Time Strategies

One of the articles I read for this assignment, The Important Habit of Just Starting by Jory Mackay brought up how procrastination affects more than our work lives. He mentions the instant gratification fills our lives, with products designed to catch our attention. This consumerism culture makes it harder for a person to ignore the instant gratification of, say, greasy takeout meal, versus a healthy home-cooked meal.

Canal Walk Food Court Photo by Henry M. Trotter. Source: Wikimedia Commons

As a result of hundreds of scenarios like this, we lose track of our long term goals and can have regret in the later parts of our lives. To avoid this regret, Mackay proposes that since our brain's default is to value instant over long term gratification, we need to focus on the value of the long-term and remove distractions when we work.

This topic reminded me of Tim Urban's 2016 TED talk Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, which brought up the point that procrastination is in all areas of life, not just for work. And how, without deadlines, procrastinators can avoid doing long term personal projects that overall lead to greater happiness.

"Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | Tim Urban" video at Youtube

The article How Checklists Train Your Brain To Be More Productive And Goal-Oriented talks about checklists create rewards that help productivity. I use lists to make sure I don't forget any assignment, but after I read about making sure we have small, meaningful goals with broader goals, I realized that I could expand each task to include smaller tasks. This way, I can better appreciate how much work I do and feel more accomplished with every tick off. Since our brains associate completed checklists with rewards, this strategy can improve how we will think about working and help us be more motivated in the future.

One strategy to avoid procrastination that I liked was from Caroline Webb's article How to Beat Procrastination. It was about figuring out the whys of your procrastination. Asking questions like "Why don't I want to start a certain task?" allows you to find ways around procrastination.

I've used this strategy in multiple ways. One of them is when I have trouble getting started during my focus time. Typically, the answer is, I'm too tired or out of it to be able to make any significant progress. I tell myself that the more I work on it, even with subpar results, it is still a starting point for even more improvement when I feel better.

Another way I used this strategy is when I had trouble getting through textbook readings. For me, I found that the textbook seemed too formal, which made me reak that I had to copy down every bit of information. Another thing was the lines left to right were long, so my eyes got tired more quickly. I solved this problem by reading the electronic textbook on my phone. Since I typically read on my phone, this made the reading seem less daunting and allowed my eyes to read it more easily. I find it is easier for me to read through the chapter digitally before I take notes with the hardcover copy.

Alongside going around motivation obstacles, Webb also talks about using small rewards when you start working. I've done this both for class and in my personal life. When I study in the morning, I get my favorite kinds of coffee and drink it while I work. Outside of class, when I go to the gym, I listen to my favorite music. One trick I use is to increase my workout intensity with faster parts of the songs. Because the quicker music already makes me want to get up and move, listening to it while exercising allows me to feel better.

Overall, I think the most significant time challenge for me this upcoming semester is fitting in fun time. When a semester starts, I have a terrible habit of working continually, without having a social or fun time in my schedule. By mid-semester, my constant work burns me out, and I decide to take a break. Except, since I remember the stress of overworking, it's tough for me to focus on work again.

I think that using strategies from the articles, like working around parts of why I don't enjoy a task and adding little rewards with each task will help me overcome that challenge and be able to use my time effectively.

Technology: From Class to Career

In previous online classes, I've used multiple kinds of websites, so some of the tools for this class are already familiar to me. For example, I've used browser bookmarks for years. I mainly use it to stay organized with a folder and subfolders for every one of my classes.

Other tools are not as familiar. I have little experience in image editing, but I can see how it would be useful. I'm also curious about how image editing works with different copyrights, such as for images that are free to reuse with modification. Graphic creation sounds fun. I only recently started to do something similar, with meme generators, so I am interested in creating images more.

Twine was the new tool that was probably the most interesting to me. I've written and read branching stories before, but the final product looked more like this:

Do you 

eat the pickle? (go to page 3)

or

trick another person to eat the pickle (go to page 5)

Picture of Pickle by photographer Renee Comet. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

It was a hassle to click from page to page manually. When I read The Mouse-Bride example from Twine, I loved how much easier it was to go through the story.

For the overall online setup of this course, I hope to work on becoming more flexible with different software. Being a tech-savvy person is essential in any career in the modern world. I remember watching my parents adjust to specific computer programs and websites so they could do their jobs correctly.

I believe that one of the critical parts of an online class, beyond the actual assignments, is learning how to use different online tools. I started the semester earlier, not only to get ahead but to also learn how to use technology, which will become invaluable in the future.

Assignments for the Class

For this upcoming semester, I am the most excited about the storytelling aspect of the course. I am so used to classes where I read texts and then am required to write essays analyzing their more profound meaning. In writing my own stories based on the readings, I have a chance to look at familiar or new stories and think about them from a different perspective, whether by changing the genre or narrator point of view. Because of this, I am also excited about the semester project. The storybooks I looked at were so fun to read, and I already have ideas floating in my head for what I want to do with my own.

Storytelling Brings Life to Words. Web Source: Pixabay

This class is a mix of both a familiar and new setup for me, and I am curious about how it will turn out. I've taken multiple online courses where I had to post and comment on my classmates' posts. The difference between this class and the previous ones is that there are no midterms or final. So for every grade to be based on whether I am willing to The grading is also very different, but it is nice to know that if I work through an assignment all the way, I will receive full credit.

The extra credit is another exciting part of this class for me. My old teachers offered only during finals week, so it was only worth doing if you were at 89.3% and wanted to get bumped up to an A. I'm excited for having an opportunity to finish the semester early with extra credit so I can focus on my other classes for finals. So far, the famous last words, the extra reading, and the extra commenting credit look the most interesting to me, but I will certainly explore all of them.

Beyond a Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is a topic that started to introduce its way into my education when I was in 8th grade. Before hearing about it, my school was more set into what qualities a student inherently possesses, albeit not directly. For example, in elementary school, the honors program was called the "Gifted and Talented Program." The more problematic part of this name is "gifted." The use of the word "gifted" in a learning context became problematic in my early life when I wanted to learn to play the piano. My mother played the piano and agreed to teach me, but I quickly gave up. I struggled reading the music and in moving my hands to the different notes. I took my difficulty to mean that I just wasn't good at playing the piano. While I knew that my piano skills would improve with practice, the thought of naturally talented musicians my age made me feel dejected. I believed that I would never be as good as them, and I may as well give up. The piano practice could have become a fun bonding time between my mother, but instead it a competition that left me bitter.

This negative attitude repeated for multiple activities over the years. I gave up on otherwise fun activities because I believed I wasn't good at them, and I liked the activities I did well in because I did well in them. My self-esteem wasn't majorly affected until school became more difficult.

I always had more trouble in my English Language Arts class than the others. However, once I hit middle school, the struggle became noticeable when Bs and Cs came back in my progress card. I was devastated; I believed that a lower grade meant I was too stupid for a higher one. My stress levels went up, and my performance in my other classes also fell.
I panicked, and I began to study like crazy. I criticized and punished myself when I didn't improve the way I wanted too.

I remember feeling stupid until my 8th-grade English class.

By this point in time, my school presented movies in class revolving around a growth mindset. My 8th-grade English teacher wanted to incorporate growth mindset into the curriculum. She created a learning process which, while it still graded on an A to F scale, put more weight towards the end of the process, and allowed for extra credit that allowed you to get an A because you worked hard and showed analysis in additional assignments. My teacher explained that learning was a process, and her class allowed me to feel that I could learn how to analyze texts.
Once I hit high school, the struggle in English returned. I reread the passages I was supposed to analyze multiple times, but no deeper meaning came to me. I studied hard for English but didn't have any rising grades to show for it. My mother, who was an English major in university, noticed my increasing anxiety. She talked me through the questions I had about the texts and asked me questions about what I thought the test message was. As it turns out, when I slow down my thought process and speak my thoughts out loud or collaborate with someone else, English becomes much easier for me. I just hadn't studied the right way for me.

I believe that a growth mindset is a valuable learning lifestyle that allows people to become more comfortable with challenges. However, I think we can go further with it.

One critique I have is with Carol Dweck's words from her TED Talk, "The Power of Believing that You Can Improve." She said, "Before effort and difficulty made [the students] feel dumb, made them feel like giving up, but now, effort and difficulty, that's when their neurons are making new connections, stronger connections. That's when they're getting smarter."

While it is true that learning is a challenging process, I feel that Dr. Dweck puts too much correlation between effort and difficulty with the amount of knowledge gained.

Different learning strategies better suit different people. One person may be a more visual, quiet learner while another person learns best through collaboration and story-telling.

One person may struggle to understand a math concept by an hour no matter how much they reread the theory on a textbook page, but the instant they liken variables to people they know, they quickly understand and can even teach the concept.

By likening the amount of learning to the amount of effort, students will persevere though difficulty, even when they can learn more effectively bu using other strategies.
In cases where students study for hours but don't improve their grade, such as my earlier English class example, self-esteem problems and lower achievement goals are still present.

The old "Gifted" term to mean "If I struggle, I'm too stupid to do it." turns into "No matter how hard I try, I will never be good enough."

My time at OU has made this transformation more apparent when I see students who haven't learned their study tricks. One distressed classmate mentioned how they barely passed a midterm, despite the long hours of studying they put in. They said they might want to switch majors, discouraged by the lacking results that didn't reflect their dedication to doing well at OU.

Growth mindset is useful in not taking difficulty as a failure, but we should focus more on learning effectively. Study smart, not study hard is rising in many of my courses. This semester, one of my classes doesn't even require any particular textbook. Instead, they provide links to multiple resources, from online books to KhanAcademy. The reason that as upperclassmen in university, we should know how to best learn.

(image created with the imgflip.com Meme Generator)

Introduction to a Future Doctor: Rebekah

I've had some weird career goals over the years. From ballet dancer to benevolent dictator of the world, I had many aspirations as a child. Some worried my parents more than others, as I'm sure you might imagine. I have one memory when I proudly proclaimed to my parents that I was going to become a hobo. My parents were surprised...to say the least. I was quick to reassure them.

"Don't worry," I said, "I'm not gonna be just any hobo! I'm gonna be a rich hobo with a big bag of money on a stick."

Man with a Bag of Money. Web Source: Public Domain Files

These whimsical workings of imagination filled my childhood. However, like any child, I became aware of an ever-approaching adult world. I had to consider what I wanted to do with my life, and that fact overwhelmed me.

I mused for a while about potential careers, but I didn't have enough information about what those jobs do daily. So, I thought more abstractly.

I decided that I want to become a medical physician. Doctors are in the room in critical moments of a human's life, from birth to death. More importantly, doctors are there when a person and their family face hardship and strife. People become doctors for many reasons: the humanitarian service, the high salary, the mystery of the human body and mind. I want to be the type of doctor that, while uses medical knowledge to the fullest, also remembers that each patient is a person, first and foremost. People want to live long, healthy lives. Whether a person wants to live in lavish isolation or herein a happy home, I want to help them continue living so they can continue their contribution in our shared human experience.

People Standing in Front of a Globe. Web Source: Max Pixel

For cases where I can't help them live, I want to be a compassionate person who provides comfort to the dying and the mourning. Perhaps this idea is silly or long-winded to others; however, it is an ideal that I have carried for years and that I am determined to carry out.

My Storybook Favorites

I Know What Eos, Selene, and Helios Did Last Night

The storybook, I Know What Eos, Selene, and Helios Did Last Night, is a retelling of multiple Greek myths. I knew the story of Selene and Endymion before I read the storybook, but I hadn't heard of the others. The title sounds much like the storybook's format, about the antics of the Greek deity siblings Eos, Selene, and Helios. The introduction sets up the reader's part in listening to a habitual brunch that these siblings set up, with Greek myths playing as a way for these siblings to brag about their lives.

The introduction's formal tone didn't fit some of the lines, such as, "[My godly sibling and I] fight about dumb things, like whose turn it is to control the sky...," which, by showcasing the supernatural and relatability of these characters, created a comedic effect that better suited the storybook's overall mood.

For the design of the storybook, I liked how each myth is separated into different sections as the siblings take turns telling their stories, with a different header to represent the narrator of that section. I also liked how there was a separate notes section which showed the sources and ideas behind the storybook as it allowed me to be immersed in the book all the way through.

Fairytale Case Files

The storybook Fairytale Case Files is a mysterious twist on many fairy tales I was already familiar with, such as Hansel and Gretel. The mood of the stories is darker to match a detective novel, which made me curious. One of the sections, "A Study in Footwear," is even an allusion to the famous detective case "A Study in Scarlet," which later became the Sherlock Holmes Series. 

The 1888 Cover of "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

One creative aspect of this storybook was how Detective Wolfgang discovers the aftermath of the original Hansel and Gretel, the dead witch, and investigates to find the truth of the murder.

Another aspect I enjoyed was how Wolfgang discovered Rumplestilkskin's name, which the Queen asked many to do in the original story.

The images used in this storybook were simple and were well-suited to the storybook.

Peter Pan: Revisited

The storybook Peter Pan: Revisited comes from the stories by J. M. Barrie. Before I read the storybook, I was already familiar with Peter Pan, both from the book and from many movies. The title, while it shows that we take an altered look at Peter Pan, is not particularly attention-grabbing. Another name to show how this storybook is different from the original might be something like The Heroic Captain Hook. This type of title would grab the reader's attention by creating an association that our minds automatically think off as wrong. Captain Hook is a notorious villain, so for him to be called heroic would create an attention-grabbing oxymoron.

The introduction is in second-person point of view where the reader interviews James Hook about the truth of Neverland, while the later sections read like a novel, where the next section takes off where the last part left off. I wasn't as much a fan of this, compared to other storybooks where each section was its separate adventure. However, the contrast of James Hook as an older man with child-like traits versus the young Peter Pan who lost his innocence to ambition showed me how I can change an original story but still keep the first themes, which in this case was childhood versus adulthood.

For the look of the project, I enjoyed how a new picture would be added in with every scenery change.

Favorite Place: Universal Studios' Orlando Resort

One of my favorite places is Universal Studios' Orlando Resort in Florida. Out of all its attractions, I adored The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The breathtaking view of sights, like Hogwarts, brought the world of Harry Potter to life.

Hogwarts at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

One issue some people may have is that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is split up between two parks. Universal Studios Florida features Diagon Alley and Gringotts, and Universal's Islands of Adventure is home to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. However, the transportation that Universal Studios came up with for Harry Potter fans outweighs the inconvenience of moving between the parks. The Hogwarts Express, an attraction in itself, travels between King's Cross Station in London part of Universal Studios Florida and Hogsmeade in Universal's Islands of Adventure. The Hogwarts Express is a magical ride that I recommend to anyone who travels to Universal Studios' Orlando Resort.

The Hogwarts Express in Universal Studios' Orlando Resort.

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.