Managing Myself and the Others

Follow-up to Time Managment and Organizing yourself from Sam's blog

                                                                             Taking-Up Resopnsibility

Managing my time might have been the most important skill I developed this year. Ironically enogh I was not even aware of it as a quintessential skill. As a follow up action plan of the points I learnt in the workshop, I contrived the following steps:

1- I set myself Distant goals and Proximal goals in the process of achieveing my objectives because I realised that the short-term ones will lead to the long-term goals.

2-In the process of achieving my goals, I faced many obstacles and stumbling blocks that obliged me to employ different strategies and techniques at different levels of the process.

3- As regards reflection, I could compare my current level with the one when I first started learning and could notice the progress I am making. This progress gave me confidence and motivation to proceed.

4-I kept on a system of self-rewarding at the end of each day to give me the impetus to work hard while realising that I will be enjoying myself at the end of the day.

5-Alternating between different asks helped me set the pace of my own learning and refresh my personality every once and a while.

6-All of this inspired me to take an optional module in my degree in Managament and Leadership that broadened my horizons and understanding of a new untapped area for me.

: 17 Mar 2011 20:29 |  Tags: P7 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Managing Myself and the Others

Follow-up to Time Managment and Organizing yourself from Sam's blog

: 17 Mar 2011 20:29 |  Tags: P7 Portfolio |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Art of Note–Taking

                                                                      The Art of Note-Taking

The problem with taking notes is that it takes a while for the learner to perfect its use. My major problem with taking notes was re-writing the whole course book instead of just putting the most important features on paper. Therefore, I devised some highly benificial points for my note-taking . Some of these are:

1- Instead of repeating what is said in the whole page, I would go for the most important key words and put them on sticky-notes to the side of the book.

2-Not to organise and re-write the notes I had taken because it would be time-consuming.

3-Keep in mind a certain focus on reading and only make notes that are relevant to the wuestion I have on paper or in mind.

4-After finishing a whole article or a book chapter, I would start organising my notes on a word file in an orderly fashion to leep a fixed safety net for me in case I forget or lose track of the previous notes of points of focus I made.

These steps helped me to save time, achieve more in less time, and write my essays easily by going back to the notes I had made earlier. not to mention the ability to exclude all the ones that are irrelevant to me.

: 16 Mar 2011 22:24 |  Tags: A1 Portfolio |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Honing Skills on Note–Taking

Follow-up to Art of Note–Taking from Sam's blog

                                                                                          Honing Skills on Note-Taking

I would like to thank you for the great advice about organising the notes for my dissertation. As a matter of fact, I just had a research methodology class now and realised the amount of research I have to do. Therefore, It would seem to me that an action-plan could help me to overcome this problem:

1- Following your advice, I will now arrange my referencing while writing because it's an arduous, even daunting task to do for an assignment, not to say a disseratation.

2-I will definitely start to organise my notes in a thematic way so that I wouldn't be lost going through all of them to find the one I need in particular.

3- Another step related to note-making is polishing my skills using the mind-mapping using the computer programs.

: 16 Mar 2011 22:22 |  Tags: A1 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Honing Skills on Note–Taking

Follow-up to Art of Note–Taking from Sam's blog

: 16 Mar 2011 22:22 |  Tags: A1 Portfolio |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Speed Reading

Follow-up to Speed Reading from Sam's blog

                                                                            Reading Effectively

When I first started to read, I would spend hours focusing on every single word and look up all the words that I did not understand in the dictionary. After I had taken the workshop on speed reading, I realised that there are certain points or strategies to bear in mind while reading. Therefore,  I put into action the following points:

1- Reading using my finger as a pointer to follow all the new words with great attention without getting hung up on studying the single word-meanings. By doing so, I can now skim through the articles very quickly in almost half the time I'm used to. this also helped my eyes focus on a focal point in the page rather than going astray from one corner of the page to the other.

2-Trying to read and understand as much as possible while going on to try to achieve as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. This technique empowered me with the self-confidence and a sense of achievement every time I would read five or ten pages. Then, I could go back to double check or focus on one point.

3-I also learnt to underline the most important words as I go by especially the ones that I feel more salient to me.

4-The last step that proved most beneficial to me was not repeating the words in my head after reading them. This proved to be both time-efficient and more effective in comprehension, too. It is amazing how much the brain can process if we trust ourself and continue reading without repeating ourself and trusting our abilities to understand from the first time.

Following all the steps mentioned earlier helped me to improve my reading skills in terms of speed and understanding. They also raised my confidence and I was able to take interval breaks every once and a while which helped me to stay focused and refreash my appetite for reading again!

: 15 Mar 2011 17:42 |  Tags: A7 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Follow up Reading Techniques

: 06 Mar 2011 04:02 |  Tags: Reading Speed |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Time Managment and Organizing yourself

                                                           Time Mnagement and Organizing yourself

I have had my Time Management work shop and it kind of was really invaluable to me because it made me have a greater and deeper look into my way of organizing my time.I had really developed an action plan to start with and I know that this process involves both time and good organization on my part. So, I have been laying out an action plan to start with. My plan really involved a couple of steps as follows:

1- I set my self some goals in order to achieve.

2- I share my progress with a study group to really find someone who shares you the same plan.

3- Reflect on what I have done and se how much I have done and where I did go wrong.

4- Follow up a reward scheme after I have finished every part of my plan.

5- Looking back on what I have achieved, rather than what I fell short of doing.

6-Changing the rate of doing things. I mean by having some fun hand in hand with studying.

SAM. 

: 25 Oct 2010 22:39 |  Tags: P7 Portfolio |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Speed Reading

                                                     My Seed Reading Workshop

I have just finished my speed reading course and I think It was amazing. The best thing about it was that the teacher has made it as interesting as possible. Morover, this time I was able to get a sense of achievement after I had doubled my reading by the end of the workshop. In addition, I could make new friendships and meet very interesting and smart M.A students. And when I thought it could not get any better, it did. I went right ahead to the library and applied the techniques I had already learnt and I managed to finish my reading assignment for tomorrow and even go party tonight! I would strongly recommend all my colleagues to take it up and I would like also to extend my profound thanks and appreciation to the teacher who was very professional and practial and made it all possible.

: 13 Oct 2010 16:59 |  Tags: A7 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My note taking course

                                                                 Note Taking/Making 

I have just attended a worship on 'Note Taking', and I know the idea of taking up such course might sound impractical to someones or less appealing. However, if you look at it from another perspective, you can set out listening to plenty of ideas that are aroused in such workshops and you can take a learner-oriented approach to try to adapt some or all of the ideas to your own personal advantage. I personally have listened to many interesting ideas and I am thinking about applying some of them, especially the more challenging ones. Some of these ideas were Mind mapping, quoting, range reading, and setting the time. I would like to see how much I will improve my skills if I try to train myself on using these skills.

: 12 Oct 2010 20:56 |  Tags: A1 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem