Psychology

To achieve any objective there is need for plan and great commitment. A plan to improve or reduce a behavior should be well articulated with some controls laid down to assist one in evaluating the progress. This paper is a summary report of my studying behavior design and implementation which was aimed at eliminating the deficit in my study so as to achieve a better grade and consequently an A.

Specification of the problem
One behavioral habit influencing my studies is laziness resulting from a carefree attitude, which has almost become addictive to me. However, unlike eating and drug abuse, it does not involve craving for a dizzying puff or yummy bite, but rather the inclination to avoid a behavior that is strenuous and in conflict with our thirst for comfort and easy life.  In regard to school life, laziness manifests itself in the form of a dislike of academic work, since it takes much of ones time and, as my friends would say, takes the pleasure out of college life. Why would I huddle myself in a cold library instead of enjoying watching Camerons latest fictitious sensation Avatar  And what better way to kill a lousy evening than a pub-crawl with the men That is what I believed until I saw the delayed consequences of my laziness in black and white, literally- on my end term script.

Consequently, my present trend in academic performance isnt what I aspire for at the end of my course. My scores fluctuate between Cs and Bs, which I attribute to the little time I spend studying for much of the term, procrastinating studying course work notes for a movies and television programs, house chores, doing assignment improperly and rushing over course notes when the exam time table is out.

Setting of goals
In this regard, I want to develop an effective studying lifestyle with an aim of improving my overall academic performance to A grade. The result of the exam done within four weeks will be part of the evaluation and I will use this information to project the long term goal of improving my overall academic performance in my course work. As such, the studying behavior I intended to emulate was a habit that would enable me to be ahead of course lecturers in class work and finish course work long before exam time. This means I will have to reduce the time I spend on watching movies and television programs, thoroughly and properly doing my assignment and reduce the house chores to the minimum possible. I also intend to have study partners whom I shall be meeting with to discuss various concepts in the course work. Within four weeks, I projected to have revised and updated all previous course notes in each subject. By the end of the fourth week, I had aimed to be one chapter ahead of the course outline. Similarly, I should have short notes prepared while revising for every subject. And finally, I should be in a position to sufficiently tackle class work exercises and answer questions on covered topics with limited reference to course notes.
My simplified model

SHAPE   MERGEFORMAT
To achieve this end, I made a personal commitment to ensure that I adhered to the outlined conditions. They include
The knowledge that my future depended entirely on my academic performance.
The need to secure a good job with a salary that will sustain the kind of life I dream of I realized that I must post good grades.

We live in a capitalist society, and therefore the job market is choked with competition among thousands of graduates churned out of each year by universities and colleges, and only a fraction of them get absorbed into their dream jobs.

The law of natural selection favors the fittest, and apparently natures hidden hand is at work out there. If it is survival for the fittest, then I must be fitter than the fittest to have an edge.
To remind me of this fact each possible moment, I had a text on my cell phones screen that read A million brains seek your job day and night. Each time I flipped the flap on my way to a friends room, it glared at me with a mockery that changed my route- to the library. In my house, directly facing you as you entered was a scribbling on the wall that asked What did the Prof. said today about what he said last week It was a sure way of racking my brains and, inevitably, taking a moment to peruse through the last weeks notes. Another one read Bill Gates did not drop out of college he was doing the best of what he was doing when he was doing it. What are you doing now
Targets to show that I have achieved objects
When I have updated all my notes
When I have covered the course outline in tandem with he syllabus
When I have studied one chapter ahead of class timeline
When I can sufficiently answer class assignments and questions on covered areas.
Making a commitment to change

The importance of letting others know what you are up to is the pressure and challenges it imposes on you. For these reasons, I hinted to my close friends, most of them fellow classmates, that I was aiming to score above B grade in all subjects in the end term exams. I also created a list of benefits such as good grade consequently good job, improvement in performance, good preparation for exams and avoidance of fail in exams. I put the list near the place I wrote my exam results.  To emphasize on my commitment I put copies of my antecedents and list of benefits on the first page of my notes books.

Data collection and analysis
My data was included numbers of hours spent on private study, number of times I watched movies and television programs before and after studying, number of hours I spent in the study partners groups per week and the work covered. My data also included the grades scored in all exams. I also recorded the number of topics I revised per every subject. I drew a graph having the exams results against the hours spent in studying. I then compared this graph with the projected graph. I made it known to my friend that I am on a process of improving my exams results. On the other hand, the comparison of the projected graph against the resulting graph was a great help in determining whether my plan was working

My projected graph, (w) and the resulting graph,(x).
 SHAPE   MERGEFORMAT Creating an enabling environment

Next was the need to create an environment that encourages studying and at the same time limits the possibility of doing something else that is unrelated to academics.  To begin with, I took all my books out of the closet and placed them on the reading table where I could easily reach them. I love computer games, and I almost thought of keeping my laptop in a friends house. However, I needed it to search materials online and type assignments. Nonetheless, I uninstalled games programs and deleted my profile from Face book and Twitter. Until then, it never occurred to me that I spent at least four hours a day chatting with fictitious characters. Usually, it carried on to late midnight and as a result I slept till late morning. With the new order of things, I was able to wake up early for morning study. Similarly, I limited my TV watching to news and two programs in a week, and one movie on Friday night, strictly from 9 nine to ten.   I also committed myself to spending at least half of the private study in the college library instead of studying at home

Self control program
To manage my time properly in dedication to my new lifestyle, I had a time table that outlined my daily activities. Apart from lectures, I planned for personal studies which mostly involved revisions, updating lecture notes and preparing short notes as I revised along. I also had past examination papers that I used to gauge my progress. On weekends, I restrained from going out and switched off my phone when I was studying from my house.

From the beginning, I anticipated the possibility of relapsing in my commitment to a changed lifestyle. For instance, I envisioned the moment when I would blink my eyes one early morning to the sound of the alarm and mumble What the hell, it is only a quarter past four, and it is not as if Buffet Warren will call me upon graduation and surrender his position at Berkshire Hathaway to me Worse still, after a long session of yawning at the library, close the pages and think Why this self denial, not everyone in this library will get an A or drive a Mac because they numbed themselves reading books.

To counter such drawbacks, I needed a strong foundation upon which to frame my new studying behaviors. Thus, I frequently asked myself why I was doing it. The answers reflected back to my long term objectives and commitment. I reminded myself that schooling is like a kiln, of whose products the builders will chose the best bricks. To be the chief cornerstone, I needed to be fully roasted and un-cracked, if, once again, you see what I mean. Half baked and cracked bricks will end up in the pavements and driveways, which is not a very appetizing prospect, if bricks had the appetite. Besides, I wanted that dream job and the kind of life that God Himself would desire if he had the money. The bottom line is that my ambitions and dreams inspired me through my transitional period.

Conclusion
The relapse of behaviors such as preference to study from the house, watch television programs and movies I enjoyed most was a great problem to solve. However I achieved a lot in terms of improvement of my grades. It was a worthwhile experience which will lead me to my long run objective of achieving an A grade.