Saturday, May 19, 2007
The Pattern
Whenever exam terms loom ominously over the horizon, there comes a time when my body's fuel tank seems to be shrinking in capacity. As dates are crossed off the calendar, the hours I spend lazing around or (most especially) sleeping increases. Productivity suffers as a result.
Ever since I started college (and now, uni) my semesters have developed a discouraging pattern. The first few weeks of schooling would always involve me setting goals and study plans as well as being completely determined on finishing homework on time and attending every single class (regardless of importance or lecturer incapability). Then I get inundated with activities and assignments and, in the case of last semester, a relationship. Taking their toll on mine frail body, lethargy kicks in. You'd think that I sleep less when the workload increases, but no; because of the consequent sluggishness, I need more energy and time to get things done. I used to be able to survive with six hours of sleep a day, but now I struggle even on days when I get eight. And every day I look forward to the next time Friday night rolls around.
Sucky part is that even my weekends are normally filled with activities, but oh well.
When the aforementioned ominous exam terms actually come a-knocking, I have no choice but to step up my efforts. People begin to see Post-it notes with self-motivating phrases peppering my room, the likes of which include "Study every friggin' day!", "Don't be a fucktard" and (back when I was in Singapore) "The PRCs* study 10 times more than you do and still get Bs and Cs". Although the notes normally don't rouse the mugger in me as much as I'd like, but without them I might not have studied at all. Heck, sometimes my mom's nagging has less of an effect on my study-urge than those yellow pieces of paper.
The pattern, in easy-to-digest diagram form
I am that easily distracted. I normally dismantle my computer in preparation of exams... Before assembling the parts together again after I've sat for one or two papers. It is also during exam season that I blog obsessively; an amazing feat considering that my computer was supposed to have been put out of commission.
Losing track of my goals and targets so easily is probably my biggest character flaw (besides not learning from my repeated mistakes). That's why I normally don't make resolutions because I know I can't keep them.
However, with the dawn of each new semester, there is hope that I'll someday break free from this pattern. Hopefully, that someday falls in this semester. Hopefully, a miracle happens and I become that person I oh-so-long to be.
And that would be a scholarship holder on the way down to Australia! That would so friggin' rock.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
*When I was in Singapore, we had to differentiate between the Singaporean Chinese students and the Chinese Chinese students, so we called those from the homeland PRCs (People's Republic of China). This comparison was very important because the two shared different traits; the former were generally kiasu-as-hell and study a lot, while the latter were generally kiasu-as-hell, study a lot more and had bad hygiene (especially the males!). As for Malaysian Scholars, we were only kiasu-as-hell but refuse to admit it.
Ever since I started college (and now, uni) my semesters have developed a discouraging pattern. The first few weeks of schooling would always involve me setting goals and study plans as well as being completely determined on finishing homework on time and attending every single class (regardless of importance or lecturer incapability). Then I get inundated with activities and assignments and, in the case of last semester, a relationship. Taking their toll on mine frail body, lethargy kicks in. You'd think that I sleep less when the workload increases, but no; because of the consequent sluggishness, I need more energy and time to get things done. I used to be able to survive with six hours of sleep a day, but now I struggle even on days when I get eight. And every day I look forward to the next time Friday night rolls around.
Sucky part is that even my weekends are normally filled with activities, but oh well.
When the aforementioned ominous exam terms actually come a-knocking, I have no choice but to step up my efforts. People begin to see Post-it notes with self-motivating phrases peppering my room, the likes of which include "Study every friggin' day!", "Don't be a fucktard" and (back when I was in Singapore) "The PRCs* study 10 times more than you do and still get Bs and Cs". Although the notes normally don't rouse the mugger in me as much as I'd like, but without them I might not have studied at all. Heck, sometimes my mom's nagging has less of an effect on my study-urge than those yellow pieces of paper.
The pattern, in easy-to-digest diagram formI am that easily distracted. I normally dismantle my computer in preparation of exams... Before assembling the parts together again after I've sat for one or two papers. It is also during exam season that I blog obsessively; an amazing feat considering that my computer was supposed to have been put out of commission.
Losing track of my goals and targets so easily is probably my biggest character flaw (besides not learning from my repeated mistakes). That's why I normally don't make resolutions because I know I can't keep them.
However, with the dawn of each new semester, there is hope that I'll someday break free from this pattern. Hopefully, that someday falls in this semester. Hopefully, a miracle happens and I become that person I oh-so-long to be.
And that would be a scholarship holder on the way down to Australia! That would so friggin' rock.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
*When I was in Singapore, we had to differentiate between the Singaporean Chinese students and the Chinese Chinese students, so we called those from the homeland PRCs (People's Republic of China). This comparison was very important because the two shared different traits; the former were generally kiasu-as-hell and study a lot, while the latter were generally kiasu-as-hell, study a lot more and had bad hygiene (especially the males!). As for Malaysian Scholars, we were only kiasu-as-hell but refuse to admit it.
