Metacognition: First Semester English

The first semester of my sophomore year has been a busier one than ever, what with my schoolwork and extra-curriculars weighing down on my ability to function and cutting into my prefered amount of sleep. It has also caused me to carve out some methods in order to be more efficient in my thinking and learning, especially in english class, which has been more of a help to my academics than I ever could have hoped for.

This way of thinking involves learning how to spread out my attention on a single task over several hours or days or weeks, whichever is the most productive. Last year, I had the issue of reverse-procrastination. I felt the need to finish everything the instant I got it and often stayed up much later than necessary in order to ensure that it got done as soon as possible. This was the biggest problem in english, where I had long essays which were meant to be a collaboration of many days of thinking.

This year, I've come to the realization that I'm not expected to do anyting of this sort, not even by the teachers who assign the work. It turns out, I do my best writing when I come back to my work a day later to bring in "fresh eyes" and a more critical mind. My method is more efficient when spread over a week or more. So I started the year with a new attitude which has developed over the course of the semester into the best possible version of itself. I maintain an element of "hyper-efficient productivity", but not so much that it inhibits me from participating in cross country, orchestra, speech team, or other activities I have passion for. In fact, I was surprised at how easily this change came to me, and therefore I was confused about why I hadn't figured this all out last year and saved myself some sleep.

I generally like the way I work; after all, it is the way I've been doing things for my entire academic career. It's tailor-made to my learning style and speed of thought. But I know there is still more that can be done to aid my work ethic, like learning to study more in one sitting, thus lengthening my attention span. I can also try to fix my propensity to zone out in class during discussions of literature, which I've found myself falling into more and more this semester. in increasing amounts, I'm learning things about myself and my personality that I would have immediately passed off in an inability to change and adapt last year. And that in itself is a clear academic achievement.