During conference week, my mission president would urge us to “prepare for the Prophets.”
However, sure enough, this week I neglected the counsel of my former years.
All week long, I was excited about the weekend. I was having a mission reunion on Friday evening. That would be followed up with Saturday and Sunday Sessions of General Conference, where I would receive counsel, comfort, aid, and ideas for the questions and challenges I faced.
Although I planned in anticipation of Conference and my reunion, I didn’t finish all the schoolwork that I had planned on completing. The catch is that every day, I failed to reach my goals for school work accomplished.
“I’ll just do a little more tomorrow” became my motto every evening. Saturday morning arrived, and the things I had failed to complete weighed on my mind throughout the day, diverting my full attention from the conference speakers, and those around me.
Bottom line, I didn’t enjoy my weekend quite as fully as I had hoped that I would.
So what?
I have learned (or re-learned, to be more accurate) that I ought to be honest with myself when it comes to planning my time and tasks. Procrastination creates a false and deceptive reality that is rarely, if ever realized.
I am making a resolution to complete all of the leftover schoolwork from the week, today (even if means I’ll be awake until the twilight hours). I don’t want it to spill over into Sunday’s conference sessions or onto the upcoming week.
The prospect of a fresh start to the week feels great.
Daniel - delete this, once your read it - - your blog post doesn't show up. Either your text background or the text itself needs to be in white - both are dark grey right now!
ReplyDeleteI heard a panel discussion, some time ago, giving their suggestions and hints and tips to us undergrads. The only one that stuck out to me was "Never leave school with homework unfinished! Never do homework at home; Never leave the library until its done!
ReplyDeleteWhile I have not completely followed this principle, it is a good ideal to work toward!
Daniel, thanks for your honest sharing. Definitely the first step in changing a bad habit is recognizing the habit you want to change.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about being prepared. Sometimes we can be like Martha in the bible, where we are too preoccupied with other things to take advantage of better things. What I have found most helpful is giving myself time deadlines each day and then scheduling out my assignments with that time. For example, Mondays I have class from 9:30-12:30 and then work until 8pm. When I get off work, I am tempted to go home and watch The Office while "skimming" my reading assignments. Instead, I tell myself I will stay on campus until 11pm doing homework. Whether I have assignments due the next day or not, I schedule out those 3 hours doing homework for the week. I also do not allow myself to deviate from these times, but rather treat them just as I would my work or class schedule.
Hopefully that is helpful, and with some S.M.A.R.T. goals you can be better prepared in no time.