seeker

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

Remember these dates. #StudentLoans

Lately I have been reading a lot of articles for my master thesis project. I don’t know about you, but after a week of literature review I am not able to remember what each of the articles were about or if they had any relevant piece of information. That’s why I developed my “keep track of what you read” system. 

STEP 1 - organize your folders

Create a subfolder inside your project folder and give it a catchy name. I call mine “articles”, nice, huh? Then create a subfolder inside that folder and call it “to_read”. Now, every time you get a new article, you will put it into the “to_read” folder.

STEP 2 - give your PDFs a nice name

The default file name when you download an article is something ugly like “1-s2.0-S0140674607612379-main.pdf”. Change this for something that will allow you identify the article easily. I try to stick to the system “first_author (year)”.

STEP 3 - use the cloud

I have all my stuff stored in Dropbox or Google Drive. It’s the best if you are going to work from more than one device as it will keep your stuff synced and always accesible.

STEP 4 - create a reading log

My master thesis project is about auditory verbal hallucinations, language, and dynamic causal modelling, so I have to read articles about these three topics. To keep track of what I’m reading, I created an excel document in Google Drive with 3 different spread sheets, one for each of the topics. Now, every time I start reading an article, I open this document, I go to the spread sheet that fits, and I write down its title. 

STEP 5 - read the article and take notes

I am a color coder, so I highlight the articles as I read them. Something interesting? Yellow. Hypotheses? Green. Relevant results? Blue. Then I take some notes of the important stuff, either in my research notebook or in a Word document, depends on my mood. Once you are done reading, move the article from the “to_read” subfolder to the main “articles” folder. At this step, you could also consider to use a reference manager like Mendeley or EndNote, but that’s a topic for another time.

STEP 6 - update the reading log

Now write in your log a couple of sentences (or more!) about the article you just read, just to jog your memory in the future. You can also copy some quotes you think will be usefull in the future or references to other articles cited in the text that you might want to check later. It’s up to you.

STEP 7 - hyperlink

If you have everything stored in the cloud, you can add hyperlinks from your reading log to the articles and/or to the notes you took on them. If you took notes on a paper notebook, write down which notebook it is and the page number where you can find those notes (numbering the pages of your notebook is a must!).

Weekly Planners!

Plan your week out with these new planners! I’ve made 3 versions for you, and they’re available in 4 colors! 

Click below for all three versions:

Letter Grid:

White | Blue | Pink | Yellow 

Letter Gridless:

White

A4:

White Grid | White Gridless

Printable: Assignment tracker

Requested by @diyaanat

So, this one is for adding the assignments you do during the month, write down the due dates, fill the progress bar, include the grade you got and calculate how much of the percentage you have for every assignment and for the end of that month.

You can also give a color for each assignment and add the colors to the mini calendar on the right.

I included a little guide to use it on the subfolder.

I hope this one is useful!

Time management is always a struggle, but that’s okay! Hopefully some of these tips, apps, and printables will make your day a little easier.

Tips

Planning ahead: put together a schedule before you start your work. Start by writing out a list of all the tasks you need to complete and allotting times to them, and finish by putting them into a schedule of everything you need to complete.

Leave time for the little things: if you need to do it, make sure you schedule some time for it. For instance, if you need to sweep the floor,  or tidy up your workspace, make sure you schedule in fifteen minutes to make sure you get it done.

Most important first: schedule the most important assignments first and leave the least important to last. This will ensure that you put your best work into the most significant tasks, and don’t procrastinate.

Use your downtime: fifteen minutes on the bus?  In the waiting room before an appointment? Make the most of any time you have, and start to chip away at little tasks, like annotating a book or practicing flashcards.

Plan long term tasks: make sure you have a calendar or planner to look ahead. When you have large projects, look ahead so you can start to break them down into smaller segments. Planning ahead is also useful so that you can avoid piling too much work onto a busy day.

Schedule in time buffers: even if you’ve planned to the best of your ability, don’t schedule your time too tightly. Make sure that you leave a little time on each task— five to fifteen minutes, depending on the size of the assignment— so that if you go a little over, it doesn’t cause a domino effect by spilling into your next task. It also helps alleviate a little stress, as your schedule will be less rigid.

Apps and Websites

Toggl: lets you track how much time you spend on each task and project/class, and see a graphical breakdown by day, task, and week.

Trello: helpful for planning, and lets you sort tasks into lists. MaryPlethora has a great video here on how to use both as planning tools!

Pomello: a pomodoro timer which works alongside Trello to help you plan and time your tasks

Lanes.io: an excellent website which includes task lists, a to-do list, and a built-in pomodoro timer, along with gorgeous and customizable backgrounds

Google calendar: versatile online calendar for planning events and projects, with a to-do list and shareable calendars

Time Tracker: records your browsing and lets you know how much time you spend on each website to help manage procrastination

Printables

Schedule printables

Weekly planners from @intellectus

Daily printable from @aescademic

Daily planner from @arystudies

To-do list printables

Weekly to-do’s from @studeying

Daily to-do’s

bookboon // for accounting, business, economics & finance, engineering, IT & programming, languages, marketing & law, natural sciences, statistics & mathematics (+ career & study advice, strategy & management)

booksee // for arts & photography, biographies & memoirs, business & investing, computers & internet, cooking, entertainment, health, history, home, law, literature & fiction, medicine, references, religion, science, sports, travel, and other categories

boundless // for accounting, algebra, art history, biology, business, calculus, chemistry, communications, computer science, economics, education, finance, management, marketing, microbiology, music, physics, physiology, political science, psychology, sociology, statistics, U.S. history, world history, writing

california learning resource network // for mathematics, science, history

ck-12 // for elementary math, arithmetic, measurement, algebra, geometry, probability, statistics, trigonometry, analysis, calculus, earth science, life science, physical science, biology, chemistry, physics, sat exam prep, engineering, technology, astronomy, english, history

college open textbook // for anthropology & archeology, art, biology & genetics, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, engineering & electronics, english & composition, health & nursing, history, languages & communication, law, literature, math, music, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, science, sociology, statistics & probability

ebooklobby // for arts & photography, biographies & memoirs, business, computers & internet, cooking, entertainment, health, home & garden, law, literature & fiction, sports, travel

freemathbooks // for algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, applied math, probability, analysis, statistics, and other sub-categories of mathematics

global text project // for business, computing, education, health, science, social sciences

openstax cnx // for arts, business, humanities, mathematics & statistics, science & technology, social sciences

open culture // for art history, biology, business & management, chemistry, classics, computer science & information systems, earth science, economics & finance, education, engineering, history, linguistics, law, mathematics, music, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, sociology

open textbook library // for accounting and finance, business, management & marketing, computer science & information systems, economics, general education, humanities & language, law, mathematics & statistics, natural & physical sciences, social sciences

textbook revolution // for biology, business & management, chemistry, computer science & technology, earth sciences, economics, engineering, environment, ESL, health sciences & medical, mathematics, physics, society and social sciences, sociology, world history

+ bonus

bookstacks // popular classics

thriftbooks // buy used books that are still in good quality for a low price

Tainted Love played on 13 floppy drives and a hard drive.

Here’s to the beverage which keeps our readers and librarians alive.

Happy International Coffee Day everyone.

scholarships are the bomb!! free money to get urself an education!! here’s my best advice aaand resources for applying + getting some of that sweet sweet money :D

advice

use all of the databases!! the scholarships are right there for you. Take advantage of them, srsly!!! many let you input your criteria + they’ll match you up with some, and they help to organize your applications. You can subscribe to their newsletter and get alerts for new scholarships. there’s a whole bundle below all this advice to getchu started :D

start early + don’t stop: your eligibility for scholarships starts pretty much freshman year of high school, and basically doesn’t stop until you’re out of education, so take advantage of them!!! Logically, applying to more gives you a higher chance of winning one, so keep ploughing through them

don’t let essays scare you off: sweepstakes scholarships are easiest to apply for, but this also means they have more applicants. Do your best work + put time into essay-based scholarship contests, and up your chance of winning something!! Factor them into your normal routine like you would a homework assignment and just keep at it.

keep track of what you’ve applied for: seriously. Do it. It’ll motivate you when you’re not feeling like it, + keep you organized. Set up a spreadsheet (google sheets, excel, whatever floats your boat) and give it 5 columns: title of the scholarship, amount worth, whether or not you’ve applied, if you were successful, + the organization offering it. It’s also a great reminder of scholarships to reapply for next year.

check local scholarships: they’re waayyyy more restricted so the applicant pool is a lot smaller!!! Check your school, organizations you belong to, your parents’ companies, + local businesses. You’ll be competing against people in your town/county/district + it’ll give you a much better shot at winning. Check out your school’s website + talk to your guidance counsellors!

be specific: narrow down that applicant pool early. When you’re googling, look for scholarships that will apply only to you, so don’t just search ‘scholarships’. Look for ‘scholarships for bisexual women’, or ‘scholarships for international students’, or ‘scholarships for left-handed volleyball players’. Less applicants=better outcomes.

don’t apply to scams: be wary!!! Two big things: be careful of scholarships which want you to pay to apply, and guaranteed scholarships. Research pay-to-apply ones to make sure they’re legit. There’s more info here, here, and here on avoiding scholarship scams. Stay safe!!

scholarship databases

unigo goodcall scholarships.com niche scholarshipmonkey fastweb chegg cappex dosomething scholarshippoints nextstudent college board

more scholarship masterposts

college scholarships masterpost by @wonderstudying​ 

how to search for scholarships by @adamparresh​ 

scholarships! by @the-regular-student​

it’s ya girl’s college scholarship masterpost by @jesussbabymomma  

scholarship 101 by @thisexpedition​

scholarships: how to find them and apply by @futurecristinayang​

— 4th march 2016 —