The most useful thing that I learned in this module is the strategy of listing out the costs of procrastination from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article. It’s an amazing strategy that I have never considered before; it forces people to confront the potential consequences of their procrastination which then incentivizes them to not procrastinate. As a result, people are better off, far less likely to procrastinate, and more productive because they have a tangible measurement of how things can go wrong or be costly if they procrastinate.

Something that I have already put into practice from this module is breaking down large tasks. For example, when it comes to studying for midterm and final exams, my strategy has always been to break up my study time and schedule it based on a) current understanding of the content, b) size of the chapter(s), and c) point value of the exam. Above, I have provided an example of a schedule that I made for my political science class in the Autumn 2020 semester. When I’m able to stick to this type of scheduling, the results have often been quite positive (meaning that I get a high grade on the exam). However, to make this strategy even more effective, I need to get better at not procrastinating and handling any and all digital distractions properly.

Long before taking this course, I put the details of academic email writing (slide 8) into practice; now, I follow the academic email advice from this Module as though it’s second nature. I started writing academic emails when I was a freshman at Ohio State; for Math 1151 (Calculus I), I frequently emailed my professor and my teaching assistant (TA) to ask questions about course content whenever office hours or visits to the MSLC were not feasible. The syllabus and Carmen page would be consulted before any emails were sent out. From there, I would review the subject line and greeting in the email and ensure that it had both context, a closing, and my full name before it was submitted (slide 8). In addition, I would proofread my writing, compose full and complete sentences, and mention that I couldn’t find what I was looking for on Carmen or on the syllabus (slide 8). All in all, this worked out very well and proved useful when I could not go to office hours or the MSLC.

Since that course, I have sent countless academic emails employing the same techniques that were mentioned in the Module. Academic emails are very important and I would advise students to take them seriously and to also follow Dr. Fus’s advice on emails (slide 10) for ensuring that they make good first impressions with anyone and everyone that they meet.