I am a recovering procrastinator. I say recovering because I do occasionally wait until the last minute but it’s a rare occurrence these days. I was much worse when I was younger because I was able to do the things I wanted to do first, and put off the things I didn’t until the last minute, existing on caffeine and little sleep. Procrastination worked for me, until it didn’t. And when it didn’t, I decided that I needed a new philosophy.
Thanks to what I learned as a coach, I chose to take another look at procrastination in general. And it’s not only helped me, it’s helped me help my students!!
I’m not a fan of the term “time management”. You can’t really manage time. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and we can’t change that. But we can prioritize how we choose to spend that time. That’s why I chose to embrace the philosophy of “priority management” instead.
Learning to “priority manage” is a great thing for a rising senior to learn and practice prior to entering college. And a great time to begin is in the month of July by starting the application process.
Why start now? I get it, it’s summer. Like, REAL summer. The kind we haven’t had in a while. And students just want to chill. Plus, they’re coming off a junior year that was more challenging, readjusting from online classes and few activities to in person school and a full schedule of homework and extracurriculars. But it’s not going to be any easier senior year. Students will be balancing all of that PLUS college applications, so anything they can do now helps relieve stress later. Plus, giving yourself more time to complete the application process not only means less stress, it also produces more creative and thoughtful work.
Starting in July means you can get ahead AND have plenty of time for fun and friends. Here’s how to begin:
1. Schedule in 20 minutes a day, Monday through Thursday, to work on “college stuff”.
2. Decide ahead of time what you’re going to work on - essay ideas, college exploration - whatever you choose.
3. Set a timer for 20 minutes and……GO! When the timer goes off, you’re finished!
The cool thing about “timed work” is that momentum fuels motivation! Once you get started and the creativity flows (especially with writing work), you’ll probably want to keep going!!