What I Say: I Like Learning Languages

How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!

160718 it was weird Sunday and now is Monday already, is it me or recently time flies way too fast? and thank you so much for 2k, so many wonderful people following here make me feel proud and happy, I love this community cause I can talk with amazing people over my enormous shyness!

It’s not “uncool” to be smart and prepared and passionate and dedicated. Ignore people who say otherwise.

How to Finish

I drew this poster for Jon Acuff and his FINISH book tour. Big thanks to Jon for this collaboration, his book has some great ideas about how to complete creative and life goals.

If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.

unknown (via love-inspire-universally)

7.6.2016 // I am now one year closer to 30 and I’m realizing the glaring holes in my personal life. I got the news that I’ve been kicked out of my university temporarily due to poor academic standing this last year, and I’ve realized a lot of complexes while trying to deal with this awful break up. I guess heartbreak greeted me at the right time, because i now find myself extremely motivated to heal and grow independently, clawing to get out of this deep hole I’ve placed myself in after a string of poor decisions and destructive behavior. Here’s to another year around the sun, and the hope to be a healthier person when 27 knocks on my door. (one day I’ll post my spreads on time i swear)

7 Reasons you might be procrastinating and how to solve them:

I finally finished my final exams and also took the results , this year was a difficult year for me and also my last year of school which means next year i will be in university inshallah.

[10.23.18] 59/100 days of productivity

Study setup from last night. I love this coffee shop and its autumn colors! 

Background: @emmastudies

▫️R E A L I T Y ▪️

Since taking some time off Tumblr and coming back, I’ve decided to unsubscribe to the typical studyblr method of making notes look nice, of editing photos, and of romanticising my life. I understand that this will make my content less appealing on an aesthetic level, but I’ve come to really dislike a lot of the superficiality that being online perpetuates. I agree that beautiful study photos are just that: beautiful, awe-inspiring, and maybe even motivational, but I feel that often seeing these photos can dishearten others about their own progress, and often even those who post such photos feel locked in to appeal to the masses on a constant basis, which isn’t realistic or maintainable.

I can’t promise that I won’t edit my photos, that I won’t reblog aesthetically pleasing pictures, or that I won’t choose to withhold information about my student life, but I want to be more open about struggles as well as victories because even though most of us are just strangers on the Internet who know one another by username or first name, I feel that a lot of us go through similar struggles and cope with it alone (or more alone than need be) for the sake of appearances.

I am going to start using and tracking “realstudy” in addition to my own username, feel free to join if you want (or don’t, that’s cool too).

Mon xxx