I have always been a procrastinator. I am the type of person who thrives under pressure and, at a point, I wasn’t really able to get work done without it.
As I got into grade 11, I began getting more involved in extracurriculars. This made me quite nervous as I wasn’t sure I would be able to balance everything. I decided to find an organizational system that worked for me. Since I am a huge fan of colour, I felt I would be more motivated by an agenda that was full of colour. This led to my discovery of the ban.do agenda. It has stickers as well as tons of images and colour. I began using a colour coded system for events that were coming up. I made an effort to write everything down. This helped me quite a bit as it enabled me to visualize what I had to do which helped me to be more efficient. This, however, was not enough as I easily fell back into my procrastination habits due to the fact that I often forgot my agenda.
In grade 12, I decided to try a new system. My laptop had a sticky note widget that I began to use as a to-do list. This was quite effective in combination with my agenda as it helped me to keep my tasks organized on a large and a small scale.
University was quite different from high school, as I began the year here I used both the techniques I had discovered in high school, but at times I still found myself falling behind schedule. I decided to begin using my phone and laptop calendars in addition to my previous techniques. The use of all three of these things has helped me to stop procrastinating as I can see the work I have to do and begin planning for it far in advance.