Essay: What I’d like to change (essay)
It is more difficult to change a habit when it was learned at a young age. In this article, I describe a behavior I’d love to change: instances of insufficiently managing my time, which lead to anxiety, stress and psychological reactions. How I manage my appointments, schoolwork, and social activities is affected by a number of environmental factors. I have identified settings that make me inefficiently manage time. First, I am easily distracted when using my phone. While using my cell phone, I am easily distracted by the many stimuli. In the early morning, I routinely check my emails and text messages. I also look at Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Second, I tend to be a slow primper before leaving. It means I spend too much time deciding what to wear. Although I am aware that getting ready for a trip will take a while, I don’t give myself enough preparation time. I end up being stressed out.
I don’t like being rushed. I panic when I see my watch and realize class starts in 40 minutes and I’m still deciding what to dress for. Under pressure, it’s hard for me to think clearly and make good decisions. When I worry that I could be late, I physically feel stressed. If I know I’ll be, the stress feelings are magnified. I don’t wish to be perceived as disrespectful if I am late, particularly in my social and academic life.
I want to reduce the stress caused by these behaviors. For me to transition from contemplation and into preparation, self-re-evaluation is my chosen process. As I assess the pros, cons, and benefits of changing my behavior and adjust myself to this new self-concept. My rationalization will be that it is more important to me to be punctual than stressed out for health and social reasons. After self-evaluation, the environment will be evaluated. Then, I’ll rationalize cognitively my surroundings again to understand what makes me feel rushed. And how to change that feeling. I now move on to the last stage of my process, which is stimuli control. To control stimuli, I actively avoid the phenomenon of forgetting the time. I set up multiple alarms and keep a constant eye on the time. Also, planning ahead what to wear each day is a way to control stimulus. You can even get ready on the SkyTrain before you start looking at your phone.