Week 14 Learning Challenge: The Science of Procrastination

I just watched the video: The Science of Procrastination. This was a very informative video that showed how our motivation is highly dependent on how imminent a reward is perceived to be. That means that we have a tendency to go for immediate rewards over long term rewards. This shows why we cram for tests. We can spend a lot of time procrastinating and not studying for a test because we don't see the immediate pay off a long way out from the test date, but when the time draws nearer and nearer to the test date we start to give the test more value and begin to cram all night long. I have been a victim of this a few times myself. 

One of the ways the video says to combat procrastination is to change your mindset and not say that studying is torture, you should think that you enjoy being productive. This will help you enjoy the process of achieving something and not let you get sucked into procrastination. 

Source: A year from now you will be glad you started today

Learning Challenges: Empathy

This week I did a Learning Challenge focused empathy. I learned that there are four qualities of empathy: 1) perspective taking, 2) the ability to take the perspective of another person, 3) staying out of judgment, 4) recognizing emotions in others and communicating.

Brene says she likes to think of empathy as a dark hole where someone finds themselves when they are stuck or overwhelmed, and then someone else comes down and says they know what it's like down there and you're not alone. I think that is a great analogy.

When someone opens up to you, the best thing you can do is just listen and not offer advice or sympathetic responses. Offering advice and sympathetic responses is the easy way to go, but listening and choosing to remember a time when you were in a similar spot is difficult and can leave you just as vulnerable.

Brene Brown: On Empathy.

Learning Challenge: Single Tasking

This week I did a Learn by H.E.A.R.T. challenge that focused on attention. Multitasking seems to be the norm, and sometimes expected, for people these days. I always find myself working on a wide assortment of things at one time, and it can turn out to be pretty stressful. After watching the funny video Single-Tasking is the New Multitasking by James Hamblin, I found a great way to focus on one thing at a time. The narrator said he used "Tabless Thursdays" to focus on a single task and not be distracted by other things. "Tabless Thursdays" work by only having one tab on your browser open at a time. I think this would be nice to try every now and then because I tend to switch between tabs a lot and end up not getting much done. Even now I have six tabs and a few PDFs open! Maybe this technique will help me finish a task and not get so distracted.

 

Interior Life by Grant Snider

Learning Challenges

Like so many students, I constantly struggle with time management. We all want to do well in class and make good grades, but there are so many other things that we could do. The task of managing time effectively becomes most difficult for me when attempting to take on a particularly dry subject. I have to admit that I watch entirely too much t.v. (especially sports, and t.v. series), and this puts a real kink in my overall study habits. The H.E.A.R.T. website looks great and has a wealth of topics that can be explored to help improve habits, and generally help a person achieve success in life. The time management tab on this site introduced me to the Promodoro technique, which may be beneficial to me, since I struggle so greatly with managing my time effectively. This technique, which relies on working on something for a gradually increasing time interval and then rewarding yourself with a short break and something that you enjoy doing, may be able to get me out of the habit of procrastination and get me on track for being an effective time manager. I also really enjoyed the short video that touched on the psychology on why we procrastinate. Knowing the reasons why I procrastinate will help me better understand how to implement a strategy in overcoming this habit.

"Reality Check" by David Whamond

(A good depiction of me when I get into a show.)