In his book When The Science Of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink talks about the importance of timing especially
the beginning point , the ending point and the middle point.
Middle points have 2 benefits…
- It allows us to PAUSE🛑 REFRESH🚰 REFLECT 🤔 on what has passed in before the midpoint.
- It allows us to reflect how we can improve the 2nd half. It gives us a chance to breath and start over.
Middle points are everywhere
- mid day
- Half time ( in most sports)
- Mid month
- Mid year
- Mid quarter ( in business)
- Mid life- ( 40 years) makes us think how we lived their lives so far.
Or Midterms.
the point is.
You must CAPITALIZE on the middle points .
How do I assess my performance through self-reflection in this class?
As mentioned above timing is VERY important when you want to reflect on things. However, timing isn’t the only thing.
Keeping track of the score.
You can’t really reflect on progress when you don’t even track what you
are doing. YOU MUST KEEP A PHYSICAL EXTERNAL SCOREBOARD.(PES)
Imagine if the NBA didn’t have a scoring board …Players would have to keep counting their own score and their opponents score.
This would be counterproductive for 2 reasons
- Players would make more effort thinking about the score instead of about the game….
- They wouldn’t know where they stand ( if they are winning or losing)
Likewise you too should have a PHYSICAL EXTERNAL SCOREBOARD (PES) for classes……
My (PES) for CT 101
For my classes I use a zipper folder with a checklist for every week…..
Clearly defined tasks.
One very important element of the PES system is having clearly defined tasks. Your tasks must be clearly defined or you won’t know when you are done.
for me:
☐ #1 is crossed when I publish my blog.
☐ #2 is crossed when I post a comment on someone’s blog.
☐ #3 is crossed when I respond to someone’s comment or post another comment to another blog.
What have I learned the most? What is my greatest learned asset in this class so far? What skills have I developed , cultivated and displayed regularly in my posts? What do I know now that I did not know before taking this class?
1.Memes and trying humor.
I am not a funny person in real life. I am shy and awkward.
I never try to be funny in front of anyone, especially my classmates.
However, being behind a screen allows me to TRY.
(So far I am getting positive feedback about the humor I am using in my blogs.)
In blog #4 – I used only MEMES to tell a story about how memes are really art.
Check it out here : https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/to-meme-or-not-to-meme/
2. Ideas come can come from any where. Keep your mind open for them.
When I was writing blog #5 https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/6257-2/
The bet that changed our minds – a post about the power of using mental constraints for creativity.
I was stuckkkkkkkkkk
I was stuck on giving my blog structure.
You can’t have a story without structure.
I felt like I had the right pieces to the story but its just didn’t
f
l
o
w………………………………Smoothly.
One night that week I was watching the news
The reporter was talking about Dr. Seuss’s books .
then an idea struck me!
This reminded me of a blog I read 2 years ago about how dr. Seuss used only 50 words to write his best seller green eggs and ham.
I went back to the blog (which you can find here: https://jamesclear.com/dr-seuss
I decided to use Dr. Seuss’s story to start and finish my blog and link it to what I was writing about.
It worked.
3.Move things around until it feels right.
Sometimes the structure of the blog is obvious …. For example
In blog #2 https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/my-journey-with-ct101/
We had to use GIFs to capture our thoughts about CT101….
I decided to make 1 GIF for every single moment that I encountered with CT101 using chronological order ………
It worked really well…….HOWEVER
Most of the time, using chronological order is boring and doesn’t make a good narrative for non-fiction.
Like Legos…. sometimes we have the right pieces to the blog but there is no structure or story…..IT DOES NOT
f
l
o
w………………………………Smoothly.
To give your story structure.
Do this 3 step process
1.Break down the blog into different PARTS
2.Move the P A R T S around.
3.Connect each part to the next.
Example:
P A R T S
S P A R T
T A R P S
A P R T S
S P A R T
A R T P S
T A R T P
T R A P S
3 step process in action.
Example : blog 3 https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/to-meme-or-not-to-meme/
After creating 20 Memes … I felt like I had the bricks but it was time to build a house.
1st I grouped the similar memes together……
2nd I moved them around
3rd I started to fill out the gaps by connecting each each section to the next.
Slooooooooooooooooowly but surely the non-obvious narrative became obvious….
4. kill your darlings…..Sometimes you have to get rid of a section.
Writing takes a lot of hard work so sometimes you become attached to the parts that you worked hard to write…
We don’t want to let go of our hard work. We don’t want our hard work to go in vain.
However sometimes letting go of certain parts is what’s best for the overall story.
For my first blog….I had to write about what makes me happy on the internet… check it here: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/internet-therapy/
In my first draft I wrote down 2 things that made me happy on the internet
1.Finding good books and good book recommendations.
2. Reading YouTube comments.
I loved both parts. Yet they didn’t seem to fit into the same theme.
I decided to Kill #1.
After I killed #1 , everything fell into its place and the blog felt just right.
5.Make time to write…..
I am proud of all my blog posts besides blog # 6 which was about the website ideas.
Check out here: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/website-ideas/
I usually take 5-15 hours plus to write and edit my blogs because good writing requires full assed effort.
However on this blog I simply didn’t put in the effort and hours so it just came out crappy.
Do I see my weekly blogging work expanding creatively? If so, please explain – or am I stuck in a loop where my posts seem to look the same most of the time, how will I Change that?
Our own perception of how the semester will go …
Reality of how the semester will go …
Let’s be honest, we all can burn out sometimes…Especially with creative work.
That’s why you must PAUSE🛑 REFRESH🚰 REFLECT 🤔
if you don’t then your semester will end up like the second picture.
How am I doing in CT101? What grade do I believe I am maintaining?
What an easy question.
Obligatory bus driver selfie
