Tyrone Chen, Period 6, 9/21/2022

 Atomic Habits & Growth

• At this current point in time, what specific standards have you set for yourself? 

• How and why did you come to craft these standards? 

• How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving these standards?

• How do you assess yourself?  What adjustments do you make? How often?

As I am entering my senior year of high school, there are lots of things that I have to worry about, so it is imperative that I set standards or goals for myself. The standard things that every senior has to worry about: SAT, college essays, and the AP classes some people choose to take. Like many other seniors I made my first commitment to senior year at the end of junior year with the choosing of our schedules. Opting for AP courses, this is already one of the standards that I set for myself: to do well in these AP classes. In addition to this goal, the most important standard that I’ve set for myself this year is to not procrastinate. 

This has been the biggest problem for me in my entire high school career thus far. The nights I’ve spent cramming, holding off homework, projects, essays, and studying all to the very last night or even the lunch period before class. I do not ever want to experience those times again. That is exactly why I plan to end procrastination in my life once and for all. I think this is a major point of self improvement for myself and for my future as if I learn to end this bad habit now, it will be much easier for me in the long run. 

I understand that I cannot just end this habit overnight, so I’ve been making myself start small. From finishing the chemistry homework due in 3 days, to starting projects early, and even finishing this blog 2 days before the due date, I’ve been starting my goals small. This is also how I plan to measure my progress, through the amount of work I delegate towards each day. If I feel it is in spontaneous bursts, then I know that I have reverted back to my old ways. I plan to make starting and finishing work early a habit for me so it feels natural. Just like running, as you start to do it more you will get more and more used to it and soon it will feel like second nature. Since the beginning of the school year, I would say that I have been pretty resilient to this goal having had more time for myself as well as reducing my stress due to this new habit. I could 100% get used to this feeling. 

The habit of procrastinating is a big one for me and I can assess the progress I’ve made by reflecting on how stressed I am. If there is at least one day worth of time for assignments that I had plenty of time for, I know that I am on track to accomplish my goal. Soon I hope to be able to complete assignments with even days to spare and have time to edit and revise it. In addition, I hope to be able to actually create study sheets and properly study for tests using the study tips I learned in Ms.Brandon’s class of long term studying. By studying a little bit everyday, you can retain the knowledge even better than cramming. As the school year progresses, I will make adjustments to this schedule by trying to finish assignments well ahead of time. Only time will tell how much time I need to adjust but I have faith that I can fix this detrimental habit of mine.