Abass Salat
Engl 1102 + Section 312 – Weaver
Major Project 4
Date Due: Apr 25
asalat2@student.gsu.edu
How College Students Should Approach a New Project
Getting assigned a major project in college can feel very overwhelming. The increased difficulty of projects in the transition from highschool to higher education makes college students feel like they can never get it done. What can really get rid of this anxiety of college level projects and boost productivity is for students to approach projects like this strategically. Thinking ahead is critical to the completion and quality of this sort of project. Students should approach the project by opening up time in their schedule, breaking the project into smaller tasks, effectively combating against burnout, and having a support system.
At the start of the project, students need to plan how they are going to get it done. Students should identify exactly what time they have available and allocate time to the project. They should also identify at what location they will work on the project. According to the study done by Sean Humpherys and Ibrahim Lazrig in the article “Effects of Teaching and Practice of Time Management Skills on Academic Performance in Computer Information Systems Courses” in the journal Information Systems Education Journal, when students identify the how, when, and where of a plan, they are considerably more productive in executing it (Humpherys and Lazrig). The authors mention this planning benefits students in many ways. They say doing this will lessen the chance of distraction killing the student’s working hours which helps against procrastination. Additionally, Humpherys and Lazrig say that when students preplan the how, when, and where of their plan, their grading results for their goal is likely to be positive. Also, students should make the plan as specific as possible according to Alain Samson, an economist with an expertise and PhD in social psychology, in his article “10 Ways to Get a Big Project Done” (Samson). What Dr. Samson means is instead of a student planning they will complete a specific task the project calls for on Monday, they should plan that they will complete that task on Monday from 10 a.m. to noon in a specific spot at the library. This will lessen the chance of a student having the intention to complete the task throughout the day but not being able to do it because they didn’t allocate a specific time of day for it, or a distraction came up.
When given a project, students are never expected to get it all done in one day. College level projects are simply too complex. What students should do is approach it strategically and break down the project into pieces. Doing this has many benefits and will facilitate the process. According to Dr. Samson, breaking projects into smaller pieces will lay out the specific things one would need to get done (Samson). Dr. Samson adds that the person will also be able to analyze the difficultly levels of each piece of the project which is an advantage. This is because now the student has smaller workloads to complete rather than trying to tackle the project as a whole. Additionally, now the student can avoid unproductively pausing progress on the project due to a freighting challenge up ahead. Dr. Samson says ending a work session because of a demanding piece of the project up ahead is the opposite of what one should do when working on a project. This is because the student might avoid the next work session because of such a demanding piece of the project waiting for them as soon as they get started. Students should start with the less demanding pieces of the project and end with the slightly more demanding ones. This will help the students against unproductively pausing and will give them the fulfilling feeling of ending a session with hard work.
Although some pauses on projects are unproductive, there are pauses that are highly encouraged if not necessary. When a student is feeling overwhelmed or just feels stuck, its best for them to take a break. According to Dr. Samson, students in this situation should do a completely different activity from what their project is about (Samson). For example, if a student’s project is about the French Revolution, they should go for a walk or knit a hat. Students can highly benefit from this because when they return to working on the project, they get rid of all their brain fog and their ability to work at their best is not compromised. This will help students avoid burning out and will help them get satisfactory results on the assignment.
Also, when students are so deep in the project and they deprived themselves of taking breaks, they can’t notice the mistakes that they make. According to Jennifer Oliver, a writer, a speaker, and a creative project consultant, taking a break from working on a project can help students detect the faults in their work (Oliver). She says that sometimes someone is so deep into their project that they do not see the things they are doing wrong. Oliver says that when a student is in this situation, they should take some distance away from the project. Stepping away from working on the project might take away from a student’s work time but it will boost productivity in the long run.
A student being overworked on a project is not the only thing that can lead to burnout. Lack of encouragement can be a major drag on a student’s ability to complete a project. Also, students are susceptible to procrastinating on doing what they planned to complete. The way students can combat both of these issues is by involving someone or multiple people to act as a support system. According to Philip Oreopoulos, Richard W. Patterson, Uros Petronijevic, and Nolan G. Pope in their article “Low-Touch Attempts to Improve Time Management among Traditional and Online College Students” in the journal Journal of Human Resources, having a system like this in place has been shown to help students achieve the goals they set out (Oreopoulos et. al.). The authors say that the support group should act as reminders for the student. This is because having a person or group of people that care about the student reminding him or her to not fall short of their goals reinforces the student’s commitment. Also, the students should share their progress on the project with their support system. According to Dr. Samson, just sharing their progress can help them achieve their final goal (Samson). He says that a student might also benefit from the positive reaction of their support group.
Approaching a new project strategically is the best way for students to approach completing it. Instead of students simply starting the project and hoping all goes well, they should think things through. Students just jumping right in can lead to negative results due to lack of planning. The common occurrences like students saying they did not have enough time when they did, or the project was so mentally draining they just gave up are born from lack of planning. Applying these techniques can lead to satisfying results for students and are highly recommended to implement next time a student has a major project.
Work Cited
Humpherys, Sean L., and Ibrahim Lazrig. “Effects of Teaching and Practice of Time Management Skills on Academic Performance in Computer Information Systems Courses.” Information Systems Education Journal, Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals. Box 488, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. e-Mail: Publisher@Isedj.org; Web Site: Http://Isedj.org, 31 Mar. 2021, eric.ed.gov/?q=time%2Bmanagement&id=EJ1297703.
Oliver, Jen. “5 Reasons to Take a Break from Creative Projects.” J Oliver Designs, 16 June 2020, www.joliverdesigns.co.uk/5-reasons-to-take-a-break-from-creative-projects/.
Oreopoulos, Philip, et al. “Low-Touch Attempts to Improve Time Management among Traditional and Online College Students.” Journal of Human Resources, vol. 57, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–43., doi:10.3368/jhr.57.1.0919-10426r1.
Samson, Alain. “10 Ways to Get a Big Project Done.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 23 June 2021, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/consumed/202106/10-ways-get-big-project-done.