Popular Post Award Winning Boss Posted February 1, 2012 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 Sup people of the IB. I found a short guide that I wrote a while ago that deals with stress and procrastination. I'll add more to it later (the irony but it is late ) so hopefully it's helpful. There's more to come if I remember StressFirstly stress at school is mainly caused by lack of organisation. So sorting that out could half or even eliminate your 'i want to rip the hair out of my head' feeling!How to organise work: Invest in a folder if you write notes with a note book and use folder separators to make things easier. This makes losing notes a lot less likely because they are in a named folder. Plus it makes you feel really professional If you're feeling that things are getting to you, just step back for a little bit and think. You don't need to be getting overly stressed because that hinders your work and can result in tears, this isn't helpful to your development because it lowers your confidence. Try drinking some water, taking a short break from revision or going for a walk. Clear your mind.ProcrastinationThis thing is horrible. I hate it loads and i have a half decent way of sorting it out. Just know that you cannot get rid of it completely otherwise you'll probably end up not enjoying life. No one can seize EVERY SINGLE opportunity they have to work. It's just not realistic hahaThe reason why procrastination happens is because there are two parts of your brain that helps this. ( I cannot remember their names, forgive me for that)One part see's the short term benefit of everything, like going on facebook or staring into the sky. This part is much bigger than the part that see's the long term benefit of working now. Plus the long term benfit part (the determined one) gets tired quickly.Ok, imagine yourself as two people. 'present' you, and 'future' you.'Present' you wants to put off work and say i'll do it tomorrow until your you've started everything too late. This would make you think, 'yea i promise i'll do it tomorrow but now i'll watch tv' or 'now i'll stare at pictures of yoda riding a cat'. Do you notice this trend? It happens a lot.What you need to remember is that, it isn't now you that will be feeling the consequences of your procrastination, it'll be future you. (i hope this is making sense so far)You need to look to future you and think that you want to have less work so you'll do it now.Procrastination isn't because you're lazy, it's because you're weak in the sight of distractions (that sounds mean but everyone gets distracted for the reason i stated above) Keep your work neat. You don't want to be revising and realise that you cannot read half of anything that you've written. Some care will go a long way. You don't need to write full sentences when making notes, just something that can remind you what was taking place in class. Try organising your work daily.This further reduces the chances of losing sheets and notes, hole punch it and keep it safe. You'd be surprised how much they can help Lessen the distractions! Disable facebook or move the facebook app from the homepage of your phone Mute your computer so you aren't hearing all sorts of notifications Clear the cookies from your computer so you have to enter your password in everytime you want to log into something (but make sure you remember them haha) This makes logging into stuff an added effort so you're more inclined to just not bother and start your work. And if you need to just ban yourself from IBS and TSR (if you use it too) Give yourself motivation! Put pictures up of what you want to achieve Plan a little treat you can have ONLY if you've completed a certain amount of work... not if you've done something for a specific time It's too easy to say 'i've read for half an hour, time to chill'. You could've just been sitting there [*]Look into what you want to do and what you need to do to get thereMy next point is that not all procrastination is bad!So when you feel lazy instead of refreshing the facebook homepage, read an article from the news or a page from a book relating to your subjects.Plus don't mistake procrastination for having a break, breaks are good! they keep your sanity in tactOk the end is here! After multiple facebook references, unnecessary emoticons, incomplete sentences and poor humour that is.I really do hope someone finds this helpful as this took me a while to write but maybe it'll be worth it Just remember, a little stress isn't bad and taking breaks isn't the same as procrastination.I'll be adding more to this as things come to me.****Here is a prioritized to do list: PrioritizedToDolist.pdfYou list all your tasks and label them A - F, with A being the most important and anything after D generally something you can put off until you've finished everything before that.Stay concentrated and it won't seem like that much of a daunting task! 65 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
-._._.- Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 (edited) Really helpful... I'm halfway through the second term of my first year and procrastination is a problem. It's like I do not feel the desperation when a particular work is not due tomorrow. I don't want to fall behind since I'll have problems catching up when it comes to my second year but that's what i'm still doing. Edited February 19, 2012 by I am a nerd 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted February 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 Really helpful... I'm halfway through the second term of my first year and procrastination is a problem. It's like I do not feel the desperation when a particular work is not due tomorrow. I don't want to fall behind since I'll have problems catching up when it comes to my second year but that's what i'm still doing. "Stop thinking and start doing" - so stop thinking about what you're going to do and do it make up your own dead lines or something like that Glad you found it helpful. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
funny10sport Posted March 17, 2012 Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 You should get a cookie for this! This was extremely helpful! Thank you very much.But I have a question. My problem is I often over analyse my work, or do lots of prep stuff until I realize that I actually haven't even started the task. How do I cut the "thinking and planning" time to actually getting to do it? I mean for example, for writting a critical analysis of a poem, I would often highlight and really dig deep into the subject without even officially starting it... 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted March 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 You should get a cookie for this! This was extremely helpful! Thank you very much. But I have a question. My problem is I often over analyse my work, or do lots of prep stuff until I realize that I actually haven't even started the task. How do I cut the "thinking and planning" time to actually getting to do it? I mean for example, for writting a critical analysis of a poem, I would often highlight and really dig deep into the subject without even officially starting it... Stop thinking and start doing. That's literally it. Usually what happens is than you just imagine how much work you have to do in sort of give up so then you just start preparing unnecessary things. Then you don't realise you're procrastinating So I recommend timing yourself and being pretty strict about it. So leave 20 minutes for analysing then like an hour for writing. I don't analyse my poems a lot but still get the message of the poem. 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Bojilov Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 I found this very helpful! I'm currently a Freshman in the iB program at Atlantic High in Delray Beach and its really hard for me to keep up with everything and do well. A lot of my classmates came from a much better middle school than i did therefore, making it easier for them to adapt to iB than myself. I just started my last quarter of freshman year and i need to get straight A's but so far im off to a bad start. I feel like such a slacker :/ Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted August 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 I thought that I'd add to this post. I want to go into detail about concentration because it's a problem that I have so I'm assuming that some others have the same problem. Firstly, if you find working for long periods of time fine then stick with that. My concentration is horrible so I can't do that. Inevitable title...ConcentrationAlright, so staying focused on a task for an hour can be pretty difficult sometimes. It's really easy to get distracted by rubbish. Most of it isn't even external, it's just us looking for a way to stop working. It varies from getting up and eating (especially when you aren't hungry), checking your phone or even refilling a glass of water. I prefer to split my work into 20 - 25 minute chunks. with a 5 minute rest after that. then after a couple of that I take a longer break. So get a timer and set it to 25 minutes and start working. Surprisingly, it might be quite difficult to do actual work for that period of time. But it gets easier. However, if you do see yourself getting distracted note it down on a piece of paper and come back to it. Then decide whether it's actually important. A lot of the time, I've found out that I didn't actually need to do it at that time. They tend to become quite trivial after a while and it becomes easier to concentrate on what you want to do. Basically, during the 25 minutes; work. Don't waste time doing trivial things and you'd be surprised how much you can do during 25 minutes. Then the break. The break is just 5 minutes of doing... anything but work. There's no point thinking about work during the break is there? You can review the work in the next 25 minute section if you want to. There was more... but I've forgotten it. Hopefully you understand the what it's about. It's just breaking up work into smaller amounts to make it more manageable and it reduces the chance of you getting extremely bored. I'll add more to it later when my memory works again. There was also an interesting e-book about this too. I'll add it to my post if I find it. 7 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest some guy Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 I thought that I'd add to this post. I want to go into detail about concentration because it's a problem that I have so I'm assuming that some others have the same problem. Firstly, if you find working for long periods of time fine then stick with that. My concentration is horrible so I can't do that.Inevitable title...ConcentrationAlright, so staying focused on a task for an hour can be pretty difficult sometimes. It's really easy to get distracted by rubbish. Most of it isn't even external, it's just us looking for a way to stop working. It varies from getting up and eating (especially when you aren't hungry), checking your phone or even refilling a glass of water.I prefer to split my work into 20 - 25 minute chunks. with a 5 minute rest after that. then after a couple of that I take a longer break. So get a timer and set it to 25 minutes and start working. Surprisingly, it might be quite difficult to do actual work for that period of time. But it gets easier. However, if you do see yourself getting distracted note it down on a piece of paper and come back to it. Then decide whether it's actually important. A lot of the time, I've found out that I didn't actually need to do it at that time. They tend to become quite trivial after a while and it becomes easier to concentrate on what you want to do.Basically, during the 25 minutes; work. Don't waste time doing trivial things and you'd be surprised how much you can do during 25 minutes.Then the break. The break is just 5 minutes of doing... anything but work. There's no point thinking about work during the break is there? You can review the work in the next 25 minute section if you want to.There was more... but I've forgotten it. Hopefully you understand the what it's about. It's just breaking up work into smaller amounts to make it more manageable and it reduces the chance of you getting extremely bored. I'll add more to it later when my memory works again. There was also an interesting e-book about this too. I'll add it to my post if I find it.Sure you're not talking about the Pomodoro Technique? Here's a "cheat sheet" from the website. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted August 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Sure you're not talking about the Pomodoro Technique? Here's a "cheat sheet" from the website.I know I was talking about that. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest some guy Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 Sure you're not talking about the Pomodoro Technique? Here's a "cheat sheet" from the website.I know I was talking about that.No need to act like a smart you-know-what. Read your post again and then hopefully you will understand. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted August 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 (edited) Sure you're not talking about the Pomodoro Technique? Here's a "cheat sheet" from the website.I know I was talking about that.No need to act like a smart you-know-what. Read your post again and then hopefully you will understand.There's no need to be upset friend. I don't know what sort of message you got from my post.Thanks for the link anyway, someone should find it useful. Edited August 29, 2012 by Award Winning Boss Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeZell Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 What I like to do is order myself gifts online.I have needlework as a CAS activity (Luckily, I also enjoy it), and say I order a cross stitch kit, I won't open it from the post packaging. I'll gift wrap it, and put a tag on it that says "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOUR PHILOSOPHY IA IS IN! XXXXX". It then goes under my model of a dead tree, which I call my soul tree, and it stays there, with the others, taunting me until it's done. 4 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hailey434 Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 no such thing in IB 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerenaJade Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Time management is a difficult thing in IB..You could question it with some ToK and ask, "Is there such thing as managing time in IB?"Lol, but really IB is a difficult program and managing time is crucial.Do what you gotta do and get everything done 3 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
senator1993 Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 I am a victim of procrastination guys i have a time table but i can't simply follow it coz IB just give you so many deadlines and i can't cope eish maybe they must introduce a new subject Bunking , i will be happy to do it self taught bunking and still bunk the subject LOL Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Award Winning Boss Posted December 15, 2012 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 DisciplineYou might have seen this post here but I've changed it a little and added to it. A lot of people seem to complain about lacking the motivation to do something (it extends to many levels of life, not just the IB) but I don't think you're suffering from a lack of motivation but lack of discipline. That's because motivation is quite easy to obtain but at the end of the day, it 'runs out' really quickly. How many times have you been 'motivated' to do something like go to the gym or read regularly? You get the sudden energy boost or the determination to do it? Then what happens? You either never really begin at all, or it lasts for a week (if that). If you want to get motivated to do work, think of the results you want, or the university you want to go to, or even find a motivational story of someone conquering adversity. To me, these things are really simple to do. And sadly, not many people care to make the distinction between motivation and discipline. It results in a lot of people thinking that they're really unmotivated when really, they have little self control and procrastinate 'til their hearts content (or they are overwhelmed with sadness because they haven't done any work). However, that's enough with the background. I'll tell you how I think it can be improved. Set goals. Specific ones too. Nothing like 'get a 6 in chemistry' or 'get fit'. They're too vague. They try to do too much and end up doing nothing. 'get a 6 in chemistry' might translate to 'get over 70% in an organic chemistry paper' or 'write a letter to Award Winning Boss and tell him why he's the best'. Something like that. They have a clear goal and they're harder to lie to yourself about. Set deadlines if you feel they're necessary (I recommend them)Create a to do list (with only a couple of things on it. Such as 'complete English essay' or 'organise history notes') then start with one task at a time. Break up your working periods to 25 minutes with a 5 minute break at the end, then repeat.Create a weekly to do list. Then move things from your weekly to do list to you daily one. I find that it helps a fair bit.Arrowhead (a user here) recommended to have a set time period that you dedicate to working (usually something like 6 - 9pm) and you'll get through a lot of work that way. If you're consistent with it then you won't find yourself needing to be motivated for every task you do! It becomes a normal thing and you'll benefit from it more than having random highs and lows.Focusing on a task usually means you can do it much quicker than if you're always multi tasking (which is true. We're dreadful at multi tasking demanding tasks. We just think we're good at it because we do it a lot). So try to remove your distractions like really loud music ( )Lastly, discipline isn't something that just happens. It is something you need to work on and sooner or later you'll be self disciplined. I'm not saying that your will power will stay the same way forever. It won't. But it's better to try and be self disciplined instead of needing someone to tell you to do a task. If I have more to add, I will. If not, I hope this is helpful nonetheless. 12 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 I use iProcrastinate, only available for Macs, and its quite useful.Helps me keep track of all the things I need to do.Stayfocused, google chrome app, is also really useful as well.You can block distracting websites and the nuclear option will stop procrastination almost permanently. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
k8tyw1ll1ams Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 Make suer you do EE over the summer! Thats what I did, but a few of my classmates waited until the last minute and I swear no one slept for like a week!other work, just make sure to work on homework every night. i noticed we dont have a lot of homework due everyday, its more spaced out. but theres plenty time to work ahead and be productive a wee bit each night instead of cramming the night before. also it might just be my school but a lot of due dates aer close together between classes and if you wait it gets really stressful 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morgan1105 Posted March 25, 2013 Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 (edited) thankyou so much!!!! Sooooo helpful Edited May 3, 2013 by Morgan1105 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icekacang00 Posted May 3, 2013 Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 I deleted facebook app on my phone..but it didnt work because I would still access it in safari..>< Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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