Hey guys, I’m back! Today we are talking about PGP. If you don’t happen to know what this acronym is it stands for personal growth plan. PGP so far has been a course where we focus on 3 things goal setting, productivity, and habits. We focused on around 1 subject per term, and there was always a big activity to go along with all of the subjects.

Our first section was all about goal setting! We read a book called what do you really want, and throughout the book we did several other activities. We did goal tracking forms from the book, think it and ink it exercises where we handed in a dream board, lastly we did weekly reviews where we went over how the week went and our goals for the next week. The whole goals section was all about how to properly set goals and follow through with them.

Next we did productivity. We learned how to use two main apps and we also learned how to generally be more productive. First we learned all about things and how to set things like proper reminders on the app and how to use things in the best possible way to get stuff done. We then learned about time blocking and how to properly use the calendar so that you can use your time effectively. Even though we did a lot about using apps for productivity I think I was more impacted by the idea of productivity in life being important. I had never thought of productivity being that important, but the PGP lessons taught me that if you’re not productive you’re going to have a lot less time for the other more important and fun things in life.

Lastly we talked about the 7 habits! For that we read 7 habits of highly effective teens. Throughout the book we did booklets that corresponded with all the different habits and how the were grouped. The 7 habits was essentially a book about how to be more productive and successful in life. The habits were mostly ways to live your life, such as working with others, thinking win win, and sharpening the saw. I learned a lot of great tips from the 7 habits and a lot of the ideas from the book really stuck with me.

Of course with a subject this big we had to have a final project. This year we are ending with a giant project called a time machine. It is where you take all the lessons you learned in PGP this year and compile them into an artifact that you could put in a time capsule and give to yourself. We also had to pick a specific area that we wanted to focus on, I choose productivity!

For my time machine I wanted to focus in on what I had learned but I also really wanted to give myself tips. The whole point of this project was that it could help your future or past self and I thought tips would’ve been the best way to help me. The reason I chose productivity was because I think that is always the thing I’m going to have to work on the most, and if I could teach myself or give myself any tips I would always try to help myself work on productivity. I also wanted to talk a bit about some of the important goals to me and productivity and especially about habit number three from the seven habits. When I learned about habit three (putting first things first) it really stuck with me, and it was an idea that I take into every day life anytime I can.

Overall I have learned so much from PGP. I have become a far more productive person and have learned things about productivity that has made me a much more productive person in everything I do. I have also learned how to set goals properly, which I now do all the time and especially in climbing. Lastly I have taken some great ideas from the seven habits and started using them in every day life. And through all that I learned this year I think I made a pretty good final time machine as well. I think PGP has been a really great course for me so far this year, and I’m looking forward to next year!

See ya later,

                   Holly