Due Date

Oh no!
Oh dear!
I'm in such a big, big hurry!
I've got no time to dilly-dally!
I've gotten so past due!

So I've gone a little overboard from reading some Lewis Carroll. So what? I'm a big kid. I can control myself. Usually.

This time I want to talk about something that I'm pretty sure everyone has struggled with in their lives at least once. Or maybe a bazillion times like me. Putting things off for to long and waiting to do them right before they are due. Sure it's happened to the best of us, but to succeed and actually get things completed on time, I learned that some prep work has to be done.

I had fallen behind in completing my lesson plan and the deadline was slowly looming. I became panicked and frustrated, thinking that there was no way that I would be able to finish it on time. But then I realized I could get all of my work done, I just had to take it in more manageable chunks. Instead of seeing the work I still had to do as one large project, I broke it down into groups of about two sections. I could see myself completing one of these smaller groups. So with my work divided up, I took out my calender. I planned to finish a mini-unit everyday. Once I had it all written down, I felt more compelled to stick to my plan rather than if I had kept it all in my head. It's pretty hard to lie about something written in pen.

I am super happy with my results! I feel that I have been more motivated to complete my work. But besides getting things done more quickly, I feel more interested in the work that I am doing as I am not stressed out by the amount of time I have left. I still need to work on my procrastinating skills, but I feel that planning out when I need to complete certain activities by really helped me get more work done. I am going to try to use this calendar method of planning for the next unit so I don't fall behind again!

Over and Out!
Emilie

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