uni study blog

Hello this is Nina, your local depressed college girl that’s decided to work on turning her life around and starting the new year with a more positive and happy attitude.

I know there a hundreds of similar lists and tips out there but I just thought I’d get all my favourites in one place and that way maybe motivate myself to actually follow them for once. I know my wording isn’t the best but I tried. 

Here’s the few tips I’ve picked up so far and I hope they might help some of you if you are struggling a bit also:

Physical:

Space - your personal/work/study space plays a big role in making you feel productive and motivated. Doesn’t matter if its your dorm room, bedroom, office…you should make it your own as much as you can. Put a plant on your desk, get a nice picture for the wall, hang some fairy lights, get a fluffy blanket for your bed, repaint your walls in your favourite color if you can, just make it cozy and comfy and nice to look at and I guarantee you’ll start to feel better. Try to keep it clean and neat, I know it’s hard sometimes, but working in a clean space makes you ten times more productive.

Self care - start with physical things, drink those 8 glasses of water and keep a tab on it until you get used to it, use handcream everytime you wash your hands, put on moisturizer every morning and sunscreen when you go out, go for a walk around the park at least every other day, and for fucks sake go to sleep at a reasonable hour, you’ll be so grateful in the morning if you do. Show your body some appreciation. 

Mental:

Take some ‘me’ time - we might we don’t have time for this, but it’s so important we make some time. First thing in the morning, during the day or before bed, just take a few minutes and relax. Put on your favourite song, burn a scented candle, drink a hot cup of tea, sit down and just breathe. 

Be proud of yourself regardless - take that ‘me’ time and reflect on your day, pat yourself on the back for everything you did even if it was just getting out of bed. Life is a bitch sometimes and you should be just as proud of yourself for the little things. It’s okay to sometimes be lazy, to procrastinate, to not do anything. You aren’t a machine, you’ll burn out if all you do is work.

Appreciate the little things - on those lazy days it’s sometimes hard to not feel miserable about it. That’s when you should appreciate the little things in life. Get yourself that coffee you love so much and enjoy it, go to a roof, watch the sunset and appreciate the colors, take a photo of anything you find pretty and look back at them when you feel down…make yourself believe those moments made your whole day and suddenly it’ll feel like your life’s meaning isn’t just getting up and working/studying all the time, but enjoying everything you get to do and see in between too.

Other:

Find your interests - and stick to them!! We all like to give up on things if we aren’t immediately good at them. But no one was born an expert. And as cliché as it sounds practise does make perfect. Join a drawing class, a dance club, a writing class, get a course book on your target language, download editing softwear and play around with it, watch documentaries about your favourite subject. If you fall out of your hobby in the end it’s no big deal, but you’ll know you gave it a try and didn’t miss an opportunity to learn something new. 

Journaling - this might not be for everybody, but I found it helps me clear my mind a lot to put my thoughts on paper and have everything organized in written form. I just love having all my things in one place where I can just look and see where I’m at, whether it’s plans for the day, my thoughts, my playlists, pretty pictures, anything really. It’s also a great way to be creative. 

Today started later than I anticipated, but at least I caught up with sleep!

Now to to write a weekly review, crack on with my assignment and start to mentally prepare for my first placement!! Busy busy 💻

not going to uni

taking as much time as needed before going to uni

changing your majors many times before finding what you like

changing your career path

not knowing what you want

attending a community college 

last semester i was very scared about the essays i had to write. in spanish, after the first two semesters, all exams are more or less essays you have to write during semester break. i had never written an essay before, at least not at university and let me tell you: the first one was a mess. i had no guidance. nobody told me how the f*ck i should write an essay. it took me so long to finish, i had no structure, my citations were messed up, but it was also a learning process. i pulled through and the marks weren’t that bad. now i’m writing my fourth essay and i must say, it get’s so much easier after the first one. so here are some tips for your first essay or maybe even for people who have already written some university stuff.

the first step is always finding a topic. i would suggest a little research. go find some books in your library or even google scholar will do it (honestly, due to covid-19 i write all my essays with internet resources and it’s working perfectly fine!). 

google scholar even gives you citations (be careful though! always check twice) and shows articles related to that topics so you can build a strong bibliography.

read some general articles about the topic and find something that interests you. i love using notion for this step. they even have a thesis-template i adjust to my needs and use. i can copy the link to the source, write down author, year, title and form of publication and have everything in one place to quickly find it. 

i even use it for a small timetable.

now do a more focused research and narrow it down. at my first attempts i made the error to choose a wide and very unspecific topic. therefore it was quite difficult to write everything important on only 15 pages. so try to choose a small topic and put enough research into it to write your requested pages. after finding a topic try to phrase a hypothesis. ask yourself a question you want to answer after writing this essay. think about possible answers (this first hypothesis doesn’t have to be right! you will certainly find the answer while writing). a big tip is also talking with your prof! present them your research so far and talk about the question you want to answer in your text. they are going to tell you, if this sounds good to them or if you messed up. doing this at the beginning is so much easier than afterwards, i promise.

before you start writing you should organise your thoughts and resources. thanks to @honig-prinzessin​, who introduced me to citavi, i can now organise my citations in one programm. 

for most university students this should be free, just look it up at the website of your uni. i don’t want to go into too much detail but you can create an overview of the topics you want to talk about and arrange all relevant citations below that. i find this system very easy to use! 

what i like to do afterwards is organising my thoughts and arguments. i write a small plan of what i want to talk about exactly at what point in my essay. i used to simply start writing but this resulted in a big mess- in my head and on paper. 

citavi even has a word extension so you just have to click to transfer your citations plus bibliography into word. really useful!

now start writing(oh it sounds so simple…). it doesn’t matter how bad the first draft is, just get it out of your head. make sure you use all guidelines your uni has for essays: font, size, layout, how to quote, etc.

when you finished the essay ask someone to read over it. get a second opinion. check again if you did your quotations right (don’t want to get accused of plagiarism!). and then just send it off. honestly, i hate editing the most. i don’t want to read my bad wording. and be proud of yoursef! 

this is stuff that i’ve found helpful and am in the process of working on. they may not be achievable for you without help and may not work for your specific circumstance, but this is a list of suggestions that you might be able to think about. i am also not a mental health professional so please do feel free to contradict me!!

self soothing.  having a toolbox to take care of yourself by yourself. bc sometimes nobody else is available and you just gotta put some lotion on, listen to a tune, and go to bed early. 

checking in. checking in with yourself to see if you’re okay. knowing how to alter your strategies when your strategies aren’t working. knowing when your strategies aren’t working. this is just taking some time every day to reflect on what goals you didn’t meet and why and what you can do to fix that.

there’s nothing you “should” be doing. if you get caught up thinking “i should be doing x” that’s false! stop that! “should” be doing better implies that you have some obligation to do whatever it is that you “should” be doing. you don’t owe anybody except yourself. analyze why you think you should be doing that thing and change that into…. “i want to be doing x because…” or “doing x will make me happier, because…”. overall, more productive and less self-shamey. 

disconnecting from the crowd. eating in a crowded dining hall can be stressful! knowing how to be alone in a crowd and stay calm is helpful

being okay with being alone.  tbh college is kind of… being alone a lot, in my experience. even though you’re surrounded by people, a lot of time is spent alone. making friends is hard. your friends have different schedules. you’re busy. shit sucks. we make the best of it.

knowing yourself. this relates to a lot of what i’ve already said but like. knowing your emotional state and knowing what helps trick the monkey brain is helpful. stop repressing your feelings, friends.

talking to strangers. ordering from a menu! paying library fines. going to office hours. asking for a cashier at the register if there isn’t one. ya this is hard. ya you gotta expose yourself. sometimes i just try playing a persona. like this isn’t me ordering a sandwich. this is a cool me who knows how to talk to people who is ordering a sandwich.

you don’t have to be friends with your roommates. you just have to live together in a way that doesn’t make you two hate each other. ideally, you two will coexist in a way that doesn’t interfere with the other’s daily life.

give and taking. on the topic of roommates, sometimes your roommate can be a shitty person, but sometimes you are the shitty person! give a little but if they’re negatively impacting your life, communicate.

communicating during disagreements. explain what your emotions are instead of blaming them. “i feel hurt when you…” or “i feel frustrated when” or “i feel unappreciated when.” if things get heated, ask if you both can take a ten minute break and then come back. and don’t bring up disagreements when the other party is preoccupied or going somewhere. you can legitimately schedule a discussion.

it’s okay to apologize. learning to swallow your pride gets easier each time.

knowing that people work differently than you. some people are not gonna click with you and it’s gonna seem like they have this whole brain process up there that is totally unlike yours. and yeah! that’s how it is. and that’s chill if they aren’t hurting anyone else. work with them and be flexible!! 

comforting people. you will probably/definitely see someone cry! hell if i know how to comfort people. someone please help. but some things i’ve learned are: 1) different people need different things. different people need different things! 2) people need different things at different times. 3) you can ask them what they want and it won’t be weird. 4) apparently a lot of people like hugs? but ask. and it’s okay to not want a hug. 5) just show that you care in some way if you don’t know what they need. i used to think that if somebody needed to tell me what they needed it was a sign that i just didn’t know them well enough and we weren’t compatible or i wasn’t being a good friend. that’s fake! friendship isn’t based off of fitting naturally in every way and making an effort to be good for them is important.

knowing it’s okay to not be liked by everyone. it’s okay if strangers think you’re dumb because you said something dumb in public. you know you’re not dumb. it’s okay if not everybody you meet likes you. it’s okay if you do something cringey. everybody has their own shit to deal with and you will not shatter their world.  grow and move on!

forgiving yourself. i’m trying this new thing where when i feel embarrassed about something i say. out loud. “i forgive myself.” and then i just try to grow from that and move on without getting caught in a spiral of shame.

knowing what you need vs what you want and what is better at the time. what you need: a shower. what you want: to not do that. solution: take a shower! or maybe what you actually need is to go to sleep? but guess what. you probably know what is good for you. the hard part is actually doing it.

realize that building habits is less work than discipline. emotional effort is expended every time you have to make yourself do something. just make it part of your routine and you’ll just think it’s normal to do all the good things! like, for example, i’m trying to make it a habit to eat structured meals instead of a “eat when i’m hungry” thing because i know that makes me skip meals, which is bad!

you won’t be able to do everything. forgive yourself for that. write down  things that are top priority and focus on them. everything else is not important right now and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for not being able to do them.

your health is important. i’m not saying health will solve all your problems. it won’t! but health will cause a lot of your problems to go away. because let’s face it. not sleeping causes a lot of problems. 

if you have 5 minutes...

watch a TED talk

light a candle

paint your nails

put on a hair/face mask

splash your face with cold water

walk around your house

stretch

have a small snack

make a cup of tea/coffee

clear your desk

if you have 10-15 minutes...

watch a longer TED talk

watch a youtube video on studying/something educational

do some yoga

go for a quick run

have a shower

make a smoothie

power nap

workout

organise your desk

if you have 20-35 minutes...

watch a longer TED talk

watch one short episode of a tv programme

do a longer workout

go for a longer run

go for a walk

bake something

call a friend

if you have 40-60 minutes...

watch a documentary

watch one longer episode of a tv programme

go for an even longer walk/run

have a bath

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

1: if you’re making a study guide: make it like you’re going to give it to somebody. I always make them like I’m going to give it to Hannah. What would she need to know? How’s the best way I can tell her this info?

2: if you’re making flash cards: don’t make ones for stuff you already know just to have a complete set of 40 or something. Make 3 flash cards if 3 quick things is all you need. Make them even for subjects you wouldn’t normally think you’d need them for. Chemistry concepts are great for flash cards especially those little concept hints that help direct what is happening in your reactions etc

3: Stop after a few sections of reading and make sure you actually can recall what you just learned and summarize it. Did you actually learn it or did your eyes just read the words?

4: Spend more time on your homework each week and you’ll need less time studying later. I cannot stress this enough. Do your homework the right way the first time. Actually struggle through the problems, get answers from your TA on the ones you can’t do WEEKLY then when the exam rolls around, you won’t have 4 chapters you kinda understand and a million level 1 practice problems you need to complete so you’ll have more time for practice exam level questions.

Read More, Read Better

Many of us are looking for more ways to enjoy our time at home in these stressful circumstances. Some of us have turned to books. But how can we make sure we get the most out of them?

📘13.10.20 📘

today’s study spread – currently back home for thanksgiving weekend, playing lots of catch up on notes + readings 📚💻☕️

09 oct 2020 ; day 9: studyblr community challenge

here’s me attempting to process all my commitments and get myself together (I’ve done computer work for so long my handwriting has gone so bad alskdbvld)

ft. the lovely “the little prince”-inspired necklace that arrived today!

what’s the worst thing about studyblr in your opinion?