How planning ahead will make me a better student by LILY

How planning ahead will make me a better student by LILY - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

My New Year’s resolution for 2016 is to plan ahead. If I am successful at planning ahead it will help make me a better student through my ability to focus and manage my time to become a more efficient student and employee. My New Year’s resolution will help me allocate my time to balance a full time career with an international MBA program. This will be a transition for me as most of my time outside of work has been spent volunteering. Time management is a critical part of completing any master’s program as most of the deadlines are arbitrary and merely a stepping stone to a final or large assignment. Additionally, I will also need to prioritize my time. Balancing a career, volunteering and an MBA will include a lot of moving parts, so knowing my priorities and what’s expected of me with each of these roles will be essential. Along with planning my time, I want to make sure that I have exercise classes and meals scheduled out before the start of the week. Exercise is a necessary stress reliever and will help me focus better on my school work and sleep better at night. Similarly, a healthy diet helps the brain function better and will hopefully prevent me from eating out of boredom or sleep deprivation. Although it seems as an aside to planning ahead, it will help me become more efficient and manage my time better knowing the schedule and plan I’ve set out for myself.
I plan to implement my new year’s resolution in a few ways. First, spending one day a month making meals that can be frozen to heat up throughout the month. I have already made meals for January, and allocated time to make meals for the month of February. This will help me unwind but also obtain my New Year’s resolution. Second, I will start blocking my calendar to prevent the desire to multitask. Although multitasking can make someone feel as if they’ve accomplished more, the concentration level is lower and that lower concentration level is not appropriate to learn new things. I’ve already got my calendar blocked and for each of the first three weeks, if I follow the schedule, I will reward myself with an hour of free time to do whatever I please. This time period will help me establish following my calendar as a habit (21 day cycle time.) By rewarding myself with each successful completed week, I have a reward that will create an incentive and keep me focused for the week ahead. I am confident that given my adherence to this goal will help be become a better student and give me every opportunity for success in my Master’s program.