@zz-oong

bought a really nice looking fountain pen

that sounds like a joke but fountain pens are cheap as shit and when you use one people look at you like you’re a fucking wizard

this hero 901 cost me $3 on ebay and i don’t know why people assume that this is a pen for intelligent people but they do

it works better when i am using a nice notebook and not the avengers notebook that makes it look like the hulk is grabbing my sweet pen

i write in code which for some reason leads everyone to assume that i am some kind of da vinci motherfucker, instead of the reality, which is that i am writing about dicks and don’t want anyone to know

it looks like i am constantly taking notes on everything which is both intimidating and inaccurate, just the way i like it

i bought a usb clicker/laser pointer for $11 and now it seems like i’ve got this shit on lock, like i am so pro at giving presentations i even own accessories

holding a clicker makes you seem at least 10% more like you know what you’re talking about i’m pretty sure

i check the weekly freebies on creativemarket every monday so now i have a huge folder of pro-looking website themes and powerpoint templates and fill-in-the-blank resumes (also a lot of autumnal clipart and watercolor flowers and script fonts but that is less relevant)

i bought a ceramic coffee mug at world market years ago and it makes me look like a productive coffee-drinker because no one knows it’s full of hot cocoa

i don’t know why drinking coffee makes you look busy it just does even though i’m pretty sure it statistically reduces productivity

bonus: not only does no one know i’m just drinking Depression Chocolate but they think i am being Environmentally Conscious rather than Poor As Shit

extra bonus: i can take a sip whenever it looks like someone is going to ask a question and then they ask someone else

i almost never have to answer questions and i leave the room a lot because i have to pee constantly so double extra bonus

“That’s a very good question, and one that deserves an in-depth answer, so if you’d like to leave me your card I’d be happy to discuss it with you later one-on-one” aka “how DARE you suggest i waste everyone’s time answering this question right now” aka “lmfao i have no fucking clue what you just said please let me secretly google that okay”

bonus: now it seems like you are a sophisticated grownup who assumes everyone has A Card and if they have to settle for writing their email on a scrap of paper you can feel smug about it even though in your heart you know that you are no better

i’ve got anxiety and poor impulse control and anxiety about my poor impulse control so i generally say jack shit about shit and this constant silence is often misinterpreted as aloof observation

no one knows that my air of mystery is actually a bad case of the shy and i am too shy to correct them so it works out

when i’m on my laptop and i don’t want anyone to notice how much i’m dicking around i turn the brightness way down so they can’t snoop without being obvious

How To Write a University-Level Essay in 9 Steps

I use this every time I write an essay! It helps me a lot, and since I started using it I haven’t gotten lower than an A on any of my papers! (minus one lol)

First things first, every prof and every teacher expects a different thing. The essay I’m using as an example is from my first year class and was around 1600 words — so not very long. It’s also not a research essay. The prof called it an exegetical essay, but don’t get it mixed up with Bible Exegesis. We studied the Odyssey and the Iliad for the semester and had to write on them and explain them. Despite this! The form of an outline will help literally every kind of essay. 

SO this isn’t exactly a how-to-write-an-essay post, but instead its more like how to make sure your essay is bomb as fuck. My first year prof forced us to do an outline for all of our essays (yes forced, we automatically failed if we didn’t hand it in along with our essays). At first it was annoying, I’m not going to lie, but once you get used to it, this sort of outline literally saves your life. What I like to do is make sure it’s detailed enough that all I need to do is erase all the spaces between the points, and explain my ideas a little bit more. To give an idea of how much I actually write after this, this outline is 900 words, and my final essay was 1600. It makes writing your essay go by a LOT faster, and makes sure you can easily see all your points laid out in front of you.

1. Find out what your topic is and what you want your thesis to generally be. I never write my thesis out right away, because when I write outlines I tend to change my mind on things a lot as I discover new topics. So I start out general and get more detailed later on. 

2. Write out your main points. In this essay I was explaining how Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops was the first step in a many step process to make him a stronger and more intelligent man so that he would be able to fight off the suiters when he arrived in Ithaca. Each of my main points is the part in the book that has to do with this idea. My main points are: Odysseus tells Alcinous the story of him and a cyclops, after the Trojan war. // After escaping, they set sail again and reach the land of the Cyclops // Odysseus comes to the realization that the Cyclops is not human, and therefore he cannot reason with the Cyclops as a human. At first glance none of these points have Anything to do with my thesis, but I chose parts in the book that show Odysseus’ growth. I go on to explain my ideas within each of the points. Another thing to help you is to make sure each of these can read like a sentence. So you should be able to read Point 1 2 and 3 consecutively and have it flow well. It will help you when you write your good copy.

3. Once you have your main points, create what I call “sub-points” in each of the main points. The number varies, as you can see in my example, but use as many as you need to make your point clear.When I was writing essays about Homer I usually stuck to explaining Odysseus’ actions, or the actions of other characters in this section. This year when I was writing philosophy papers I used this part to fully explain each of the ideas in my own words. Also you may be noticing a (P) beside some of the points, this is what I’ve sectioned off to be a paragraph. As you may notice the “main point” doesn’t have a P beside it; it is its own paragraph, but I use those as transition paragraphs to help my paper flow and to show the reader what I’m going to be talking about. It’s a grounding point. I usually opted for shorter paragraphs when writing about Homer because I broke things up by event; when writing philosophy papers my paragraphs are usually much longer. These points should tie back into your main idea for you paper. Each point should tie back into the one above it to create a nice flow, this will help orientate your reader but also make it a lot easier for you to write. 

4.Now is the time to explain each sub point. Explain why the point was important enough to be in your paper; I often chose to explain how it changed Odysseus’ actions or actions that he chose to do. I usually use this section as an opportunity to clarify my points and to look back at the section I’ve put the sub-point in to make sure it fits. It around this time that I switch things around

5. Give any further explanation you may need. Sometimes I find that I need to explain things just a little bit more. Or if I’m not 100% sure on my point yet, I use this section to write down my explanation rather than waiting to write it when I write my good copy.

6.After this I write my thesis out. I know this may seem like a late point in the essay to write a thesis, but like I said I find waiting helps me really settle down with what I want to get across. I tend to have a hard time finding my thesis before I’ve written out all my points

7.Then I write my Introduction and Conclusion. I don’t write these in the broken down way that I do for the rest of my essay. I write them in full to help ground myself

8. Finally, I delete all of the points and spaces to create a solid paragraph. I do it point by point to make sure each sentence is a complete sentence, and then make sure I add on any explanation or detail that may be missing. Once thats done I usually have a solid essay with just some missing “gaps”. I.e. I need to further explain my point. So I go in and fill in the gaps, add my explanations to tie it back into the thesis completely, and then I move onto the next paragraph. The third picture shows my sentences in my actual essay that I directly pulled from my outline (highlighted to match the outline), while the sentences that aren’t highlighted were the sentences written to fill in the gaps.

9. Once that’s all done I send my essay to a friend and we face time while she edits mine. She reads it out loud to me and we stop when something sounds funny (and then we switch and I do the same for her). I high recommend peer-editing and making sure you read it out loud! Its how I catch 90% of my mistakes. 

this is a guide to a system of thinking that will help prevent you from poor judgement, impairment from unconscious biases, and unknown ignorance.

project think woke: 01

• why you should want to be a better thinker

first off, it is natural not to recognize your own biases! that’s why they are called unconscious biases. learning to grow from your current mindset requires you to be open-minded and you to not be afraid to be challenged. learn to be okay with being wrong, and learn to challenge ideas that have been taught to you that you never challenged before.

hopefully you desire to seek truth rather than to live your life in ignorance. you are more empathetic when you begin to look at topics from multiple perspectives rather than just your own perspective (which has a scope of life that has been narrowed by your own biases and heuristics.) multiple perspectives allows us to see the world closer to its true reality.

• why be empathetic? why does it matter?

being empathetic makes you a better person, and it allows you to tackle problems with the right mindset, to do good for the right reasons, and to honestly live your life to the fullest with happiness and meaning. (i am so much happier now that i have a more empathetic mindset)

• now to the real shtuff yay

• bayes theorem: a breakdown (with notes from my class)

bayes theorem (when used non-mathematically) is a basic rule telling us how much to revise our probabilities given new facts and evidence. our knowledge is not perfectly reliable (obviously), but our beliefs are not all equally unreliable either. bayesian thinking can also be seen as a way to achieve scout mindset as seen in this TED talk. scout mindset allows us to look at things objectively, to see the whole picture rather than through a scope that has been narrowed by our biases. it is intended to increase metacognition by recognizing one’s own unconscious biases. now onward!

• vocabulary (in order of the thinking process)

priors –– the biases and all other factors that impact our thoughts on a subject, before learning more about that subject.

credence –– after identifying our priors, we must ask ourselves how probable our beliefs are, and we must assign a credence (percentage of our level of confidence) that shows just how much we actually believe our priors to be true and how willing we are to defend them.

motivated reasoning –– now we must ask ourselves what led to our priors in the first place. do we have any sort of motivated reasoning for why we wish for our priors to be true? what led us to believe such a thing? was it impacted by where we grew up or by someone that we know? recognize your biases and how they affect your thinking. they impair your thinking beyond what you believe.

steel manning –– being able to articulate your “motivated reasoning” allows us to “steel man” or pressure test whether the evidence we have for a certain belief is truly valid or logical. steel manning our own beliefs means questioning our own beliefs and purposefully looking at our beliefs from an opposing perspective.

How to Conduct a Close Read by academiix

first of all, and probably most importantly, make that paper about something you actually give a shit about. if you can write an essay on how long shakespeare’s dick is when you’re talking to your friends, that’s a good topic. don’t choose something u don’t care about, you will Want To Die

“okay but the only topics are ones i don’t care about” talk 2 ur teacher 99% of the time if you’re like “here’s a well-thought-out thesis can i talk about this instead” they’re like “sure lmao i just couldn’t think of other paper topics to suggest”

“they said no” cool find the one u hate the least and try to tie it into something u like. for example i really hated this stupid paper i had to write about a stupid book so i ended up writing about the food inside the book and whether or not it was a historically accurate depiction of food. turns out i fucking love talking about food. i also remade some of the old recipes and brought them in as part of the presentation of my project and people went fuckken nuts bc BREAD. basically i thought about “what motivates me? uh food” and followed that. it was a 45-page book about bread and i looked like a really good student when really i just love bread (somewhere, oprah smiles over me)

the 20-pagers are the ones you Actually Cannot Do the night before. i know we all got real fuckken cocky back in hs when we learned how to do 5 pages in one night w/out trying too hard but 1. as a teacher now i can tell u for sure that teachers do know you rushed it, we just Don’t Care bc We’re Not Paid Enough and 2. twenty pages is not the same thing. you need to actually take the time to do it. this is the actual version of “you’re not in hs anymore” DONT lie to yourself and think “it’s fine i’ll do it in one day” you will !! Regret it!!!! 

“raquel. raquel. listen to me. do you actually believe i’m capable of time management. raquel i have depression i barely manage to exist.” same. but the truth is that when i started like?? actually following the rules of timelines and taking my time etc it actually really helps mental illness. you don’t feel pressured all the time by a deadline, so your anxiety chills a little bit. small progress being acceptable means that on depression days, you don’t have to worry you’re fucking it all up. when it’s 15 minutes every day (even if it’s only 1 word a day) it feels a lot better.

ask the teacher what timeline they’d recommend. they actually Know.

always ask if it’s informal or formal (if you can use “I” statements or not). informal essays can rely on personal feelings and are so much easier and trust me if you find out on the day it’s due that you could have written 12 pages about your feelings instead of 12 pages of research, you will Be Very Upset

i lie to myself all the time and move the deadline up. i write it in my agenda as at least 2 days before it’s due. surprise!!! i tricked u, self!!! you can’t procrastinate!! 

agendas/planners need to be what actually works for you. i liked to prioritize w/colors + keep lists. i really love crossing things off lists. it’s like… a balm. for me, i usually say i have to finish the first 2 things, start the 3rd thing, and “touch” at least half the list. if i finish the whole list i get a prize. also i get to cross off everything which is so satisfying i’m sure it’s someone’s idea of a rush. there’s so many “how to” documents on these that i won’t get into it but frankly?? if you don’t write it down you will not remember it. “yes i will” no you won’t greg. just do it. write it down. write it where u can see it. not there, greg. greg, somewhere good. my friend is smart af and uses a post-it on her laptop. that doesn’t work for me bc i can just? use my hand to cover the anxiety? so choose somewhere good greg.

nervous system, skeleton, meat, skin. nervous system is the thesis. skeleton is quotes/data. meat is the analysis of that data. skin is the fancy transitions + beautification.  meat goes on both sides of bone, and skin goes all around. nervous system has to touch everything. do what your teachers have been begging u to do since 3rd grade and start w/an outline. do this while you read/research. i usually have a starter thesis like “lady macbeth is a feminist ICON” then take the quotes i think fit. but if while you’re reading u realize u wanna talk about the use of feminine language and how shakespeare parallels daintiness w/sharpness, u still have a bunch of quotes you can use or not use. this works also w/research papers. just pull what u think is something u wanna talk about. copy-paste it but leave a link to where u got it. then put a bullet point under that says roughly why u mention it

if you just write the outline like you’re keeping notes to yourself you’d be amazed how quickly you write the essay bc we get stuck in academic language but it’s easier to translate “this is why bees are the #bomb” into a paragraph. i mean you just rewrite your notes to yourself in academic speech. “The above passage illustrates the growing necessity of pollinators such as bees in an agricultural environment.”

keep track of your sources + label them. don’t just write “(SOURCE)” instead if you’re using multiple sources use the lazygirl way which is (SA1) or whatever shorthand u have for each source. then when you need to finish your sources you go to your little source document, find the one labelled SA1 and then “Find+replace” w/the actual source.

integrate quotes so it reads w/clarity which means don’t do this but if you’re running late on it and don’t have time to look up the quote u want to fit this situation, technically you can “use any” word you want (56). so yeah “there is” a moral question about it but you “can” make up quotes (79, 90). don’t “actually” do this unless you’re seriously in a crunch. which u shouldn’t be, bc u managed ur time, right?

running late part 2 (which again would never happen bc you followed my advice and made a little time table for yourself but anyway if it does somehow magically happen) i really recommend using school computers to do your work. ur surrounded by people who will hold u accountable + u will focus

running late pt3 on the day of it being due, around 5 PM, be honest w/yourself and see where you are. if you’re like “it needs 2 more hours” okay. but if you’re like “this is……… not started” email the teacher. they’ll be so much more receptive the earlier you do this in the process. it looks like “i’m genuinely struggling and i hope to finish this on time but i’m worried i won’t” instead of “i started this at 11:58PM and am asking for an extension”. please also just… be honest? 

“my teacher won’t accept late work!” they all say that, he probably will, particularly if you have a note from the school therapist being like “lmao she’s got so many mental illnesses idek how to help her”

“no he really doesn’t, he doesn’t care” you can file for disability if you have mental illness, and, in fact, you should if it’s something that often stops you from completing work on time. i didn’t bc i found that it just let me procrastinate for a longer time, but having that on file means you can go to the dean.

“no!!! raquel you’re not listening i have 2 pages and he doesn’t take late work!!!!!!!!!”  okay. yeah that’s bad. but nerves, skeleton, meat, skin. what is it that you’re struggling with? is it that your can’t find any quotes to back up your thesis? impossible, tbh, you need to be more willing to purposefully misuse quotes (don’t do that). but the better option is to just change the thesis. 

“i don’t even have that!!” did you. do the reading? if you even just watched the movie, you probably have an opinion on something even if it’s “this is bad.” you can use that. use why you didn’t like it to write a hate-fueled examination on how whiny the main character is and why u think the author is trying to point out how miserable cis white boys are to deal with. 

“i don’t have enough sources!!!” go to wikipedia’s page about it and look @ the sources. try to like actually read some if you have time but frankly in a hurry a student (me) might be compelled to just slap the source in there. 

“how the fuck do i analyze this”. u know how ppl agonize over why an actor breathed in a scene. melt into that kind of thinking. you can literally force the words to mean whatever you want. i’ve talked about word choice so specific that i based a 12-page essay on three separate uses of the words “my dear”. i talked about the possessive “my” and how it developed for like 5 of those pages. and always repeat the thesis like a million times. after every analysis you should talk about how it links to the thesis. that is like a free 3 sentences every paragraph.

“i did all that and it’s still 3 pages too short” quick ways to Beef Him Up: definitions are great in research papers + essays bc you can talk about either word choice or like the definition of every process used in getting the data. also make the conclusion hella informative (it should answer “what does this mean moving forwards” most of the time, tie it into modern life or into the past). thicken ur intro with “here’s a quote from this guy about it and what he personally felt about acid-base titrations”, use a paragraph to talk about the history of the data/book, use a paragraph to talk about the modern reception of the data/book. also look for where you can use two words instead of one even tho like grammatically don’t do that.

worst comes to worst, brevity is the soul of wit. most teachers prefer concise over rambling and all over the place. if you choose to scoot under the page limit, tho, your writing etc needs to be exceptionally clean. frankly i’ve only done this once and it was terrifying

make computer read it aloud 2 u before u submit. “raquel….. i can’t look at it anymore”. you’re not looking @ it, you’re discovering you wrote “breath” not “breathe” and u need to change it

tutoring centers exist, i worked in one, and this is how i know they actually Help and have Good Ideas

ask about extra credit and do it tbh

like, you can tell your friend all about what you’re planning on writing, and talk about it for like 20 minutes straight?

make notes for imaginary slides for an imaginary presentation on the topic

oops you have an outline now! your imaginary slides? paragraphs (or if ur paper is long af, each imaginary bullet point is a paragraph and each imaginary slide is a couple pages)

We all find ourselves in a pinch when studying for a particular subject, or some concepts or just studying in general. And then we play the blame game - I’m stupid, I suck at studying, I dumb, yadda yadda yadda.

But sometimes, the fault isn’t ours. Our study skills are largely influenced by external factors that have nothing to do with our brain (because well all humans have the same brain to begin with, yeah? It’s just some know how to use that thing, and some are still learning how to). So here’s so ways that might help you make the most of all sorts of things that are thrown your way:

1. Teachers

Teachers influence our academics deeply and therefore it is important to know how to adjust our methods according to the types of teachers that teach us!

“The best teacher ever”

You love them, and are generally doing well in their class.

They know how to balance the amount of speech and writing part in class just perfectly and their explanations are heavenly.

For their subjects, practice papers are the best because they’ll help you lock all the info in your mind for eternities.

Solve as many tests as you can find, and get all your doubts solved by them at the end and I promise you will never have difficulty with that particular chapter again!

“The I’m-gonna-fill-the-board-with-my-marker teacher”

Doesn’t even bother speaking, just enters the class and starts writing up stuff in the board.

Class is generally noisy because their backs are turned towards you 90% of the time.

Just copy down everything form the board. Don’t leave out a single word.

Review whatever you’ve written once you get home and find out what is it that you don’t understand.

You’re lucky if they teach you math /physics /numericals based topics, because you have an entire guide on how to solve each type of sum with steps and formulas!

Once you’ve marked your doubts, take them to the teacher, or to any other teacher who teaches the same topics and get it cleared. Pretty sure you’ll rock their subject!

“The speaker”

Babbles on and on all the time, doesn’t know that the board exists.

Won’t even breathe in between the doesn’t care if nobody is listening - they’ll finish their part at all costs.

Try recording their lectures, you don’t necessarily have to take notes in class.

Once you get home, play the entire lecture and take notes now - you’re most likely to cover all important points.

If there’s something you don’t understand /think you missed, get your doubts solved by them or maybe online. This way you can do some time pass in class while not missing out at the same time!

“The quiz master”

Asks hella lot of questions, engages the class as much as possible.

Best thing to do in their class is to sit in front (it won’t make you a loser really) and listen to their questions carefully, note them down and participate.

Participating will get you noticed and also help build your confidence - and you get to impress the teacher so it’s a win win!

Prepare some questions for them in advance and keep asking, this will create a sense of ‘I’m a good student’ kinda thing in you (trust me I feel like a heavenly potato) and get your queries solved!

2. Subjects

There are subjects that you’re so good at you could practically teach them, and then there’s math (no offence, math lovers). And physics. And chemistry. And everything that you don’t know.

Problem solving subjects

Math and physics can be a real pain, but referring to solved examples in your textbook, or your teacher’s solutions makes then 37363x easier.

A list of formulas is a must, I prefer sorting my formulas chapter wise in sticky notes but you can totally make a ‘formula + solving methods cheatsheet’ to help for finals!

Practice problems are life savers!! Keep solving until you’re pretty sure you’ll crack these types of questions.

Mostly there is a certain way of solving certain problems, figure out that common way for a bunch of problems and nite the method down. All you need to do during the exam is figure out what type of problem you are dealing with and how to solve it will be known to you automatically!

Find a good teacher - maybe a school teacher, a tutor, a classmate or maybe your dad who happens to be a math expert. You need one person to guide you through the “numerical labyrinth”. There are many awesome people on the Internet (studyblrs I’m looking at y'all) who can help.

“Theory based subjects”

History and essay writing type of subjects can be difficult to tackle, since there’s no logic you need to apply here - they only test your memory half the time.

Bullet points are so helpful when taking notes for such subjects idk I just fall in love with words that are bullet pointed.

Aesthetic note making, embellishments and all that jazz totally works here because the more time you spend with the information, the better you remember it and are able to retain it.

Try recording the lectures and playing them in your free time (as podcasts and all), maybe when cleaning your room or making yourself breakfast or doing mundane chores.

I once slept with my earphones on and was playing ‘the French revolution’ and the next day I topped our test on that topic. Now this may not be a legit tip but hey - you’re sleeping. Come on.

“Diagram and sciency subjects”

Most of us consider biology to be our favourite, but fail to do well in it sometimes. This is because we’re studying the whole thing wrongly.

Biology can be a very visual subject so all you artists bring out your creativity!

Imagining the structures of your body, an animal’s body, plant’s body, cell’s body heck any body will help you clarify the concepts in your mind.

Try breaking up large words to understand what they mean. I began learning Latin (and abandoned the effort) to grasp the biological terms better and it helps! Your language is strong - your biology is strong.

Aesthetic notes all the way down!

Chemistry can be made pretty looking with colourful reactions on paper, and there’s always mnemonics to make it fun.

I always try to form mnemonics which reference my favourite songs/dialogue /fandom stuff to spice stuff up. For example, to remember the preference order of functional groups during nomenclature I came up with “PS Sam Winchester Loves Eileen And they go on A date Next friday” (hey spn peeps how’s this?). Write down the first initial of every word you need to remember and come up with combinations, you’ll love it!

“Easy af subjects”

Personality Development and Social Science were these type of subjects for me.

All I did was read through the textbook the night before exams and I’d get a pretty good score.

Tree diagrams and tables often help with these.

Explaining the stuff to someone does the job too!

“Languages”

Three things - Duolingo /memrise /any app, flashcards, YouTube.

Your textbook is likely to have lots of practice activities, solve each one of them.

YouTube will help you with the pronouncing part - check out songs in your target language to improve!

Grammar is important, so you understand your grammar in the beginning and your base is strong.

Come up with terms in your head in your target language, although they’re wrong - there will be a point where you’ll be thinking in that language as a habit.

Don’t be afraid to mispronounce, vomit words as much as possible.

If you don’t have a vocabulary book, make one right away!

Langblrs are so amazing don’t let that resource slip out of your hands!

3. Random tips

Change of environment usually motivate you so keep changing your study space from time to time.

Ana Mascara, study with jess, @studyquill @revisign @tbhstudying @studywithinspo have some fabulous YouTube channels and they make ‘study with me’ vids too which are just too motivating so check them out!

Khanacademy, CrashCourse, ASAP science are there to clear your doubts - use the resources!

Keep two notebooks - one for class which has messy notes and scribbles and another for home with the neat and aesthetic ish.

Keep track of your portion and note your syllabus.

Highly recommended - study journal. Want me make a long ass post about it? Lemme know!

Playing teacher is a promised way to engrave the info in your mind. So go teach your friends or mom or dog or teddy! Teach me if you want to!

Make sure you have a no study day at least once 2 weeks? Because it’s important. We don’t want to get burned out!

Ted talks can be motivating!

Writing mock exams is so helpful you should totally do it!

Sleep is more important than you think it is, so sleep. Go dream the hell out!

That’s all for now folks, hope this helps a bit! My inbox is always open if you guys have any questions!

Studyblrs with pens that only work half the time and cheap stationary and basic notebooks from Tescos. 

Studyblrs that don’t or can’t take aesthetic af photos with amazing lighting. 

Studyblrs that struggle to keep up with their work and aren’t super organised. 

Studyblrs that don’t keep or own beautifully hand-drawn bujo spreads full of art and quotes. 

Studyblrs that don’t have Tumblr friends/family, who don’t recieve 20,000 asks/messages everyday, who don’t actually talk to anyone.

lazy study tips

1. use quizlet. quizlet is amazing because you can access your flashcards on your phone!! this way you can easily flip through them while waiting in line, watching tv, etc.

2. use the pomodoro technique. if you’re lazy like i am, sitting down for 6+ hours a day to study can be daunting. giving yourself multiple breaks throughout a study session will help to keep you going!

3. watch youtube videos. watching videos or listening to podcasts on the topic you’re studying could be a huge time saver and is a lot more interesting than flipping through a textbook. and you can easily do this in bed!! (i would not advise to do this instead of using a textbook all together just in case information is left out of the video)

4. try to build a steady study routine. block out a chunk of time in the middle of the day every day for studying. this way, you know that when the time is up, you have the rest of the day to relax!

5. get sleep. i’ve found that i’m at my laziest when i haven’t been sleeping much. avoid being sluggish throughout the day and get some rest! this will cut back on nap/rest time and increase productivity during the day.

6. consider the consequences of not studying. which will benefit you more in the long run- getting your work done now, or watching another episode?

7. reward yourself. give yourself a little treat (a piece of candy, etc.) after completing a set amount of work. this will keep you motivated to keep studying!

8. just start. the hardest part of studying is starting- force yourself to sit down and open up your notes.