Tag: Deadlines

IT’S CRUNCH TIME!

It’s now a week before the deadline and guess who still has a lot of work to do? ME! But is that a surprise? PROBABLY NOT!

(Giphy, 2015)

As it has been the holidays, I felt myself falling into the trap of procrastination, using the excuse of “it’s Christmas!” or “it’s New Years!” far too much. Although I did need this break for my sanity, I did feel the guilt when I would just be sitting around not doing work, when I knew full well that I could.

I had started my break for the holidays on the 22nd of December, after completing illustrations and a cover design for the House of Illustration competition and creating potential covers for the Penguin Student Awards Competition. So, getting back into the swing of things earlier this week, on January the 2nd, I realised that I had and still have a lot of writing up to do.

Today, I have only just finished writing up all of the days for Inktober. Although I have made blog posts about each of the days, I felt for academic purposes, I would have to write them up more formally and in more detail for hand-in.  So with this project, all I have left to do is to write up the process of making the zines, how I formatted the pages for printing, the different printing methods which I tried, what went well, what had not, which I had decided to use for final products etc. I then need to evaluate the final product and project as a whole, then that should be one project out of the way.

I’m going to be honest now, the rest of the projects aren’t as close to being completed as I would have hoped, and I do have a lot of writing up to do in the upcoming week.

House of Illustration project, I still need to:

  • Ask my peers for their opinions, if there are any changes I should make.
  • Potentially make the changes they suggest.
  • Get the illustration and cover ready for submission in the format the competition wants.
  • Print and mount the final design for hand-in.
  • Write up artist/influences
  • Write up creation process (I did take screenshots throughout, so this should make it easier to recall the steps I took and choices I made)
  • Evaluate the final design and the project as a whole.

 

Penguin Student Design project, I still need to:

  • Ask my peers for their opinions, if there are any changes I should make.
  • Potentially make the changes they suggest.
  • Get the Cover/s ready for submission in the format the guidelines of the competition state.
  • Print and mount the final design for hand-in.
  • Write up artist/influences
  • Write up creation process (I did take screenshots throughout, so this should make it easier to recall the steps I took and choices I made)
  • Evaluate the final design and the project as a whole.

 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe project, I still need to:

  • Write up my experiences with the different printing methods, how they work, what I enjoyed, what I did not etc.
  • Compare the printing methods.
  • Make new designs with the best printing method (if I have the time to do so).
  • Evaluate the final products and the project as a whole.

 

So from this to do list, my plan for the week is to write up my projects whilst I’m at home, then whilst I am at college I will focus on practical work. The reason I don’t want to write up my work at college is because I feel I am easily distracted, zoning in and out of work a lot, often losing my place or sentence etc, but when I’m at home, it is quieter and although there is a potential threat of tv, during deadline week this is not an issue, as stress me is on the ball! Or at least tries to be!

So whilst I am at college, I think I will try to get the final illustrations for the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe project, as the facilities I need are within the college, so I feel it will be the best use for my time.

Final Notes

I probably will get all of my work complete in time, but the more that I think I won’t, the more stress I will put on myself, meaning more pressure, meaning more focus on the work, meaning ALL WORK COMPLETED ON TIME. Let’s hope!

I am always surprised at how much work I get done the day before a deadline as the pressure pushes me through, and I always end up handing in on time. Myself and stress just work together well, it’s probably not the healthiest of relationships, but if it works it works! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! But ideally, I’m gonna try better to not leave all of my work till the last minute in the next semester/deadline, 2019 should be the stress-free year!.. Starting January 15th!

Bibliography

Giphy. (2015). Awkward Michael Scott Gif [online] Available at: https://giphy.com/gifs/jOpLbiGmHR9S0 [Accessed 06 Jan. 2018].

Procrastination Station

It is currently the day before my first deadline, and what have I found myself doing? Procrastinating! You would think that I would be panicking during this time, which I am,  but the motivation to do work is just not here.

As a way to try and battle this issue, I had searched on google ‘How to stop procrastinating’ and the results had given me this one article which suggested ways in which you could ‘Get motivated to study’.Although this is an interesting article, and probably would help me in the long run over this final year, and possibly in life too, I had a brief read through and it had just made me want to hunt down my old DSi and play Dr Kawashimas Brain Training. This would be following step 13 of the article, exercising the brain.

I don’t believe this article is useful for me at this specific moment in time, as I am already in my procrastinating mindset, and it seems I’m just going to end up distracting myself more than I actually can.

I would, however, like come back to this article at later date though, possibly when I have less work to do and actually have free time to learn from it, as it could potentially stop me from having these moments again in the future.

 

As of this current deadline, all I have left to do is fluff out my research, by fluffing out, I just mean that I have already briefly written up the basics, I just need to go back in and add more detail. The ‘research’ includes artists and writing up all of the information I have found from each of the competitions that we were suggested, then discussing which I would like to do and which I would not.

I then need to give more narrative to my self-report, as I had bullet-pointed all of my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but my tutor had suggested that I go into more depth, discussing why I believe my weaknesses are my weaknesses, how I will try to work on them over the year, what opportunities I will have to do so, and so on.

Then I just need to read through everything, make sure it actually makes sense and has not just come out of nowhere from auto-pilot Mel. Then I’ll add in all the photos, create a bibliography and list of illustrations at the end, then I should be dooooone; Once I’ve actually printed everything off at college as well, and have it all bound together. I’m gonna be fiiiiine, she says whilst still procrastinating and making this blog post.

 

Me with deadlines in general.

 

Bibliography

D. Wong (16 Aug. 2018) How to Get Motivated to Study: 23 Tips For Students Who Procrastinate. [Online] Available from https://www.daniel-wong.com/2018/04/23/get-motivated-to-study/ [Accessed on 07 Oct. 2018]

Giphy (2018) Trump Consequences. GIF. [Online] Available at :https://giphy.com/gifs/trump-consequences-NTur7XlVDUdqM/media [Accessed on 07 Oct. 2018]