My excuse for procrastination used to be that I preformed better under pressure, which I still would not say is an entirely false statement.
Having just registered for my spring semester classes, I am looking back at this time last year and wondering how I ever managed to get anything done with the massive amount of free time I had. You may think I am being sarcastic in that statement, however I am not lying to you when I say that my responsibilities outside of academics were few and far in between.
Yes, I was a writer for the newspaper, and yes, I also worked for athletics...but to be totally honest, I did a whole lot of nothing aside from those two things.
Most people would think that, with so little on my agenda, I should have had no problem maintaining fantastic grades in all of my classes, however I will admit that my first two semesters of college produced some very poor academic work. I am terribly ashamed of this, but I cannot change it now. I entered in to my sophomore year knowing that I needed to buckle down on my school work and strive to pull my GPA out of the mud in order to successfully finish my undergraduate education as I had planned to all along.
Surprisingly enough, I have found that this semester I am spread entirely too thin yet I am doing better academically than I have in the past, probably ever.
This semester, I am an assistant editor for The Campbell Times, which has been a massive time commitment in the planning, writing, editing, and production aspect. I am the Public Relations Chair for my sorority, which has called for me to work with basically every aspect of my sorority in order to best represent us within the Campbell community. I occasionally film for athletics, as I can find games that fit in to my schedule. I am a contributor for our athletic blog, "The Creek Is Rising," and I occasionally work in the Comm Office as needed.
One of my concerns with having so many different positions and responsibilities this semester was that my class work would suffer from my lack of time, yet I have found that I have learned to better manage my time and vamp up my productivity because of my ridiculously full schedule.
My tendency to procrastinate has greatly diminished and my grades are definitely showing that I have developed a better work ethic within the last year, and I would like to add that I am still content in my social life that I am able to fit in around my assignments and other responsibilities. a main reason for this exponential increase in productivity is that I literally do not have time to put off my assignments, as I have in the past.
I also have had to invest some time in developing a system for keeping track of my schedule and tasks I must complete. The thing that has worked best for me is repetition, by that I mean that I have two different calendars, one physical agenda and an online calendar, as well as three different versions of my to-do list, two online and one physical - all of which I update consistently.
As I look towards my plans for this upcoming semester, I did not put my name down to remain a chair of any committee within my sorority. Aside from that, I will be maintaining my other responsibilities and I will be adding an internship into my schedule.
I am incredibly happy and excited to see my personal growth and I look forward to wherever it is that I go from here!
