COST Problem Solving

This week the Problem Solving task that I used was COST. I used COST for my WRT class and for CLS. I chose COST because sometimes when I'm in my study tables at manly I have trouble focusing. I seem to get distracted when there are a lot of people in the study rooms. COST allows me to analyze the current situation (the problem) and come up with a desired situation (what I want to be fixed). Once you know your desired situation you come up with a plan to help you fix the problem at hand. At the end of the week you can evaluate yourself to make sure the technique is working. If it hasn't been working the way you want it to you can make changes until it solves your problem. Me not being able to focus in study tables when there are other people around was my problem. I came up with a pretty good desired situation that I wanted to happen so I wouldn't get distracted and actually got my work done. I would even reward myself if I stuck to what my plan was. Because I couldn't do my work when other people were around I decided to go to my own private tutor room. This helped get away from all the noise and distractions. I decided I would set a timer on my phone and do 30 minutes of work straight. After the 30 minutes was up I would reward myself with a 5 to 10 minute break to socialize. This technique helped me because it allowed me to get a lot of work done in that 30 minutes but then it also had scheduled breaks for me. That way I wasn't taking a break every 5 minutes because I was getting distracted. The reason I used this technique in CLS and WRT was because I think the technique works best for writing assignments. It helps a lot with essays because I can actually sit down and have time to write with out getting distracted. The work that used to take me 2 1/2 hrs now only takes me about an hr to an hr and a half because I'm more focused and on task.