Week 5 - I Love Operant Conditioning =]

SUMMARY:
An extremely good week for me! I feel awesome because I did not miss any deadlines, did procrastinate a bit, but straightened that behavior out with the use of negative punishments. I did not forget to reinforce my behavior when I did stay on track, which was most of the time. I have noticed that my feelings towards things that I am "addicted" to are weaker now. For example, now I do not log on to Facebook right when I turn my laptop on. I hope these are long-term changes, because that would be awesome :D

BEHAVIOR:
Saturday: I commented on a blog or two. No homework done due to parties, etc. No punishments because it was not procrastination, it was a well-deserved break.

Sunday: Completed some major schoolwork, positive reinforcement of extra time spent online. Went to UCLA (AGS hours! Books! T.C. Boyle! haha if you have read him please gimme some recommendations). More schoolwork, but no more reinforcement because of my schedule of reinforcement (fixed ratio).

Monday: Started on C language project. Completed all work for Tuesday, REINFORCEMENT! Remembered to study for the psychology exam. Okay, so I did procrastinate. Gave my camera to my mother to keep until Wednesday :(

Tuesday: Wrote an essay due next week. I'm still not sure why I did that. But, extra reinforcement of reading time.

Wednesday: I remembered to read Chapter 2 for psychology befORe 12 am. Now that is progress. Completed the quiz, got 100% on the first try, yay! Now I am typing up this blog.

ANOTHER SUMMARY:
My behavior reflects definite progress. I am less inclined to waste time, more inclined to complete schoolwork before it is due, and far more willing to start huge projects long before they are due. Alongside the operant conditioning, I have been using tips from this website (CLICK HERE) and this one (CLICK HERE). If you are also working on your procrastination habits, check them out! They have been very helpful.

(By the way, last week I checked my grades for most of my classes and found that I have As in all of them except for one, and even an A+. These grades are proving to be positive reinforcements, as they are motivating me to continue avoiding procrastination.)

Week 4 - SUCCESS... 2 hours left!

SUMMARY: I procrastinated a LOT near the beginning of the week. Later, when I went to take inventory of my workload, I felt a deep sense of foreboding… and hopelessness because I am a bit behind now. I still feel like dropping a couple classes and then maybe dropping myself off a bridge for being stupid enough to procrastinate so much.

What I did instead was punish myself. I haven’t touched my camera for almost two days now, and I promised myself not to log onto Facebook for at least a week. And it is working!!! I have already written the first draft of my psych field study paper, and got it reviewed at the writing center, all two weeks before the due date...yea, I can’t believe it either ^_^

BEHAVIOR:

Saturday: Volunteered. Commented on blogs. Slept/procrastinated the rest of the day (facebook, myspace, the usual) PUNISHMENT: Gave camera away for the day =(

Sunday: No homework due for Sociology. Just another excuse to sign onto aim

Monday: I HAD to take pictures of an interesting caterpillar I found. Tsk tsk. Again, I punished myself by giving my camera to my mother. Then I worked a bit on schoolwork. Completed a lot of stuff that isn’t due till next week! However, I totally forgot about the psychology quiz until right before going to bed.

Tuesday: Submitted psych quiz in the morning. During English 1a, I discovered that an essay was due and I went through the five stages of denial…. (how could I have missed an essay??). Retook the quiz right before Psyc, got a pretty decent score. I left Psyc class with a note to myself to finish computer science homework, which was due that day. (Note to the whole world actually, because it was pinned to my clothes-positive punishment for procrastinating). Finished the homework fifteen minutes before it was due and threw the embarrassing note away.

Wednesday:

Wait a sec…

Today is Tuesday. Not Wednesday. I have been typing this up, thinking it is Wednesday night. 0_0 I guess this is a good thing, because now I am almost done with tomorrow’s homework.

_____________________

Ok, today is tomorrow, or Wednesday. I am finishing this entry now, two hours before it is due…not because I procrastinated (really! I didn’t) but because I decided to complete stuff that was due sooner. I know, I could erase all of this Tues/Wed confusion and start over but…as I make progress, I am learning that time management is key…so for now I will just continue =]

Wednesday: A very good day. I have not logged on to anything besides email and Blackboard, and for that, I am proud of myself. I have to write only one more essay for tomorrow (extreme progress!). I did waste an hour or so “breaking norms” at Costco and the mall, but it was for a sociology assignment.

SUMMARY: I am depressed because I wasted a great deal of time last week, but I am feeling better now because I have made positive choices in the past few days. I’m assuming that these choices are the results of the punishments (notes on my clothes, giving camera away, bad grades).

As you might have noticed, I did not reinforce my recent positive efforts because 1) I’ve realized that I do not have time to read or go online anymore 2) I find that I am motivated right now simply thinking of the horrible grades that I will get if I continue to procrastinate. Again, bad grades is a positive punishment of my program, and seems to be affecting my progress for the better.

At this moment I feel depressed, yet almost optimistic. I hope my results continue to be positive.

Good luck on the exam!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 3 continued!!! - Positive Punishment

Wow. I just read Ray's blog and comments, and I think I found a positive punishment that would TOTALLY help me. Whenever I do not finish a certain task, I will write it down on a bright piece of paper and pin it to my clothes, somewhere where it is visible to the world. Only when I have completed the task will I take the note off.
Oh my gosh! I know this will work. :D

Week 3 - 2 minutes left....I'm already improving =P

After re-reading chapter 5, I have designed my operant conditioning program… finally!

BEHAVIOR: Procrastination | CHANGE: Stop procrastinating!

REINFORCEMENTS: Positive - Extra reading/online time when I do not procrastinate (measured in how many goals I meet or assignments I complete). That should motivate me to finish whatever task that I supposed to be doing. And of course, getting better grades is always a positive reinforcer.

Negative - Hm…When I do not procrastinate, bad grades will be “removed”. That’s negative, right?

SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT: I will follow a fixed variable schedule because it seems to be an effective one for me. I will give myself reinforcement every three hours IF I did not procrastinate during that time. I did not choose variable ratio, which, according to Mr. Nevid, is the most effective, because I will not be able to administer a reinforcement without keeping myself from knowing that a reinforcement is coming. Unless of course, I have two brains that could hide information from each other...

PUNISHMENTS: Positive - If I procrastinate, I will slap myself. Just kidding. I really cannot think of any positive punishments. Bad grades should be punishing enough.

Negative - I will cut off my internet connection for an hour. Period. That means no email, no research, nothing. If needed, I will also give my camera and phone to my mother for safekeeping. Yeaa, that should work. And as a last resort, I shall deactivate my Facebook account.

From this website (CLICK HERE), I learned that success often leads to success because success is a positive reinforcement. Phew. Thus, I have designed my program so that it has the potential of being very rewarding from the beginning. From past battles with procrastination, I can confidently say that disconnecting my internet is sure to lead to success. So I will not hesitate to do so if I catch myself on Facebook instead of reading my textbook.

If I am successful early on, I will -HOPEFULLY- continue to be successful.
I also learned (from the same website) that breaking goals into smaller parts makes them more doable. As I try to avoid procrastination, I will have to make goals. To increase my chance of achieving these goals, I’ll try to break them up into steps. I find this tells me where to start, which can be helpful especially when facing an intimidating project.

Week 2 - 1 minutes left to post this thing!

For a week now, I've been keeping track of how much I procrastinate. I tried to catch myself every time I put off something. Then I made the decision to either be good and go back to my work, or continue putting it off.
Seeing as I am posting this entry at this hour (lol! Rachele prophesied this in class), you've probably already guessed that I did continue to procrastinate most of the time. What was I supposed to be doing? A ton of homework for five different classes/studying for three exams that are within the next week/starting on several projects, including the psych paper. There is also other stuff, but what matters is that I have been putting everything off for the last minute. I realized that part of my problem is that I use my laptop to do most of my homework. This is a bad thing because I get distracted easily when I am doing homework, and the internet and Photoshop are extremely distracting. I am not proud of the fact that I spent a lot of time re-doing my Myspace last week (although I am proud of my new profile ^_^). I also spent a considerable amount of time editing pictures and chatting. Sometimes I caught myself and switched back to homework, but that did not really happen often.
I have noticed that I procrastinate bigger projects more because I am slightly afraid of starting them. That's why I like Winston's idea of breaking goals into smaller, do-able, ones. In fact, I did make some goals for myself this past week. I wanted to finish all of my homework the night before it is due, before 10 pm. I accomplished this for a couple classes. I also told myself: "Repeat after me. I will start Project 2 for CSCI within the next few days." And...well.....I will start on it, seriously! Tomorrow :(
I can say that I procrastinate often, and once I start, it is very difficult to stop. My incentives for doing other things instead (photography, myspacing, biking, youtube, etc) is simple: I enjoy doing them more. In order to make long term changes to my procrastination habit, I will have to get rid of certain distractions that perpetuate it, such as the internet, my camera, and phone. While working on something that does not require internet usage, I can disable my connection. I can also give my camera to my mother to hide somewhere until I have completed whatever assignment that I should be working on. I will try this for a week, and if it works, I will use these methods to design a program based on operant conditioning. I can't wait to start punishing myself...woah! This must mean that I will not procrastinate this blog once I start the actual behavior modification.
:D