! ! !

from “il a tes yeux”

un truc de dingue | an incredible thing

un chirurgien | a surgeon

gazouiller | (speaking of a baby) to coo / babble

baragouiner | speak broken [x] / jabber

un biberon | a baby bottle

un bavoir | baby bib

un truc visqueux | a sticky thing

gérer | to manage

tchiper | to ‘tsk’ / suck your teeth

cocasse | funny

une môme | a girl [informal] [masculine version is kid; feminine version can also be a girlfriend]

un empêchement | a hitch [in the plans]

de pire en pire | worse and worse

craquer | to split

le deuil | death

tu me fais chier | you piss me off !

éclater | to smash

s’emballer | to get carried away

un parrain | godfather [to a child, not a mafia leader]

à tour de rôle | in turn [faire ~ to take turns]

guetter | be on the look out for

planning of the day — studying some chinese characters, read some stories from my graded chinese reader books, buy some comic books in chinese to practice my reading and drink a gallon of coffee ☕

October 6, 2018

Happy first week of October ! 

How to Fix your Sleep Schedule

We’ve all been there. You’ve been pushing back your bedtime for an entire week and now you feel exhausted and you don’t think you can function as well as you normally could. You just want to get enough sleep again, but how?

Make small changes

It’s a lot easier to push back your bedtime than to push it forward—but it’s not impossible. You just have to take it step by step. Go to sleep 15-30 minutes earlier every night until you reach your desired bedtime. You could try going to sleep much earlier than your regular time, but according that doesn’t usually work out. If you’re waking up later than you want to, you might also want to try waking up 15 minutes earlier each morning until you get up at the desired time.

I remember there was a week this semester when I went to sleep at 1am for several days in a row (I usually sleep at 11). I was sleep deprived and exhausted and I tried to sleep at 8 to catch up on lost sleep, but I couldn’t. I just laid in my bed for an hour until I gave up trying to sleep and decided to work on some homework until I felt sleepy again. What I should’ve done was go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night until I could go to sleep at 11 again.

Adjust exposure to sunlight

Exposure to adequate amounts of sunlight is key to helping our bodies maintain their circadian rhythm, which is the process that regulates our energy levels during the day and tells us when to be awake and when to go to sleep. Sunlight helps our body produce optimal levels of melatonin, a hormone that makes us feel sleepy at night. Studies have shown that people get better quality sleep in the summer because there is a greater exposure to light.

That being said, you should expose yourself to more light during the day to get better sleep at night. This might mean waking up earlier so you don’t miss hours of sunlight in the morning.

At night, you should reduce your exposure to any sort of light - both natural and artificial - so that your body knows it’s time to not be awake. I personally turn down the lights (and only have my fairy lights on) after 10:30 pm. When you’re trying to get back into your desired sleep schedule, you could aim to turn down the lights 30 minutes before your desired bedtime for that day.

Don’t eat too close to bedtime

You should wait 2 - 3 hours between dinner/your last meal and bedtime. I would talk about how studies show that eating too close to bedtime can possibly damage your health, e.g. causing reflux when you’re lying down, but that’s all been said before. The only thing I’d like to reiterate is that you sleep better when you wait after you eat. But as for my own logic on why you shouldn’t go to sleep when you’re full…

When you wait a few hours after you’ve had your last meal, before you go to bed, you won’t go to bed full, meaning that in the morning, you’re likely to be hungry. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go back to sleep when I’m, like, starving, so being hungry when I wake up causes me to resist sleeping in.

Don’t sleep in

You would think that sleeping in is, in fact, good for catching up on sleep. In reality, it doesn’t make you stop sleeping late, since you’d probably still spend the same amount of time awake. Instead, once you wake up, you should stay up, and don’t go back to sleep. You’re likely to get sleepy at an earlier time, and this will help you push forward your bedtime.

Resist napping

Resisting naps also has a similar logic to not sleeping in. If you take a nap, you’ll feel more energetic and night, and you might not be able to fall asleep as soon as you wanted to. If you resist taking a nap, however, you’ll be more tired at night, and you’ll fall asleep more easily.

Be strict with yourself

Finally, the key to having a good, consistent sleep schedule is to be strict with yourself. Don’t let yourself stay up for just 5 more minutes because you still have a ‘small’ task to take care of. When it’s time to end the day, end the day.

Maybe it’s hard for you to be strict with yourself since you can’t justify going to sleep over completing whatever task or responsibility you have left. Well, here’s my logic:

You could stay up 5 more minutes and risk extending that to a few hours or so in attempt to finish something. There’s no guarantee that you’ll finish it, and you might just lose all those precious hours of sleep for nothing, since you’ll wake up in the morning tired and unable to effectively do the task you wanted to do; or

You could stop everything you’re doing and sleep on it. You wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and clear-headed and ready to tackle on your tasks for the day. You find a new way to think about the task you were stuck on, and you finally solve it in less than half an hour.

I do realize that this only applies if the task isn’t super urgent. Let’s say you have a project due 11:59 PM and you’re rushing to finish that. In this case, the core problem is probably something else: an inability to manage your time, or procrastination. If that’s the case, you might want to check out my posts on how to beat procrastination and how to create an efficient (revision) schedule. The latter post is tailored for exam preparation, but the main ideas are the same for general scheduling (there’s a recap at the bottom if you just want to know the main ideas).

Additionally, you might wanna check out my post on my night routine.

Free Graphic Novels (DC, Marvel, Image, etc), Music, TV shows, and music on HOOPLA.

Free music that you can KEEP on FREEGAL

I work in the largest library system in my state (17 branches in total).

I use it not only for ebooks, but movies as well.

Other FREE resources to check with your library for are:

Freegal Music (download and keep music, including current music)

Hoopla Digital (borrow ebooks, e-audiobooks, e-graphic novels, stream movies)

Kanopy (stream movies; also available on Roku!)

Axis360 (usually hot or just released ebooks)

If you don’t have a library card…

GET ONE!

If someone says libraries are a thing of the past…

BOOP THEM IN THE NOSE WITH YOUR KINDLE!

Don’t discount libraries as “quiet” places. 

THEY ARE ALIVE!!!

THEY ARE LOUD!!!

1. Stop studying the day before. I usually stop at 5pm with all the studying. I do this because if I start cramming from then on, I’ll only get anxious. And at the end of the day, it’s no help for me to know the material if I’m gonna be so nervous and get a blackout. So I make peace with the fact that I may not know everything just so I can be relaxed when I do the exam. Which brings me to the next point. 

2. Get some sleep. Back in my high school days, I pulled several all-nighters. One of them was disastrous. I knew everything I needed to know but I was so tired, I worked very slow that day. And I could not finish the exam on time. That day I swore I was never gonna pull an all-nighter again. It’s just such a simple thing you can do to work efficiently, so it’s worth sleeping those hours. 

3. Have some fun. This might sound totally ridiculous, I know but hear me out. I cannot go stressed to an exam. When you’ve prepared well, then your priority should be not to panic and get anxious. Therefore, I like to do something fun to get my mind off the pressure and stress. I might go on YouTube and catch up on some videos, watch some anime, or just cook to distract myself. The point here is not to fall prey of negative thoughts.  

4. Prepare everything beforehand. After I’ve got some fun, it’s time to face reality back again. However, I like to introduce it slowly. I first start with showering, getting dressed, and especially packing my backpack. and double check that everything I need is in there. Those small little trivial actions actually give me reassurance because I feel like I have my armour on. And I won’t have to stress because I know I got everything I need.

5. Arrive a few hours earlier. This is crucial because I can make use of the empty classroom (most of the times) and choose where I can sit. When I’m doing an exam and I’m just under the AC, I would want to pee like crazy. So I love choosing my seat so I can choose a warm spot. Furthermore, I don’t have to stress because I’m late and I won’t be adding any more pressure on myself. This is all about making my life easier.  

6. Quick recap. Given that I will likely be alone in class for a few hours, I take my time to do a quick recap. Note: I said recap. I won’t be reading or learning any new things. I would just grab a pen and start writing everything I know from my head so I can identify what I might not remember that clearly. So I take my time to look for those things that are not as clear in my head and make a mental note to remember them. I feel like the pressure of the exam being so soon actually helps me remember it better. 

7. Meditate and avoid talking to your peers. After I’m done with recap, I just sit there and close my eyes. I get a lot of weird looks when I do that but it’s great because I can avoid my peers this way. The reason I say this is not because I want to be rude or anything, but I’ve realised that talking to my peers actually makes me more anxious. This happens because they are anxious, and seeing them like that makes me feel the same way. They also might start asing questions and get me all confused, so I prefer to just avoid all of that so my mind can be clear. 

8. Globally read the exam. After I get the exam sheet, the first thing I do is to read it globally. I do this so I can get a sense of how the exam is structured and what I will need to answer. While I’m at it, I highlight important commands. For example, if they ask me to give an explanation, examples or draw something I would highlight that so I don’t forget to do it. 

9. Shortly answer the questions with a pencil. When I start answering the questions right away, I sometimes get carried away and write more than I should. Other times, I might get stuck at one question and then I’ll start getting even more nervous and I’ll forget some of the things. So in order to minimize those risks, I shortly answer the questions right on the paper with a pencil using keywords. That way I know the main idea of what I want to answer. Plus if I’m short of time, it makes it easier for me to finish because I don’t actually have to think about the answers because I already know what I will be writing. It is an extra step that I take, but I’ve found that it works really well for me. 

9. Review your answers. Technically, I review my answers twice. First when I am wirting them with pen on the answers sheet and secondly when I’m done. I try to use the voice in my head, that way I feel like I can hear how my answers sound like. And it helps me see if what the professor will be reading makes sense. 

10.  Don’t discuss the exam with your peers. DONT. Do yourself a favour. This only makes it harder for me because I will start having second thoughts about what I wrote. The worse thing is that no matter how much I worried about it, there’s nothing I can do to change my answers again. So, it’s pretty useless and I know I will get worried for nothing and it will only give me more stress.

Notetaking

Sound Note - take notes while you record audio

Evernote - notetaking that syncs across platforms

Paper 53 - minimal notetaking that syncs

Microsoft OneNote - collaboration and syncing, best for Office users

Google Keep - jot things down, best for Google suite users

Notability - take notes and annotate PDFs

Mindly - create mind maps

Day One - a digital journal

Flash Cards

Quizlet - the quintessential flash card app

StudyBlue - another commonly used app

Cram - best for its “cram mode”

Eidetic - uses spaced repetition for effective memorization

Planner 

My Study Life - schedules, tasks, reminders, and more

StudyCal - keeps track of tasks, exams, and grades

24me - automated reminders and event planning

iStudiez - schedule and prioritized task list

Google Calendar - a calendar, best for Google users

Glass Planner - a calendar and to do list with incredible functionality

To Do List

Clear - organized to-do and reminders

MinimaList - simple to-do and focus timer

Trello - collaborative project organizer

Todoist - clean and functional task manager

Default notes app on your phone

Time Management

Forest - plant trees by staying focused

Pomotodo - pomodoro timer with to-do list

Timeglass - custom timers

Tide - pomodoro with white noise

Alarmy - forces you out of bed 

Pillow - smart alarm that tracks sleep cycles

Productivity

Workflow - automate tasks

Habitica - turn your habits into an RPG

Continuo - simple, colorful activity tracking

Freedom - block distracting apps

Free Learning

Coursera - free MOOCs

TED - listen to Ted Talks

Duolingo - language learning

Memrise - spaced repetition language vocabulary

Khan Academy - free video lessons

Ambient Noise

8tracks - curated playlists

Spotify - online music streaming

Coffitivity - cafe ambience

Noisli - background sound generator

Rain Rain - rain sounds

Binaural - binaural beats

Health

Rockin Ramen - recipes based on ramen

MealBoard - meal planning

Lifesum - healthy eating

Stop Breath And Think - mindfulness meditation

Pacifica - mental health management

Sworkit - personalized video workouts

Waterlogged - hydration tracker

Reference

WolframAlpha - Google on steroids

Oxford Dictionary - all of English at your fingertips

RefMe - citation generator

PhotoMath - solve math problems by taking a photo

Mathway - step by step math help

Desmos - free graphing calculator

Wikipedia - not the best source, but it’s handy

Miscellaneous 

Companion - stay safe when walking alone

Mint - money management

Toshl - finance manager