I had high hopes for myself when I started my first
semester at Southern CT State University.
Instead I have fallen short of my expectation of myself. This has happened because I underestimated
the work and time that college courses require.
I have always
had to struggle with my ability to plan, organize, and manage details of my school
work. I knew that I would struggle with
performing certain tasks that would be required of me. I learned during this first semester that I have
to become more self reliant and I have to learn to advocate for my own
success. For me to be successful in college
it will be through hard work. My biggest
challenge will be to overcome my worst habit, which is procrastination. I put off important tasks and this stops me
from being successful with my school work.
I start a priority task, and stop mid-stream to do something
else. I leave out some things that I am
supposed to do that I know are really important. I do not focus on the right now, and I do
other things that are more comfortable to do.
I do things that aren’t important instead of accomplishing the important
things first. I make excuses too
often. I have to be honest with myself
and manage my time more efficiently. I must
learn to be less disorganized and overcome my reluctance to get going. How long a given task will take me and how to
manage the time necessary to accomplish these things, will be one of the challenges
I will have to deal with next semester.
Sometimes I become overwhelmed by the work I haves to do and do not make
good decision on how to complete everything on time.
When I arrived at Southern I should have realized
that I needed to develop a plan for good time management skills. In high school many of my teachers kept on
top of me to get my work done and handed in on time. College is certainly more complicated and I didn’t
really plan for all of this. I have to
develop my goals and decide how I will achieve them. I realize now that I have to look at the
entire semester and have to keep a calendar to help me use my time better. I also know now that I have to plan ahead and
be able to balance time for all my school work and still have time for a social
life. I am going to keep a weekly calendar for next semester to help me organize
my time for better use. As the semester
proceeds if I think I need help, I will get it right away and not wait until time
is running out, and I am behind in my work.
I will devote more time to each class because I read that for every hour
in class I should allow 2 – 3 hours of outside the classroom work.
Time management is something I have to learn because
of necessity. Sometimes bad habits that
are already in place are hard to change.
I know I can accomplish these new goals if I put my mind to it, and am persistent. I will have to try to eliminate my habit of
procrastination and try to meet my deadlines on time instead of worrying about
it without finishing on time.
Procrastination is the ultimate problem that I continually
face during my life as a student and a teenager. I hope that with learning the proper use of
my time I will be able to balance my school work and my social life as
well. This will be my goal for the rest
of my college years.
