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.