Overall, I think the article in itself was comprehensible with there of course being one point, if not a few, that had me at a standstill for some time. It’s around the 11th page that discusses how people are less likely to finish work that is vague, allowing you to think more critically rather than an assignment that is more descriptive and detailed. The exact quote itself by David Allen says āthe vaguer the task, or the more abstract the thinking it requires, the less likely you are to finish it.ā What I don’t seem to understand is how something that does not have many details to it makes someone take more time to think of it. Though there is the chance I am completely misinterpreting that section to begin with, the whole concept of how an assignment is explained determines the likeliness of one to do it is absurd. In other words, it’s as if Allenās way of looking at procrastination is solely based on a personās understanding of their school or organizationās system in what they look for to be demonstrated and, therefore, the students are to stress that no matter how long, short, open-ended, and/or specific a set of instructions is, all of the work must be of the same caliber. Is this even something that you just can apply to anyone? Definitely not. Itād be best to just do whatever the description orders you to do rather than overthinking about it for hours straight in my opinion. If something was already explained a certain way, then it is very likely that it was supposed to be like that in the first place. Another thing is that you could literally ask the instructor questions about almost anything regarding the assignment.
Author: Dominic
Homework 1.4
Attempting to respond to a question or simply just making a comment on a current discussion out loud during class was something that I struggled with up until around my junior year of high school. Imagine being a normal grade school student who just came up with a brilliant response to a math problem that you were so confident in. When the teacher calls on you to say the answer, you of course do so in an assuring manner. That is up until the room goes silent for a brief second and, suddenly, you feel as though you may have actually been wrong. Moments like this usually follow up with laughter and embarrassment at you which of course are not the greatest feelings. I want to say I was kind of traumatized from those type of experiences since kids would even say some offensive words or comments during those times which hindered my ability of speaking my mind for some time.
I understand now that I shouldn’t necessarily care how people view me but back then, the feeling of being judged by others made me overthink almost everything I said or did. Participation in class was a rare sighting to witness for me. I’d end up waiting out until the other students left to speak with my teacher face to face of any concerns I had. There was definitely a purpose for me to do this since my sentence structure is typically all over the place, so having that time to discuss with them what I was trying to say made it much easier. Otherwise, I would just be making myself seem like a fool in front of everyone else while thinking about each every word that came out of my mouth. At the end of my sophomore year of remote learning, I took the time to acknowledge that the idea of being around several people in a classroom was actually not so bad at all in the first place. It gave me a little bit more confidence to put myself out there socially as my junior year began.
Dominic
As for how I am feeling about not only this course, but also college as whole, is that I am uneasy. When I say this, I am referring to how I visualize my lifestyle that Iāll likely end up having to adapt to as the semester goes by. Studying is not something I think about often but when I do, Iād typically prefer to do it alone since it gives me space to think on my own, come up with my own questions to research, and time to analyze a topic in ways only I could understand. I donāt exactly like to have any extra background sounds when I study as I find myself getting distracted with it very quickly which also adds to why I donāt like study groups. Organizing how I will fit time to study into my schedule is something I am confident in being able to do, the thing is just that I usually fail to live up to those expectations I set for myself. Iām unsure as to how I will be able to survive in college, especially after looking over the syllabus for one of my other classes. Basically, it discussed a part about how they will have us put together a final project consisting of a recommended page count of 15 and, even if I could handle it, I just remember myself in high school weeping over having to do 3 pages.
I choose this picture because it shows me doing what I enjoy doing most and that is playing basketball. It is something I like to continuously improve on with myself.
