Procrastination-MANUAL

1 Procrastination Ginny Fuller October 24, 2000 Procrastination One of the many skills in the links section of the chemistry page is Procrastination. I happen to be one of the biggest culprits of procrastination and it is only hindering my life, and thus I figured the only way to fight my situation was to learn more about it. On the procrastination link section there are many sites that give valuable information. Three of these sites are "Procrastination: Ten Ways to "Do it now"" http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/procrast.htm "The Problem of Procrastination" http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/procrast.html "Fastfax: Controlling Procrastination" http://www.uoguelph.ca/csrc/learning/procras/htm "Procrastination: Ten Ways to "Do it now"" This site is incredibly straight forward, and the design of the site helps the reader connect to the information given on a personal level. They first identify procrastination as "…letting the lowpriority tasks get in the way of high-priority ones." Examples of excuses used with procrastination are given such as "There is plenty of time to get it done" and "I work better under pressure so I don’t need to do it right now." Both these statements helped me clearly see that I do have a procrastination problem. The site goes on to say the causes of procrastination are linked to perfectionism, inadequacy, and discomfort. The main information that I received out of the site was how to improve my procrastination. 1. Rational self talk - example "I'm not in the mood right now" new thought - I will finish it sooner the earlier I start. 2. Positive Self Statements - example "There's no time like the present!" 3. Don’t Catastrophe - focusing on the present and keeping out negative thoughts 4. Design clear goals - be specific on what needs to get done 5. Set priorities - make a list of what needs to get done in order of importance 6. Partialize the task - break down the long term assignments 7. Get Organized - have everything you need before you begin 8. Take a stand - commitment! 9. Use prompts - write reminders to yourself 10. Reward yourself - self-reinforcement always helps This site is incredibly informative, and I plan to put what I have learned to use. The source is reliable - Virginia Tech. University. The use of examples of procrastination and how to solve time management helps the reader connect to the information given on a personal level. I would recommend the site to any high school student or adult. A suggestion that I would give to Mr. Yamauchi (the author) is to 1.) Include more information on the causes of procrastination; and 2.) Add some graphics or colors to the page to make it more appealing to the reader's eye. "The Problem of Procrastination" This site gave me more specific information on Procrastination then the first site. I learned the specifics behind the reasoning of procrastination… 1. Disorganization - This is linked clearly to procrastination in 4 primary ways 2 2. a. Distinction between priorities b. Becoming distracted by other things c. Forgetting what needs to be done d. Lumping long projects into a small amount of time 3. Fear - desire to delay something that needs to be done i.e. "I know I should, so why can't I just do it?" 4. Perfectionism - "starts and spurts" of performance, but in the end falling back into procrastination. It can be linked to procrastination through blaming a bad grade on procrastination. 5. Procrastination as an indicator - it can indicate physical or mental problems that need to be addressed. I.e. ADD and severe clinical depression. The site addresses how to take care of procrastination in a more specific mind set, giving me a new perspective on how to solve my procrastination. 1st they tell the reader to identify the sources of the fear behind procrastination. "Why are you procrastinating in the first place?" They then draw out using an appointment book as a solution to procrastination. My overall perspective of this site is that they give me more information on the causes behind procrastination and don’t give enough ways to solve the problem. Of course, by addressing the procrastination through its causes is the main way to solve it, however that it not stated on the site. I do enjoy the graphics and the quotes on the page, however I would include more information on how to solve procrastination. The site seems reliable - made and copyrighted by Dr. Timothy Quek, but there is no history of the author for the reader to be sure. I would recommend the site to any age group, especially those researching the reasons behind procrastination. "Controlling Procrastination" This article identified procrastination as a time management problem. The three man reasons for this were a. Always a tremendous amount of work b. Only a small amount of the day are spent in class and doing labs c. There is usually something better to be doing then studying The article then goes into giving the reader five strategies to follow to control the time management problem. a. Set realistic goals b. Plan you life so that there is time to work and time to play. c. They include a strategy called "Making a molehill out of a mountain." This means breaking a project that is incredibly intimidating into a few hours per day. d. Self-discipline – procrastination can be an emotional out for perfectionists who blame their bad grades on the procrastination. Try to realize if you are one of these people and plan more wisely. e. Get help – seek advice from peers and adults on how to solve your time management problem. A quote that sticks out in my mind from this site is "Plan – something that is usually missing from the procrastinator’s vocabulary." I particularly like this site because it seems to be directed more at the teenager and young adult. They realize how life can be overwhelming and thus try to down size 3 the intimidation. I also favor how the site has links to groups and other web sites on how to solve procrastination and get help. Katie Germin Dr. Jacobs C Period Chemistry Web Reviews 3/28/01 The Problem of Procrastination http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/brprcrst.htm Procrastinators avoid their work, then try to do it all at once. Due to poor time management and lack of motivation, procrastinators put things off, then once they are forced to them, feel overwhelmed. I sometimes find myself waiting to the last minute to get started on assignments, or putting assignment off because of other "things" have my attention. I found this website to be extremely helpful because I consider myself a procrastinator. This site listed 15 different ways in order to over come procrastination. Some of the main points I found most helpful were:  Design Clear Goals Think about what you want and what needs to be done. Be specific. If it's getting that work project completed by the deadline, figure out a timetable with realistic goals at each step. Keep your sights within reason. Having goals too big can scare you away from starting. Set Priorities Write down all the things that need to be done in order of their importance. The greater the importance or urgency, the higher their priority. Partially the Tasks Big projects feel overwhelming. Break them down into the smallest, most manageable subparts. Get Organized Have all your materials ready before you begin a task. Use a daily schedule and have it with you all the time. List the tasks for the day or week realistically. Check them off when completed. Take a Stand Commit yourself to doing the task. Write yourself a contract and sign it. Make lists of things to be done, prioritize the list, and do these items in order of priority. Completing tasks leads to a sense of accomplishment that can lead to greater productivity. Use Prompts Write reminders to yourself and put them in conspicuous places like on the TV, bathroom mirror, and the front door. The more we remember, the greater likelihood we'll follow through with our plans. Reward Yourself Self-reinforcement has a powerful effect on developing a "do it now" attitude. Let yourself enjoy the completion of even the smallest tasks.       4  Develop a Routine Procrastinators avoid their work, then try to do it all at once. To combat this difficulty, commit part of each day to your most important work (e.g., academics). Good use of time management skills and a time schedule can be critical to overcoming procrastination. With all of these things in mind I can overcome my procrastination. I found all the concepts understandably and felt like anyone could apply them to their life without too much difficulty. Procrastination can be horrible, but with the right skills, you can overcome it. The website has provided me with little things I can do to chip away at my procrastination. Even the smallest thing, like writing myself a reminder to do an assignment will make me follow through with my plan to do it. I know that if I see the note, it will remind me that I have to do it. In addition, I would recommend this website to anyone who suffers from procrastination. It is easy to read and the concepts and clear and understandable. I found it to be very helpful. Jocelyn Pollak Dr. Jacobs 10/26/00 I reviewed three sites, all of which were concerned with procrastination. The first site was called "The Seven Day Procrastination Plan". The second site was called simply, "Procrastination". The third and final site was called "Procrastination: Ten Ways to Do It Now". All three sites emphasized certain points but had several distinct ways to go about stopping procrastination. "The Seven Day Procrastination Plan" I found that "The Seven Day Procrastination Plan" site did not help much. It was suited more for adults. It gave hints on how to plan a week rather than a day. I also found it to be focused more on doing tasks not related to school. There is mention of term papers and reading assignments but there is not a specific way to prepare for each. There is just a general way to prepare for everything from cleaning the house to writing an essay. This is not a good site if you are trying to solve a procrastination habit for short-term assignments. For example, if you have a worksheet assigned Monday and it is due Tuesday, and you keep putting it off until 7:25 the next morning, this site will not help. However, if you have an assignment that you have a month to do, this site may be helpful. This site also dumbs down the solution to procrastination. This site is clearly for the ones among us who need to relate a word to the first letter of each day of the week. Monday: Make it Meaningful Tuesday: Take it apart Wednesday: Write an intention statement Thursday: Tell everyone Friday: Find a reward Saturday: Settle it now. Sunday: Say no! Although I found this site to be insulting to my intelligence (not really) it was organized well. This was a good aspect of the site because someone that would actually use this site as their primary resource to solve their problem most likely would not be able to navigate around a more complicated site than the days of the week listed in order. It provided a clear schedule to aid in the prevention of procrastination. It was easy to understand the concepts that were presented. 5 One concept that was presented was to break large assignments into smaller ones. That is exactly what I am doing with this review yet I am still ending up writing the entire review the night before it is due. This evidently shows the usefulness of this site’s suggestions. As a whole I would not recommend this site to a high school student. It makes the process of solving a procrastination problem go slowly and many students simply do not have time (my self included) to spend writing down their goals and giving themselves rewards. "Procrastination" The second site that I reviewed was called "Procrastination". I found this site to be extremely helpful. Not only did it give many of the main causes for procrastination; it gave several strategies to overcome it. I could relate to it really well. Many of the causes that they described directly relate to my life. For example, pressure to succeed orderliness of work area, lack of interest, lack of relevance and the fact that the task seems overwhelming or unmanageable. Once I cleaned up my work area and figured out the relevance of this assignment, I was able to work faster and more efficiently. This site does not dumb down the concepts required to solve procrastination the way that the first site did. The management strategies were very helpful. This site is not as overwhelming with information as the first one. In order to solve your procrastination problem, this site provides several different plans that are simple yet provided a lot of relevant information. I found this site to be easy to understand. It starts off by saying what some possible causes of procrastination are. So, before it even helps you try to solve your problem, it helps you to recognize what exactly your problem is. When you are able to do that, it provides informative and helpful solutions. I would definitely recommend this site to my friends and other high school students. "Procrastination: Ten Ways to Do It Now" The third and final site I reviewed was "Procrastination: Ten Ways to Do It Now". I found this site to be helpful. It mixed a lot of unneeded information in with helpful information. This site, like the second site, gives causes and remedies. It also includes and explanation of what exactly procrastination is. Procrastination is letting low priority tasks take the place of high priority tasks. The remedies in this site were helpful. They included a brief explanation of the remedies. I liked the causes section of the second site better. This site is helpful for the two extremes, long term and short term assignments. It offers a section for positive re-enforcement, which can be done quickly and easily. It also offers a section about setting goals and priorities. This site was well organized. It had its sections separated by topic making it easy navigate. The causes section was not as clear as in the second site. However, this site helped by having an exact definition of procrastination to begin with. Having a definition to work from was somewhat helpful. I would recommend this site to high school students. Especially if they re looking for a variety of ways to help solve a procrastination problem. In conclusion, all three sites I reviewed had some positive elements and especially in the first site, negative aspects. All in all I found the last two sites to be the most helpful and effective sites. They had good solutions to executing tasks promptly and without any hesitation. I think that as a whole, I will not procrastinate as much as I have done in the past. Alisha Frank Review Date: 4 September 2001 Dr. Jacobs 6 PROCRASTINATION: 10 Ways to "Do it NOW" http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/procrast.html I learned that procrastination is not just putting something off until the last minute, it’s putting low priority tasks before high priority tasks. There are things you can do to prevent procrastination besides just "doing it". Breaking big jobs into little jobs, leaving yourself reminders, rewarding your accomplishments, getting a planner and managing your time, and getting a friend to help motivate you are only a few examples of the many steps you can take towards beating procrastination. The best sort of attitude one can have is that of simple self-awareness. We need to be able to recognize our excuses to ourselves for what they are in order to disregard them. I felt there was a lot to get out of this site. The site is very easy to read, because of the way the author broke down all the information. Steps towards motivation and examples of excuses are clearly numbered, and so they are very easy to grasp. Everything is written pretty simply with the concepts spelled out for the reader. Nothing takes a lot of concentration to grasp. The site is suitable for high school students because of its content alone. We are notorious procrastinators. It is also relatively short and not too intimidating, so no high school student would be scared away from reading it. The only fault with the site, is that it really is great procrastination material. When I read the site I came up with a brilliant Calvin and Hobbes comic. Calvin is sitting at his dad’s computer when his mom walks in and asks what he’s doing, and why he’s not upstairs finishing his homework. She then goes on to say that he needs to take his work habits into his own hands; type- A mother that she is. He replies that he is doing just that and researching procrastination remedies on the Internet to help his improve his study skills. She leaves the room impressed. As soon as the door shuts he puts on the devil grin and says, "…which means I have at least another hour until I actually have to begin my homework!" Danielle Hatem October 5, 2002 Dr. Jacobs (F Period) "Professional Organizing Articles: 10 Tips to Help You Overcome Procrastination" http://www.organizerswebring.com/poarticles/_disc11/00000020.htm This article basically outlines the steps one may take in order to beat the "procrastination beast." It states many different techniques one can follow in order to manage their time better and more efficiently complete projects they set for themselves. For example, the author, Kathy Paauw, suggests getting organized for starters. She recommends getting rid of clutter in your work area, whether that is your office or your desk in your room, and above all focusing on piles of papers. Paauw advises that you put these papers into sections according to their importance, such as papers to File, papers to Act on, and papers to Toss (which she designated as "trimming away the F.A.T."). Paper clutter is something that plagues my desk, and the excuse I use frequently to avoid doing my work is that I can’t find the papers I need. By using this method I should be able to make some progress in my quest to "overcome my procrastination." Paauw also points out that many people become overly stressed by their lack of organization, then begin to feel overwhelmed as tasks pile up on them, take "breaks" from working more frequently, and therefore procrastinate further. Also, Paauw suggests allotting amounts of time in which you must complete a task; for example, filing papers for no more that thirty minutes, or planning ahead and spending about twenty minutes a day 7 on a long-term project that is due in a couple of weeks. This would also be beneficial to me, seeing as how I tend to put things off until a few days before they are due, or even the day before. This site was very informative and all of the ideas could be put into practice by almost anyone. She discusses everyday distractions, like cleaning up around your work area so as to put off your assignments; therefore allowing the reader to easily identify with the topic. High school students such as myself would definitely benefit from the proposed solutions to avoid procrastination, and anyone who desires to dominate their tendency to procrastinate should without doubt read this article. Tracey Williams 10/27/00 Dr. Jacobs – B period Web Reviews Procrastination "There’s no time like the present", is a concept that procrastinator’s are not familiar with. I chose this article on procrastination because it is a topic that affects many peoples’ lives, including my own. I learned a lot of new things from this article, such as why people procrastinate and what can be done to overcome it. This article takes a closer look into why people do this and what it actually means, which is something that I, personally, have never taken the time to do. It starts off referring to procrastination as a plague, which for some is a chronic problem, while for others it only affects some areas of their lives. Whether it is chronic or occasional, the results are the same. What procrastination results in is wasted time, missed opportunities, poor performance, self-deprecation, or increased stress. Then, it goes on to define procrastination as letting the low-priority tasks get in the way of high-priority ones. For example, it is socializing with classmates when you know the worksheet sitting in front of you is due at the end of class and will be graded. Another example is talking to your boyfriend/girlfriend about superficial things rather than discussing your relationship concerns. Everyone has their own reasons for putting things like these off, and they are all psychological. The article gives a list of excuses and asks the reader to identify which of excuses hits home. For me, they are "I’ll wait until I’m in the mood to do it", "Why does the teacher give us so much work to do? It’s not fair", "It’s too hard to talk about, I don’t know where to begin", and "I’ve got too many other things to do first". When read over like this, the article made me realize that these excuses don’t sound as believable as they do in my head, now I know that I am only fooling myself. It is such a bad habit of crooked thinking. The article states that the crooked thinking reveals three major issues in delaying tactics; perfectionism, inadequacy, and discomfort. I was not aware of these three categories in relation to procrastination until reading this article. A perfectionist will write and re-write a draft over and over again until it gets to the point that it prevents them from finishing on time. Those who fall under the inadequacy category are those who "know for a fact" that they are incompetent and believe that they will fail, so they avoid being put to the test. Finally, the fear of discomfort is one where sometimes you just don’t even know how to do what you have to do, so you figure why bother with it because you are confused in the first place. So much was learned from this article from my standpoint. Now I have some answers and explanations to some of my own issues, as well as a new perspective on procrastination. This article is very east for High School students to read. It is well organized and set up in a way for easy reference to specific sub-titles on procrastination. The author did state where the information came from, however he did not include other links which I think makes a great web site, but overall I really got a lot out of this particular one. 8 Sarah Fieber Review Date: 14 September 2001 Dr. Jacobs "Are You A Procrastinator?" http://superior.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/tips.html "I have plenty of time…. I’ll do it later…. I perform better under pressure…." Do these phrases ring a bell? They probably do since high school and college students often procrastinate. Procrastination is described as "a complex problem occurring throughout society, manifesting itself in both the general public and the academic environment" (Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995). In fact, it is estimated that academic procrastination of college students ranges from a low of 25% to a high of 70%. Although the essay includes various statistics concerning the problem, it primarily focuses on ways to treat people who procrastinate. The "five cognitive distortions of procrastination" are said to promote this behavior. They are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. overestimation of time left to perform tasks underestimation of time required to complete tasks overestimation of future motivational states misreliance on the necessity of emotional congruence to succeed at task belief that working when not in the mood to work is suboptimal. Researchers believe that a change in these five distortions go hand in hand with a change in one’s behavior. In order to place oneself on the path leading to procrastination recovery, time management skills, deadlines, and organization are vital. The site, posted by Carleton College, is a simple and direct approach to the issue at hand, making it an easy essay to read and understand. The web page seems to be targeted at a high school/college audience, since students suffer the most from procrastination. Therefore, the site is suitable for a high school student. It provides background information concerning the subject, yet does not drone on about statistics. Instead, the site focuses more on steps to recovery, which are useful to a person hoping to eliminate his/her problem. Including "fun elements" in the web site, such as quizzes on procrastination, crossword puzzles, and possibly anecdotes, could improve the site. However, the essay is well written, easy to comprehend, and addresses the problem of procrastination well. Greg Perez 3/27/01 G Period Procrastination For this web review, I will compare three different web sites1. The Problem of Procrastination, by Dr. Timothy Quek http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/procrast.html 2. Managing Procrastination, by Greater University Tutoring Services Study Skills Program - http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/brprcrst.htm 3. Seven Day Procrastination Plan, by David Ellis http://students.berkeley.edu/slc/CalRen/procrastination.html 9 The first site I read was "The Problem of Procrastination." The site was started with a somewhat humorous, but appropriate quote. It is about a poster that shows a huge polar bear lying down on a flue of ice. The caption says, "When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away". This is what many procrastinators say, which is a very negative thing. This site was laid out very well. It starts off with a long, detailed list of 4 reasons why procrastination occurs. These reasons are disorganization, fear, perfectionism, and procrastination as an indicator (of larger psychological problems). The concepts are laid out very well and it is easy to read, while going in depth into each cause. The second part of the site is the suggestions on how to stop procrastinating. Under each reason, is a paragraph explaining just in case someone does not understand what the author is talking about. These solutions range from getting reorganized, to mental ways. This site laid everything out very well to help start someone on the road to stop procrastinating. The next site I looked at, "Managing Procrastination," was geared more towards solutions to procrastination rather than making the reader understand why or if they procrastinated. The only fault to it was that if gave very vague suggestions to determine weather a person procrastinated or not. All procrastinators might not use the excuses the author presented. Next, in detail, the author wrote down 15 ways to stop procrastination. Many of these were very helpful. There were a few though, that somewhat contradicted the point of the website. For instance, the first suggestion given was to write a t-chart giving the pros and cons of procrastinating. Although this might be useful, for a student contemplating whether to do their work or not, this would just waste even more time. There are a few others in the list that students might not want to go through. For a site chosen for students to read, it should definitely be geared towards them because while adults and students share procrastination problems, there are also many differences between the two. The final website I reviewed was the "Seven Day Procrastination Plan." This was a very straightforward site that would work as a nice schedule for a procrastinator who was having trouble. It is laid out very plain and easy to read. Everything is in big print as to make it look important, and the whole idea of the assimilations with each day was very catchy and made the page a little more up beat. The seven days were: On Monday, Make it Meaningful. On Tuesday, Take it apart. On Wednesday, Write an intention statement. On Thursday, Tell everyone. On Friday, Find a reward. On Saturday, Settle it, now. On Sunday, Say no. The author of this site also brought up the idea of writing things down. I thought at first it was a bit too much, but this author worked it in to the schedule and justified exactly where and when you should do that and then gave good reasons why. Reading these pages gave me quite a new insight on procrastination. At times, everybody procrastinates, and if you do a few simple mental changes, all of that can be avoided. People can procrastinate for many reasons, whether it is fear of doing poorly, perfection, laziness, or disorganization; all of these can be fixed. Billy Budd October 11, 2001 H Period – Chemistry Web Review 10 "Top 10 Tips – Procrastination" http://www.queensu.ca/stserv/top_103.html Procrastination is a habit that many students acquire, and continue throughout their lives. It’s a problem that many people have to deal with, and this site helps to solve this problem. The site talks about the causes of procrastination and helps the reader understand procrastination and why it is a serious problem. I learned some interesting tips on how to deal with procrastinating, including the following:   You need to understand that some degree of procrastination is a universal fact of life. The following are two guidelines to help decide whether you are procrastinating or just making a conscious decision not to do work: is it a high priority? is it an irritant? (physical or emotional reactions are indicators of whether something is an irritant or not) i. ii. They also used an interesting acronym as a catch phrase to help the reader deal with their procrastination more effectively: P U T O F F Priority Unknowns Time Overload Fear of Failure Feelings Placing the importance of certain tasks too low on your priority list Putting things off which require some type of knowledge or information that you don’t have Not allotting enough of it for the things that need to be done Overestimating the time to do things you dislike, and underestimating the time it takes to do things you enjoy Usually caused by perfectionism We typically put off things that cause emotional discomfort Overall, this site was very helpful in helping students and other people deal with their procrastination problems, and it is an easy read for high school students. One improvement could be to improve the organization of the site to make it more efficient. Reviewer: Lauren Fuller Chemistry C period Dr. Jacobs Date of Review: October 26, 2000 Topic: Procrastination I chose three of the many articles on procrastination that appeared to be the most informative and likely to help a high school student with their problem with procrastination. They are, "Procrastinator’s Creed" written by Stefani Banerian, "Techniques to Manage Procrastination" from the University of California-Berkely, and "Seven Day Procrastination Plan" from University of California-Berkely. All of these articles have easily understood and succinct ideas on how to deal and stop procrastination. 11 The first article is basically the common beliefs that get a procrastinator into trouble. For instance, it says, " I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitely small, is not exactly zero." This reflects a lot of people’s thoughts that something just might happen so the huge paper won’t be due, or the test will be delayed. Unfortunately, these little miracles rarely happen. This article is a good one because it adds some humor to the problem and is easily identified with. I know I have told myself a few of these white lies to make myself feel better. The second article I read has a more straightforward approach to procrastination. It gives several small hints to stop yourself from putting things off. Some examples are to set priorities so your work really has a focus. Break the task into more manageable pieces so there is more sense of accomplishment and less feeling of overwhelming. Don’t assume a task will take a short time. Realize this before you start to eliminate the discouragement when you realize how much longer something has taken you. The most important tip, I think, is to get started now and not wait for the mood to hit you. If I waited for the time when I felt like doing my homework, it would never get done at all. The last article I read about procrastination is more similar to the second article, but with a different format. It sets up a week and shows what to do on each day. Some of the suggestions are a repeat from the second article, but some of the new ones are to really think about a task you are procrastinating about, and stop lying to yourself. If you aren’t going to do it, don’t keep saying you are. This gets rid of guilt and carrying a worry around in the back of your mind. Another technique is to tell people what your goals are so you are even more motivated to complete them. Also, you will have a little support group cheering you on. Finishing the job is a reward in itself, but it helps to have another one waiting to keep you working. All three of these articles are really helpful for procrastination. The first one probably isn’t as helpful but it does help to identify a problem in order to fix it. The last two articles were very good because they are easily understood, can be read quickly, and are very liely to help a Wilton High School Student with procrastination. Kate Williams December 17, 2001 Dr. Jacobs Overcoming Procrastination http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~nsbe/study/p2.html This page focuses on a common problem that many students have become quite good at: Procrastinating. Procrastinating is putting things off until the very last minute and therefore being forced to work "under pressure," or the act of continuously telling yourself that you’ll "do it later." Everyone knows that the best way to successfully complete assignments is to begin them in enough time in advance so that you have plenty of time to do them thoroughly. Even though some say that working with barely any time left forces them to directly focus and therefore do a sufficient job, that is unnecessarily stressful. I chose this page specifically because procrastinating is such an easy trap to fall into in Chemistry class, since taking quizzes and tests is completely up to the individual. Many have learned the hard way that putting quizzes and tests off until the last minute by continuously saying things like, "I’ll just take it tomorrow" is definitely not the best of ideas, because some people need a lot of time to re-take them. The site taught me answers to several of my questions about the topic. Something that I didn’t know before that I learned is that daydreaming is a type of procrastination. According to the website, "It is an escape mechanism from unpleasant tasks. It is also something we all need to do." Not only does daydreaming make people fall behind, but it also puts things off by acting as a defense mechanism. The site suggests taking breaks from 12 studying, and setting time limits to avoid complete boredom. A form of daydreaming is thinking about all the things that you need to do. The page gave the idea of having a planner in order to stay organized and always be aware of things that are coming up which need to be dealt with. Another cause of the constant bickering of events coming up in the future could simply be that one is overscheduled. The article says that if a planner doesn’t work and neither does anything else, cut down on something that you’re involved in. There’s nothing wrong with letting go of something which one cannot handle. Another important piece of advice offered by the page that I didn’t know before is that when you just feel like not doing work, prioritize the things that you have to do, and do at least something that is productive, rather than sitting there and complaining. The site is very readable, because it is quite short but very useful at the same time. The concepts are very easy to understand, probably because procrastination is something I’ve experienced as a chemistry student just as most of my peers and classmates. Therefore, the website is definitely readable for a high school student and anyone else who’s dealt with procrastination. Since the points made on the site were valuable, I wish that more information had been offered. Lauren MacCallum Chemistry Web Reviews October 23rd, 2000 Procrastination The sights I explored in order to complete this web review on procrastination were: "Are you a Procrastinator?" @ http://superior.carelton.ca/~tpychyl/tips.html, "Managing Procrastination" @ http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/brprcrst.htm, and "The Problem of Procrastination" @ http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/procrast.html. When I visited the "Are you a procrastinator?" site I found it full of facts, statistics and information helpful for someone searching for information on this topic. This information presented at this site seemed to be more advanced than the "Managing Procrastination" site the information given was superior to that of the other sites. It included a list of references in its bibliography, and they gave you many signs to look for in a procrastinator. This site is definitely appropriate for high school students. The site was readable although more advanced for the others but the concepts were easy to understand and quite helpful. At the "Managing Procrastination" site I found it very easy to read. The ideas and information were numbered and organized well. At this site they told you about procrastination, and then they described how to manage your workload and manage your time efficiently. All the concepts they laid out for you very understandable and I think anyone could understand them. This site is suitable for a high school student who wants concise information and not pages and pages of information. The "Problem of Procrastination" was a very useful site. It laid out information and facts about procrastination in a very organized manner, with numbers and in sections. This site also told you ways to avoid procrastination which was useful. The site was readable and had fun visuals as well, the concepts were very easy to understand and it was appropriate for high school students. From these articles I learned that for most procrastination is a problem that occurs every once and a while, but for some it is a reoccurring problem that plagues there lives. I learned that in order to overcome procrastination it is essential to have "realistic thought" in which you evaluate the work you have to do and find the time to complete your work. It is also important not to jump to 13 conclusions, and automatically have the attitude that you will fail. The sites all give the readers ways to avoid procrastination such as setting realistic goals, promising yourself a reward, and breaking your workload down. In order to avoid procrastination it is essential to remember your assignments, have everything well organized, and break down huge "chunks" of work. All 3 of the sites I visited seemed to present information in organized fashions, that were easy to understand, and all in all they were 3 good sites that I have no recommendations for. Reviewer’s Name: Matt O’Connell Chemistry- Dr. Jacobs, G period Date of Review: 10/29/00 Subject: http://www.uoguelph.ca/csrc/learning/procras.htm This site very easy to understand and proves to be quite suitable in it’s simplicity. All information is on one scrollable page. This format is quite suitable for high school students. The concepts are well thought out and presented in logical, easy to understand fashion. It starts with an intro and then provides strategies to beat procrastination. 1. The introduction talks about procrastination and how it is the number one time management problem, especially among students. The main reason for this is that is a lot of work in small amounts of time, and a good deal off distractions to sidetrack the work process. 2. In order to stay concentrated, one should study a little bit of everything instead of doing three hours of one subject in a single sitting. If you do a little each night to lighten your load, you will be less pressured to put it all off. 3. A strong plan is necessary for good time management. If you take things as they come, chances are there will be no time for the work to get done. You must exercise good decision-making. Waiting for inspiration to work is not a good idea. 4. One should find the underlying reason behind their procrastination in order to absolve. They also go on and give many common reasons on why students procrastinate. 5. The last bit of advice is to seek help from experts on time management, such as counselors or teachers. The material that is presented on this site is very good. However, there isn’t much. This site could be improved by adding more info. A way to do this is to add a section specifically geared towards high school students and the unique problems that they are presented with. Emily Waterman B period- Dr. Jacobs 2nd Quarter Web Reviews Procrastination: Kansas State University; www. Ksu.edu/ucs/procras.html A. This website is very readable. It is understandable to the reader and related well to my problem of procrastination. This website allows you to understand when and where procrastination is a problem, six basic reasons people procrastinate, and helpful strategies to overcome your problem. I think that it is suitable for a high school student because it helps you figure out what you are procrastinating with and why you do it. A checklist is provided for you to check off all of the things you procrastinate with which really pinpoint what it is that you need help with. 14 B. I learned a lot about procrastination from this site. From the checklist, I see that I have problems with procrastination in the areas of doing chores and writing papers for school, and exercising. I learned that sometimes I do put off work because of the "But, I don’t know how" reason. Since, in especially Chemistry, I have a lot of difficulty with assignments and will usually try to read something, then give up because I tell myself to go seek extra help the following day. In addition, I am not very good at writing essays so I will put that off until the last day possible, which shows my fear of failure, so I avoid situations like writing essays. And, I also think that it is just plain boring, so I will put that off. When it comes to exercising, I am supposed to be staying in shape for the spring, but when it comes time for me to run, I don’t. Mostly because I just don’t feel like doing it. I know I have to, but after a little while I get tired and don’t feel motivated to run more. In addition, I usually just don’t have time. With school work and extra curricular activities, it is hard to make room for that. But, I have learned that I just have to suck it up basically, and do what I need to do. C. I don’t really think that this site needs much improvement because it is very insightful. I think though that this website could explain a little bit more about how to overcome procrastination, although it gives great explanations for reasons why you may procrastinate. Techniques to Manage Procrastination: University of California, Berkeley www-slc.uga.berkeley.edu/CalREN/procrastechniques.html A. I think that this site is very readable. This site gives a list of situations that a student might be in, which will cause them to procrastinate. These different situations may lead to think certain ideas, and this site tells you that you shouldn’t think so negatively, but put your situation into a positive perspective to get you motivated to do your work. It would be useful to a high school student, although a couple of the situations presented are more for college students. B. Reading through this list, I can relate to some things that it points out. For instance one is: Don’t think: There’s so much to do, and it’s so complicated. I’m overwhelmed by my English term paper. Instead Think: I don’t have to do the whole project at once. There are separate small steps I can take one at a time to begin researching and drafting my paper. This website gives advice to break things down and not overwhelm you, but make one goal at a time. C. This website is a pretty good website, if your situations match up to what you procrastinate with in your life. It gives good advice, if you know what your problem is. In the first website, it helped you realize your problem, and this one helps to give you advice on what to tell yourself to do. Dan Kreiger 1/4/01 Period B Chemistry 3 Procrastination: Problem or Plus?- http://www.premiumhealth.com/memory This site proved to be informative, and applicable to me and probably all human beings. Although not the best English essay, it still taught me things in the manner author intended. There is much positive about this site, and I will briefly address a negative that does not bother me, but just questions the professionalism of the site. It is entitled Procrastination: Problem or Plus? There 15 proved to be little information on the plus side of procrastination, so small that it in fact seemed just like a side note. Also, the end the site leaves you with the last specific issue it addressed instead of tying the whole idea of procrastination together. Despite this trivial negative aspect of the site, there was much I learned. At the beginning, it is told procrastination is universal and that everyone does it. Procrastination only becomes a problem when it disturbs your own life. The site provides a checklist of 7 ways it can disturb your life, and I felt I fit into all of them. These included feeling sick, unable to make decisions, and hampering accomplishments of personal goals. Later it provides another check list on areas of one’s life in which procrastination can affect, including personal, school, work, home, and relationships. Specific options are provided within each topic that I checked off (ex. Personal: getting sleep, exercising, doctor’s appointments). Therefore, the site was reassuring in telling me that it is common to have these problems, and that I am not alone. After the checklist, the site briefly addresses the positive in procrastinating. I learned that if one delays making decisions or doing work, it gives that person more time to organize his/her thoughts which might be scattered causing the original procrastination. The site then gives six reasons why one may delay things, and they again were applicable to my personal procrastination. These were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. But, I Don’t Know How This Stuff is Just Boring I Don’t Feel Like Doing It But What If I Can’t Cut It? How Can I Top This? You Can’t Make Me The first reason explains how if one lacks the skills to complete a task, he/she will tend to put it off. The second explains that lack of interest on the subject matter provided will cause one to put it off, and there will be more time to enjoy other thingd. However, later an impossible burden will approach and one might start questioning his/her worthiness personally, which can lead to depression. The third reason explains that lack of motivation will cause a person to procrastinate. The site suggests an attitude test in that scenario. The fourth expresses that fear of failure causes people to procrastinate, so there can be a legitimate excuse for failure "I gave it my best." The fifth says fear of success and inability to top the work causes the work itself to be delayed. The sixth says one procrastinate due to rebellion. I believe this site is suitable for high-school students, and may reassure many students suffering from the negative affects of procrastination. It addresses the problems, analyzes them, and provides suggestions in each scenario. Meghan Anderson November 9th, 2001 Web Review (5) Procrastination www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/procrast.html A. From this website i learned that there are remedies to cure the horrible habit of procrastination. I also learned 10 very important skills to help me not to procrastinate, and when i do so, what to do to get back on track. These 10 important skills are the following: 1. RATIONAL SELF TALK. This is when constant excuses are made up to prevent you from doing work. To help this bad habit you should draw 2 columns. One column should have 16 your excuse, and the other should have what your real goal is and how not to ignore your realistic goal. 2. POSITIVE SELF STATEMENTS: write down self motivating statements! 3. DON’T CATASTROPHE: don’t jump to conclusion! Recognize negatives but don’t dwell on those. 4. DESIGN CLEAR GOALS: make sure you know what your goals are and stick to them. Be specific! 5. SET PRIORITIES: make a list of what’s most important and do that first! 6. PARTIALIZE THE TASKS: Break projects down into small parts. Make an outline and go section by section. 7. GET ORGANIZED: have everything ready ahead of time, have a schedule and all materials ready before you even begin. 8. TAKE A STAND: make sure you get the task done. Have someone supervise you to make sure you complete your task. 9. USE PROMPTS: write reminders on objects around your home or room to remind you to complete a task. 10. REWARD YOURSELF: celebrate when you finish your task. B: This site was very readable. I found the concepts extremely easy to comprehend and easy to help me with following through with my assigned tasks. C: This site is very reliable for a high school student. I think this site will help me to prioritize and accomplish my goals in more timely fashion. There were alot of good hints and tips to help keep you on track. I think there is some great advice to help high school students. D: I think this site was wonderful. The only thing i would change would be to include some schedules or some sort of chart that you would be able to print out to help you prioritize your tasks with. Other than that, this site was extremely helpful and i think i will benefit greatly from it! Ello Trofa C Period May 23, 2001 Procrastination http://www.ksu.edu/ucs/procras.html To find out how bad a procrastinator you are take a quick quiz which I copied from their website. P.S – I made the Answer key True/False Quiz: 1. 2. 3. 4. I am simply lazy. I don't like my professor, so why should I do the work. It is exciting to 'pull off' my assignments at the last minute. I want my work to be perfect. If you answered false to all of the above you need not to worry about procrastination. If you answered true to two or less you are a general procrastinator. If you answered true to all the above you are the procrastinator king who should check out the website for some advice. This Kansas City University website is quite long and thorough. In my opinion this site seems quite conclusive. They seem to think that they define procrastination and answer any reader’s questions 17 throughout their list of statements. Out of the many sections the one which got most of my attention was the part where they state one reason not to procrastinate is fear of failure. I completely disagree with there assumption. I am no procrastinator who also has small fear of failure, and believe the main reason why I avoid procrastinating is the feeling of completion. Besides disagreeing with one of their statements the site is filled with good advice and problems people face with procrastination. There is a lot of information there and it is sadly not to organize so that is one future goal, which they could set. Kathleen Milnamow December 26, 2000 Procrastination 101: Blame It on the Computer **(By the way, these web reviews seem to have taken me about five hours…I’ve had to check my e-mail and stock quotes, talk to friends online, visit Weather Channel online- which I am addicted to, download songs…) This site is extremely high school student-friendly, as it is written by a college freshman. This type of student perspective lets high school readers know that the things discussed in the article are relevant to their own lives. This student slant on the reason behind procrastination is very believable and is logical to this technologically advanced generation of the echo-baby-boom. Ironically, I have not learned of ways to overcome procrastination, I have learned of new ways to create procrastination. The author of this editorial provides examples of ways your computer (specifically the Internet) aids in your procrastination. She provides various web sites, her home page, and promotes a few versions of Internet connections that have an "extremely fast way of accessing the Internet." However, I have made my own conclusions based on her observations of the wonders of the Internet and its ability to waste one’s time. It seems like the more technologically advanced we’ve become with things that help accomplish common tasks quicker than before, are actually slowing down humans and making them less task-efficient. Perhaps humans are subconsciously trying to compensate for their counterparts- the speedy wonder of technology (computers, household appliances, cars). In this way, humans that have spent countless man and brainpower over the creation of these technological breakthroughs are letting the breakthroughs replace their own man and brainpower. Pretty soon, if this pattern continues, humans won’t need to worry about creating ways of speeding up things for them because the advances they made in the past will do it for them. Therefore, the whole purpose of advancing technology- to speed up the efficiency of humans- is defeated, because humans will no longer have to accomplish anything. Don’t get the completely wrong idea about this web site from my cynical prediction. The site does offer at few links to other sites that are intended to help one out of this demon called procrastination. Annika Bickford, E period Dr.Jacobs January 4, 2001 Procrastination http://superior.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/tips.html#tips The title of this site, "Are You a Procrastinator?", caught my eye because my answer was a definite "Yes!". Procrastination is what comes to haunt me with my school work and for each long-term project I am assigned, I smell trouble. I used to think I was one of the few people who would pull 18 "all nighters" writing that 5-page essay due the next morning. However, I am surprised to learn that up to 70% of college students suffer from procrastination. This site clearly explains interesting facts about procrastination that I never thought about before. For example, there are various kinds of procrastination such as low conscientiousness and anxiety-related procrastination. This site also explains that there are five main problems which cause procrastination, such as overestimation of time on tasks and their due dates, and underestimation of the amount of time needed to properly complete an assignment. These are all my problems, and are problems that many other students are dealing with today in high school and in college. Many solutions are also offered in order to help people better understand and learn how to deal with the overwhelming issue or procrastination that hurts so many of us. A surprising yet interesting tip I learned is to estimate the time you need to complete a task and then times that by 100%. This seemed too large, but it actually does help in reducing the amount of work you leave for the very last minute. Another tip which serves as quite helpful is to eliminate those things which you know you will never end up doing; those tasks that you would like to do if you had the time, but are unimportant. When I did this, I found myself facing just the very important things I had to accomplish, and in the end if I had time I would then focus on the other tasks I gave less priority to. I am a typical student with schoolwork and I found this site to be very understandable and useful. I see little room for improvement and recommend that more students read and learn from this site as I have. "Controlling Procrastination" (http://www.uoguelph.ca/csrc/learning/procras.htm) Procrastination is probably the largest and most common problems students face. Personally, it is the one problem that haunts me and causes me unnecessary stress. This site states that "students rank highly among those most vulnerable to procrastination". A large reason as to why this is such a huge problem is because there is little time spent in the classroom and labs, and so much more is up to the student to decide how to structure their work (homework and long-term projects). This site suggests the "Making a molehill out of a mountain" method. Often, we procrastinate because the workload seems too overwhelming and stressful to attack. Instead of being faced with a ‘mountain’ of work, divide up your work into ‘molehills’ so it will be more manageable. Many students also blame their procrastination on their lack of self-discipline. Teenagers can be very lazy and therefore leave things until the last possible minute. This site also says that procrastination can also be an indication of a fear of failure. Sometimes students are afraid of doing poorly and therefore will try to avoid completing whatever they need to do. There is also the pressure from parents for students to do well. Some kids have parents who are very hard on them and expect perfect grades. For someone who does not have confidence or the ability to receive perfect grades, an easy way out is to avoid doing schoolwork and leaving the dreadful task until the last possible moment. We all now, however, that this will not get us perfect grades, but procrastination is such a hard habit to break free from. This site clearly explains why so many people suffer from procrastination. It could be improved, however, by perhaps informing the reader more on how to deal with procrastination and to prevent it from happening. We all know how easy it is to fall into the "procrastination trap", but we also need to know how to pick ourselves up and to avoid the unnecessary stress in the future. Sarah Fuller September 27, 2001 Dr. Jacobs 19 "Procrastination: Ten Ways to ‘Do It Now’" http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/procrast.html Procrastination is something that everyone deals with sooner or later, but with some people it is a real problem. I consider myself a procrastinator and often times I leave important things until the last minute, such as projects or essays. This web site provides good answers to my problems and may help me get off my butt and start moving. It is clearly written and easy to follow. It identified many things that cause procrastination and excuses that are often used, as well as telling me how to do it now. It showed excuses that even I use but were unaware of such as the fact that I feel that I work better under pressure. The site provided ten helpful suggestions to improve your working habits. The best suggestions that it had were: o Positive Self-Statements – Use phrases that boost your confidence and will get you to work right away such as "There is no time like the present" or "It's cheaper and less painful if I do it now rather than wait until it gets worse." o Don’t Catastrophe – Jumping to conclusions about how you think you will do wrong will only do you harm, you are supposed to live in the present and think about what is going on now and not what you think will happen. o Take a Stand – Get a friend or family member involved to help encourage you to do something. When you start to doubt yourself or get off track they will be there to help you. o Use Prompts – Write little notes to yourself and leave them in places that you will see them, such as on the bathroom mirror, on your dresser, or in your backpack or books. o Reward Yourself – If you get something done early, give yourself a treat. Sometimes using a little bribe to get you to do something is good incentive to get it done. This web site was easy to relate to; therefore, it is very suitable for high school students to read. After I read it I felt much more confident that I can now get things done and with much less stress and anxiety. Even little things, such as thinking positively and living in the moment will help conquer my problem, as well as many other peoples’ if they read this web site. The only suggestion that I can make for this site is to keep it exactly as it is. I strongly suggest that you look at this site and see for yourself how it can help you. Erica Chargar September 23, 2001 Dr. Jacobs The Problem of Procrastination http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/procrast.html 20 I am somewhat of a procrastinator myself, which is why I decided to do a web review on this topic. "The Problem of Procrastination," explains both the qualities of the procrastinator, and some ways that one can tackle this problem. By reading this website, I learned that disorganization, fear, and perfectionism are all things that can lead to procrastination. Procrastinators cannot distinguish between urgency and priority, are easily distracted, forgetful, and have a hard time breaking down tasks. They avoid doing things not because of their level of discipline, but because with the given task comes a fear. Procrastinators are often perfectionists, therefore, they are very enthusiastic about one task, but are then burnt out when it is time to do something else. One of the main ideas that this site emphasizes is the use of one simple plan book. With this, one can write down everything that they need to do, and deadlines for small parts of different tasks. This would ensure that the individual wouldn’t forget to do things, and would be able to follow out their responsibilities in smaller and more manageable pieces. This site is somewhat reasonable. The vocabulary is not as simple as one might expect a site that is meant to give advice to be. However, the format of "The Problem of Procrastination," is great. It is a combination of questions with answers and an outline. This makes it very easy to find what you are looking for and understand the concepts. This is a very suitable site for a high school student to read. However, if you are a procrastinator, it may be discouraging because of some of the suggestions that are made. Also, there are only suggestions for some of the causes for procrastination. In general, this site is very informative, and can be helpful in dealing with procrastination. Matt O'Connell 1/3/01 Web Review 2 Second Quarter http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/brprcrst.htm This creative page starts out by asking a simple question, "Am I a procrastinator?" It then goes on to give examples of things the average procrastinator would say to remedy his actions. This site is a little hard to read with the font that they use and it isn't presented that well, but there are some useful ways to cure the disease of procrastination. After you decide that you are a procrastinator, it goes on to give you fifteen helpful hints…                Rational Self-Talk Positive Self-Statements Don't Catastrophe Avoid Perfectionism Design Clear Goals Set Priorities Partialize the Tasks Get Organized Take a Stand Use Prompts Reward Yourself Develop a Routine Try Working in Groups Use Small Chunks of Free Time to Your Advantage Discipline Yourself for 5 Minutes 21 These concepts are all straight forward and they are things that you don't stop to think about when you are thinking of excuses not to work. For example, if you force yourself to work for five minutes you will find that you are more eager to work. This idea really helps. Other than the presentation of the site this is one of the most helpful sites I have ever seen. It is great and has really helped me. The information is short and to the point and it exactly what someone needs if they are a chronic procrastinator and it is getting them into trouble. Finally, I would recommend this site to anyone that I thought needed it. This is because it isn't only geared towards students and work, but also towards other issues like health. It does a good job of tying into anyone's life. Erica Lederman G Period Dr. Jacobs Procrastination http://www.uoguelph.ca/csrc/learning/procras.htm This site was extremely helpful in making me feel normal! Procrastination is a big problem for me, and I was very pleased to see that the reasons I have for procrastinating were listed right there on the site. It makes me feel a little better knowing that everyone deals with the same stresses I do. Although this site is aimed towards university students, it can be very helpful to high school students, too. The site is very nicely laid out, and the text is a good size. All of the points the site addresses are very quick and the site does not take too long to read. The website offers some very useful tips on controlling procrastination. I particularly liked the "Making a Molehill out of Mountain" suggestion. I find that when I have a task to accomplish, I build it up so much in my mind that I forget it is just a simple assignment. I make it nearly impossible for myself to settle down and just do the work. The site also made me realize that perhaps the reason I procrastinate is because I aim towards perfectionism, and if I don’t achieve perfection I can blame it on the fact that I rushed the assignment and I left myself no time to do it. The site offers excellent links at the bottom of the page for further insight into procrastination. Compared to other sites, which make procrastinators feel helpless and guilty, this site eases the guilt, and makes you feel like procrastination is just silly. My tips for improvement on this site are to have a more interesting layout, perhaps a different color scheme or font. The site is kind of boring as it is now. Jenna Lux G Period Dr. Jacobs 03/22/01 Procrastination: Procrastination by definition is to put off something intentionally and habitually that should be done. Many people seem to suffer from this "condition," including me. I figured learning about how to cope with procrastination was relevant seeing as I have put off writing these web reviews for quite sometime now, when I have had plenty of time to get them over with and not be stressed and rushed. The site that I chose to review was Procrastination 101: Blame it on the computer. This site was very informational and easily readable because the author was a college student. This site seems to 22 be informational to help explain and prove that procrastination is a problem in our society and especially in education. But, throughout the article she posted many sites that one could go to, and in a sense she was making my procrastination even worse. Her intriguing talks about sites on the Internet made me want to go and search the possibilities the web really has to offer. This site is suitable for a high school student if they were looking for another thing to help them procrastinate – or writing a paper on how to become a great procrastinator. Truthfully, I didn’t learn much more than I already knew. She basically was restating the obvious. But, it was interesting and supported her thesis. The sites at the bottom were nice and she did fulfill the part of giving people a chance for aid in the situation. Basically, it was a well-written site and she made her point bold and supported it. The only thing that I would change would add fewer things to procrastinate on!!!!! Lydia Qamar C period Are You A Procrastinator http://superior.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/tips.html Out of all the possible links, I decided to check out this website on procrastination, because the Are You A Procrastinator title stood out. I have always identified myself as a procrastinator, due to the fact that I put much work off, and I wanted to see if I fit the descriptions of the web page. The website informed me that procrastination is a much bigger issue than I had expected. In fact, 70% of college students admit to putting extensive amounts of work off. The site also explained that there are several types of procrastination, including academic procrastination, and anxiety – related procrastination. Out of the two I identified more with academic procrastination, and definitely have the same motivation as described: Academic Procrastinator Motives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Overestimation of time left to complete tasks Underestimation of time required to complete task Overestimation of future motivational states misreliance of the necessity of emotional congruence to succeed at task Belief that working when not in the mood is sub optimal. Out of these five motives, I identify most with one and two. When I heard the word, "long term," I usually figure I have lots and lots of time to complete the assignment, and am in no need to rush. After addressing my bad motivation, I read on and discovered several ways to kick procrastination. Ways to fight procrastination: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. make a list of everything you have to do write an intention statement set realistic goals break it down make your task meaningful promise yourself a reward In conclusion, I found this site to be very good, because it helps one identify what causes them to procrastinate aka their motive, and supplies ways in which this motive can be altered. 23 Site reviewed: Avoiding procrastination http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/attmot3.htm Unlike the previous two procrastination sites I reviewed, this site was surprisingly more compact and shorter. Though it didn’t go into as much detail about procrastination, I appreciated it’s compact, to the point information. It clearly states that the only way possible to avoid procrastination , is to do the project at hand. Though this tip is somewhat obvious, the site is very good at getting to the base of procrastination. Not once does the website mention to set goals, make a list or promise yourself a reward, but instead gets to the point. The author tells readers to ask themselves three questions when presented with a situation in which they are torn between doing an assignment or putting it off. Ask yourself: 1. Why am I doing this? 2. What if I don’t do this? 3. What will happen if I do this later? It emphasizes the fact that though putting off work might be temporary relief, in the future you will not be happy. The site stresses that one should "punish themselves, for putting off work. It says that one should scare themselves, and think heavily about the future consequences, such a bad quality work, a bad grade, or simply punishment. They say that if you tell yourself this, you will mentally convince yourself that work is the way to go, and your fun time will be much more enjoyable. Chris Geletka Date of Review: 10/7/02 Teacher: Dr. Jacobs Title: Procrastination Web Address: http://admin.acadiau.ca/counsel/studyskills/topics/procrastination.html a. This page thoroughly covered what procrastination is, how to avoid procrastinating, and the results of procrastination. Naturally, I learned much new information about procrastination and various new attitudes directed towards procrastination from this site. I found out that students use procrastination to avoid setting and keeping a realistic study schedule. This is a much more specific definition than what I had originally interpreted procrastination as. Also, I discovered that procrastination further increases the stress experienced by busy students, and that stress is one of the ways we react to not being in control. Furthermore, one must reform their study habits slowly, over a long period of time; otherwise procrastination will be hard to overcome. b. I found this site to be very reader-friendly. It is organized in a simplistic and easy-to-follow manner. It is structured in such a way that the site takes you through the steps to help avoid procrastination. The page is logically laid out, grouping similar concepts together under an appropriate title. One example of a title is: "Using your time well." In addition, the concepts of this site are fairly straightforward, and for the most part, uncomplicated. As a result, this site is a terrific learning device for students of all ages. c. I feel that this site would be a perfect site for a high school student who has a habit of procrastinating. Even though this site does pertain to anyone in general who may have troubles with procrastination, the site’s primary focus is students, more specifically, college students. Overall, this page would prove to be helpful for any high school student who tends to procrastinate. 24 Drew Kingman Web Review 5 Procrastination http://www.calpoly.edu/~sas/asc/ael/procrastination.html What did I learn? I learned several things about procrastination. Procrastination stems from the thinking that you can finish assignments minutes or just the day before the deadline at which it is due. Because of this thinking, one may think there is no need to start a lab or a paper when the teacher advises you to start, but wait to days before it is due. For instance, if you have two weeks to write a paper, and a student thinks it will only take 2 nights and a study hall to complete, a student may wait to two nights before the due day. At that point, the student is under lots of pressure, and is forced to do it. Because of this, the student most often will forget other work and only do the work that he waited on. That is what I learned about how the mind of a Procrastinator works. Several major characteristics of a procrastinator are that they are stubborn, frustrated, and have a low selfconfidence. I discovered four reasons to procrastinate, and they are the work seems too hard, it is too time consuming, you have a lack of knowledge or skills, and you fear messing up, so you leave it off to the last minute. There are three parts to an active procrastinator, the first be the Activating event. That is the initial react to put off the work. Then comes your Belief system, which lets you think that putting off the work to the last minute will be okay, and no problem will come of it. The final part of a procrastinator is the Consequence, what you think of the work you need to do. There are several steps to curing procrastination, and the most important is realizing that you cannot wait to the last second, and it should and can be completed early. All the steps following that are based on the fact of realizing what must be done. How readable is the site? The site is extremely easy to read. It is broken into sections, each labeled. The sections are about what they are labeled, and the sections go in order from what procrastination is to characteristics of it to how it can be cured. How suitable is the site for a High School Student? The site is perfect for a High School Student. It lays out the problem of procrastination, informs you of how it works, and finishes up with how you can fix the problem. The site gives real life examples, and ways to solve them. So, a High School Student would find it easy to understand and learn from. Krystin Saglimbene 12/20/01 Dr. Jacobs- F Period Web Review: Procrastination- Blame it on the computer http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/06/09/p57s2.htm 1. The site I chose to write a review on was an excellent example of how my life is as well. Every night when I come home from school and sit down to study I am faced with the distractions of the Internet, TV, music, and the phone. The computer is the worst of all because it is so addicting. Before I read this review I was not aware that so many highschool and college students face the same problem I do. With the new cable modems it is much easier to stay connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. Although it is a horrible habit it was comforting to know Im not the only one who faces this bad habit. By reading this article I learned that you need to teach yourself some sort of self discipline. If you want to perform well in school then you need to limit the time that you spend emailing and instant messaging. 25 2. This site is very readable because it was written by a Freshman at Duke University. It is very easy to understand where she is coming from because in this day in age most of us are in the same position. This site is very useful for a high school student because it can help them to realize how addicting the computer can be. If they read this site they might be able to recognize that they have a problem and get help. This site however did not offer any solutions to the problem. In my opinion, if you want to do well in school you need to not worry so much about the computer now but worry more about studying. If you want to slack off and have fun now you will be miserable for the rest of your life. Nicole Morgan November 8, 2001 Dr. Jacobs Techniques to Manage Procrastination http://students.berkeley.edu/slc/CalRen/procrastechniques.html I have always had a problem with procrastination, so I found this website very helpful. I had a few ideas about how I could keep myself from procrastinating, however this website showed me quite a few more that I can see myself using in the future. For example, when working, it is often very helpful and necessary to take a break. Tiny rewards can revitalize you while working and then when you return, you will be able to attack your work with renewed vigor. I had the preconceived idea that once I started working that I should continue working until I was finished, and I now realize that perhaps this method is not the most effective. Also, knowing tiny respites will be interspersed throughout the work makes the task appear less daunting, and a less intimidating amount of work gives me less reason to procrastinate. Another important technique I learned to use to tackle procrastination is setting up allotted time periods in which to do work. The tricky part of this method is being reasonable when allotting the time. It is very easy to assume that some things will take a small portion of time, when in fact I’ll end up spending several hours on the task at hand. It helps to set aside more time than you think it could possibly take, and the best possible outcome is that it will take less time than expected, which leaves you with some extra time on your hands. I found this site to be very readable and easy to understand. Procrastination is an obstacle that just about everyone stumbles on, especially high school students, so I think this website is very suitable for high school students. I think that the site could have gone into a little more depth, however, it’s short, to the point format is part of what it makes it so appealing and easy to comprehend. I also think that it manages to discuss most of the reasons a person could have for procrastinating and each reason is accompanied by better thoughts to help get the dreaded assignments done. Mike Waskom G Period Dr. Jacobs Chemistry 3 November 8, 2001 (First Quarter) Web Review http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/brpncrst.htm The website deals with a common problem among students, procrastination. The site is fairly basic and presents to material in a friendly way. The first part of the site describes what a procrastinator is and some common excuses that show a sign of procrastination, such as "There's plenty of time to 26 get it done" and "I work better under pressure so I don't need to do it right now." These signs show that the student exhibiting them has a problem and something needs to be done because procrastination can definitely hurt a student’s chances at performing in school. Luckily the site gives fifteen tips for how to help stop procrastinating, with detailed explanations for each. The fifteen tips are: 1. Rational self talk 2. Positive self statements 3. Don’t catastrophe 4. Avoid perfectionism 5. Design clear goals 6. Set priorities 7. Partialize the tasks 8. Get organized 9. Take a stand 10. Use prompts 11. Reward yourself 12. Develop a routine 13. Try working in groups 14. Use small chunks of free time to your advantage 15. Discipline yourself for 5 minutes By using these 15 tips, students can help avoid procrastination and perform better in school. Therefore I think this site is very interesting and helpful, and all students, especially those with procrastination problems should read it and see if it will help their work. Sheila Petrowski D Period Dr. Jacobs Web Review "Procrastination" http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/procras.htm Procrastination, a word used too often as an excuse for work habits, or lack thereof. It is a haunting temptation that simply will not go away. As a matter of fact, I procrastinated doing this web review. So apparently I need help to stop this habit of putting off work when it must be completed. On the website I viewed about procrastination from the University of Cambridge it was very thorough. It explained "what is procrastination", "why do people procrastinate", "how do I overcome procrastination" and "where you can seek help- when you can get around to it...". All of which were in theory have helpful tips to "overcome procrastination", and just do the task at hand. Tips such as "Break down tasks into manageable bits. Set yourself small goals.", "Boost your motivation. Dwell on your strengths, on tasks you have accomplished and feel good about, in order to remind yourself that you can be successful.", "Give yourself rewards when you accomplish something." All of which are practical ways of going about getting your work done and provoking yourself to work. Though this is a well organized and beneficial site, I still have a couple questions. Won’t a procrastinator just procrastinate if they really want to? How helpful is a list of hints, when the person simply is not motivated? Motivation cannot merely come from reading about it on a web page. If a high school student is inclined enough to seek help for their procrastination problem, it is a good thing...but the motivation cannot just be taught to someone. If there were a clear cut way of stopping procrastinating, I believe it would not be such a problem. Now, that I am finished reviewing this web page, I believe I will go and procrastinate on my English homework. But first 27 remember this quote that was displayed at the top on the website...."If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."- Thomas DeQuincey Meghan Anderson 3/8/02 Dr. Jacobs OVERCOMING PROCRASTINATION http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~nsbe/study/p2.html a. This web site really focused on how important a planner is. This site pretty much describes a planner or small notebook as a necessity. Although I use a planner, I never really thought of how important it is that I write everything in it and keep it organized. I also didn’t know that taking on too many obstacles can lead to procrastination, because it makes you feel so overwhelmed. Prioritizing also will aid in decreasing procrastination. A useful attitude that I learned was to push personal matters aside when doing work. I also gained the idea that it is ok to say that you are not going to do something. You shouldn’t have to take on every task that comes your way. If there is too much on your plate already, you should prioritize and say "no" when asked to do another task. b. This site was unbelievably easy to read. It was so clear & concise. This site got straight to the point. It gives facts and ideas in bullet form, so it is easy to follow along. It also is almost set up as a checklist- in a way that you can think you yourself "I do this" or "I don’t do this" as you scroll down the page. The concepts are also very easy to understand. They all kind of connect to one another, which makes it even simpler to follow. c. This site is suitable for a high school student. I think if I had seen this site as a freshman, it would have possibly helped me with the remainder of my high school years. The website is easy to follow and relate to, which would make it good for a high school student. I think the best advice this site contained for a high school student was to buy a planner. This technique seems so helpful and really aids people in staying organized. d. The only thing I would change about this site would to be to add more information! This site had so many useful techniques & ideas, but I feel like they left their list short. Although the ideas they did have were excellent, I feel like more could have been added to the site. Maybe going into more detail of how to prioritize or how to set up your planner would have been useful. Margot Schloss October 24, 2002 Web Review Procrastination California Polytechnic State University http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html Academic This extensive website covers a wide range of information to explain, prevent, and cure procrastination. Its impressive materials range from the physiological reasons why procrastination takes control over students and professionals, to a worksheet to identify the readers' own strengths and weaknesses. Although lengthy, Cal Poly provides the average high school student with a fresh perspective on this common problem, and personally, I was relieved to read that a detailed and difficult to follow schedule is not the best way to prevent procrastination, because procrastinators often know the tasks they should be completing. Other common justifications for procrastination include a lack of motivation, being too 28 busy, the need for relaxation, or the success of prior assignments completed during the last minute. Another focus of this website is the positive reinforcement that the school environment provides to procrastination. Good grades for essays written "the night before" prove to the student that there is no need to start work earlier, which leads to the false conclusion that one works well under pressure. However, "you are making progress only because you haven’t any choice." Related characteristics, explained in detail on the website, include low self esteem, stubbornness, the desire to manipulate others, frustration, perfectionism, anger, low frustration tolerance, and self-downing. Finally, Cal Poly offers suggestions to overcome procrastination that are more imaginative and creative than the traditional solutions of creating a schedule or sheer willpower. I highly recommend this sight to other students. Stephanie Van November 11, 2002 Dr. Jacobs Topic: Procrastination Article: "Procrastination" by California Polytechnic State University Web Address: http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html This site gave characteristics of procrastination such as low self-confidence, being too busy, stubbornness, manipulation, coping with pressures, and being frustrated. People who are affected by procrastination are usually very optimistic, feeling that they do not need the allotted amount of time, and therefore putting it off until it causes a great amount of stress. This site also shows some reasons, simple and complex, explaining why procrastination occurs. The simple reasons include that it is difficult, time-consuming, that you want to learn further before you start, and that you are afraid of making mistakes. Complex reasons include being a perfectionist among others. I always knew that I procrastinated, however after reading this I realized to what extent. I feel this is a good site for high school students because it helps them realize what makes them procrastinate so that they can try and fix it. The site also gives some methods to help cure procrastination, which I feel is very helpful for high school students. I found the site easy to read and follow, although I do not think that the author wrote it intending it for it to be high school material. Article: "10 Tips to Help You Overcome Procrastination" by Kathy Paauw Web Address: http://www.organizerswebring.com/poarticles/_disc11/00000020.htm This site very basically outlines ten steps in which you can overcome procrastination. Kathy Paauw tells you to divide larger projects into smaller pieces so that they are manageable and to then allot a certain amount of time for everything you do. Time yourself to make sure that you are getting everything done quickly and not spending too much time on one thing. Try to get things done as soon as you can instead of putting them off, this will make you feel much better and much more productive. Clean out old papers and only keep what is needed in order to stay organized. Plan ahead so that you know what you want to do and when you want to do it. Make sure that you allow yourself time in order to complete both urgent and relaxed tasks, and always save time to look at your schedule for the next day. Kathy Paauw says that these things will help solve any problems dealing with procrastination. 29 I found this site very easy to read and follow for it clearly stated the ten steps in which you can cure procrastination. While I feel that the site was not intended for high school students (the author commonly refers to work-related topics) I think that it is very important for students to learn ways to overcome procrastination as well. Article: "11 Steps to Overcoming Procrastination" by Academic Employee Assistance Program Web Address: http://www.advocateeap.com/procrastination.htm This site is very similar to the site "10 Tips to Help You Overcome Procrastination" by Kathy Paauw. The author of this site says that first you need to admit that you procrastinate. After doing this, find people who will help you end your habit. Like Kathy Paauw, this author also says to divide your work into small amounts, and to tackle them one-by-one. Decide what you want to work on, and then let someone else know that you will have it done by a certain date. This puts a motivation on you. Next, begin working even if it is just a small task. This author says that just doing a small part of the assignment will help get you started. Set short term goals for yourself by saying that a part of the project will be done by a certain time instead of only considering the final due date. Once you have completed part, reward yourself by taking a break or doing something that you had wanted to do. Always remind yourself that you wanted to this and that you made the decision to. You can and will finish on time. The author of this site described eleven steps that help to overcome procrastination. I think this site would be good for high school students because by following these steps they will be able to tackle the major obstacle of procrastination. This author lays out the method in which to do it very basically, therefore I think that students in the high school should Erika Militana September 18, 2002 Dr. Jacobs Procrastination www.yudkin.com/firstaid.htm www.organizerswebring.com/poarticles/_disc11/00000020.htm When dealing with the interminable issue of procrastination, there are several tips to help one avoid getting started. Although procrastination is experimented with by infinite numbers of students, all that it accomplished is overdue stress and anxiety. During the process of researching this topic, the links at the top of this review were extremely helpful. First Aid for Procrastination and 10 Tips to Help You Overcome Procrastination are concise and provide several strategies that can help students, as well as adults, to surpass the urge to complete assignments at the last minute. Firstly, one must consider what procrastination does. It creates an overwhelming feeling of having things to do with little time to do it in. What it does not do is eliminate the work that must be completed. Not one assignment will ever disappear, which explains how procrastinating is merely delaying the inevitable. After determining that procrastination merely creates problems, it is beneficiary to determine how to avoid this dilemma. The following helpful suggestions were provided by www.organizerswebring.com: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Break larger projects into manageable "bites" and create a timeline for you to accomplish these smaller tasks. 30 Eat a live toad first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. Tackle that "toad" – the task you have been putting off, the one that is hanging over your head – because it will lift an immense load and you will fell much more productive. Take fifteen minutes at the end of each day to put things away and look at the calendar for the next day. Gather what you need ahead of time so you will be prepared for tomorrow. As one can see, it is vital to prepare for what is ahead while dealing with each task one bit at a time. When being overloaded, only stress and anxiety will result, creating additional problems consisting of meeting deadlines and due dates. Procrastination can only impede a student’s work habits. An additional option of dealing with procrastination is provided by www.yudkin.com. Several "remedies" are listed to help one cope with delaying important tasks: Articulate what exactly you are doing or not doing, in place of the label "procrastination." Ask yourself, "What could I possibly be afraid of here?" Ask yourself, "Do I really, wholeheartedly want to get this thing done?" By going through the process of determining how to avoid procrastination, success will result and stress will demolish. Elizabeth Boggs 6 / 05 / 03 Dr. Jacobs Procrastination Overcoming Procrastination- University of Tulsa http://www.utulsa.edu/cpsc/procrastination.htm I found this site to be fairly useful in that it presented the definition and causes of procrastination, however it stressed causes as opposed to solutions. For example, it began with some interesting statistics, including the fact that 90% of college students procrastinate on the majority of their assignments. Furthermore, it proposed that the primary cause of procrastination is low self-esteem in academics, which can lead to depression and feelings of inadequacy. In this sense, the article does an exelent job describing procrastination itself, and then goes on to present some more specific causes and effects. For instance, low academic self-esteem, problems outside of school, and expectations for your work that are too high can all lead to procrastination. Finally, it proposes a couple of solutions to help avoid tendencies towards procrastination. These include clearing the space in which you do your school assignments, eliminate noise and other distractions, have all materials set aside before you begin, and boost self-esteem by focusing on your academic successes as opposed to failures. This site was moderately helpful in identifying procrastination so that students can discover whether or not they have a problem with such, but it focused more on the causes than the solutions of procrastination. In this sense the site can help identify the problem, but cannot do as much to fix it. Furthermore, the tips for future success and the causes only apply to the academic world, more specifically the academic environment for college students. The site does not mention procrastination in areas outside of school, such as chores around the house. I think if the site could be more valid if it expanded its audience and extended the content to include non-academic procrastination. 31 A Cure for Procrastination- Dr. Sandra L. Davis http://www.wm.edu/OSA/dostud/moresski/procrast.htm I found this site to be much more thorough in explaining procrastination, describing the "symptoms" and proposing an intricate solution to the two types of procrastination identified: procrastination of difficult tasks and procrastination of unpleasant tasks. The author starts by defining procrastination as the process of postponing actions, which often leads to negative consequences, such as bad grades or feelings of guilt and anxiety. Then the author proposes a bulleted list that applies to all age groups of when people procrastinate. It proposed some "symptoms" of procrastination, such as showing up late for classes or meetings, avoiding confrontation with friends or coworkers, being overly-critical of others actions instead of worrying about your own, and starting projects so late that there is no chance of doing well. To further help in identifying the problem, the author described the "cycle of procrastination:" a cycle that begins with vowing to begin the work early, promising to start soon when the time to begin comes, feelings of guilt when the procrastinator realizes he / she should have started earlier, and finally a vow to never procrastinate again. I found that the description sounded uncomfortably familiar, so I read on to see what I could do to solve the problem. The article proposed several steps to curing both kinds of procrastination, such as selecting the items you procrastinate on and determine what it is you do instead of tackling the jobs. Once this is accomplished, you can determine when you are procrastinating because you revert to completing these menial tasks as opposed to completing what really needs to be done. Furthermore, mentally review the pros and cons of procrastination, and the pros and cons of starting projects ahead of time. According to the article, this will help you to see the consequences of procrastination which will hopefully motivate you to begin tasks on time. For larger projects that we procrastinate on because we don’t know where to begin, the article suggests breaking them up into small pieces in order to make the task seem smaller. This article was extremely helpful not only in identifying procrastination itself, but providing real life instances that potential procrastinators can relate to and therefore recognize their problem. It also gives detailed steps towards future success, a section that I found to be the most helpful out of the entire article. Maurade Gormley Web Review April 25, 2003 "Overcoming Procrastination" In order to overcome procrastination a general guideline is that you should spend 2 hours of study time for every hour in class. Some more specific strategies for managing time are to do the reading for the class in the first two weeks, think of college as a 9-5 job, use a schedule, study during your prime time, do homework for the most difficult class first, and work on homework during any breaks or commuting time you might have. I think the steps out of these that would help me the best are to get the reading done when assigned, keep a schedule, and to do homework in a more difficult class first. Most of the time I will do my easy homework and then by the time I get to the more difficult or important I am too tired to work to my full potential. Also by keeping a schedule it would force me to do my homework sooner than starting it at 9:00 pm. In order to reduce distractions you need to find a good place to study (i.e. the library). The most important strategy that would help me is to not turn on the TV until you homework is finished. Too many times I have done my homework while watching T.V. and for instance my math homework ends up taking me twice as long. Finally, to increase motivation you should rewarded yourself at the end of each task, or day, keep an alarm clock to keep track of your brakes, "bribe" yourself, form a 32 study group, get enough sleep, post inspirational words on your desk, and talk to your teacher about why they love what they are teaching. To increase motivation in most of my classes it would help if I liked what i was doing more. Qui-Juan Jones Chemistry Dr. Jacobs Procrastination| April 5, 2003 An easy way to fall behind in any subject, particularly in Chemistry, is by procrastinating. Many high school students procrastinate, and I am one of them. While looking at some of the many websites that are under this topic, I came across three of them that would be beneficial to many: Procrastination: http://admin.acadiau.ca/counsel/studyskills/topics/procrastination.html Overcoming Procrastination: http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/stressprocrast.shtml Procrastination Prevention: http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/counseling/procrastination.html "Procrastination" This site has a lot of interesting and valuable information about procrastination. It teaches you that procrastination is basically avoiding taking action. This site states that the main reason teens develop procrastination is from keeping an ongoing study schedule. They say that the most difficult thing with procrastination is probably confronting it. To do this you wouldn’t want to try to take it head on and vigorously start studying, you would attempt to change your study habits gradually until you feel comfortable and aren’t procrastinating any more. "Overcoming Procrastination" This site also defines procrastination, but also states some possible reasons for procrastination:         Poor time management Difficulty concentrating Fear and anxiety Negative beliefs Personal problems Finding the task boring Unrealistic Expectations and Perfectionism. Fear and failure These are some of the most common reasons for procrastination. This site mainly shows how to overcome procrastination. There are things as simple as rewarding your self after you hand in an assignment on time. Listed below are some ways to help overcome procrastination:        Recognize self-defeating problems Identify your own goals, strengths and weaknesses, values and priorities Compare your actions with the values you feel you have Discipline yourself to use time wisely: Set priorities Study in small blocks instead of long time periods Motivate yourself to study: Dwell on success, not on failure Set realistic goals 33  Modify your environment: Eliminate or minimize noise/distraction These are good ways to overcome a common set back amongst the best of us. "Procrastination Prevention" This site shows the ways that you could prevent procrastination. They state that procrastination is very common amongst college students, so I feel that if possible you should get rid of it in high school so you won’t have to worry about it in college. They say that you should follow the goals of someone else; because they tend to be more inspiring and people tend to follow other people more than their selves. It tells us not to be overwhelmed by the size of a project, but to decrease it into smaller projects; also, another one that goes hand in hand with this is time management. In order to be able to hand in things on time you must know how to manage your time properly. This site is very helpful for procrastinators such as myself, maybe you would pay a visit to the website listed above. Marsha Smith D Period; Dr. Jacobs February 20, 2003 www.wm.edu/OSA/dostud/moresski/procrast.htm "A Cure For Procrastination." Do you often find yourself putting off menial tasks or becoming ill on days that you were suppose to be part of something unpleasant? If so, it is likely that you are a victim of procrastination. The website above clearly addresses several vital questions that an individual suffering from this illness must adhere to in order to make a meaningful recovery. These aspects include reasons why we procrastinate, how the cycle of stress begins, and ultimately ways to take on our difficult tasks. A clear list is of reasons why one might procrastinate is displayed. This provides an individual with a way in which they can identify whether or not they are chronic procrastinators. They include: o o o o o A fear of failure A fear of success The maintaining of perfectionism A way in which to rebel against something you do not wish to do -and-the opportunity to live in a world of ‘maybe’s’ and ‘what ifs?’ Midway through the article, the author cites a book in which the cycle of procrastination is described. This sequence begins with the hopeful beginning that one will get an early start on her task. These initial feelings of optimism soon give way to feelings of anxiety as time passes without any action taken toward completing the job. The procrastinator now has feelings of regret, realizing too late that that she should have started earlier. A feeble attempt toward gaining control of the situation may be made or the individual may simply give up any hopes of accomplishment. The cycle results in this individual feeling a lack of ability, that she must not posses the necessary skills of being successful. Finally, the phase ends with the vow to never again procrastinate. The eerie similarities between this description and my own experiences have brought me to the realisation that I am a chronic procrastinator. There is, however, hope for the future. Also featured in the article are the necessary steps to take toward completing these arduous tasks. They include: 34 *Breaking a large task into smaller units *Planning one’s time backward *Make a to-do list with those activities that are most important to be completed first *Acknowledge your fears and forge ahead anyway This site is very readable. It provides a comprehensive look into the problems a procrastinator must endure and the ways in which to face them. The vocabulary is that of a high school level and is neatly displayed. This site is very suitable for high school students because procrastination is a problem that many scholars face. The only additional improvement that I would make to enhance the site would be the removal of its very last sentence. It reads, "Don’t procrastinate." I feel that this command takes away from the many valuable tips that precede this statement. Rather, I feel that the reader should end his or her reading experience on an encouraging, positive note. Have a nice day now! Courtney Walker September 11, 2003 Dr. Jacobs "Overcoming Procrastination" Procrastination is a common habit of average high school students; however, this habit can be changed with the right determination and organization. Students tend to put off their studying and homework in order to go to social events or play sports, these students become stressed and must rush through their work in order to get it completed on time. Procrastination can be eliminated if a student is focused and able to change their ways. "Overcoming Procrastination", an article written by the UT Learning Center teaches a student how to stop procrastination and focus on completing their school work earlier. In order to overcome procrastination you must make your tasks visible by writing them down on post-its, calendars and lists. Once you begin your school work you must devote all your attention to the one task, if breaks are necessary then allow time for them in your schedule. Your schedule will help you plan time for student activities, sports practice and games, social events and homework. You must have a positive attitude when attempting to overcome procrastination, you must give yourself time for the change, give yourself credit for everything you accomplish and forgive yourself when you make mistakes. This article was well written, it was easy to read and yet also was able to accomplish its goal of telling you (the student) how to rise above procrastination and get your work done on time. The concepts in this article were extremely easy to understand; the outline of the article was basic and did not stretch beyond the average student’s capabilities. This site should be read by almost every student so that they may understand that procrastination is not something that you cannot get rid of; instead you must work to over come it. I believe that this site was a very good resource of information about procrastination; however, I also believe that it could have gone more in depth about how to slowly work out a person’s habit of procrastination and the time and effort that is needed. Michelle Magner Dr. Jacobs B period September 9,2003 Subject: Procrastination Everyone knows that in each class you get homework, but when you see someone walking through the halls you ask them what class there in and they say either free or study hall. You know in your head that they should be doing his or her work but their probably procrastinating. Procrastination is when one person chooses a low priority to do instead of the more important one. Most people like 35 the easy way out because when it becomes difficult or scary to them they choose to procrastinate. Here are a few examples of statement’s people say in their head. o o o o I will wait until I am in the mod. There is plenty of time to get it done. I work better when I am under pressure so I do not need to do it right now. I have to many other things to do. Once someone asks you why your not doing something and you give them one of these excuses, it doesn’t sound so believable out loud, but in your head it is just and innocent statement. These statements get people to postpone duties that are more important. The goal should be to get things done ahead of time so your less stressed out. There are many ways to get rid of procrastination; one is to make two columns on a piece of paper. On one side write down your excuse for not doing something, and on the other side write down your realistic thoughts or your self-defense of your thoughts that contradict your procrastination thought. Another way is to make a list of positive statements on a piece of paper: o o o It is cheaper and less painful if I do it now rather than wait until it gets worse. There is no such thing as perfection. There is no time like the present. Think about what you want to do, and get it done. Focus on the present and nothing in the past and no negative thoughts. Make sure you know all the things that you need to get done and put them in order of priority, give yourself reminders and once you get what you need to be done, reward yourself. This is a good way to be ahead of the game, and hand things in on time. It is all a mental process. If you think you cannot do it, or use other excuses your going to get into that routine and never get anything done. If you work towards your goals, think positive, and get things done, you are working in the right direction. The site I used to learn this information was http://www.vmh.com/Summit/info-central/procrastination.htm it was very useful and taught me what I need to do and I will always be ahead. Colleen Meehan 9/9/03 Dr. Jacobs 1910 - Overcoming Procrastination I have an immense problem with procrastination, as do many other teenagers when it comes to doing schoolwork and other activities that are not enjoyable. After reading this article about how to overcome your desire to procrastinate, I now understand how to make my life easier and eliminate the overwhelming work that drags on for hours concluding with completing no work at all. I realize that over years, I waste hours every day by procrastinating, getting absolutely nothing done. There is a list of things that this article instructs procrastinators do in order to eliminate time wasted. Within this list are such aspects as to making an agenda, planning out exactly what you have to do, and in what order. This spreads the work out showing you exactly what you have to do. The article also suggests that when you are procrastinating doing something that you do not enjoy, getting it done at the same time every day. This makes your work more organized and leaves less room for procrastinating. In addition, another important part in eliminating procrastination is to do your work in an environment where you know you will be able to concentrate and not be distracted. The article also explains that you should act on your impulses. If your first thought is that you should study for 36 a test, but then think about it and decide not to until a later time, you are procrastinating. It is easier and more practical to act on your impulse and study right then. Finally, the article discusses how you should act towards yourself. It states to be positive, and praise yourself for doing some work during a period of time. It proposes that if you keep your mind positive, then it will be more favorable and result in less procrastination. Steve Erario September 7th, 2003 Dr. Jacobs http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/handouts/1910.html The site is well formatted and easily readable. It relates to the average high school student and I think all that suffer from the late nights as a result of procrastination should read this article. I learned many different ways in which to overcome procrastination and its effects. These include clarifying your personal goals, managing time effectively, a change of attitude, behavior, and accepting yourself. Each of these steps must be preformed over and over to achieve complete results. Also, the process must be evaluated honestly and you must want to make a change for the procedure to work as planned. Some of the best tips include:    Start early. Build procrastination time into your schedule. Call it "creative leisure." Expect and forgive backsliding. Break your goal up into little parts. Write out and list the steps you must take to accomplish your goal. With this in mind, improvement on the subject should be noticeable after a few weeks of work. Overall, this site offers a large variety of tips, from which anybody can utilize those that pertain to them. It does not seem to need any improvements and is easily understandable because of its bulleted format. Caitlin Young 9/23/03 Dr. Jacobs Procrastination: 10 Ways to "Do It Now" If you have a procrastination problem, this site with out a doubt helps you. Some people who deal with procrastination on a day to day basis might have no idea where to go or where to look for advice on their dilemma. The first thing the reader gets acquainted with while starting this article is the fact that the authors are very adamant about letting the low priority tasks take over the higher priority tasks. This is where the problem comes in. Going through the rest of the article, the 10 points mentioned in the title quickly make their appearance and mark. The ten main points I got out of this consisted of the following: 1. Rational Self – Talk ~ put your excuses "I’m just lazy" etc. in one column and realistic thoughts in another. 2. Positive Self – Statements ~ make a list of statements to motivate yourself 3. Don’t Catastrophize ~ don’t say you’re going to fail, it will just stop you cold. 4. Design Clear Goals ~ think about what needs to be done, and what its deadline is. 5. Set Priorities ~ start at top of the list, then work down to the distractions. 6. Partialize the Tasks ~ break big projects down into smaller and more manageable tasks. 37 7. Get Organized ~ get materials ready before you start, and a daily schedule is always nice. 8. Take a Stand ~ commit your self. 9. Use Prompts ~ reminders to follow through with your plans. 10. Reward yourself ~ self – reinforcement. I think this is a great site as a reference for anyone with a procrastination problem. Not only does it have the 10 points easily laid out and accessible to the reader, but it goes in detail about everything. Even if all of the 10 points seem overwhelming to the reader, they can easily use one or two of the points and still work on not procrastinating. This article can connect with readers very well because it gives clear cut ways to help get over the problem of procrastination. I feel all of these points are useful for me with procrastination because I never knew before that sometimes its just the simple things that will help me get started faster, and get more assignments done in shorter time. Sara Majane Chemistry 3/ Dr. Jacobs H Period September 23, 2003 Procrastination: Ten Ways to "Do It Now" Everyone procrastinates at some point in his or her lives, for some it is just a sporadic thing, but for others it can become a serious problem. I am one of the many who procrastinates occasionally by putting off an English paper until the last minute, or watching television instead of doing my math homework. Although it is not a serious problem for me, I was intrigued to learn more about this problem that plagues almost every high school student that I know. The website Procrastination: Ten Ways to "Do It Now" I learned a variety of things about procrastination, including how to recognize it, and how to stop it. This site is arranged in a manner that is very easy to follow and understand, and presents concepts that everyone can comprehend. Procrastination is first defined as "…letting low-priority tasks get in the way of high priority ones." It is a bad habit that has two general causes. The first is "crooked thinking", which is thinking that one employs to justify their behavior, and the second is behavioral patterns. The site continues to explain that procrastination is due to perfectionism, inadequacy, and discomfort. Although these three issues seem serious and hard to control, the website has a list of remedies for procrastination. This section of the website is beneficial to everyone that reads it, and from reading it I learned a lot about the habit and how to stop it, and will employ this list of remedies in my every day life. Some of the solutions that are the most valuable to me are: 1. Rational Self Talk- Excuse= I’m not in the mood right now, Self Defense= Mood doesn’t do my work, actions do! 5. Set Priorities- Write down all the things that need to be done in order of their importance. 9. Use Prompts- Write reminders to yourself and put them in conspicuous places. Overall, this site was very educational, and I have learned a great deal from reading it. Hopefully in the future I can put the new techniques that I learned to use in order to become a better and more productive student. The idea that procrastination can be solved is a very relieving one, and if one puts their mind to it, it can be stopped. Ishar Sawhney Thursday, October 09, 2003 Dr. Jacobs Overcoming Procrastination 38 This is a fantastic website when it comes to understanding why we procrastinate. Overcoming Procrastination talks about the causes of procrastination, the forms it takes, what you can do about it, and how effective planning can make procrastination a thing of the past. One cause of procrastination is that sometimes, something you are working on does not appeal to you. It is very difficult to focus on a topic that you have absolutely no interest in. Unfortunately, cases such as these are very common in our lives, and we must learn to live with them. When a teacher, a parent, or a supervisor assigns a project, this person’s interests may conflict with yours. Your views do not have to coincide with those of your government teacher or history teacher. This does not mean that you do not have to do the work at hand. Sometimes, perfectionism gets in the way of getting work done. You have to realize that perfection is impossible. Doing a good job, following indicated directions, and using what you have learned in class to incorporate into an assignment usually pays off better than trying to write that perfect paper or paint that perfect picture. Anxiety also factors into the procrastination area. Sometimes, you do not know how to start a project, or you are beginning a new field. At other times, you just may not know what to do. Procrastination takes many forms. Sometimes, I find that I ignore a task just because I do not understand it. For example, for my second English essay this year, I spent days preparing to write my essay, but I didn’t get to writing it until the very night it was due because I did not really understand the topic. In some cases, I find myself working on only one part of an assignment, usually the part I am most familiar with. Like in labs, I usually spend most of the time figuring out the graph, because it is significantly less stressful than writing the introduction or the conclusion. From this article, I learned that there are many ways to deal with procrastination. One thing to do is make honest goals decisions about the work you are doing. It is important not to hold back and to seek extra help when you needed. It is also important to set a time frame in which you are to get the work done. For example, set a designated time like five o’clock to start your homework and try to wrap it up by seven. It is very important to distinguish between ‘fooling around’ and actually doing the assignment at hand. Most of the time when I face a difficult question, I find myself fooling around instead of brainstorming through possible answers. One neat trick is to break up a long assignment into little pieces that are easier to handle. Be sure to relax once in a while. Working for eight hours on an essay during a weekend instead of separating the workload over five days is a sure way to burn yourself out. Reasonable and practical expectations work better than grandiose fantasies. There is no way you could finish a ten-page essay in German in one night. Being realistic really helps get work done. I know that procrastination just does not go away, but I am ready to work on it. This site really helps to pinpoint some areas in which I could work on to solve this problem. Olivia Berzin 10/23/03 Dr. Jacobs "Putting a Stop to Putting it Off: Procrastination Management Strategies" Although procrastination is often associated with laziness and lack of interest, there are many other factors that lead into the act of procrastination. For instance, some people have such a fear of what will become of this piece. "What will my teacher think?" "How will mine compare to my peers’?" While these thoughts race through your head, the work is put off even longer and you waste the time away thinking of what could be. Or maybe you’re the type of person (like me) who puts so much pressure on yourself that it almost becomes a distraction during work. This also relates to comparing yourself to other people and having a general fear of how your work compares to others’. 39 It’s getting hot in here Environmental conditions can also have an affect on your use of time and ability to concentrate. If your desk at home is extremely disorderly, consider finding another place to work. What works best for me is to get as much work done in the school library as possible. That offers the least amount of distractions and a quiet place for both intense work and study. The library is also a great asylum for those of us who do not have sufficient resources in the palm of our hands 24/7. Often, if you cannot find the source that is needed, you will sit in the chair thinking (once again) of what could have been, had you had the needed resources. Did you ever notice that when you’re studying in a dark space, you tend to doze off and forget about the task at hand? If this is you, make sure to situate yourself in a well-lit area; it will decrease your likeliness to wander off into never-never land and begin your cycle of procrastination. Finally, when there are extreme temperatures (either really really hot or really really cold) your ability to put enough concentration into your work decreases. You spend so much time thinking about the conditions that surround you that you stop thinking about what needs to be thought about. This could wait, couldn’t it? Whenever I try to do some last minute studying in my bed, just before I lay myself to sleep, I always end up thinking "I really could do this tomorrow, maybe during government?" or "I’ll just do this in the car on the way to school." This way of thinking gets us nowhere, not to mention the ideas you come up with will rarely surface in reality. Not to mention the days when your studying and you cannot help but think of what will happen to your grade, or what the teacher thinks of you should you do poorly on the assignment. Maybe I’m the only one who does the following: "Okay, if I get an 83% on this test, then my grade will drop two points. But if I get an 85%, it’ll stay the same." This type of worrying and over-thinking matters not only wastes time and aids in your procrastination, but it is also totally ridiculous and inane. I admit it. Where do I even begin? Sometimes my procrastination begins as soon as I set foot in my house. Immediately, I start to think "which assignment should I get done first" and "oh man, that one’s going to be a pain." Already, I have wasted precious time pondering what I could have started five minutes ago. Or maybe you’re the type to over-schedule yourself and because of that leave yourself so little time to get anything done, much less anytime to partake in the act of procrastinating. The important things to do for us procrastinators are to set for yourself reasonable goals while accepting that you are trying as hard as you possibly can. Evan Turner 10/24 Chemistry C-D Period Dr. Jacobs Procrastination http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/procras.html My first web review is on Procrastination from the University of Cambridge. Many of the other pages went on continuously mentioning how people procrastinate. None that I went on gave help to how to deal with procrastinating as much as the site did. It was an instructive page focusing solely on procrastination. Procrastinating is avoiding a task at hand, or postponing to another date when it could be done today. Procrastination not only causes feelings such as guilt, stress, and depression, but it affects the work of a person. The site continues by stating that many people avoid doing what 40 is necessary by being busy doing certain things that don’t help towards the goal that many strive for. Don’t wait until the deadline on doing something that isn’t fun. You should in fact start the least fun thing first so you can try to make it through the assignment as best as possible without procrastinating. Why do so many people procrastinate so much? They don’t have a good sense of the available time, and do not have good time management skills. They are unable to prioritize correctly. Also, they may feel that there is an overload of specific task at a certain moment. Some feel overwhelmed by all of the tasks, others have difficulty concentrating on one subject and moving towards the next efficiently. There are many ways to solve the problems involved with procrastinating. To overcome procrastination one must understand the personal and emotional meaning of why they are doing the assignment. In addition to this, organization and time management must be developed more clearly than before. You must accept that you don’t have a magic wand to get the task over with very quickly: you have to do it. When thinking about the matter of the task don’t say that you "have to" or "can’t" do it, you should change them to "chose to do it" or "chose not to do it." This statement isn’t always true, but it will be accurate more often than not. When one gets stuck on an assignment, don’t stop, just try a different strategy. Most importantly, give yourself a reward when you complete something. You worked hard, you deserve a prize. This site provided many useful tips on help with procrastination. Almost everyone has difficulties at one point or another with managing your time, and deciding which task at hand has a higher priority than the other, but there are ways to overcome procrastinating every time. I’m sure that this will help me not to procrastinate in the future. Mark Freimuth 10/23/03 Dr. Jacobs Overcoming Procrastination http://www.utulsa.edu/cpsc/procrastination.htm Procrastination is something that I feel most everybody can relate too. We have all found ourselves in situations where we put an important task to the side for a while thinking "I will do it later." However, procrastination can hurt you in many ways. This article helped me to realize why procrastination occurs. Some examples are: 1. One might over-worry for a test or an essay, causing them to stress more than actually completing the assignment. 2. The misconception that to complete an assignment you must have a thorough background of knowledge in that field. 3. The idea of worrying more about what grade they will get rather than how well prepared they are for it. 4. Fear, anxiety, poor time-management, difficult concentrating, and perfectionism can be some of the smaller "less known" reasons for procrastination. Many people fail to realize that procrastination can occur outside of academics or careers, and it can occur in the social world. From my knowledge, I found that this applies to an extent for things such as confrontations but typically social situations are less "tedious" and are less likely to be put off (this is not to say they aren’t put off at all, but I feel less of the time they would be). 41 The most important thing the article did to help overcome procrastination was emphasizing the importance of goal setting. With a goal have been a person is more likely to want to pursue what they hope to accomplish. It’s harder to give up a goal than it is to give up a tedious assignment. Steve Wood 11/7/03 Dr. Jacobs http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/procrast.html After reading this article I found that much of what this describes is my very own self. The article begins by giving an example of a poster with a polar bear on it saying "When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away" this saying is very much how I deal with things. When assignments arrive to be done I don’t really think about them and they don’t bother me anymore. According to this page some of my problems may range from disorganization to Fear of doing an assignment. Doing this article I found that correcting just a few simple things will have me on the road to recovery. Some of the things I may need to start out with is a assignment note book or planner. When I did this web review at the last minute since I waited for the last minute I have learned that procrastination is a problem that many people have. I am thinking to myself right now in fact that if I did not procrastinate so much I would be up at 12 writing this. This article taught me something about myself that needs to be addressed and it will be. Catherine Stolar 11/21/03 Dr. Jacobs "Structured Procrastination" "Structured Procrastination" is an article written by Stanford professor, John Perry. Perry states that "Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you" to show how procrastination can actually make one more efficient. The article continues to show how procrastination of one assignment can be an effective way to get other important projects done. Perry suggests that procrastinators compile a list of tasks in order of importance with the most important obligations at the top. However, equally substantial projects should also be added to the list. When a procrastinator then decides to wait to do a task at the top of the list that seems too overwhelming, he will end up choosing to do a similarly challenging task at the bottom of the list instead. As a result, the procrastinator still ends up being very efficient as he completes multiple important assignments by avoiding one seemingly impossible task. While the obligations at the top of the list might never be completed if this method is used, the procrastinator must manipulate the list by placing tasks that have pending due dates and appear substantial at the top of the list but really do not have permanent deadlines and are not that meaningful. As a result, the procrastinator uses self-deception to trick him or herself into completing the more difficult assignments at the bottom of the list. Perry also points out that procrastinators should easily be able to use self-deception to trick themselves as procrastinators usually apply self-deception when putting off assignments and creating unrealistic due dates. "Structured Procrastination" is an influential article because Perry’s procrastination theory may be useful to high school students who often confess to procrastinating multiple times throughout the school year. Because Perry offers an efficient and effective alternative to traditional procrastination (where procrastinators waste time doing nothing), his method can not only eliminate traditional 42 student procrastinators but also influence kids to become better students. Through Perry’s creative "structured procrastination", kids will have a chance to become effective and efficient and therefore, more accomplished and skilled learners. Ryan La Mantia 11/20/03 Dr. Jacobs http://www.utulsa.edu/cpsc/procrastination.htm This article gives helpful hints on how to not become a procrastinator. A procrastinator is the avoidance of doing a task, which needs to be accomplished, as stated by the author of this website. Procrastination is managing your time very poorly. A student may become confused or overwhelmed with an assignment, so they put it off to do at another time. They usually end up putting it off to the last minute, were they are so worried that they won’t finish that they complete it without learning the material. There are ways to help prevent this frustration, one way is time management. It is important that you give yourself the necessary amount of time to complete an assignment, so you finish it and you understand the concept trying to be taught. You may also want to set goals and priorities for yourself to keep your focus and stay on track. You should also dwell on your successes and not think about all of the negatives. Asher Bogart 12/18/03 Dr. Jacobs H-G Periods Overcoming Procrastination I, being a professional procrastinator, found this article to be very informative and helpful. I often find that my downfall is poor time management; this is why I focused on the article’s section on managing your time efficiently. I found it helpful to write down the steps you need to complete to reach your goal, and when you should complete each individual step. This works very well for test studying, because you can split each topic into a certain amount of time each night, and alleviate the stress from you study schedule. This leads to another helpful hint, which is to write out what it is you need to do, and by when. Writing down a list helps for me because I always do what I write down, so there is no loophole for me to dodge my task. Choosing a productive work environment is another thing I find very useful when I do work, for instance I work much better at my desk than if I work in front of the TV. Although some of these tips are second nature to some students, to the rest of us, this article lends a helping hand. Esther Lee 5 February 04 Dr. Jacobs Overcoming Procrastination In this website, University of Texas takes a close look at procrastination and how to overcome this habit. Although it takes persistent change to do so, the University came up with 5 effective steps that students could follow. 1. 2. 3. 4. Clarify your goals Manage your time Change your attitude Change yourself 43 5. Accept yourself You cannot overcome procrastination without having personal goals in mind. Posting personal goals around the room could stop you from taking frequent breaks or putting things off till the next day. Managing time, in some aspects, could be the hardest but the most effective way to stop procrastination. Making a schedule or always organizing your plans could really help you to be on track all the time. Another important note is that you should respect yourself and value your mistakes. Challenges are good but drive for perfection can become obsessive and tiresome. Using your impulsiveness could help you to do something when you think of it instead of putting it off and thinking about it. Having notes and reminders around the room to keep track of your work could be very helpful as well. Lastly, accepting yourself is a huge concept. Forgive yourself for the mistakes and compliment yourself for the achievements. University of Texas states that "procrastination is a habit, not a fatal flaw. You can all overcome it! top Return to Chemistry Coach Index Web Review Application Web Reviews: The Assignment Let us know what you think. Contact Bob Jacobs at bobsalsa@comcast.net or at one of the following addresses: bobsalsa@yahoo.com jacobsr@wilton.k12.ct.us