Introduction
In our second week of Honors FYE , we were paid a special visit by three members of the Honors Staff (Dr. Steven Engel, Dr. Francis Desiderio and Erin Martin) to discuss the overview of the Honors Program and in the second class we engaged in experiential learning about Time Management lead by our Peer Leader, Taylor Close.
Intro to Honors
When people think of Honors Students, they think of students who are smarter than average or quite frankly "a bunch of nerds" which may or may not be entirely accurate. Before I started to apply to universities, I had no idea as to what an Honors program was. This all changed when I learnt about the four foundations of Georgia Southern's Honors Program which were "to foster and develop a critical sense of inquiry, a spirit of creativity, a global perspective and an ethic of civic responsibility". In our first Honors FYE Class of the second week, we had a nice discussion with the Honors Staff about the Honors Program and its requirements.
Erin Martin
Erin Martin is the academic advising coordinator of the Honors program. She showed us how to look up and schedule an appointment with our academic advisors on the myGeorigiaSouthern website through the EAB navigate under advisement resources. She also said that we would have to schedule an appointment with her later this semester.
Dr. Francis Desiderio
Dr. Francis Desiderio is the associate director of the Honors Program. Firstly he asked us what do we think is experiential learning. We replied that it is learning outside the classroom, hands-on experience and study abroad. He then told us that it also includes research and the Honors Thesis. He then brought to our attention that people with higher credit hours such as the people in our class who are classified as sophomores would have to do their Honors Thesis earlier than other people.
He then discussed leadership/volunteering and their relationship with the sense of civic responsibility and a global perspective.He said that for our first year we would have to do at least 25 hours. Furthermore, he said that there are opportunities on and off campus to volunteer. He said that it is easy to find volunteering opportunities through Serve912 and MyInvolvement which are run by the Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement and the Office of Leadership and Volunteering Bureau respectively.
Dr. Steven Engel
Dr. Steven Engel is the director of the Honors Program. He entered midway during our class. He jokingly said that he was planning to give a fifty minute lecture. Instead, he gave a concise summary of the Honors Program and wished us all the best in this term and our future endeavors.
My thoughts on the discussion about the Honors Program and requirements
I'm indecisive at the moment as there are many opportunities but I intend to do something that involves tutoring, the community and nature conservation through Serve912 and MyInvolvement which Dr. Desiderio mentioned. Overall this discussion helped clarify any misconceptions or uncertainties about the Honors Program for everyone in my class.
Time management
In Wednesday's class, our Peer Leader Taylor lead the class on the topic of time management. She explained to us that time management for College is much different from High School and that many freshmen sacrifice sleep or forget to eat. This is something I can relate to as last week Sunday when I forgotten to eat anything for the day and had a late dinner. She then drew a triangle on the board and labelled the edges with Social Life, Sleep and good Grades then wrote choose two. Some of my classmates jokingly said that they don't have any of the three. Taylor told us that it doesn't have to be this way. Through time management and prioritizing, we can have all three and much more."Effective Time Management"
Afterwards, Taylor showed us a short film from YouTube entitled "Effective Time Management" directed by Brook Linder .The video shows the struggle of a student who has to write a five thousand word Philosophy essay on Ludwig Wittgenstein which is due tomorrow. The video was stuffed with humor throughout because the main character was so easily distracted by everyday objects around him. For example a rubber band caused him to waste time by using it as a rubber band gun to shoot at objects. After procrastinating long enough, he plagiarized his essay using the information from Wikipedia. The next day, he wakes up at 12 and hustles to get to school whilst driving like a maniac only to see the car park empty. He then mutters, "it's Saturday" then slams his head on the car horn. The video showed us that not only do we need to manage our time but also have a sense of time. I'm guilty of having no sense of time because if you were to ask me the digits of today's date, I would have to look at my phone or watch.
Group Activity
Afterwards we had a group activity in which we were split into groups of four or three and were handed a paper of tasks to accomplish.
The tasks that my team accomplished were doing a lap around the room, singing "Let it Go" , making a paper airplane, giving everyone group names(which were Thing 1,Thing 2, Thing 3 and thing 4), making a name tag for everyone in our group (in which bonus points were awarded for using our nicknames), coming up with a team name and motto ( our team name was called "Team" and our motto was "The teamiest team"), saying something unique about yourself and counting the total number of pets we owned in our group.
The things we didn't accomplish were making a 2ft tower using our belongings, getting a piece of paper signed by everyone, doing a conga line and convincing someone to join our group.
Afterwards, we discussed how hectic it was and whether there any leaders in the group as well as obstacles. Each team then tallied up their points which were written on the board. My team got 95 points. I believe that my team could have gotten full points if we planned out everything in the beginning as well as multi-tasked. We were all strangers to each other in my team which made some tasks feel awkward such as singing "Let it Go" . What added to the difficulty of the activity were the distractions of other teams when they tried to convince you to join their team or when they were doing their own tasks such as getting people to sign their paper.
'$86400'
Next, Taylor wrote '$86400' on the board and I immediately knew that
this would be about the magical bank metaphor which I had discussed in my previous blog. After explaining the rules, she asked us to write down what we would do with it. I decided to spend it on charity, luxury such as getting servants and chefs and finally, starting a campfire with literally the money that I didn't use. When we were asked to share our answers, some people told funny answers such as spending it on life insurance then hiring a hit-man, buying large quantities of Mac and cheese and Flex Tape or using it to get the tools and people needed to rob a bank. On the other hand, some of my classmates had some really thoughtful plans. They decided to spend it on their family, charity, houses,cars and education. Taylor then revealed that the money represents the seconds in a day to which some of my classmates were amazed. We then had a discussion on how time is precious and shouldn't be wasted. We already lose a third of this 'money' to sleep so we have to make the most out of the rest.
this would be about the magical bank metaphor which I had discussed in my previous blog. After explaining the rules, she asked us to write down what we would do with it. I decided to spend it on charity, luxury such as getting servants and chefs and finally, starting a campfire with literally the money that I didn't use. When we were asked to share our answers, some people told funny answers such as spending it on life insurance then hiring a hit-man, buying large quantities of Mac and cheese and Flex Tape or using it to get the tools and people needed to rob a bank. On the other hand, some of my classmates had some really thoughtful plans. They decided to spend it on their family, charity, houses,cars and education. Taylor then revealed that the money represents the seconds in a day to which some of my classmates were amazed. We then had a discussion on how time is precious and shouldn't be wasted. We already lose a third of this 'money' to sleep so we have to make the most out of the rest.
Websites for Time Management
Current Student Resources for Honors students
This is a very helpful website for Honors students as it provides an overview of the Honors Program as well as specific links to help themselves. For example, it has the Thesis Handbook and Proposal Form which will assist students with formulating their thesis. The webpage also has opportunities for experiential learning such as Study Abroad or Alternative Break Trips such as the one to Costa Rica lead by Dra. McGrath. Those Experiential Learning activities as well as College in general may sound costly. Luckily the webpage provides links to Honors Study Abroad Scholarship and Nationally Competitive Scholarships to ease the cost of education and experience. If you are confused about any aspect of the honors program, this website can certainly help.
GPA of time management
The principle of this helpful and effective concept is to have goals which have a plan to achieve them. As previously stated, the first thing to do would be to envision your goals and become self-aware of them. The webpage provides a guide to on how track what you're doing through a spreadsheet. From the spreadsheet, you will be able to see where time is wasted. From those results, you can alter or make a new plan. The webpage also suggests using a planner. Finally, it reminds that ,"we don't manage time - it will do its own thing with our without us. We manage ourselves!"
The Counseling Center's Strategies for Good Time Management
In essence, the strategies include using a planner, prioritizing the need for sleep and food as well as classes before any other activity. It shows you the need to take care of yourself before anything else. It also accounts for time to enjoy yourself besides work and study as well as not stress yourself by having long study hours and being realistic with your goals.
Time Management Apps
Some of the Time Management Apps That I tested on my Phone
You might think that Time management apps are pretty self-explanatory ( they manage time). However, they can also be used to eliminate distractions, to focus and to relieve stress. Everyone thinks differently and is susceptible to different forms of distractions.The following are basic reviews of those apps.
For those who are easily distracted by their phone or computer, there specific apps targeted to eliminate or limit distractions.
Forest is an app that allows you to grow trees in your virtual forest by not using your phone for a chosen period of time on the timer.During this time, you are not allowed to use any other apps unless they’re white-listed. Otherwise, the tree you planted would immediately die. Some nice touches to the app are the music it plays to help you focus and motivational quotes that it displays.
Freedom is another app with the same purpose. It comes with 7 free sessions or a premium plan which offers unlimited sessions as well as the ability to schedule them. With Freedom, you can choose which genre of websites to block such as social media,entertainment,sports and news during your session.
Self Control is a browser extension for MAC devices and has similar functions as Freedom but it takes it a step further.If you decide to restart the computer, the extension will still continue to work.
Stay Focused is a chrome extension which limits time on websites deemed distracting by the user. This app unlike the other three enables the user to have fun as well as work instead of strictly work.
Stay Focused is a chrome extension which limits time on websites deemed distracting by the user. This app unlike the other three enables the user to have fun as well as work instead of strictly work.
Now that you got rid of the distractions, time to focus.
Focus@will can help with that by playing music designed to help you focus where you can choose different instruments and genres of instrumental music to be played.The music is specifically designed to soothe our ‘fight or flight’ response whilst showing picturesque backgrounds such as rolling hillsides,beaches and fields of barley . You can get a free 7 day premium trial which comes with the full music library, productivity tracker and the ability to skip or see the name of tracks.
Stop, Breathe & Think: Meditation & Mindfulness is an app that literally allows you to stop , breathe and think through the use of meditation and breathing exercises . It also helps with your mental health as it includes ways to deal with depression and anxiety.This app also comes with various premium plans.
Any.do is a brilliant to-do or reminder app because it has a refined selection for different types of reminders or checklists such as grocery lists.
Remember the milk is also another reminder app which will send your reminders across all your devices and can sync to Google Calendar.
Rescue Time is an app that shows how you spend time on your phone so that you'll know how to better plan your day to avoid wasting time.
Overall, the apps that eliminate distractions are not useful to me as I’m not easily distracted by phone or computer. Instead, they may hinder productivity as I quite often use my phone or computer to do schoolwork or to study. The apps used to improve focus or relaxation don’t help me as I find the music on Focus@Will to be distracting and I feel indifferent after meditation.The Rescue Time app is redundant as most smartphones nowadays show the time spent on apps under battery usage in settings. Any.do and Remember the Milk are too complex for remembering simple tasks. Furthermore, most smartphones come with a checklist or notes app. To anyone who feels the same about the apps, a small notebook or planner will do just fine.
Final Thoughts
I am really glad to be a part of The Honors Program and wish to further develop my ethic of civic responsibility through volunteering. I effectively learnt a lot about time management thanks to my Peer Leader, Taylor, through different mediums such as videos and group activities and discussions. The things I learnt from these two classes can be linked together.I believe the concept of time management can be applied to the volunteering requirement of the honors program. For example, 25 hours may seem like a tall order to complete but volunteering a couple hours each week will lessen the load you have to carry. Whilst on the topic of time management,I am immune to external distractions like my phone, computer or video games yet I have a unique problem where I get so distracted by my day-dreaming,thoughts and ideas. As a result, I often get internally distracted between typing paragraphs or sentences when doing assignments even with the use of the focusing apps. Luckily, there is a Time Management Workshop by the Academic Success Center on Wednesday September 4th which I intend to go to which will remedy the problem. Furthermore, everyone has there own unique goals and tasks to accomplish in which we have our own special ways of reaching there through planners,apps ,meditation and many other ways. In other words, we all have different but effective methods of time management available to us to choose from. I would like to end with a quote from the description of the YouTube video we watched in class, "are you working hard, or hardly working?"
Sources and Useful Links
Articles Mentioned:
Magical Bank Metaphor - https://contextualscience.org/the_magical_bank_metaphor
Video Mentioned:
Effective Time Management- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31mfgrZpLus
Websites Mentioned:
Current Student Resources for Honors Students - https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/honors/student-resources/
FYE’s GPA of Time Management (Goals Plan Action) - https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/fye/students/first-year/time/
The Counseling Center's Strategies for Good Time Management -https://students.georgiasouthern.edu/counseling/resources/self-help/academic-success/
Helpful Apps and Browser Extensions:
Forrest - https://www.forestapp.cc/
Freedom - https://freedom.to/downloads
Self Control - http://selfcontrolapp.com/
Stay Focused - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?hl=en
Focus@Will - https://www.focusatwill.com/
Stop, Breathe , Think - http://stopbreathethink.org/
Any.do - https://web.any.do/
Rescue Time - https://www.rescuetime.com/
Remember The Milk - http://www.rememberthemilk.com/about/
Image Sources:
Dr. Francis Desiderio-https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/honors/files/IMG_3590-200x300.jpg
Amazingly thorough post! I love the attention to detail and the analysis of the class discussions. Also I completely get the daydreaming as a distraction. I struggle to keep my mind focused also.
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