Today is the 9th day of January, three days before the last day of submissions of our activities and exercises for our DevCom courses.
I know, this entry is two months late already. As I am writing this, I realized that I don’t really how I got here. I don’t know how I got past the first few months of the semester; more so, how I managed to do our activities.
But as much as my journey seems messy, I am certain that I must have done something right and learned lessons that, for me, are valuable enough to take as I go on with my college years.
Here are some of them.
- With Notion, there is control
I didn’t know the power of organization…not until I got in Development Communication.
Back in November last year, I remember being all over the place because of my backlogs and missed activities. It was at that moment when I tried using Notion, a notetaking software best known for its function in task management.
Just like what others have said, it indeed acted like a second brain—one that’s clearly more put together than mine. It allowed me to organize my tasks in a list, and easily see which I should work on immediately. Ever since I used it, I really was able to focus on one task at a time, with the joy of ticking something off my list urging me to finish my tasks as soon as possible.
- Don’t get it right, get it written
American author and cartoonist James Thurber once said…
James Thurber
“Don’t get it right, get it written.”
And I totally agree with his statement.
To be honest, I always find myself having a hard time doing our writing tasks. I spend hours working on it, and the most difficult part for me is starting it. I believe that it’s because of the pressure I’ve been putting on myself—trying to make my work perfect even when it’s just the first draft.
I learned that it’s totally just inefficient.
The right sequence should be: get it written, then edit it, and get it right. Perfectionism is a thing that shouldn’t take over especially in writing, as it can seep in all areas, causing you to even avoid attempting things for the fear that you won’t be able to do it perfectly. It is a leading cause of procrastination that I admit having committed.
I also learned that bad-mouthing your work by saying it’s crappy is just pointless because truth is, as others say, your first draft will probably suck—and it’s okay. After all, that’s what a draft is supposed to be like. And in order for you to get a second draft—an improved version of your work—you must have something to revise; you must get the first draft written.
Accepting this mantra will turn off our inner editor and perfectionist tendencies that will help us get writing done which is one of the most important things in this discipline.
So, whenever you feel like perfectionism haunts you, just whisper to yourself: do not get it right, get it written.
- Temptation is a no-no
“The devil comes in many forms and guises—and mine’s a computer game.”
It’s 3 AM. I am still working on my Weekly Writes and the thought of playing Valorant suddenly came into my mind. I then gave up to the temptation, but the cost is something irreversible. It cost my time that I could’ve allotted to doing my work, and I really just couldn’t bring it back.
If there’s something I learned the hard way during the semester, it’s fighting temptation. It’s fighting off the desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.
It’s something I learned only after I got the consequences. Given the amount of schoolwork I have to do and the amount of backlogs I have to catch up with, I couldn’t really afford to spend my time on such things. But… being the easily-distracted and passive person that I am, I just couldn’t resist sometimes. Although it made me happy to a certain degree, it still bit my a** off in the end.
Now that it’s all in the past, I can say that I already learned my lesson.
- Maintain a healthy routine
If there’s one thing I’d never trade off with anything, it’s maintaining a healthy routine. It’s something that, I learned, is the most important thing in doing any schoolwork especially DevCom activities.
Personally, I am a person who can’t really function when I am not well-rested and so, I really need to make a routine that’s realistic and healthy. But making one doesn’t only mean making a schedule that works for me. It also means dedicating my time to have enough sleep, eat properly, and build on habits that are good for my well-being and productivity.
As DevCom activities take energy and a lot of thinking, it’s best to be in a robust state so that one would be efficient.
- Learn as you go
Out of all the things that I’ve learned, I think that this is the most important.
Being a first year BS Development Communication student, I’ve encountered new things that required much wisdom and experience. Even with our Weekly Writes and lab exercises, I can say that it required much understanding and proficiency that I’m aware not fully having yet as of the moment.
That is why, for me, it’s very important to take in the lessons we’ve learned along the way—may it be from the lectures we attend or the remarks that we get from our professors—and apply it on everything we are tasked with and every situation that we are put in.
As others say, no one is really born good at things already but the least we can do is take in the knowledge we learn as we go along the way, and always have room for improvement.
sixtyfifty2021 