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As most people are working and studying from home right now, I wanted to share some concrete, implementable ways you can help yourself feel better. Though I believe productivity and quantity of work done (or lack thereof) doesn’t/shouldn’t translate into your self-worth and how you view yourself, when you get work done, you actually do feel better in your own body.
By the way, it’s the first time I’m formatting a tips/guide post like this, so I apologize that I couldn’t be more concise.
I’ve spoken to a licensed professional counsellor as well as to some professionals who have been working from home for a long time, and some of the advice above is from them. I’m also sharing from my own experience as someone who used to be very productive and an (ex-)overachiever, and still attach a lot of my self-worth to grades and other tangible accomplishments. I hope these slides can help you. In case it’s hard to read, I’ve included it (reworded) in text form if you’d like to read more.
Keep reading
I’ll continue the list as I find more links
Last Minute Revision Tips
Revising for Exams
How to Revise Algebra
(GCSE) English Language Revision
Mindmaps for Essay Based Subjucts(English, etc)
Revision Techniques for Different Learning Styles
Alkynesofstudy’s Revision Tips by @alkynesofstudy
Useful Symbols and Abreviations for Faster Lecture Note Taking by @studyquirk
How to Maintain Good Notes by @skeletonstudy
Active Reading and Textbook Note Taking by @studyquirk
Exams and Light Note Taking by @goddesszilla
The Cornell Method by @eyeofravenclaw
Guide to Aesthetically Pleasing Notes by @areistotle
Upgrade Your Notes - Masterpost by @studylou
Math Resource Masterlist(Links to Revision, Test, Exam, and Notetaking Tips)
Khan Academy:
1. Biology
2. High School Biology
3. AP Biology
CrashCourse Biology
Khan Academy
CrashCourse Chemistry
Academic Phrase Bank Masterpost by @jwstudying
Guide to Writing Papers by @universi-tea
Planning Out a Paper by @samsstudygram
How to Annotate a Novel Efficiently by @mildstudies
Essay Basics for AP English Lang & Lit by @novanovelist
Writing an Academic Essay (Tips and Advice) by @suhylastudies
Substitutes for “And” by @englitmotivation
Synonyms for “Suggests” in Essays by @justkeeprevising
Synonyms for “Consider” by @justkeeprevising
How to Write Commentary on Both Prose Fiction and Poetry by @smartspo
Types of Narration by @literally-studying
AP English Language Study Guide by @acedemic
Tips for The Literature Student by @a-students-lifebuoy
How to Write a History Paper by @thehistorygrad
Tips for Studying History by @universtudy
Tips to SLAY Your AP History Essays by @apeurostudymaterials
Tips for History Class by @night-studying
How to Write an Essay: History Edition by @ccllege
Evaluating Historical Sources by @smartstudy
A note:
If I miscredited any of the links, or if you find a broken link please let me know!
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When studying, most people try to find motivation thinking that this will get them through their study session, or they will see their failure as a result of a lack of motivation. But motivation isn’t always what we need - what do you do on the days you have no motivation? This is why we need self-discipline.
MOTIVATION VS SELF DISCIPLINE
Motivation - a willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. A goal or reward that you look forward to that will encourage you to study - while this is useful, what happens on a day when you just don’t feel like studying?
Self-Discipline - making yourself do things you know you should do when you don’t want to. Being trained to routinely study regardless of how unmotivated you are - this is what will get you out of bed on a day you don’t feel like studying.
So if motivation is ‘why we should do something’ - self-discipline is more ‘what to do next’.
HOW TO BE SELF-DISCIPLINED
Make a commitment with yourself that you will make studying as your habit. This is super important. Commit yourself to make this as your new habit. Don’t half-ass any of these suggestions or any other suggestions that other people give. Don’t give yourself silly, illegitimate excuses in the process. For this, you can do it by remind yourself on what your long-term goals in life are. Or if they don’t sound rewarding enough, remind yourself what failure feels like/ could feel like.
Set yourself a routine and stick to it
Never have a zero day - try and study every single day - even if you feel absolutely awful - 10 minutes is better than nothing!! Do flashcards from your bed or watch youtube ted talks if you can’t physically study. This will help help develop a routine and make it easier for you to cope. Also, by studying everyday your brain will know that the content you are learning should be stored as long-term information so this will benefit you in the long run!
Avoid long breaks. Unless you know that taking an hour long break means only an hour, then you can ignore this. But fo the majority of us, once we’ve taken a while out of studying it can be hard to get back into it again. One minute you’re taking a 20 minute break for a snack and some phone time and the next thing you know you’re on Youtube and four hours have passed! To avoid this, try stick to shorter breaks - five or ten minutes for a snack break, toilet break and to check any phone messages. A good method to try for this is the Pomodoro Method!
Build on your productivity, not your failures.
If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once. Start things slow and in steps.
Set yourself smaller deadlines for your goals like monthly and weekly deadlines - e.g. if you are doing a project, due 27th June, set personal deadlines, like have the introduction written by the 8th, have your literature review written by the 15th, have project complete by the 25th.
Break down the things that you must do into smaller, concrete activities and put those smaller activities in that to-do list; allocate specific time periods to do each smaller activities and put it the to-do list as well; set an alarm reminder for each smaller activities. Say you have to study for English on Tuesday, because for whatever reasons you just decided to dedicate your time this Tuesday to study English. However, I’d suggest that you break down that specific activity (or “daily goal”) before putting it in your to-do list. So, instead of just putting “study for Physics”, try putting “read and highlight Chapter 9″, because putting very general/broad activity like “study English” can actually make you too confused on where and how to start doing it, and make you very prone to distractions in the process.
Know your limits. Self-discipline isn’t doing as much as you can until you break - it’s about having control, knowing what you can realistically manage and getting that done.
Give yourself rewards! I love to have something to look forward to as I get work done! This means mixing motivation and self-discipline. I tell myself after this lecture I can have an animal crossing break or check some messages etc.
Track your progress – don’t forget to put a checklist on your to-do list after accomplishing a task. It would relieve your stress a bit and motivate you to continue doing the remaining activities on your to-do list.
Remove distractions from your study space! Personally, if my phone is out and I notice a notification…I’m gonna check it. It’s human nature! So to combat this, I use apps like Forest that force me to stay within the app while I study. If I know I might get hungry during a study session I’ll keep a little snack by my desk so I don’t have to get up and somehow find something else to distract me.
Just do it isn’t that easy. I find to get myself in a ‘work boss’ mood I need to feel good about myself so I put on a nice outfit and maybe some eyeliner and hype myself up so I know I can do my tasks and get stuff done! It feels so much better than lazing in my pyjamas trying to study.
Be patient. It’s going to be a rough journey, it’s going to be hard but you’ve got this! Take it one step at a time. Start off by completing one task a day, then move to two, then three, and the next thing you know, you’ll have a regular routine where you will constantly be ticking off your to-do list everyday! But remember to be kind to yourself, know when your body is not in the right state of health to study and don’t force it. Only force yourself to a limit, you’ll know when to stop and that’s okay. Just try again when you feel better! Your health is much more important!
19.01.01 kinda distracting but cute study buddy
go down a wikipedia research hole by clicking the first term you don’t understand
binge a crashcourse series end to end (personal recs: world history, history of science, big history, philosophy)
find free books on project gutenberg
download some western classics for free
borrow books and audiobooks from the libby app or borrowbox
start a commonplace book
take a khan academy course
browse MIT’s free online course materials
teach yourself to code
go on a google scholar essay dive
try the open access button to avoid some paywalls for academic media, or install unpaywall that does a similar thing
research the history of the place you where you live
tempt the wrath of the duolingo owl and learn a language
search for online streams of the local tv in your target language’s country and use as background noise for immersion points
print and scrapbook favourite poetry and literature quotes
improve your handwriting by doing handwriting exercises
learn philosophy with the philosophize this! podcast. actually just check out all the educational spotify podcasts there are many good ones
start a weekly club with friends to share new and interesting things you’ve learnt that week
clean and reorganise your study space, physical or digital
check out online museums
fave educational youtube channels that I adore: vsauce, crashcourse, smarter every day, kurzgesagt, school of life, tom scott, r. c. waldun, vsauce3, primer, mark rober, veritasium, asapSCIENCE, scishow, TED-ed
hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy! happy learning x