individual tasks.

I also used this method for my Religion 101 class to help me start and finish my final project:

Since both of the above tasks were very large and time consuming, spacing the individual tasks out like I did with the "Divide by Four" method made finishing each assignment much more feasible and less stressful.

Using a visual aid like this was very helpful for me, as I am a Kinesthetic and Visual learner. This method can be applied to any type of learner though. It can be used in any type of class for any given assignment. I found it very helpful when I used it for my CRS and Religion classes. It helped me manage bigger tasks without getting too stressed or overwhelmed.

Divide by 4

Have you ever had trouble managing a task? I'm sure you have, because it has happened to us all. At the end of the day, when looking back at an assignment I have completed, sometimes I think to myself "Man, I could have done that better!" Well, I now can say goodbye to those days, because the divide by four strategy is one that works great. It helps you break down (or chunk) the task into four simple aspects to complete the assignment.

In the divide by four strategy, you take your task and split it up into four sections. The first section is prepare, the second is start, third is continue, and fourth is to finish the assignment. You can break down any assignment whether it is a paper, project, or even maybe a test.

For me personally, I used the divide by four strategy for my PHI 107 paper. I divided the assignment into four aspects, which you can see in the picture. Breaking down the assignment into four parts made it much easier to go about completing my paper. I wasn't overwhelmed just thinking I had one big paper to do, because I always knew the next step that I needed to complete to write a good paper. The divide by four strategy also helps me avoid procrastination, because this strategy prevent me from sitting down and doing the whole assignment all night right before it is due. And, I think I wrote a very good paper using this strategy.

I am a Kinsethetic and Visual learner, so for me seeing a peice of paper that was telling me how to split up and go about my paper was great. I saw what I had to do, and I did it. I am also a reading / writing learner so writing down how I was going to split up my paper assignment was also helpful.

I highly recommend this strategy for anyone, especially those who feel overwhelmed when having to complete a large assignment. This strategy is also good for procrastinators who think it's OK to do things all in one shot. Trust me, it's way better to avoid procrastination and use this strategy!

Divide by Four

In order to manage your tasks and help your task management use divide by four. This simple but helpful strategy will help you take a task and break it apart to more easily get it done. This task will help eliminate procrastination since it will be broken into smaller more manageable pieces.

What you do to dive by four is split the task into (1) prepare (2) start (3) continue (4) finish. This can be used in any class for anything from papers to projects to studying for tests. I used it for my WGS 203 log and my MAT 122 test.

What I did for my WGS log was first I prepared by reading the article and thinking in my mind ideas that could work for this article. Then I started by writing out an outline for myself. Then to continue I wrote a paragraph at a time for each part of my outline which completed my paper and finally to finish I proof read my paper. This got this paper done very quick and helped me avoid a lot of wasted time I might of procrastinated with.

I also used this for studying for MAT 122. The steps I broke my studying into was (1) I set out all my notes and broke the studying down into chapters and topics (2) I read over the textbook chapter by chapter taking a small 5 minute break after each chapter (3) I continued by doing practice problems from each chapter as well taking little breaks after each section (4) Finally I finished studying by taking a practice test and grading myself to make sure I was prepared.

This is a great strategy for Kinesthetic learners like myself because you can write out and visualize what you need to do. This is also good for visual learners. This is a great strategy that

can help anyone out with managing big tasks that they need to accomplish.

Task Strategies!

Divide By Four

How do you use it?

This can be used on projects, exam preparation, long readings and more. You split an assignment into four parts and try to accomplish each task one at a time. First you prepare for the assignment. Second you begin the assignment at a different time. Third you will continue the assignment at a later date. Finally you finish the project. If you spread these steps out over time it makes it harder to procrastinate!

How did I use it?

I took my two most important assignments and planned them in parts. I took my Phi 107 five page paper and the remaining work I have in REL 120. The first step I chose for writing my paper was choosing a chapter to write about and underlining important parts of the chapter. The second step was writing pages one to three. The third was writing pages four and five. The last step includes proof reading and revising the paper. For religion my first step was to finish reading a novel. The point of the novel was to compare it to two chapters that we have read in Nye, so my second step was to reread these chapters. The third step I took was analyzing and comparing Nye to the novel. The last step includes the study guide that my professor gave me of certain points between the two readings, therefore I will study these points in preparation for the final.

Since I am a visual learner, I always choose to make lists and charts of things I need to do, therefore I made a list for each of the assignments that I based Divide By Four on.

Stress is Just a Mess

STRESS
The most common problem almost every college student inevitably faces during their college experience.

Being stressed is s serious frustration that people face every day. There are many many factors that adjust themselves to fit a person's life no matter how they life it. For us college students these many factors mostly include school work, but we are at a point in our lives where there is so much else going on that piles up and make our stress symptoms even worse and harder to handle.

So, how do we cope with stress and try to eliminate it?!
There are specific strategies that we can try to adapt to our lives and school school work to help us manage our stress and lower it.

I used a strategy I learned in my CLS to try and handle all my stress in my life and my classes.
It is called the A Day at a Time technique. It doesn't specifically adapt to any particular class, but moreso to my overall well being in my college life instead.
It works like this:

Before going to bed at night on a given day, make yourself a physical list of the top five things that are causing you stress. Take a piece of paper and actually write each thing down.
This way someone who is a Kinesthetic or Visual learner can see exactly what it is that is keeping them stressed out and work so that they can eliminate each factor.
Here is my top five list of stress inhibitors:

I keep this list above my bed so that I can see what I need to take care of before I can comfortably get some relaxation and sleep.
I also made a Pie Graph to map out exactly what percentages were being used from my stress to cause me to feel the way I do on the daily. This way, I could visually see which tasks and events were causing me the majority of my stress:

All it takes were these two (or even one) physical graphic organizers to lay out what I had to do before managing my stress levels.
For two classes that I generally struggle managing my work for, I also mapped out the top three things that caused me the most stress in those classes.
In my CRS class I had: 1. A speech to write about pollution, 2. That speech to learn and get ready to present, and 3. Take a quiz online for my textbook.
I wrote these things down in my assignment notebook and crossed each off as I began to work on them. This helped me become much less stressed about my work as a whole.
In my Religion class I had 1. A response to write on the Islam religion, 2. My research and exploration to do for my final project, and 3. My final project to actually conduct and write.
I haven't finished my project yet, but knowing I have to makes the task itself much less stressful, especially when I can see it visually in my assignment notebook.

I found the A Day at a Time strategy to be very helpful. Being a kinesthetic and visual learner, it was nice seeing each assignment that I had to complete. I knew that if I did each individually, I could eventually learn to tackle my stress one step at a time.
Having stress in someone's life is not fun, but it really is also not healthy. It can be dangerous in time, so dealing with it early can really help you to help lead a healthy and stress-free lifestyle.
I recommend this strategy to anyone, whether in college, highschool, a job, a relationship, or anything stressful in this busy modern life.

Taking things and accomplishing them A DAY AT A TIME

We all know what its like to be stressed out. We feel frustrated, anxious, tired, and overwhelmed. If there's someone that's never been stressed out before, well I wish i were them. A strategy that I've been using that helps me releive my stress level and get things done is using the a day at a time strategy.

For each day, you write down a list of 5 things that are stressing you out and things that you need to get done, or would like to. After making this list you can make it a point to accomplish these things and when your done, you cross them out. I do this almost everyday, and man does it feel great crossing something out. What's even better is when you have the whole list crossed out. You feel stress free, and you have this sense of confidence that you can do what you want without their being any consequences. Say goodbye to the feeling of something sitting in the back of your head that bothers you every so often.

For me, I use this stragy often becaue of the level of satisfaction I feel when the list is crossed off. I can put anything on the list too, it doesn't have to be school related.

In regards to Vars, I am a visual and kinsethetic learner and this strategy works for me, because I write out what I need to do and then I have the list that I look at every so often. However, I feel as if this strategy is similiar to the one I had last week where I feel as if any type of learner can use this strategy to relieve stress.

I personally highly recommend this strategy to anyone. There is something about just making a list and getting things done that releives stress, which is the whole point of this weeks blog. I really hope you consider my day at a time strategy because I think it can be very helpful!