improve my self-discipline

in my first year of uni i was really good at getting my work done. now in my third year i seem to procrastinate more and more till i realise there’s only a couple of days till the deadline, then i rush and don’t get a very good mark. This needs to stop.

At this point, with my internet addiction kind of under control, I’ve kind of improved my self-discipline, but it’s still not quite to the level I’d like.

I was really good at this for the first two weeks of school: I woke up at 0630 in the morning every day, went to the library to study after class, took all my notes in Cornell and filled in the question/summary columns, and slept at 2300-2330. But after some time, my burst — so to speak — of discipline started falling apart, and it only took one day to get the momentum toward laziness going. I procrastinated on one day, and it’s only gotten worse.

Now, I’m sleeping at around 0000-0100, I sometimes wake up after class has started, I don’t study at all anymore, and I’m not taking my notes in the Cornell format. Everything is in so much disarray. I don’t really know how I’m going to fix it (without having to study until the cows come home) and get myself back on track…

so much to say on this

If I can do this, I’d probably be able to mark five goals off my list.

broke the big projects into little steps, then planned out each little step for one weekend. had totally overestimated what could do.

only way to finish projects is to focus on the research project and grant proposal until they’re due on may 6th. after that, can work on some other projects, but not before.

it’s 8:15am, just finished an assignment for class. going to go have breakfast with a friend, go to the library, tutor at 1:30, then celebrate mom’s 55th with the family.

nope, friend’s still sleeping and it’s 10:30 :) finished reading a research paper for class, though.

met with my friend later for coffee, and tutoring went well. now it’s off to dinner!

have been so good with this, but it’s not going so well tonight. have been stalling online for the past hour – reading about the new smashing pumpkins album coming out (seems more and more like their just cashing in), checking bank balances, look at 43T…ok, will look around for ten more minutes, then will study.

OK, read the assigned chapter, so will spend 15 min online :)

was spending hours online, b/c it’s so addicting, so using it as a reward for doing work – behaviorism at its best:

1 hour of work = 15 min. of internet

it’s working so far…

wrote tasks on post-its – when i’m finished with a task, i take it down. for some reason, moving the post-its is strangely satisfying…ocd perhaps?

8 post-its down, 13 to go.
1/29: 7 post-its left…