Rache Writes

For my last learning challenge, I read Four Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination by Peter Banerjea . I figured with it being dead week, I need to learn some extra ways to avoid procrastination and make sure I use my time effectively. This article proposes that a "self-interrogation" may be the best way to get yourself out of a procrastination slump, and suggests four questions to ask yourself when you're putting off work. 1. What one thing can I do to get started? This very much reminds me of the "eat the big frog first" mentality. By breaking tasks up into steps, making the decision to get started, and getting the complicated stuff out of the way first, you can better focus your energies on tasks. 2. What are my three biggest priorities today? I like that this one allows you to take a moment to step back and figure out what actually has  to be done today, and what would just be nice to also get done today. Even though other tasks may be easi...

At the beginning of the semester, I thought I'd easily work ahead in this class and that I could use my free time on Mondays to knock out my work for the week. Boy was I wrong. I've tended to work day-to-day on the assignments, as this semester has been busier than I anticipated. In addition, most of my work meetings are on Mondays, allowing little focus for school. And on Fridays, I tend to be too tired to want to do the rest of my work. So, for this upcoming week, I'm wanting to use my free time on Tuesday to work ahead on the weekly assignments, and my free time on Thursday to work on the weekend assignments. That way, my weekend is free for rest and my Monday is free for my job. If I have extra time, this will also allow me to work ahead this weekend on next week's assignments. ( Hello Weekend by Glynnis Owen )

For this week's H.E.A.R.T. challenge, I decided to combine this and my extra credit reading and read it out loud. I read about a Chinese civilization's sacrifices to the river god . I happened to be with a friend, and she said it was okay for me to read it out to her. I noticed that as I read, I definitely took longer since I felt more like an active storyteller than a passive reader. I felt I was contributing to the experience of the story. I also noticed more details and I remembered more of the story once I had finished. A couple of downsides were that it took longer, and also that if I got caught up on a word or phrasing it was hard to refocus back on the story, whereas if I was reading it I likely would've glanced over it. Overall, it was fun and having an actual audience made it even more fun. ( Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac )