LOOKing Closer

*Observers wanted to get a feel of how students handled their workload in various areas of the Ateneo campus at different times.

Places observed: The Rizal Library (General Reference, Foreign Serials, Multimedia, General Circulation 3^rd flr & 4th, Information Commons 3^rd & 4^th flr) Cafeteria (up & down), Secwalk benches, MVP basement, Matteo Ricci (steps, individual study areas, balcony, group study areas), CTC Computer Lab, and JSEC

Observations:

1. There are less people in campus before lunch. You can choose where you want to stay.   More people sleep in the morning, more people study during/ a little after lunch.

Foreign Serials Section in the morning

Foreign Serials in the afternoon

General Circulation in the morning

General Circulation in the afternoon

Rizal Library entrance during lunch time

Matteo Ricci in the morning

Odd random observation: seats by the windows (in the Rizal Lib and Matteo Ricci) get filled up first--kind of reminded me of choosing seats on airplanes

Seats near windows are full while there are lots of space everywhere else.

2   2. More people sleep and space out in the couches than those using desks.

3. Those who use the computers in the Rizal Library (1^st floor, 3^rd floor, and 4^th floor information commons) and CTC lab are mostly either

a.     Working on a paper

b.     Constantly check their facebook profiles or some other non-academic related website from time to time thus leaving their schoolwork left unfinished or prolonged

Facebook!

4.  Those who have their own laptops tend to multitask more. They alternate between surfing, writing a paper, highlighting readings, etc) more than the students who use the school’s computers. Some students have their chatboxes open (Yahoo Messenger, for instance) and chat with friends while doing their schoolwork (whether this is academically related or not wasn't actually observed).

Mixing work with play

5. People who read their books in the library tend to isolate themselves from other people (they look for a seat by the window or away from large crowds).


6. Even those who are deeply focused on their work without a laptop to distract them take a break at some point. They check their phones, look around, etc. These students start looking around the library for some reason (I suppose this is when their minds start to wander and lose their focus). Some students, after studying for quite some time, fall asleep (probably due to strain in the eyes or lack of sleep?).

Focused student takes a break by checking phone and looking around.

7. Some people just space out in the lib/ matteo ricci. They don’t have anything on their desks except their bags, they’re not sleeping but they don’t look too awake either.

8. People studying in groups do not talk to each other. They are huddled in a circle, but they are each absorbed in their own world. They only talk to each other to consult/ ask questions occasionally. Most of these groups are on math/ science.

9. Noisy groups who look like they are studying (armed with notes, books, calculators, highlighters) spend more time complaining about the subject they are studying for rather than actually studying.

Eavesdropped on both groups and they seem to be complaining a lot more than studying.

10.  Instead of feeling like an extension of the library in that it’s supposed to be a quiet place, group study areas in Matteo Ricci felt like an extension of the cafeteria. More people are gossiping and playing cards than those studying.

Only one group study was happening in Matteo Ricci (during observation). 

11. People sleep, study, and eat anywhere. Despite library rules, some students bring food to the library while studying. There are more people studying or lounging than eating in the caf and JSEC if it’s not lunch time. Secwalk benches (most who stay here are about to have classes near the area), Matteo steps, and MVP basement are also sleep-study-eat hotspots.

Sleeping at MVP basement

Studying at MVP basement

Studying at Secwalk benches

Sleeping at the caf

Sleeping at the lib

Studying at the caf

Studying at the caf

Studying at Matteo steps

12. Those who are really focused on what they are doing seem to be absorbed in their own world, regardless of location and time.

13. There are students who are easily distracted and cant seem to focus on their work.

14. Studying styles are also unique to each individual. Some listen to music, some have extremely organized desks, some have paper everywhere, some tend to have more rigid shoulders, and others sit more comfortably.

Desk organization sample #1

Desk organization sample #2

Different postures, all working

Super organized papers

Relaxed posture while studying

Desk organization sample #3

Studying with music

Study posture sample

Study posture sample #2

Different study postures

   

*Kate Tan and Carlos Zotomayor

TRY-ed and Tested

*The next entries are personal accounts of two of our group members narrating their experiences with cramming and time management


The Extreme Opposite of Cramming

(The following is a contribution to our group’s Rosetta Stone series. It is a reflection on a first-hand experience of cramming’s extreme opposite, which may lend insight into how our group could go about solving our problem.)

I thought I’d give some insights on how it’s like NOT to cram, because doing things last minute really isn’t my thing. I’ve been raised to resist time pressure, and I completely won’t stand a chance in it unless I have some sort of schedule to follow. I’ve ingrained the discipline since I was in grade school, since it was how my parents raised me. I grew up with the mindset that anything and everything I was presenting had to be of the best quality, and that meant having to prepare for it.

I’ve gone through various approaches to sorting out my school load. It all began with a simple assignment notebook, a practice from my grade school days. We had to have them signed by our parents so that our parents knew we had things to submit. And my folks took this knowledge seriously—they made sure that I completed my work (and completed it well) even if it entailed having to sit down with me an entire weekend. I’d have to admit that grade school was an important turning point in terms of my self-discipline, largely because of my parents.


It’s interesting to note from that recollection that I wasn’t naturally born with this work ethic; it was something either picked up by me or forced into me during childhood. I’m at the dilemma of “picked up or forced into” because my parents treated my brother and I in the same meticulous manner, yet I grew up with a far more “informed grasp of the present and the future” than he did. Although he’s responsible enough to do relatively well in an honors course in college, my practices would be scandalous taboo to him. Despite this attitude gap we ended up in, I can never stress enough that meticulous manner of my parents’. For the sake of keeping things civil, they were rough and conservative in terms of their approach to discipline. Achievement was praised, while failure was punished in ways even the Filipinos of the Spanish era can relate to.

Naturally, this sort of treatment could not keep going as I grew older. They started to distance themselves in terms of their involvement (and punishment), but made sure that the drive to succeed remained. This is where the gap between my brother and I began to widen. I seem to have been wired to always root for success and fear failure, while he just made sure to avoid failure and celebrate what successes came his way. The upbringing took root and became hard-wired in me, that today anything I receive unsatisfactory marks for disturb me. I can’t even blame anyone else for that (not even my parents or my upbringing) but myself. This drive caused all else to fall into place, most critically my approach to dealing with work. At present, I have a computer task management program, a text file, and three calendars (one on my phone) to make sure I’m up to speed and in control of everything. I don’t just calendar tasks on their deadlines; I calendar times when I work on those tasks, creating daily agendas for days even far away from today. But hey, this entire ruckus is also partly justified by the increasing amount of work moving up the academic ladder, culminating in the impossible heap of workload that is college.

The downsides are clear. From my experience, the obsessive-compulsive nature of being in control over everything (where everything can mean a ton) can really drive you into moments of high stress without even getting anything done yet. For people like me, the big picture is the first thing in mind. Give us a project and a deadline, and all sorts of possible repercussions start speeding by in our heads. We just tend to hide it with a smile and the words “Sure, got it,” but it drives people like us crazy. This can also spell disaster for group work where members more often than not are “normal” people, turning us into walking time bombs of pent-up agitation.

Though it can sound bad, I’d be the first to say that it has its upsides. Being a macro-level person makes you naturally detail-oriented, and you get to see (a lot of little) things other people can’t. Also, the discipline of sorting yourself out will (most likely) lead you to succeed in your endeavors. Not only do you actually perform, but people also end up noticing your work ethic and praising you for it. You become the prime candidate for team leader, project head, and even org president! You gain the respect of people who, very likely, can’t (and won’t) imitate your habits. :P

So that’s my take on the extreme opposite of cramming. I’m sure there are others out there who approach work the same way I do, and even more so of others who will never even consider approaching work the same way I do. I myself don’t know if this part of me is something I’d like to keep. Although it can cause me a lot of stress at times, it might just take me places in the future.

*Mark Castillo

The Extreme Meaning of Cramming

(The following is a contribution to our group’s Rosetta Stone series. It is a reflection on a first-hand experience of cramming, which may lend insight into how our group could go about solving our problem. And what's a better way to get insights on cramming than to cram this entry itself!)

It's 10:53am, about 67 minutes before the deadline and I'm just starting on this entry for our group project. Don't worry, I'm used to this. There's not a month during my 16 years in school that I did not cram (except during summer; I'm always early during summer). The time pressure and the risk of getting an F is enough motivation for me to go god-speed and pour my whole heart out into what I'm doing. I not saying that I don't know how to manage my time; in fact I manage it well enough to get 8 hours of sleep everyday, something I believe will give me more quality output with my activities than to do it when I'm in a groggy, sleepy, cranky state. Think of it simply as just switching the time I allot to the activity from 2 in the morning to right before the deadline. I dunno about you, but it really helps me get the job done, at least in my case. In this case, I allot an hour for the activity.

56 minutes. I'm also not saying that I can't do this work earlier; I could have finished this already and devoted my time somewhere else. But I did not, and there's surely a reason why. I believe that this reason covers at least half of all the reasons of cramming people give: I'm just not motivated. I'm not motivated to do some things at once. There is no drive within me to excel or even finish some work early. Maybe if it was a different thing, something I am excited about, something that interests me, I'd jump right to it: and this has happened; in fact it happens a lot too. Not that I don't like school work (in fact there are some school projects which I devote a lot of time to, and finish early for that matter), but there really are just some things which I prefer to do more than others.

44 minutes. Then there are priorities. I'd rather invest my time in things which I hold more valuable than others. Friends perhaps (just simply hanging out and burning precious, valuable time). A new experience I want to do (I just came from my very first mountain climb over the weekend!!! It's in Daguldol, Batangas. You can see the ocean from the summit! Now that's an experience. BTW, this was something I did not cram.). Whatever it is, the top priority one gets done first, and I make sure I give the amount of time and effort proportional to how I value it. Things that I don't put as much value, they got done too alright (and never will they not be done), but with less amount of time. (Now I'm not saying that I don't value this entry, 67 minutes is more than enough to write one.)

37 minutes. Of course, there are bad habits I continue to do. Just to be totally transparent with you, I forgot to put this in my planner (teehee). Now, I don't know if I really forgot to put it there, or I chose not to (because I had other things [other priorities] in mind). Whatever the reason, this bad habit of not reminding myself is something that has to be corrected. I can give whatever reason I want with having little time to do work (or having poor output), but to say that I simply neglected to do the work is no reason at all. Even if I cram a lot, never has there been an instance where the work was not done. Let's put some responsibility into cramming, at least. And there are other bad habits, like totally not following the planner at all sometimes, but surely, we want break free from the control of the planner from time to time: we are human (whatever that implies).

25 minutes. Then there are distractions. I've checked my Facebook account thrice during the whole time that I wrote this. Maybe the lack of focus makes me do these things (or possible I have an undiagnosed case of ADHD). But surely, this is another bad habit I have to get rid of. Maybe I did not allocate myself to a more appropriate place and mindset, hence the distractions. Ultimately, bad habits are my fault. I can never blame these on anyone else but me.

14 minutes. Now, after this experience of writing this entry so close to the deadline, let's get to this question: am I really cramming now? Personally, this is how I define it: even if I allot just 5 minutes to do this entry, if I know and firmly believe that I could not have made a better output with a larger amount of time and resources, then I can say that I did not cram. Cramming only happens when I know I could have done more, and because of my "irresponsibility" (like forgetting to write it in the planner) and misallocation of time and resources, I failed to do the best possible output I could have done. As for this entry, you be the judge whether I crammed or not. I have my own criteria.

Well, what do you know, I've got 9 minutes to spare.

*Joel del Rosario

ASKing Around

*A rough survey was conducted amongst 10 students that were carefully picked based on these people's study habits. Five are crammers and five are people who prefer to work ahead of time. This part of the Rosetta Stone deals with common places, study areas, preferences, patterns, motivations, difficulties and the like.

When asked why crammers put off work, they say that they prefer to do other things like play video games, hang out with friends, shop, and so on - anything that doesn't require much brain power. Some people find it hard to get started on schoolwork. As they always say, "Starting is half the battle." Indeed it is! Others say that they work better under pressure with a professor or a classmate (figuratively) breathing down their necks. They get an adrenaline rush which enables them to complete their work as soon as possible. There's also this disease which seems to affect a lot (if not most) graduating students - senioritis. You just stop caring about school and what you want to do the most is graduate, thus causing cramming.

These people finally get moving before doing homework or having breakfast, in the morning right before class, or if they're feeling 'more industrious,' they do it an hour or two before the subject which in the requirement is due. For the brave ones, they just work on their requirements when they feel like it. These crammers can be seen in org rooms, on the Matteo steps, inside Matteo, at Starbucks, etc. Just look for people furiously typing on their laptops or scribbling inside their notebooks.

Just how satisfied are they with their work? Not so much. When you breeze through an essay or a project, you don't expect to feel a sense of fulfillment, do you?

And finally we have the industrious students of the Ateneo. They work because of one (or all) of the reasons: it's their responsibility as a student, they can avoid stress if they quickly accomplish their requirements, they will be able to relax as soon as possible, they will have more time to work on non-academic obligations, and they will get better grades because they have had more time to prepare. When do they do their work? As soon as possible. And where? At any place that is conducive to studying like the Rizal Library (old and new), the microform section, and at the Matteo Ricci Study hall. They're usually satisfied with their work, but those who are grade-conscious, they always strive to do better.

*Dianne Alpay

LEARNing to Tell Time

Having bad time habits can cause many problems. Poor time management stems from a lack of ability in managing one’s time efficiently. There are some common “time pitfalls” that most people fall victim to. Working on these bad time habits can surely improve the quality of life. We mostly learn to manage time from a very young age. But, as life gets busier, we can be more susceptible to faulty time management.

With the Ateneo and its students being the focus of this study, the following reasons for bad time management have come up in our group’s initial research:

Setting wrong priorities. Students tend to pay attention to other things rather than the more important work that needs to be done.

Procrastination. They waste a lot of time getting sidetracked and putting off work until the last minute.

Constant tardiness. Students also lose time whenever they are unable to meet deadlines or whenever they are unable to follow their schedules. Work then piles up and/or gets pushed back.

No schedule/unorganized. Sometimes, students don’t even have a to-do list or a schedule to follow. They can’t plan or organize work and they are unable to keep track of the things that they’re supposed to do.

Unpreparedness. Not preparing for a report or an exam for example, causes a student to cram. This often yields mediocre or very poor results.

Meanwhile these are some factors affecting time management:

Extra-curricular activities. Students spend a lot of time in their organizations and other commitments. 

Work environment. Work areas may not be conducive.

Health. Bad time management can affect one’s sleep or diet. It poses problems for our health and general well-being.

Study habits. Students with great study habits generally don’t face this kind of problem.

Workload. Sometimes students have too much work given to them or they have a really full schedule that’s why they tend to not finish their work on time.

Sooner or later the students’ poor time management skills take a toll on them and it gravely affects their lifestyle. They constantly feel under pressure and always running out of time with the amount of work they have to do. Along the way, they would soon forget things or tend to be careless. Also, they sometimes find themselves unable to start working and distracted. This is mostly caused by their lack of organization and bad planning. Stress is also a major indicator of bad time habits. Not only is it an inconvenience, it also affects their health and the quality of their outputs.

Lastly the group decided to take into consideration the following points for further analysis:

• “Power” of the planner/advantages of having a planner
• Different styles of managing time
• Tools/aids that can help manage time better
• Root causes
• Interests of people involved
• Possible solutions
• Aspects of a student’s university life
• Implications/results

*LA Campeña

The Rosetta Stone

Hello everyone! 

Team 360 is back and we have tons of new things to share with you!

We’re now beginning to get our hands dirty for we are now in the data gathering part of our project. We've done our research and so far we're very happy with what we've managed to dig up. We know that this problem with TIME MANAGEMENT have been studied and explored countless times; but as our team name suggests, we are here to turn things around! We aim to shed some new light on the subject and hopefully come up with ways to help students manage their time to get their work done leading to the achievement of self-accomplishment.

With this, we share with you our Rosetta Stone - a collection of data and information that we have gathered over the past week. We will be posting this in parts which are the following: learn, look, ask and try. These four aspects of our Rosetta Stone would have certain focus areas to give a better, more concrete framework for the topic at hand.

So fellas, read on to see what Team 360 has learned so far...