Good Intentions Don't Always Translate to Good Decisions

October 4th - 10 Days Before the Data Summary Deadline:

Figure 1: A very well intentioned and prepared 20.109 student plans to start and finish the Data Summary early. 
As my lab partner and I began planning for the Data Summary, we knew it was going to be a lot to take on. I would be out of town the weekend it was due and we had exams to study for the week after. We had both never written a scientific paper before and were completely unprepared for what was to come. So we planned. We would meet every day for an hour and try to chip away at the assignment little by little, eventually freeing up our weekend. 


Good intentions. 


October 14th - The Day of the Data Summary Deadline:


Figure 2: A very frantic and sleep deprived 20.109 student octodecuple texts her lab partner at very early hours on the day of the deadline. 

As evident by Figure 2, we can conclude that the plan was not followed through on. The week leading up to the deadline ended up being very busy for both my lab partner and I, so we continued procrastinating the paper. Eventually the weekend hit and rather than enjoying San Francisco, I spent my time stressing out about this assignment and trying to work on it during the nights. The worst part of not having the assignment done was the stress I put my lab partner under. I wasn't around to work on it over the weekend or attend office hours, so he took on so much more than I would have liked. 

Bad Decisions. 

This assignment taught me how important it is to not only set a plan, but follow up on it. I wasted my long weekend by not being proactive and procrastinating so many portions of the assignment. For Modules 2 and 3, now that I know what it takes to write different portions of the paper, I plan on taking the assignments leading up to the final projects very seriously. The easiest parts of the Data Summary to write were those that I had already drafted. At the end of the day, this assignment was written with a partner and submitted in bullet point format and I was still struggling to write out these choppy sentences. I expect the next assignment to be significantly more difficult without this format and so I'm already planning ahead on how I'm going to keep myself accountable to complete it in time to edit it. 

Hopefully no more frantic texts at 5AM for the rest of the semester :) 

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