by Katherine O'Brien, Certified College Planning Specialist, Founder of Celtic College Consultants
Time management…
Do you struggle to work on your tasks before the last minute?
Do you get lost in your day and find your online class taking forever?
Do you play games rather than do your work?
Lots of us struggle with these sorts of things. Most of us, actually, do not have type A, internally motivated to run on hyper-drive personalities (and that is a GOOD thing!)
What to do?
There are many strategies to organize your work and your time. Simple ones. Color-coded ones. Paper based. App based. Free ones. Expensive programs. However, the best tool in the world is NO help if it is not used. No tool will be used without someone being motivated to use it. So, let’s talk about motivation for a minute.
In order to change what we do, we need to have identified what we want to change. We need to want to change it. Being honest with ourselves and identifying weaknesses is hard. Desiring to change something is hard. Change is hard. Change requires taking uncomfortable, unfamiliar actions. To do something new, something different, we need courage. Support helps, too. Courage is being afraid and acting anyway. It takes energy. It takes the strength of will to choose the new in favor of the familiar.
Why?
Underneath all of that is motivation. Motivation is essential. It gives us a reason to change, provides purpose, drive, focus, and helps us sustain ourselves through the discomfort of doing something new, stepping out of our comfort zone and into a new way of living.
Motivation focuses on the goal, what will be gained in the long term by this short term action, by making this change, by doing something hard, taking an action or refraining from taking one, speaking, or not speaking. Motivation drives us toward certain outcomes and away from others. Sometimes our goal is to move toward something; other times our goal is to move away from something. For example, I want to learn to dance or I don’t want to be uncoordinated on the dance floor when I go to my friend’s wedding.
Positive motivations
Positive motivations are things we desire in life. These are things we want to acquire in life. Here are a few examples:
o Accomplishing a desired goal or a step toward a desired goal, like being able to drive a car.
o Creating or sustaining an opportunity, like starting and growing a friendship with someone you meet whom you like.
o Being praised by others – getting a good grade, performance review, high five, etc., like winning a medal at the Olympics/Paralympics
o Sense of self-worth/ pride/ ability/ confidence
o Making someone proud or honouring someone, like parents, friends, mentors, etc.
o Being ready for whatever comes next in life, like being fit, well educated, etc.
Negative motivations
Negative motivations are things we don’t want in life. These are things we want to rid ourselves of or want to avoid. Here are a few examples:
· Losing something – a privilege, an opportunity, a job
· Failing and feeling bad about yourself, less capable, etc.
· Being embarrassed – losing the esteem of others
· Being punished
· Being unable to take advantage of the opportunities in life, by, for example, being unhealthy, physically unfit, uneducated, etc.
Want to get organized or manage your time better? Find your why! Really focus on what motivates you. Then do the work to take the step(s) forward that you need. Learn how to do, be, or think whatever you need to in order to accomplish your goal. Get an accountability partner to coax you through the learning process and celebrate your growth with you, and take another step toward becoming the best you can be!
So, time management –
Discover your reason for wanting to organize your time more effectively. Take the time to identify your goal(s) as well as the reason(s) that goal is important to you.
Over and over and over in my college consulting work, I have the privilege of helping teens sort themselves out, come to know their gifts, talents, interests, desires, and start to create a vision of what they could do in the future. Because it is based in themselves and their values (helping other people, for example), it is theirs, deeply theirs. It’s completely different from the imposed from the outside goals often foisted upon them. Once they know they want to do this sort of thing in their life, then taking challenging classes, learning the material taught to them, earning good grades, scoring well on the ACT, CLT, or SAT, all these chores, these tasks that take time and effort and require diligent effort, all of these tasks are worth doing. No longer are they impositions from the adult world; they are now stepping stones towards a life I want to live, work I want to do. Motivation makes all the difference!
For more information about my College Success Program, please visit my website, CelticCollegeConsultants.com. To schedule a consultation for you and your teen to meet with me, please email me: KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com
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