TASK MANAGEMENT

As the semester is almost over, there are several due dates of tests, projects, and major essays coming up. I do have a lot of works to finish before the final. CLS blogging and major/career project were two of them. I had 2 projects and a major essay due on same day tomorrow and CLS blogging today. So I needed this task management. One of task strategies tells me to do the hardest works first but I do the opposite way. I try to finish the easy tasks first to get rid of choirs and finish the important works at last to concentrate more on it after I finish all the easy works. I decided to use Priority Lists and Post-it Reminders as my strategies for this last blog. Then I needed these strategies for three classes with projects and essays, ENL211, CLS105, and IST195. These three classes had an essay and projects due on same day, Monday.


Firstly, I used priority lists to organize my most important works to finish. I looked up my grades from each class and instructions to find which one is the hardest. ENL211 was for final major essay, CLS 105 was for major/career project, and IST195 was for Project 2. I finished CLS 105 project to hand it in on Sunday last week to hand it in on Monday because I had already started this project and only had to write a reflection and I had a lot of works to finish and I was going to leave school on Thursday for Easter. Then major essay from ENL211 seemed to have the least work of all because it was only 2 pages. I borrowed books to write about it from the Bird library and started to research about what I'm going to write about. and then finished it on Wednesday. I was going to finish this on Tuesday and finish the IST195 project on Wednesday but I couldn't finish the essay because it took a lot of time to write each paragraphs as the instructor had a high expectation of this major essay. Then I finished the IST195 project on the same day, Wednesday. Also these are done by the most important works to the least decided by grades in each class.

For the next strategy, I used Post-it reminders. It helps me to keep in track of what I have to do next and what important things are coming up. It reminds me of my school works that should be done in what time and how. I put projects and essays in a red Post-it to show that it is very important and I put quizzes and things to study in a green Post-it and homework and less important things in yellow paper. Nothing is optional but necessary. All of them should be done but they are divided by types and importances of works.

These two strategies helped me to organize tasks better and be alert to what is due and important in the near future.

Task Management

This week's topic is task management and it is very important for me to stay on task because I am a huge procrastinator. For this topic I have chose my Illustration research paper because it is such a huge research paper I had to do and I started it way before. As you see on the picture on the left, I have devide my parts into 6, like using the chunking the task. So, first I chose my topic as a Propaganda. Then I have done some research on it to find out brief informations on what I was writing on.

Then The picture on the left, I have started wrting things out and putting pictures according to the imformation I was giving. After writing my paper, it became my rough draft. Then I have reread it to see if I made any grammatical mistakes.

Then this picture on the left shows that the parts that I have highlighted. This was my step 4. I have highlighted grammatical errors to see what kind of mistakes I have made so I can fix it to make it a better quality paper.

My step 5 was to write bibiliography and cite the sources. As you see it on the left, I have written down all the websites I have been using to make this paper.

Finally, my last step 6 was to reread the whole paper and see if I have to make any other changes rather than grammatical errors.

After doing all these steps way before the due dates, I feel so relief and confident. Now I can let other people read my paper and make it into even a better quality research paper. I was a huge procrastinator but because of the technique I been using from CLS class, had helped me save so much time and it has helped to avoid becoming a procrastinator.

Unwoo

TASK MANAGEMENT

TOO MUCH WORK!!! THIS IS THE HELL!!! Literally OMG!!! Sometime, we had too much work for the class. Some students easily give up everything. However most of student at least tried to finish the HELL work for their better grade. I am one of them too.

Past week, I had many things to do. I supposed to finish my CLS project last week. However, I got serious cold. Then, I could not do anything in last week. So, I tried to finished up my CLS project due Monday. Then, my Chinese teacher gave us the quiz for Tuesday surprisingly. I was literally panic at that time. Because I supposed to finish CLS project, I had no time to study for Chinese quiz. In my head, I had already tried to find a solution for this situation. After 5 minutes, I made a great decision, which was post postpone the CLS project. Finally, I could get the perfect credit for the both quiz and project. However, the problem is this week. This week is literally Hell week. I have to do so many things to do. I have three exams for this weekend. I hope everything finish well in the end of this week.

Since this week TECH assignment is the Task Management, I really want to talk about various strategies for overcome this HELL week. There is TOP-FIVE STRATEGIES to MANAGE ASSIGNMENT. First of all, work on your hardest course first. Habitually, I tried to study easy stuff first. However, I have no energy to concentrate on the hard work. Second, do your hardest assignment first. I think this is also same content with first one. Third, let attention span is your guide to divide assignment into smaller parts. I think this is also great strategies because of maintaining an efficient level of concentration. Forth, alternate subjects during your study time. For me, I am using same kind of way to maintaining my concentration. I change the subject with 30 minutes duration. Finally, use due dates for assignments to set priorities and check them off when you complete them. This is one of the self strategies that I used before. This is also great way to finish each thing with great accomplishment. In the TOP FIVE STRATEGIES TO MANAGE ASSIGNMENT, I love to use fourth and final strategies. Those things are work for me best. Whenever I had too much work at once, I use these strategies automatically for my better concentration after taking CLS class. Last week, I also used these strategies for better studying and minimizing time for studying Chinese.

‘Divide by four + check list’

In the additional strategies, I love to use a ‘Divide by Four’ strategy. This strategy is very useful. Whenever you are panic, you should use devide by four. This strategy consisted of 1. Prepare, 2. Start, 3. Continue, and 4. Finish. For last weekend, I had one day before surprise quiz in the Chinese class. I was panic at that time. However, I had a peace in my mind after making divide by four. Additionally, I put check list for my better learningin my case.

Chinese chapter 10 test and additional quiz

Due 2011/04/18

1. Collecting the vocabs and chapter reading

Make vocab list

Make a note card

Print out paragraph

2. Memorizing vocabs and make a new sentence about chapter topic

Make s sentence on the back of the note card

Make a sentence according to chapter grammar

Peer editing

3. Reviewing the vocab notecard and make another sentence with memorized vocab.

First review

Second review

Third review

4. Making my own paragraph with memorized vocabs about chapter topic

Peer editing

After I write each section, I wrote what should do under the each topic as a check list. At the first time, I used only Divided by four. However, I think I should put the check list under this strategy, which is maximizing my learning. After I put these two strategies together, it seems that I use divided by four more efficiently. As I made my own strategy based on the CLS strategy, my learning process is getting more and more efficient and faster. I proud of myself that I used this strategy, which is ‘Divide by four + check list’.

‘Divide by four + check list’

Sung Hoon Task Management

Our last blog topic is Task Management. As many final projects’ due date is coming soon, how I manage all that is very important and whether I success on finishing it or not is up to it. Because it is so easy for me to forget things to do and the priority, I have to leave some memo in my phone or some notes on my planner.

For this blog, I decided to try making a priority list for the rest of the semester and a target planner for CLS major exploration project.

As a kinesthetic learner, it is always good for me to put my plans and check as I finish parts.

Obviously, the major exploration project is the first thing to finish because it is due tomorrow. I am guessing this week will be a very busy week of the semester. The Japanese presentation and HW are killing me as always. Lastly, I need to fill out the IUT form to submit to the College of A&S but this is not due until the end of the semester.

The target planner shows all the ‘chunks’ of the last CLS project.

So Far, I finished every part except for online search and the last part which is writing reflection paper and submitting it.

This way, I could easily see how much I have done and feel achievement for bonus.

Learning how to learn in CLS was truly a good experience after all. There were some strategies that really helped me to become a better student and I will continue to use them.

Task MGMT

The past week would have been absolutely out of control without taking time out to refresh my mind. With my final review this past Thursday, I was working nearly non-stop for a week and didn't have time to take significant breaks. I used the five-minute vacation to help keep me focused when i didn't have time to sleep. While I didn't close my eyes to prevent getting too sleepy, I found the stretching to be very helpful with staying energized.

Working towards a final project all week I divided my project into manageable chunks. Because the Divide by Four strategy didn't make my project seem manageable enough I subdivided it into more steps spread out over the course of a week.

Looking back, I wish I would have subdivided the project into smaller parts and decided on stricter, more definitive deadlines. Simply specifying "Monday Evening" as a deadline ended up being too lenient as I used all of the said evening and into the next morning to complete the task and even into the next day, after which all my deadlines got backed up and I became more stressed. Also, if I had been more definitive about when to accomplish things I could have stuck to a schedule more diligently, allowing my professor to critique more of my work before the final review. However, here is the progress of my work over the week.

Since all of my other classes were cancelled this week due to the Studio Final, the only other assignment I had to work on this week was this blog. Therefore, I used the divide by four strategy again to make sure I completed it by Saturday night.

Because the task of getting a blog done was much less involved than completing a final studio project, it was much easier to stick to my schedule for the former. However, I hope that with practice creating and sticking to schedules will come more easily to me. As a visual learner, I will continue to post my schedules on my desk where I can see them and be reminded of me at all times. In the future I hope to continue the Divide by four strategy as well as the Five minute escape to advance my progress.

Task Management

Sadly, this will be our last blog for this class and to end it well, we talked about task management skills. It seems like it flows right after the stress and procrastination topics we went over. I think that the task management, stress and procrastination all go in one triangle. They all correlate somehow together. With a good task management skill you don't have to procrastinate and if you dont procrastinate, there will be no more stress because you will have everything done.
One skill that we have talked about was the "Divide by Four" technique which allows you to divide up the work into four parts; 1. prepare 2. start 3. continue 4. finish. I didn't really decide on which work I will use this for however, I noticed that the work I'm doing for my last CLS project, the major career exploration projects seemed to go with the flow. First I had to prepare, which was to create a proposal. Then in order to start the project, I had to go out and seek my professors, friends, schools, etc in order to finish get all the documents. Then I continued searching through online about my major and my career. I have yet done the finish part because I still have time but all I need is the reflection. I plan on doing that tonight. I didn't really mean to use the divide by four technique until I saw that this project just fit right with the technique.

Then one technique that caught me was the "Post-It Reminder". I always buy post-it so I can use it but I never do because I get lazy. However, I used it this week because I just had a lot of things to take care of. I found out that using post-its not only do they stick out in front of you but you keep looking at it if it is up there. I was able to get things done because of this and I found it very helpful. I guess because I'am a kinesthetic learner, if I SEE something in front of me like that, I will do it.

As I write my last blog, I have to say that I will definitely visit back to these blog post in order to help me in the future to see if I have forgotten any of these techniques. A lot of these strategies we have learned worked for me and it has changed the way I study and prepare well for classes. I think that with a fresh start next year, I will be able to succeed and do well in school to graduate with a great GPA. Thank you CLS for all the help.

Stressssssssss mngmnt

I'm a kinesthetic learner. As this semester is almost ending, there are a lot of projects, major essays, and tests coming from this week. I start to get lazy and relaxed because the summer vacation is coming up soon but I'm also stressed that there are so many works to finish before the semester ends. It is important to manage my stress and finish well with the last important projects, essays, and tests. For this week's strategy, stress management, I decided to use Stress Diagram and Five-Minute Escape to manage my stress. There is are two projects and a research paper due next Monday from IST 195, CLS 105, and ENL 213.

First of all, I listed the sources of stress for Stress Diagram strategy.

I found seven major sources of my stress and I drew a pie diagram to represent the relative amount of stress it is in my life. As I expected, I drew the exams, projects and essays as the biggest concern and the stress in my life, my school works. Those are the things that I cannot easily control or get rid of so I should try to get rid of other things that are stressful. For the school work, I should start doing my essays and projects earlier so I don't have to finish them all the night before the due dates because I might do badly if I finish them all at once. It will not only be stressful but also affect my grades. It is the worst choice to finish them at once.

For the second strategy, I tried Five-Minute Escape to relieve my stress in a very little time.
I followed the 8 directions that was expected to make me feel rejuvenated except for a few directions that I did not understand.
I stretched with my eye closed. Some of them really helped as a stretching but others did not feel like anything. However, overall of this stretching strategy helped me to relax myself and refresh my brain and mind. Somehow, I could concentrate on my work better after trying this strategy, stretching.
Before I tried this, I used to smoke outside to refresh myself. Sometimes smoking does not work to refresh myself and to concentrate better. I should try this when smoking does not work well for me.

I hope these strategies helped me to end my semester with the grades that I wanted and expected.