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!
29042019
Gonna get this minor even if it kills me. ☺
Just today I realised that swimming is a huge stress reliever for me. I had no idea that I was even stressed! It made me think about all the other stuff that I could do which might give me the same relief. This is what I came up with. 1. A nice nature walk 2. Hot cup of milk and a book 3. Running 4. Dancing (this one is kinda my favourite) 5. Taking a long shower/bath 6. Watching a comedy movie 7.Catching up on your favourite TV show 8. Writing 9. Photography 10.Working out There are so many other things that you can do. Singing! Or even sketching. Take your pick.
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)
1. Give teachers a chance. Maybe two or three chances. Even if their subject or the way they talk etc. is boring. Most times, it’s worth it - it will make you more interested in their class and you’ll learn things better.
2. If I’m ever stressed and need to chill, usually the things that work for me are:
taking a nap
talking to a friend about it
taking a hot shower
watching a funny/silly/cute tv show (my favorites are friends, brooklyn 99, steven universe or some slice of life/shoujo anime/k-drama).
3. always make sure you’re comfortable while you’re studying! I can never get through a long study session without having showered and changed into comfy clothes before starting it. Some people also like lighting candles and having nice snacks around, which are also always a plus! Just don’t put a lot of stuff into your ‘pre-study session’ routine; you’ll end up taking a lot of time to get ready and that can simply turn into procrastination and distraction. Just make sure you feel good enough to start and don’t forget to drink water!
4. I’m even gonna make this a single topic cause!! water is so important and useful!! Not only it helps keeping you fresh (specially if you add some cucumber or strawberries in it!) and focused, it’s also great to keep you awake if you’re feeling a bit sleepy. The effect doesn’t hit you as fast as coffee, for example, but it lasts much longer. Also caffeine is bad for you!! Make sure to not over drink it.
5. Always study keeping in mind how things are gonna fall on your test/exam. Make sure to write down the questions that your teacher asks while giving a test (and their answers, obviously) - these are quite often the things that will fall on your test and the teacher rarely ever writes it down on the board, so it might seem like it isn’t relevant, but it really helps you understand the thought process of the subject better.
6. Speaking of writing down questions, the Cornell Method has always worked really well to me, specially in History classes. It’s also great for memorization and revising!
7. This is something I’m still learning to do, but make sure to revise as much as you can! Doesn’t have to be a big revision; just looking through your notes at the end of the day/week (or even just after taking them!) helps a lot!
8. Please, please, always prioritize your mental health and sleep. You need energy and mental stability to study things properly. If you don’t, your brain won’t be able to select and properly learn all the things you’ve studied that day, you’ll feel super tired and dead inside and you will crash. It’s just not healthy. Don’t listen to the whole ‘you can go out/rest after you’ve passed your exams, it will be worth it’ or ‘my dreams are worth more than my sleep’ trend. Don’t do it!! It’s a trap. I know school usually makes you think you need to give your best always 110%, but a) you really don’t; give yourself some slack once in a while, you need it, and b) your best doesn’t have to be working your as* off ‘til 3am everyday. It might just be studying for 4-6 hours everyday. Or eating ice cream and watching tv shows all day at least for one day. Your body decides. Let it be.
9. Use actual flashcards when it’s a very difficult/new subject, not just online ones like quizlet!! (this is a tip I learned from this post)
10. eat well! also maybe try taking vitamins - especially if you’re a useless blob like me and you don’t play any sports! I’ve been taking goji berry capsules and they help me a whole lot, specially if I’m feeling sleepy. Actually any type of berry is great for boosting up your energy!
🍒some rly good posts I recommend:
‘study smarter’ by @sleeptalkz
‘how I increased my productivity by 3x’ by @brbimstudying
‘conquering math’ by @thestudyfeels
‘bujo trackers for getting your sh*t together’ by @etudiaire
‘types of breaks for every situation’ by @samsstudygram
🍒productivity/study life youtubers I like:
rowena tsai (love her, rly good tips on organization and just nice overall aesthetic)
ana mascara (I always watch her videos when I feel like I’m lacking motivation. Her videos talk a lot about that and discipline, and how you should always ‘be comfortable with the uncomfortable’; just 10/10 rly good motivational and actually useful videos overall).
That’s it! sorry if this was too long. I still have some tips left that I didn’t include in this post so let me know if you want me to do another one of these!
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!
Vincent Van gogh
“In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.”
“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
Plato
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything”
“Love is a serious mental disease”
Jane Austen
“ One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”
“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
Audrey Hepburn
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
Bill Gates
“If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.”
“If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?”
“Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.”
Alice Paul
“There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it.”
“I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic.”
“When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row.”
Ghandi
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
Cher
“ Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.”
“If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at every time in your life.”
“Women are the real architects of society.”
Charles Dickens
“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.”
“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”
Marilyn Monroe
“I don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.”
“Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she’ll conquer the world.”
“It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far.”
so i finished my first year of college last month and thought i’d share things i learned and advice on entering and starting your first year
keep a planner
take advantage of student id discounts
try to go to class as much as possible
in cases that you don’t go, make sure you have a friend, or at least someone who will fill you in and give you notes, in each class
network as soon as you can and as often as you can
wait a week or two until you purchase your textbooks, people aren’t lying to you, they’re expensive as fuuuccckkk, you’ll want to wait for multiple reasons because in some cases you never even end up using the book, or your library has it and you can just borrow it for free
wear flip flops in the shower if you don’t have your own bathroom
speaking of, go to the bathroom before class
set multiple alarms
take advantage of as many opportunities that come your way as possible
MAKE CONNECTIONS
have a very, very open mind
watch your drink
watch your friend’s drinks too
never, ever, ever, ever, ever, under ANY circumstances, drive while intoxicated or get into a car with a driver who is
get to know your professors
do the extra credit, it’s rare
back up your files
if you take your laptop with you somewhere bring your charger as well
take the stairs, seriously, a little goes a long way
99.9999% of people don’t give a shit about what you were in high school
try to plan and work ahead
never travel alone late at night
don’t hesitate to ask for help—material that took a week to learn in high school can be taught in one lecture in a college class, no one will slow down for you or help you unless you speak up
participate in class
again, talk to your professors, it’s good to in general, and you never know how they can help you outside of class
if you have a problem with your roommate, if you’re not getting along with them, or it’s not working, do something about it ASAP
keep in touch with those you care about, don’t burn bridges
it’s ok if you don’t make friends immediately, it took me awhile to find people i could truly be satisfied with, sometimes it happens when you’re not looking
take this to heart: do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do before. the best things i did this past school year were things i never tried in high school, going on trips with people i didn’t know, who i now call some of the closest friends i have, and going on service work trips out of state
build up your gpa in the beginning by taking classes that are not as tough in your first semester, a gpa is harder to bring up than to knock down, tldr; start strong, start easy
grades matter, BUT, don’t sacrifice your health and well being for them
get enough sleep, you can, i did
don’t base your decisions off what other people would think but if something goes against your morals, stick with your morals
take care of yourself and your body, just because it’s free does not mean you have to eat it, college is the perfect time to make your physical health crash and burn but it is also the perfect time to start having a healthier one
take the time to check over assignments you’re submitting
ratemyprofessor.com is your bff, use it and reference it
sign up for a variety of activities and test out the water to see what you like most
early classes are not that bad
attend campus events
know what’s going on on campus, don’t be clueless in your own environment
get involved in clubs and groups that are associated with your major…but also stuff that isn’t
and if a group/organization that’s associated with your major, like for me PRSSA, has a membership fee, it’s probably worth it
explore your city, campus, downtown….
try to get an internship before it’s required
get a LinkedIn account
always keep an umbrella and a phone charger on hand
make friends with as many people as you can, but don’t “collect” friends, ya know?
go to job fairs/career fairs
it’s ok to stay in sometimes and just j chill
decorate and personalize your room
when preparing to register for classes, make a mock schedule first
find a mentor(s)
first impressions are a big fucking deal
you don’t have to put on a ball gown, but put an effort into the way you represent yourself
make a budget
“Doing your best” does not mean working yourself to the point of a mental breakdown.
// 09.20.18 // annotations for a study in scarlet which we are reading in my adv. comp class!
For those of you starting college soon:
- everyone is scared - I’m scared of college and it’s my 3rd year - but I know it will be okay once I get into the routine - people don’t care what you do - people sleep in weird places - and wear pajamas to lots of places - and you make friends in unlikely places and times - friends will come and go - you might change your mind on majors - but you will be okay - you are going to do so great 💕