Reflection Journal – Beating procrastination
This
semester is my forth semester of studies in National University of Singapore
(NUS) and I am still learning to adapt the different learning environment and
system compared to my previous learning experience.
In year
2012, I graduated from Republic Polytechnic and I was one of the gold medalists
from my graduating batch. The learning system that my polytechnic adopts is problem-based
learning system and daily-grade system which students will be graded based on
their daily learning performance as well as three understanding tests
throughout the semester; students are divided into different teams to work out for
a solution to the problem with the guidance of a facilitator. The facilitator
will guide us along whenever there is a need without giving any direct solution
to the question and students are supposed to present the solutions to class
before the lesson ends. Unlike in NUS, students are required to attend both
lectures and tutorials. Students get the first-hand knowledge from lecturer
during lecture time, but I would say this is slightly harder to have an interactive
learning experience than my polytechnic due to the bigger class size and
different system. In a later date, students will revisit the knowledge taught
in class during tutorial class and it is indeed a good time to clarify any
doubts with your tutors.
To be honest,
I preferred problem-based learning system more and I believed that this is one
of the crucial factors that can make me excel in my diploma course. Just
because of the daily presentation, I was somehow being ‘forced’ to understand
everything that is related to the problem in class very well and complete the
works on time. Hence, I did very well during my polytechnic times as I did not
go home with any doubts every day.
However, by
far I am not doing so well in NUS due to my laziness. Without the pressure
coming from the daily grade system and less opportunity of clarifying doubts in
class have worsened the whole condition, I became less motivated and slowly turned
into a procrastinator. Procrastination does not make me feel good and I know I should
not be doing it this way, yet still I continue to procrastinate.
Through reflection,
I realized I have not putting in a lot of effort in the past few semesters and I
have now decided to make a change in my remaining semesters because of my
parents. I thought that my parents have been disappointed with me and almost
wanted to give up on me, yet they still gave me encouragement and supports
which really touched me a lot. From the day onwards, I told myself that I should
do something to make a change and I want to beat the bad habit of procrastinating.
I want to be a more organized people because organized people can control their
life whereas for unorganized people, they let life control them. They do
whatever is the most convenient or urgent at the time and hence it resulting in
a poor work quality in most of the time. I do not want it to happen in my life
again. Thereby, I have been done some research on that topic and I realized that
lack of time management skill is the main root cause.
Learning to manage time is equivalent to learning
how to improve the quality of life. I have
come up with some approaches to use my time in a more efficient way; there are
setting my goals, making a to-do lists to remind me of what should be done at
the particular time, priortizing my tasks to make sure that all tasks can be
met by their deadlines and last would be keeping a detailed agenda in my calendar.
In reality, making a different and exercising time management is not as easy as
what is being written here. I really need to put in a lot of effort to execute
my plan, and monitor my changes at the same time. All these need self-control
as well and I do know that this transformation process is going to be tough,
but yet it is worth doing. I have turned 24 years old this year and it is time
for me to take responsible for my life, the way I react and my choices.
