Time Management by Alaina

Time Management by Alaina - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of the most important lessons that I have learned from a professor is when he taught me how important it was to not procrastinate. Somehow I made it as a freshman in college with this terrible problem, I procrastinated a lot. All throughout high school I would either be up all night trying to finish an assignment or doing it right before class and still making an A. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that in college you should always do an assignment at the minimum three days prior.
Basically in my “Intro to Art” class we had to write a paper analyzing a work art provided by the professor. Analyzation was never an issue I have ever had so I decided to my more challenging homework before I wrote my paper. I have always liked science and math better than any writing class anyways so I was never really motivated to do writing assignments. The professor gave us the assignment three weeks before it was due. Each time we went to class he would bring it up in the first 5 minutes of class and would tell all of us that if we wanted he would look at it before we turned it in to improve our grade on the assignment (this is where I messed up). Now the same thing continued until the Friday before the assignment was due; it was due on a Monday. I did not actually read the project description until that Saturday night. Reading this I realized that it was actually two components of this project, not only was it just the paper but you had to do your best recreate the art piece you were assigned. I thought it would be simple because I was a given abstract painting. I figured “I only have to draw couple of shapes and then paint them in, should be simple” it was not.
If nothing else that assignment taught me I do not have the patience nor right frame of mind to be an artist. On top of everything else we had to take pictures of ourselves while doing the project so the professor could see our progress and know that we did not do it all in one day. So imagine me not doing this terrible job of trying to recreate this art piece and then having to change my outfit after every part so it looks like I did it in a different day. It took forever to finish and I was completely drained while writing the paper. My professor was gracious enough to give me a C on an assignment I know deserved an F on. He requested I show up to his office hours and he spoke to me about how I needed to work on my time management skills so that this never happened again. I have never gotten a C in my entire academic career until now so it is safe to say I definitely learned my lesson. Now any time I get an assignment I start it that day and if it is easy enough I finish it then and if it is more challenging I finish it a day or two later. I refuse to wait until the last minute to do anything anymore.