medandtea

it’s almost time to go back to school, and the transition is never easy, but you can help ease yourself back into the swing of things this next week!

day one:

get your schedule back on track

after three months of no school, I’d guess that you haven’t exactly been waking up early very often. start getting back into the swing of things by slowly adjusting your bed time starting tonight.

day two:

tidy up

clean your room up so that you don’t have to worry about it later! bonus points for cleaning out your closet and donating anything you don’t want to charity, so you have more room and someone else has a new outfit to wear on their first day. 

day three:

go shopping!

but only some of them. hold off on the things you’re not sure you’ll need, but pick up the essentials today (pens, pencils, those super cheap comp notebooks).

day four:

get organized

now’s the time to get things in order before your schedule is filled back up again. whatever you need to do to come home stress free after your first day of school, do it now!

day five:

set some goals

write down some things that you want to accomplish in the next year and put them up in your study space. be specific so you’re more likely to follow through! check out this article on smart goals if you haven’t already.

day six:

relax!

don’t waste this last little bit of summer! go spend time with your friends, check off the last things from your bucket list, or take this last opportunity to spend a whole day doing nothing.

day seven:

get all the last minute things together

pack your backpack, double check your schedule, lay out your clothes, pack a lunch and make something to eat before you run out the door have everything ready so you can have a relaxed morning and a great first day of school!

HOW TO APPROACH CLASSES A guide to getting the most out of your classes and lectures

By Eintsein

open for better quality!!! i thought i should make a masterpost (@ part 1) of all of my favorite apps on my phone while combining how to improve on my designing skils:)) hope this is helpful<3

put your phone on silent and put it across the room

listen to classical/soundtrack music without lyrics

make index cards for important vocab

wear pajamas

make diagrams and pictures. they don’t have to look pretty, as long as you understand it

make timelines for historical events

have a light snack

drink coffee or tea to keep you going

take a break every hour or so

have one pencil/black pen and one colored pen or highlighter. anything more will just distract you. the aesthetics aren’t important, your knowledge is

don’t be afraid to email/message your teacher or a classmate if you don’t understand something. the last thing you want to do is learn the incorrect information

know that sleep and health is more important than your grade. you cannot perform as well on a test if you are tired or sick. take care of yourself

it’s not a race. it’s not about who can learn something in the quickest time, it’s about learning

take a deep breath 

prioritize your homework by how long it will take you and when it’s due

plan some you time in between studying and school

if you’re mentally exhausted, set a timer for 30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll wake up even more tired

don’t understand something? that’s perfectly fine, don’t stress over it. ask for help rather than complaining

have a goal in mind and write them down. say things like “i am getting an education so i can get the job of my dreams. the life that i want. the happiness that i deserve”

be thankful. it is a privilege that you get to go to school and get an education. 

“it doesn’t bother me that you’re a lesbian as long as you don’t hit on me, lol” 

“i wish i had a gay best friend to go shopping and talk about boys with!”

has a list of celebrities that she “would go gay for.” halsey, ruby rose, and/or kristen stewart is on it

“boys can be so frustrating – sometimes i wish i could just be a lesbian! you guys have it so easy, lol” 

reads an excessive amount of m/m smut fics

refers to aforementioned smut as “sinning” (but only if it’s gay. straight porn is totally fine apparently)

stopped watching the 100 when clexa happened because she wanted clarke to end up with bellamy and “that can never happen now that they made clarke gay!”

thinks bughead is cute and gets mad when people point out that in the comics jughead is aromantic asexual or suggest that betty and veronica would be a more interesting couple 

probably transphobic tbh

(possibly also biphobic and/or aphobic)

is a textbook White Feminist™

I definitely feel that as encouraging and loving the studyblr community is, there’s just a lot of pressure to have these gorgeous work spaces, muji pens and Mac laptops. There’s a sense of “oh I’m not as good as the other studyblrs because of ______”.

So shoutout to the studyblrs like me who buy all their stationary from the dollar store, or make it themselves, who need to go to the library to rent out a computer to use, who can’t exactly “live up to the standard” set on Tumblr.

While there are a lot of good things about the studyblr community, a lot of people (myself included) have noticed that the goal of many within the community is often having the most perfect, beautiful notes and supplies. For a lot of people, this is just far too expensive to be justified. There’s obviously nothing wrong with if you have the money for the “studyblr best” supplies, or if you just want to treat yo’ self, but here’s some tips to help you get nice study supplies without breaking the bank!:

1. Dollar stores! They generally have a decent selection of office supplies (as well as a lot of other basics), and some stores stick to an “everything is $1″ policy. I tend to buy pens, sharpies, and notecards from dollar stores. Though a tip is to go for the sets of pens/sharpies, because those are likely to be cheaper than buying them somewhere else (individual pens aren’t necessarily cheaper at a dollar store). I also have a nice set of highlighters, and my mom got a set of gel pens that seem to be similar to the Pilot Juice pens.

2. Speaking of pens… if you want to keep a good variety of pens, my general rule of thumb is this: ~4 black pens in two different sizes (My most-used are my Pilot G-2 in the 1.0 size and the Muji 0.38) - this way you have a thicker pen when you want/need that, and a thinner pen when that’s preferred. If you only use one size, more power to ya. I like to use a thicker black pen for headings and use the thinner for details when taking notes. As for colors, I recommend just having one of each color that you use. If you’re not going to use 5 shades of yellow pen regularly, you don’t need that new set with a cool shade you don’t have yet. Find a brand/type of pen you like, and stick with one or two colored sets at most (I learned this from experience).

3. Highlighters: Don’t get them if you know you don’t use them. Don’t get different varieties if you don’t use them. If you love the look of neon highlighters, you don’t need to splurge for something like the Zebra Mildliners. If you don’t like the neon ones, but think you’d use the Mildliners, go for it. Most of the time, I don’t use highlighters when taking notes, I just write the words I would have highlighted in a different color from the rest of the notes (this works best when you’re taking notes from a textbook or copying notes over).

4. Just get a decent backpack. One that’ll hold up and hold all you need, but don’t feel like you need a specific brand or style of backpack. It’s literally on your back half the time, it doesn’t need to be cute.

5. Cheap notebooks work just as well as expensive notebooks. Get the off-brand notebook on the bottom shelf at target. Don’t feel like you can’t use the remaining pages at the end after your class ends. You can start a new subject in an old notebook. You can practice handwriting in an old notebook. You can use an old notebook as scratch paper or to jot down random things you need to remember. Hell, make a hundred paper cranes with the extra paper if you like to. You don’t need to let the extra paper go to waste.

If you know you’ll only use about half a notebook for one of your classes, get one with less paper or get a 3- or 5- subject notebook for your classes. Each subject generally has less paper than a regular 1-subject notebook, and it helps keep everything together.

If you want to keep a bullet journal, that doesn’t mean you need a fancy notebook for it. You can make the inside look just as good or be just as useful as any Moleskine.

6. Study with a whiteboard. I’m one of those people who has to write something down ten times in order to remember it. Now I could use paper to write it all down, but that’s a lot of paper that I’m wasting over the course of a school year. I decided to get a couple whiteboards instead. I have one small one, about the size of a piece of paper (I don’t exactly remember the cost but I think it was somewhere around $5 maybe? Could have been another dollar store find), and I have a bigger one that I keep on my wall (this one was from Sams Club and cost around $12 and included markers, a tiny eraser, magnets, and a cork board section with push pins - I use this for reminders and holding up my wall calendar, but before exams I take it down and use it to review)

7. Don’t buy the pretty planner if you know you’re not going to use it. If you already have a bullet journal, you probably don’t also need a planner, and vice versa. You can generally use both in the same way, it’s just a matter of finding what works best for you.

9. Don’t fall into the studyblr aesthetic trap. If you know you won’t use something enough to make the purchase worth it, don’t feel like you have to get it.