Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog. This post is gonna be a little different than anything I’ve ever done before, because it’s something I’ve never talked about on here! I’m going to introduce you to something called PGP.

PGP is a planning course that all Grade 9 PLP students have taken this past year (I apologize for all the acronyms). PGP is focused on improving us student’s work habits, goal setting, organization, and other life skills. Throughout the year, we’ve done several activities, read books and created artwork to represent our learning experience in PGP. However, this last project is especially important, as it’s our biggest and final project in PGP. It’s called a Time Machine, because the main idea of the project is:

What do you know today (PGP ideas, skills, habits) that you wish you had known before?

Now, I will tell you a bit more about my Time Machine. After, I will go over what PGP is, and what the three main sections of this course were.

MY TIME MACHINE

Click on the image above to read my story! 

For my Time Machine, I chose to write a story combining some key factors of PGP: Time Blocking, the Habits, and Calendars (part of Productivity/Time Blocking).

This story is a science-fiction story, and follows a girl named Nora. Something happens and she finds herself in an alternate dimension where, in a futuristic society, a high-strung schedule is applied to every single person; everyone has a purpose at all times. She is forced into this new life, where she quickly adapts to the constant usage of time blocking. However, all Nora wants is to go home. It’s up to her to figure out where that truly is.

What I know today that I wish I’d known before:

The reason that I chose these topics, especially Time Blocking, is because I would have valued them so much if I had had access to them sooner. One of the reasons Grade 8 wasn’t a very good year for me was because I wasn’t very good at organizing my work. I had messy binders full of papers, I lost work, I  got distracted when I wasn’t motivated by a clean, organized and productive working environment. If I had had access to Things, I could have had it so much easier planning out when to do what.

One of the major focal points in my story is the Calendars. These Calendars are essentially what construct the societies; everything takes place within them, perfectly timed. This is sort of a metaphor for what I’ve been able to do with my own Calendar. I’ve taken it and filled it with my classes, my activities, etc., so that they’re easily accessed and I can remember where to put and plan everything. I know now that this works wonders for my scheduling skills, so I definitely wish that I’d put in the effort to do this before.

Now that you’ve read a bit about my final project, I’ll get into the stages of PGP!

PRODUCTIVITY

I think that every teenager in high school will say, “I have a problem with procrastination!” And they’re not lying. Procrastination is the WORST. Buuut, PGP is here to help us try to procrastinate a little less, by giving us access to amazing tools to use for staying productive and on top of our work. For example, the app Things is the most helpful app I’ve ever used. Things is simple, clean and extremely handy for helping you keep track of all the things you need to do. I use this app all the time, to stay on top of my work, or plan something out.

Another app that I use a lot is the Calendar app. Calendar is great for planning out your day quite specifically. In Calendar, I have all of my classes, as well as my outside of school activities, plans, etc. This is so, so much better than having to bring up a photo of my class schedule before school starts to see my classes; Calendar even sends me reminders of what I have planned at certain times.

What I’ve learned from this section of PGP:

I’m going to continue using both of these applications. They’ve truly helped me stay on top of my work a lot better than anything else I’ve tried to do, and they help keep the procrastination at bay! Overall, this section of our PGP course is one of the most handy to me, and has definitely brought something into my life that I will keep using next year, and onwards. The immediate impact that these productivity apps have had on my organization may be small, but as I continue to use them, I know that I will improve even more.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS

You may have heard of this book before! The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens is a book by Sean Covey, all about something he calls the Seven Habits.

• Habit One: Be Proactive. Take responsibility for your life.
• Habit Two: Begin with the End in Mind. Define your missions and your goals in life.
• Habit Three: Put First Things First. Prioritize, and do the most important things first.
• Habit Four: Think Win-Win. Have an everyone-can-win attitude.
• Habit Five: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood. Listen to people sincerely.
• Habit Six: Synergize. Work together to achieve more.
• Habit Seven: Sharpen the Saw. Renew yourself regularly.

Each of these essential habits are outlines within the book as important life lessons than one can refer to. While reading this book, we also filled out workbooks with many questions, prompts and other activities to go along with the reading.  The Seven Habits was a good, informative book because for me, these habits are more than just sentences we can look at, they are things that one should live by. They’re the basic values that make up a person’s good personality, good attitude and good outlook on the world.

What I’ve learned from this section of PGP:

I’m grateful to have these principles outlines for me, for future reference. If I’m ever in a situation where I know that I should be doing something that I’m not, or vice versa, I can recall these Habits and remember whichever one is applicable with my situation. Plus, this book was enjoyable, and I felt like I was talking to a friend reading it, a guiding voice with only the intention of helping me out. My favourites Habits that I’m going to try and work on in the future are Habit Three and Habit Two. Habit Three, pertaining to making sure that I am on top of my work and life, and Habit Two, writing down my goals and defining them clearly so that I can make my way to achieving them.

GOAL SETTING

Finally, last but not least, we have Goal Setting. This was actually the first thing we learned about in our PGP course. Goal Setting was never my speciality, because I always find it hard to commit to things that may seem difficult at the beginning but can turn into something amazing. I learned a lot about how to set a good goal, or a SMART goal, by reading a book called What Do You Really Want by Beverly K. Bachel. While reading this book, we filled out forms, and were taught how to set good goals with successful outcomes.

What I’ve learned from this section of PGP:

While reading this book, one of the goals that I set was to learn how to skateboard. At that time I didn’t even own one! But I decided to go out and try to learn. For my birthday I got a nice skateboard, and my friend and I started teaching ourselves how to skate. At first, we were terrible, and I could hardly even stand on the board. But we stayed committed, and ever since, we’ve been getting better and better! I wouldn’t have known how to set this goal without the guidance of PGP’s information on how to set proper goals. I’m going to take away the perseverance with goal setting that I’ve developed as I’ve been using the SMART goal method, and the skills I’ve gained because of this method.

IN CONCLUSION…

So, if you’ve made it this far, good for you! I can’t believe that we’ve done all this work in PGP, and honestly, it’s pretty rewarding to be able to look back at the successes and failures, and assess them. As the year comes to a close, I think it’s a good idea to be reviewing all that we’ve learned to make sure that we continue to utilize the skills gained in PGP beyond the course itself. Personally, I’m very excited to see what next year brings for me, in terms of goals, principles, everything. I’m going to make a conscious effort to hold onto my PGP life skills, and I’m anticipating my continuous use of them.