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.