On March 13, 2015 the NYU Shanghai Health & Wellness Center organized a workshop on combating procrastination. The purpose of the workshop was to help students set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goals, develop action plans to realize their goals, and make commitments to changes for academic and life successes. During the workshop, students were given a number of tools and resources that will make the ‘procrastination monster’ a little easier to beat.
Yirui Wang, licensed clinical psychologist, suggested that students should set goals based on individual values to ensure that goals are meaningful and satisfying to complete. She emphasized the importance of breaking down large goals into specific, measurable, and achievable goals, pointing out that these goals should be realistic and students should be confident that they will meet them. To assist them with creating and tracking goals, attendees received a packet that included goal-setting charts with a place to list rewards and consequences for meeting or not meeting each goal. Wang also recommended creating daily, weekly, and term schedules to keep track of assignments, but not over-scheduling by allowing for breaks and relaxation.
This workshop is a series of the the 30-minute skill development workshops offered by the Health and Wellness Center. The workshops run every Thursday between 1:00 and 1:30 pm except the week of Spring Recess. Each workshop will be presented twice. Students will learn about how to deal with stress and mood changes; manage stress by eating balanced meals and improve sleep quality; and become a better speaker and listener.
