ironic procrastination

I studied with a mate yesterday... this is how many pens he uses to make his notes. 

reading recommendations is a thing I’m starting as a way of sharing cool or thought-provoking shit I find while studying/procrastinating. sharing knowledge is powerful and good, especially when it’s free (I’ll do my best to provide links and/or instructions on where to find this stuff for free, though if you have the $$, support writers/artists). you can view all my recommendation posts as they accumulate here, and you can suggest things for me to read over at my ask

stuff to read: 

e unibus pluram: television and u.s. fiction, an essay by david foster wallace. DFW is a bit of a wanker at times, and in a lot of ways this is a frustratingly ~white dude~ take, but he’s a beautiful writer and there’s a lot to think about in this essay. recommended if you’re trying to get out of a writer’s/creative block, if you’re interested in television, if you’re interested in procrastinating by having a long hard think.   

stuff to watch: 

two american families, a documentary about working class poverty in the US. important and very good. 

requiem for the american dream, a documentary about inequality in america as discussed by noam chomsky (if you don’t know who he is, google is your friend. he’s produced some very interesting work, especially in linguistics). this is a good primer on the forces that create and produce inequality in society. it’s available on netflix, which offers a 30-day free trial if you have a spare email address handy.  

hey there. if you’re still hanging around this blog, you may have noticed...not a lot happening this semester. the short version: I got busy. 

the long version: this semester has been one of the busiest of my life. I’ve been taking fewer subjects, but a much higher extracurricular load. it’s been incredible, and stressful, and very worthwhile. it’s also made me realise something I think we all probably know but sometimes ignore, which is that real productivity =/= studyblr. study time this semester has been scarce, which has made it fiercely productive, and fiercely productive is not glamorous - it doesn’t occur in flatlays, and it rarely occurs with my phone around to take pics anyway. so that’s one thing. 

the other thing is that posting to this blog has seemed a bit pointless in that it’ll usually end up being a similar pic to one I’ve already posted. I don’t buy a tonne of new stationery, and I’ve never found artsy notes a good or productive fit for me. my study looks pretty similar a lot of the time. I’m not interested in faking prettier or more interesting study, and I’m a bit squeamish as is about contributing to a trend that focuses more on consumerism and aesthetics than learning and knowledge. there have been some very good posts by other studyblrs on this, and while it’s certainly not true of all studyblrs (and is also not a condemnation of people who enjoy buying stationery and having pretty things), it’s important to keep in mind, especially in considering who this community locks out. 

i stood on a rolling office chair to take this pic it was dangerous

the state of my to-do list says a lot about the work I’m (not) getting done 

Hey :) I generally print my notes from onenote either straight from onenote, or by saving from onenote to PDF and then printing the PDF. Either way, I don’t touch the margins at all, just leave it on the program’s default settings. If you want to send me a pic of the problem you’re having I’m happy to take a look, but otherwise I don’t know if I can help much, sorry! 

I just wrote a long answer about motivation that you might find helpful, but the short version is this: motivation isn’t magic, it’s a muscle. Break things down into small chunks, break your goals into manageable steps, and do a little bit at a time. Do what you can do, forgive your mistakes along the way, and persist.