Got finally accepted into my chosen Grad School and I'm so excited to start! 🥳

my tips

instead of trying to fit your work within 9-5, just figure out what times you're most productive and when you're not and plan your deep work sessions around those times

download a reference manager like zotero or EndNote and use it from the beginning to organize all your articles and readings. it'll also be sO HANDY whenever you need to write a paper and add citations, as it will do all the hard work for you.

Everyone has different paths towards their goals.

Some might have no stops, and some of us might have millions of stops.

ADHD study tips!

- BeLineReader is some super useful, it colors text gradient, has an open dyslexic font, and clean/reader mode! (Tho it "expires" after a few weeks, and you have to delete and download it again.)

- Grammarly is good, but it sure can get annoying with it telling you you misplaced a comma, but refusing to tell where.

- Rereading the notes you took in class is always better than nothing. Pro tip: reread them before going to bed, and right before class, because our brains process information at night.

- When you have to do an essay/PPT, Ctrl+F is your friend. Also, write down questions or keywords you want it to be about. Write a "first draft," a little messy, that only you (but you do) understand, and only when done start to reword it with "fancier words."

Include the terms you've learned in class. Teachers like to hear themselves back.

- If fancy words, I have two sites for you: scribens.com (a grammar checker), rhymezone.com (it has everything word-related you could ever need).

- Highly recommend Weava Highlighter too! You can highlight and save text from any site or PDF and even add notes.

- When doing a PPT use the automatic design ideas and pictures, pictures, pictures - it's easy and will look a lot better.

- Copy-past sentences from your sources and reword them, change the word order on the slide, use the original sentence when presenting.

- Use Comic Sans for writing notes/essays, but if not comic sans, some neat font. Copy-past a text from Tumblr into a document and you'll get the font Tumblr uses. (Which is apparently too long for me to include)

I like Courier New too.

- Have a paper for "junk thoughts" - write them down, but only deal with them later.

- Look for the fun things. Documentaries, history movies, colorized historical recordings exist.

-Tie it up with interests! You like making neat Tumblr posts? Great! Make neat Tumblr posts! IV. Henrick Moodboard. Make memes about it.

Explain it to someone in the most basic "meme language." "And then he goes..." "*something*" "Pathetic" "XY left the chat."

How fun is that??! (especially for literature and history)

- The effort rule (based on some experiment) the more effort you put into it, the more likely you will remember it. Sounds ridiculous, but...

put down your notebook in one corner of the room so you have to walk a little with every sentence, and take notes this way.

- Another ridiculous way to remember stuff is to place the information in unique places, so you will remember it for sure. Write that formula on an empty toilet paper roll no one had the energy to throw in the trash. Put a sticky note on the cheese in the fridge.

- I'm the kind of person who gets motivation from not doing the notes for myself but to make videos on the topic for the "next generations," because our school system su©ks.

- Have a document/bookmark folder with all the stuff you'll need!!!(links I mean) And go by the path of the links.

Like this:

X'o clock - Y'o clock - History, ancient Greece

[link of source for studying] [link of source for studying] [link of source for studying]

Y'o clock - Z'o clock - Rest

[link of a Tumblr blog you want to check out for new posts] [link of a short video you want to watch]

Make starting only take one/two clicks. Use a site blocker and only whitelist the few pages you'll need for 1) studying, and 2) in the breaks.

- This thing can automatically open a new tab (a link) at a given time.

- For note-taking in class: use an erasable pen.

- In the classes where the teacher simply can't explain, only jot down the keywords and look them up later. Check your book for illustrations and definitions. Works for just-pass-will-forget-everything-after-the-test subjects.

- Illustrate your notes. I like to doodle little figures in my notebook, it 1) keeps my hands busy

2) as I'm a visual type, it helps me remember where was a piece of information in my notes located, and

3) it forms a link in between dry and heavy information. (It personalizes things [countries, groups, ideologies], visualizes concepts, and brings color into events)

This is what my notes look like: (for strucutre - tho I love philosophy, so with my not-favorite subjects it's obviously a bit different...)

- As for sensory things:

☀️ Let there be light! Sunlight or some lamps with a cozy mood.

💻 "Play" with the settings of your screen, turn down the brightness, the saturation, etc.

👕 If you find it refreshing, maybe take a bath/shower before, or change your clothes to more comfortable ones.

🍃 Let in some fresh air, make sure the room isn't too hot, nor too cold.

🍹 Have a bottle of water by your side, so you don't forget to drink.

🎧 If you need some background noise, there are tons of ambient sound channels on youtube and there's also MyNoiseNet.

🎼 Or put on a music/playlist with only a few tracks looped. Or instrumental music. Or music in a foreign language. Just imagine learning history while some cinematic classical music plays. XD

If you feel bad, here's this site that might help you figure out why.