Paul Li, Period 7, 11/1/2022

Paul Li
Pd 7
11/1/2022
Atomic Habits and Growth

    Throughout school life, the importance of attending a university has been constantly
advertised, in order to secure a higher paying job. The fears of living by myself for the first time
is daunting but the experiences one obtains from attending college seemed necessary for me to
transition into an adult life. Therefore, my specific goals would be tailored towards preparing
myself for life at university. To apply to colleges, stay on top of my classes, and a personal goal
to improve my health.

    The college applications process proved to be a time consuming process. Every week, I
would have to set aside some time in order to write essays. Having a high score on my SATs is
another factor in the college application process. As a result, I would have to set time during the
weekends to practice. Keeping ahead of the due dates for universities meant the importance of
having an organized schedule to keep yourself constantly updated. Overall, the application
process has forced me to develop more time management skills.

    “Today, tomorrow, and next week” is a saying that my boss had during my summer
internship. The motto was meant to remind oneself of what their goals are for today, and in the
future. It was his way to make sure that tasks stayed organized and to take a proactive approach. During my senior year I wanted to apply that to my school life so as to avoid catching slacking off and to stay ahead of my classes. Exploring alternative resources, doing assigned work as soon as possible, and taking time to study for exams, all of which helped me become more proactive and procrastinate less often. Occasionally, there would be road bumps, such as during exam weeks I would be behind in my schoolwork, but now occur less frequently, now that I am making sure my assignments don’t pile up.

    It was due to my habits of procrastination and not keeping track with my work, that I
would often pull all-nighters submitting school work throughout my high school years. My
habits would continue if it wasn’t for my college apps forcing me to apply enough willpower to
properly set times to be productive during this time. As a result of this, I had a personal goal to
fix my sleeping schedule that was previously nonexistent before my senior year. I would set a
specific time to sleep usually at 10 to 11pm getting a full 8-9 hours of sleep. This has allowed me
to pay more attention during class.

    I often assess myself not necessarily by completing a checklist of tasks to determine
success but by trends over a long period of time. I would assess whether there is progress at all
on my college application, or my school work throughout each week in order to make sure I stay
on the right track. If I were to not make progress or the task is too ambitious, then I would
reevaluate whether it is realistic to keep going at such a pace and adjust my expectations
accordingly. From personal experience, everytime I fail the checklist, it would be too
demoviating for me to continue to work towards my goals. By assessing myself through trends, it
would give me more room to adjust my goals.