Hatim Zarak Dr.

Laura Colket SSK 1211

Final Portfolio

10 ways Ive learned something new: By internet By reading By watching TV By hearing it from someone By doing experiences By enrolling in a club By attending a class By seeing a fact or an act By doing researches By practicing

01/23/2013

10 things I do every day: I wake up I wash my face I brush my teeth I take my meals I go to my classes I hang out with friends I do my homework I watch a movie I smoke some cigarettes I listen to music

02/01/2013

10 things I know about reading and/or note-taking strategies:

02/08/2013

It is not obliged to read a book word by word It is possible to miss some fragments (paragraphs or parts) The first sentence of a paragraph is always the main idea discussed in this same paragraph There are two steps in note-taking: one where the student should notice the main ideas, and the other which consists in quoting the details. Always cite the references Students should not write everything they hear or read while note-taking It is allowed to use symbols and abbreviations in note-taking Reading is not a regular habit, people read according to different needs. Note-taking is an important step to succeed in an essay or a reflection writing Reading is a useful practice that makes people improve their language and also learn several things

Time plan management:

Time Managemen t& Productivity System

Problem Area

Methods and Tools You Can Use to Address Problem Areas and Achieve Excellent TimeManagement

Begin imple mentat ion

Compl ete imple mentat ion

on or before: on or before: On Before

Scheduling Your Time:

Spending too much time with friends than books people have to apply their schedule

Separate between study time and free time to manage well my schedule Apply my schedule

Eliminating Time Bandits:

On Before

Planning Effective Studying or Priority Time:

Friends calling you to go out or to stay with them

Separate study time and free time

On Before

Managing Interruption s and Distractions:

Doing somethin g while studying

Focus more on my studies than stupid things

Before

Before

Goal setting plan:

10 things Ive learned about taking tests:

02/15/2013

People should prepare well to earn a good grade People should not procrastinate test preparation People should remove from them all kinds of stress to feel relaxed while taking a test Do not waste time If one doesnt find an answer on a question, he might skip it and answer the next one Always come to tests with all the required material Never copy on a classmates copy to avoid plagiarism, thus to avoid a WF Students should keep on focusing on their test paper Do not be distracted by other thing that are happening in class Read all the questions before beginning and devote each one a specific time Teaching someone something

Reflection n1:

I remember one day I was at home with my little brother. I was playing video games, when he suddenly came next to me. He started first watching the TV, and then I saw in his eyes that desire of being in my position, playing as I was doing. I asked him if he wanted to learn, so he answered promptly that he would like to try. First of all, I showed him the controls. I taught him what corresponds to every button in the remote control. Next, I told him to train, so I set the training game mode till he can improves his skills. Every day he was training until he reached a good level. Generally, to learn something, one must first get wind of the theory part of the subject. Indeed, he must learn how to do it, with all the required steps to do it. Moreover, one must practice and exercise what he has learnt. Practicing will permit his skills improvement in this domain, and his ability to do what he has learnt in the rightest way. To sum-up the process, the teacher must first teach the steps one must follow, and then test recurrently the students ability to do what he has learnt. I think this teaching experience showed me more things than I thought because I didnt know that teaching was as hard as it is. In fact, the teacher should be patient with his students, for it could take time to teach them, and I think that is important. Furthermore, a large list of connections can be made between teaching and SSK class. As a matter of fact, SSK is all about teaching someone something: students learn how to manage their time, how to study, how to read and these all are things that an average person can teach to another. In conclusion, teaching is not an easy task, but it requires a great patience and some skills.

10 ways I relax: By watching a movie By doing sport By reading a magazine or a book By listening to music By playing videogames By going out By smoking a cigarette By taking a nap By taking a shower By talking with friends

02/22/2013

10 things Ive learned from failing:

03/01/2013

Failing is not the end of the world Failing is a lesson People should learn from mistakes Never give up Learn continuously It doesnt matter how many times people fail, but the important is how many times they succeeded after doing mistakes Everybody has failed at least once in his entire life Failing is a kind of motivation to succeed People shouldnt stop at the fact that they have failed, but they have to analyze what they did to avoid mistakes next time Never do the same mistakes 03/08/2013

10 Habits I have (good & bad): I am honest I smoke I do sport, I exercise I listen every day to music I do not like hypocrisy I share my experiences I am open-minded I do not read a lot I often learn by listening to people

I often procrastinate

Self-improvement project proposal:

03/22/2013

No one in this world is perfect. In fact, each one of us has his own characteristics that can be either good or bad behaviors. In my case, I think that I have some difficulties in my time management, and I was thinking about if I manage it better, I would have less problems regarding assignments and homework. As I have said once, I spend most of my time with my friends, and that could affect my studying plans; thus, improving my time management would be a successful assignment to spend more time with my books and do other activities that would help me in my self-improvement. I think that when we manage our time, we know our goals, so we know what we want in life, and all the things planned contribute to reach those goals. Since my childhood, I have never planned something, so I was just living my life without knowing what I was going to do the next day. Consequently, I find in improving my time management a good proposal for my self-improvement project because I will have a life in which one I know what I will do for the first time.

10 changes Ive made in my life: I am more mature than before I do not lie as I was a child I have much more responsibilities I know what I have to do in the future unlike before I do not give up easily nowadays I learn more from my mistakes I do not repeat the same mistakes I do not procrastinate as before I smoke, which is a bad thing I try to understand more things about life and so on

10 questions you have about your topic: How could I manage well my time? Should I establish a detailed schedule? How should my schedule look like? What are the changes I have to do to manage well my time? How could I avoid procrastination?

03/29/2013

Should I respect my schedule by word? What are my projected goals? How could I reach these goals? What are the strategies I should follow to reach my aims? How could I avoid the bad habits that make me procrastinate?

10 things youve learned from your classmates this week:

04/05/2013

Bad eating habits could cause stress Bad sleeping habits could provoke also stress or some dysfunctions Bad sleeping habits may make you miss a class or day Bad sleeping and eating habits could cause lot of psychological and physical problems Procrastination could cause bad grades People should set goals Students should avoid some practices that could make them procrastinate or not manage well their time People should prefer healthy food than fast one to have good eating habits People shouldnt eat between meals Students should do some relaxing exercises

SIP PROJECT:

04/15/2013

Some people might say that their problems are due to their parents divorce, the loss of one of them or even to the fact of being bullied. My own problem is not one of these kinds, but it

is represented by a lack of time management. In fact, time management might be a hard task for me, and I might find some troubles in managing my time, so I could miss meetings, assignments and so on. Thus, due to this bad habit called procrastination, some people, such as me, might devote more time for pointless activities like just hanging out with friends, playing videogames or even doing nothing but watching TV. These pointless activities may stop people by doing what they really need to do, and could characterize an obstacle to all the important practices. For instance, one could spend hours on chatting with friends on Facebook while he has other important things to do such as assignments and reviews. Thus, this behavior might have several effects on students lives. In fact, by missing assignments, the students may not have the grade for this specific assignment, and if one does not review his courses, he could miss a quiz or earn a very low grade. Therefore, one might take a large list of measures to improve his time management skill; consequently, he should set goals to aim, and also establish a strategy to overcome these time problems.

I think that all the SSK 1211 coursework we did so far was preparing us to the self-improvement project. Indeed, the first step was about setting a time management plan, so the students had to schedule a certain period according to their duties and needs. Thus, I scheduled my time according to what I was willing to do for three weeks such as training, studying and attending class. Next, we had to set goals. There were, for instance, short and long-term goals to set, and each of these goals has a specific strategy to reach. At that time, I did not really know how to process, so I just set some general strategies that could not efficiently affect my time management skill. My goals were too simple like earning good grades, passing classes, get some muscle and so on, but it was almost impossible to reach them due to my lack of time management. However, my goals changed and improved to become more specific and detailed, and I realized that the short-term goals affect a lot on reaching the major ones (long-term ones). As a result, planning on short-term goals facilitates reaching major ones. In fact, daily schedules could be an adequate example to illustrate this fact: establishing a daily schedule makes you do all what you have to in a day, so there will be no procrastination or wasting time. However, time management skill improvement could be useful to those who suffer from a lack of it, but it needs too much motivation to succeed in it. Motivation is the only thing that may feed the will to improve this defective skill, because owning time represents a very hard task for those who are not used to manage it well. Thus, my present goals are tasks such as establishing a daily schedule that changes according to my duties and my free time. For instance, Tuesday and Thursday are scheduled as following: I wake up at 8 am to start my classes at 9, and then I have a break between 10 am and 3:40 pm, so I generally use it to set appointments with professors and to go to the gym. At 3:40 pm, I have class, so I finish my courses, and I take a two hours break until 7 pm to start my homework and reviews. Next, when I do all this, I have my dinner, watch a movie and sleep. Thus, scheduling ones day could affect positively his time management, and it could

consequently avoid all procrastination forms, so he might not waste as much time as he used to. As it has been already said, people should set short and long-term goals. As a result, they should use the 6 Ps rule which is represented by six main words: prioritize, positive, precise, performance, practical and personal. In fact, people should stand by priorities, so they should separate between essential needs and useless habits that do nothing but making people waste more time. Second, people should have a positive mind, which consists in motivation. Third, one should be more precise in setting goals, so he can easily aim his goals. The fourth word is performance: it is represented by the time you devote for a task and your capacity to do better. The fifth word is practical, which means that one should take care of his own goals and do the best to achieve them, but he should not let it go and wait on others work. The final word is personal, so it means that the goals one sets are personal, and they should affect his own improvement. Therefore, I think that it is necessary to set goals that could be useful and efficient to ones self-improvement project. Time management is not really an easy task. Indeed, it requires a lot of motivation and work. Thus, people might do some mistakes in their time management, so they may not set a schedule and they use to waste time on useless activities. However, time is gold, and every one of us should capitalize on it. Thus, here are some tips to use if one wants to improve his time management: Schedule a daily plan Devote each task a specific time Use a calendar and an organizer Know the deadlines Reject some proposals such as going out Be positive Aware yourself Prioritize Do not procrastinate: remove wasting-time activities Take breaks between tasks Do not waste time on an activity that is estimated by lower time Concentrate Always place a clock before you while working

Block out distractions Try to not be perfectionist; the most important thing is to do the task

Those tips will help anyone who wants to improve his time management skill. Therefore, applying them verbally could be efficient to reach your own goals. Thus, there are also things to avoid such as doing the contrary of what has been said. To conclude, my self-improvement project was very useful to me in terms of time management skill improvement. In fact, I have learnt that time management becomes more easy by using some tips that will permit me to reach my future goals such as earning my bachelor diploma or even getting a job. Moreover, this skill may help me in my future life as a husband and father with my future family, and this could be useful for my childrens education. Thus, people should avoid any form of distraction to minimize procrastination and devote each task an efficient time, so all these things could contribute to make someones life better.

References:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553 http://alcwebmarketing.com/Time_Management/Setting_Goals_Long_Term_and_Short_Term_Goals.ht ml http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/20-quick-tips-for-better-time-management.html http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&sid=8d7152eb-8ddf-4faf-872437a14155d36e%40sessionmgr15&hid=26&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=54 329721 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&sid=8d7152eb-8ddf-4faf-872437a14155d36e%40sessionmgr15&hid=26&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=79 112587 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=8d7152eb-8ddf-4faf-872437a14155d36e%40sessionmgr15&hid=18&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=84 271986