It is Wednesday. I have a short assignment to grade for my writing classes. I do not want to grade it. Not because it's hard, but because I just don't feel like it. I have, when I'm done with this assignment, four more upcoming similar short assignments. I must develop a better attitude and a better technique for stopping myself from procrastinating! I learned over the past year that the way to stop myself from procrastinating on larger papers is to schedule conferences to give them their comments, but that's just not feasible for these small assignments. I did change toward having them submit the assignments electronically, which is a bit of a help, but really it has not solved the problem. Hmm. I think I will eat some lunch and then I'll have to come up with some system for rewarding myself for doing these. Every 5 papers I get to do.... what? Hmmmm.....
Ok, time to go heat up some soup and then eat it and the rest of my lunch. I will allow myself to procrastinate until noon, and then I will get to work. There is no reason why I should be putting this grading off. None whatsoever!
12 years ago
3 comments:
Coyote librarian's second suggestion is brilliant!
I am a great procrastinator too. Before every semester I promise I won't do it again. I always do. But what I have learned is that procrastination can be productive, if you do something else on your to-do list while procrastinating. And when it comes to grading, the best solution is to have something even less appealing to do, so you can procrastinate from it by grading.
That said, over break this winter I read David Allen's book "Getting Things Done," which has a number of useful tips for keeping on top of what you have to do. That's not quite the same as procrastinating, but I find it's helping me to keep things from piling up, at least.
How about, every five papers, you get to... have five fewer papers to grade!
Seriously, though, give yourself a reward every so often, but (from my own experience) maybe not internet-related. Otherwise the 15 mins of surfing (or whatever you let yourself do) can miraculously take up the rest of the afternoon.
All of these are fantastic suggestions. The problem is that I totally decided to put off until today what I should have done yesterday. Hehe!
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