for students

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” - Antoine De Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince 🌒

But there’s a world of difference between doing what you love for you, and doing what you love for a paycheck. 

I went to undergrad for graphic design and 3-D design–art and more art, I usually say–and I loved it. You know what I didn’t love? Trying to collect my fees from clients. Trying to meet unrealistic, over-simplified or over-specific briefs from people who didn’t know what they were talking about. Coming home, having worked creatively all day, with no creative juice left for the things I wanted to do.

You know what I would tell you instead? Do something that you can be interested in, with people you like.

You don’t have to love it. Loving your work can be a lot, and it often means you have to live in your job 24/7. Some people can do that. Not everyone can, or should.  But if you can find work that’s interesting enough that it doesn’t feel tedious, and people you can enjoy spending your 9-5 with, and you can make money, that’s great! It means you can do the things you love for you.

I’m in law school now. It’s interesting work, and difficult, and I like doing it. I like how complicated it gets, and I like the stories it tells. But I don’t come home and read law journals for fun. I come home, and I sculpt, and I draw, and I paint, and I read. I do these things for me.

As requested by some of you who read my post on Types of study methods to suit your current position, here’s how to study journal!

First of all, study journaling is an idea that I came up with somewhere in the beginning of December, and then used it for a week and checked its mechanics - which is why I think I can say that it is a nice way to boost your productivity and academic skills.

And I’m saying academic “skills” because I don’t really think that anyone has any less capability to do well in studies, it’s just a matter of time when you actually realise the right method to study. And once you do that, it’s like bam - you got it!

This idea hit me first when I heard about bullet journaling, and many studyblrs also kept mentioning to keep track of your study sessions and stuff, so I just mixed it all up and conjured this “studyjo” (lol that’s the worse name).

Here’s how you can studyjo :

1. Basic af essentials

A journal, duh.

The whole concept of studyjo is to boost your productivity, not your fancy ish, so picking a cheap ass journal isn’t gonna kill you.

My dad has a thing for collecting diaries and journals, so I usually pick one from the storeroom - which is why the one I used was of the year 2015. I mean, we’re gonna make our own custom calendar inside anyway so it didn’t matter to me.

You want a fancy ass journal? Go for it. A cheap ass composition notebook? Go for it. As long as it has pages and you can access it from your class/college /home/car/train/any spot on earth its eligible!

Writing tools, duh.

Use a brush pen, sharpie, markers or a pencil - doesn’t make a difference as long as it writes well.

So there’s a lot of you guys who think embellishing our notes/bujo is a waste of time, then by all means keep it simple.

I like colours because my eyes automatically want to look at them which complies me to go over my tasks again and again.

Of you think aesthetic is your thing then by all means use it to your advantage.

That doesn’t mean that you’ll stress over maintaining the pretty pages, we’ve already got enough stress to work with.

2. The basic spreads

Yearly calendar

You must have a page for yearly overview, where you can mark down all exam/assignment/project /event dates.

Sometimes the teachers tell us about our assignments 6 months prior too, at that point the monthly spread isn’t helping - use the yearly spread.

I write our finals dates, important exams, any birthdays, college events, orientation dates, class meeting dates, open House dates and holidays, etc in this calendar.

Keep a little notes section below your calendar to write down extremely important stuff that happens through the year.

Motivational quotes (if they help you) are the best to write down here, because you’ll be looking at them throughout the year.

Dashboard

You are a student, which means that sticky notes are your BFF.

I note down all my deadlines on a sticky note (when in college) and put it on my dashboard.

You can also keep any board passes/bits of paper you receive from the school.

Use one of those envelopes as a pocket and store all miscellaneous papers inside it. I also keep some question papers there.

Store flashcards (the thin ones ofc) in that pocket if you’re going to be carrying the journal everywhere with you.

I also keep a list of doubts that I have in some concepts so that when I meet the respective teacher I can just whip out my doubts list and get it cleared.

Monthly spread

This is where you start the planning.

Make a checklist /whatever sort of list you want of all tasks study related that you need to do. This includes assignments, homework, project, studying a topic, study dates, etc.

It’s best if you sort that list subject wise, but mine is just a general list tbh.

Learn how to break down your tasks. If you have a test on Chapter 1 in Friday, do section A of that chapter tomorrow, section B two days later and section C the day after. And make three separate checkboxes for each section.

The smaller the task, the easier it is to accomplish it.

Have 5 checkboxes for a huge task, so that even when you’ve done a portion of the task you’ll feel that sense of achievement when checking it off.

Keep them short and to the point. Nobody is gonna read a huge ass paragraph on completing that math homework.

Study session tracker

The main purpose of studyjo is this tracker.

Everytime you sit down to study, note the time at which you started, the topic you think you’ll study now.

When you finish studying, note the time again and write down what you actually studied.

Rate your study session as per the satisfaction it gives you.

After some sessions you’ll actually want to study because you wanna add another session details to the tracker.

This works - I had three 2 hour sessions in a week because I wanted to add to my list of accomplishments and feel proud of myself.

Leave little comments on what you think you could’ve done to improve the quality of session, or what concepts you want to do next.

3. The not so basic but recommended spreads

Monthly calendar

Good to have a month wise calendar for better planning.

I note all weekly quiz dates and birthdays and upcoming holidays here, along with some plans for posting on this studyblr too!

You can totally try inspiring quotes here, along with some plans for the month.

Add little goals to achieve this month. My goal for December was to master derivatives, and I’m pretty sure I’m doing derivatives better than before.

Goal tracker

This is divided into two parts : major goals - which you add near the yearly spread and baby goals - which you can add near the monthly spread.

Major goals are generalised and just for motivation.

Minor goals are broken down major goals with details of how to achieve it and they’re the ones you actually will achieve too.

My major goal for 2018 is being consistent. I broke it into a minor goal as ‘study session of at least 30 minutes every day’ without missing!

Productivity tracker

Using graphs, charts, tables and other such diagrams to mark every day you think you spent doing something productive is very amazing.

I make a graph of each day that I got some work done, marking the wasted days with read and productive ones with blue/green.

This helps me point out the days where I’m usually not productive (which happens to be Wednesday and Thursday for me) and the days where my work is super flexible and productive (Monday is awesome).

You can fill in boxes for every day you studied for 1 hour minimum or something, if you like.

Project planner

This can be essential too sometimes. This is a spread you dedicate to planning out a long ass essay or a presentation or a speech or maybe a project.

Make tree diagrams/pie charts and write down notes on how you can structure your project - the conclusion, beginning and middle being the skeleton of each project. (want another long ass post on project planning? *everyone groans*).

Make detailed plans for the project and include dates that you can dedicate for the project making and all.

Mark those dates in the monthly calendar if it helps.

4. Random pile of tips

A weekly date strip is very useful for me. I write down the dates of the coming week on a strip of paper and stick it to the margin of my checklist page.

Mention your name and contact on the cover if the journal in case it gets lost.

Use sticky notes to leave little messages for your future self - I write stuff like ‘keep going girl you got this’ and ‘I’m hella proud of you babe’. It makes you smile lol.

Add a pen pocket to the journal if possible, that’ll make it easy to note things down on the go.

You can keep a mindfulness sort of page where you can dump all your feelings down?

Or a water tracker cuz damn this potato is always dehydrated.

Try writing down why you want to study - to impress the teacher? Get a good grade? Show off to others? Get closer to your career goals?

We all want to do stuff for selfish reasons sometimes, it’s okay if you note them down because what I noticed is that whenever I wrote down stuff like ‘prove to them that I’m awesome’ or ‘make the bio teacher adore me’ I actually wanted to work towards it. Maybe it’s just me. Worth trying tho.

Keep the last two pages for emergency note taking and instructions given by the teacher just in case you have nothing else atm.

Voila, here - your studyjo is ready!

1. don’t load your hardest classes in one semester. find out which classes within your major are rumored to be tough and divide them out throughout your time in college.

2. don’t show up to class earlier than 10 mins early. the class before yours will likely still be in there finishing up, and you’ll either walk in in the middle of a lecture or have to stand outside for a long time. just get there 5-10 mins early and you’ll be fine!

3. create a group chat for all of your classes. find a few friends from class and make a group chat! this can be either on imessage, groupme, or whatever is most popular to use at your school. this can be your go-to place to ask questions about assignments, due dates, etc. before asking the professor!

4. as for class participation, quality>quantity. in most college classes (with the exception of huge lectures) participation accounts for a chunk of your grade, and some professors take that grade very seriously. however, this doesn’t mean you should raise your hand and talk whenever you find the opportunity- your professor (and your classmates, for that matter) will appreciate you much more if your comments and questions are less frequent and have more to add to the class. 

5. the readings listed under a date in a class are due for that class, they are not homework for the next class. this is one of the biggest issues college freshman have at the beginning of their first semester. unless the professor specifically says otherwise, if the syllabus is set up to list each class individually with the readings underneath/beside the class, they are due for that class, not the next one.

6. make yourself known to your professor! this is especially important for a large lecture, where they won’t get to know you otherwise. stop by their office hours or go up to them after class and introduce yourself- making a connection with your professor can open more doors than you may know!

7. rate my professor is not always accurate. professors can get better or worse, and different people have different experiences. though it’s a great tool and you can still use it to see what people think, if you’re stuck with a professor that is ranked low, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have a bad time in that class.

8. sometimes it’s okay to just skim your readings. you’ll find out soon enough if your professor basically goes over exactly what the reading says every class. if so, you only need to skim it over and take light notes. don’t spend hours closely reading a textbook that your professor is just going to go over word for word the next day (unless it helps you- if so, do it!)

9. the guy in class that answers every question isn’t smarter than you. that’s it.

Do not use the website called Sci-Hub!

It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.

Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.

my three idols in middle school — rory gilmore, spencer hastings, and hermione granger — were all bookish, type-a, deeply intelligent young women who were brilliant students and good role models, but they taught me from a young age that success requires suffering.

i am tired of seeing students forgo food and sleep and time to themselves. i am tired of seeing students use adderall to stay awake all night and make it through exams the next day. i am tired of seeing students live off of coffee and a bite of a muffin at six am. we see these narratives on tv and they play out in the dorm room next to me.

my friend has five meetings today after a full day of classes. “thank you so much,” he says when i offer to drop off food at his dorm. “i was just planning to not eat today.”

i am tired of the narrative that isolation and deprivation are the key to a good life, that high performance in school is key to a happy future, that painful sacrifice now will pay off later.

you are more important than your grades, your notes, your burning eyes in the morning when your alarm goes off far too early. you deserve a balanced life and a life that is enriched by your studies and not damaged by them.

you deserve to go to sleep when you are tired. you deserve to eat when you are hungry. you deserve to take a break from studying.

push yourself to fall asleep earlier - start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.

get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.

stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch everything.

buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.

buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.

strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear draw into the washing machine. put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash. make your bed in full.

organise your room. fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.

have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.

push yourself to go for a walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. realise you can learn from your dog.

message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce. suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself to follow through.

think long and hard about what interests you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette? find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally everything.

become the person you would ideally fall in love with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. stick your tongue out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week. walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.

Hey so, I decided to do another masterpost. This time on exams. Some tips for studying at the very last minute if you are like me, disclaimer: I am not in any way supporting cramming but this is just to help you through if you are left with no choice other than cramming.

Cramming

Cramming tips that actually work by @optomstudies

The night before the exam

What to do the night before an exam by @beautifullearning

The night before your exam by @tiny-personal-university-thing

The night before exam and I didn’t study guide by @renaistudying

The night before test and I haven’t started studying by @getstudyblr

Revision methods

Revision methods that actually work by @alimastudies

The 5 Best Revision Methods by @bstudies

Study tips

More unconventional study tips by @minimaliststudy

A stash of tiny study tips by @justestjarchives

College study tips that actually help by @samsstudygram

Five tips for study marathons by @booksavolonte

General study tips by @plantednotes

More study tips

My study tips by @anatomyandcappuccini

My study tips

Personal study tips

Quickfire study tips by @annabaestudying

Quick study tip by @studyspiratiom-coffee

Rare study tips by @studybllog

Scientifically proven study tips by @swankiegrades

Secret study tips I wish someone would have told me by @fearlessroadtomd

Some rare study tips by @organisedorgana

Top 5 study tips by @studyign

Weird study tip by @artemissstudies

101 study tips by @study-early

Study tips by @howtohighschool

Study tips from someone who has already been there by @haylstudies

Study tips straight from my professor by @just-refuse-to-be-stopped

Study tips that helped me get back on my feet by @sillydaisies

Study tips that aren’t bullshit by @thebitchwhomadeit

Tips for effective study by @kimtented

How I write revision summaries by @athenastudying

Ways to study for exams that are actually productive

10 mistakes when studying by @howtostudyquick

Memorising information

How to memorise information by @monetstudy

How to memorise information faster by @qxzu

Memorization tips by @aescademic

Memorization tips by @determinationandcaffeine

Memorization tips by @studyquill

Exam tips

How to cope with exams by @uk-studying

How to revise for exams by @a-pro-s-studyblr

Studying for exams by @orangeblossomstudies

Tips for doing well on your exams by @aboysstudyblr

Tips for doing well on your exams by @thepeachystudies

Exam tips by @studywithmaggie

Exam guides

Finals: study guide for the brave by @educatier

Pennyfynotes guide to exam season by @pennyfynotes

Quick guide to doing the finals by @inkskinned

Test taking tips

How I revise for exams + tests

How to study for a test by @tbhstudying

My test taking tips by @55studies

Test taking tips

Exam preparation

How to make a stress free exam plan by @marias-studyblr

How to mentally prep yourself for a test by @eruditicn

Procrastination

How to beat procrastination by @eintsein

Types of procrastination and how to deal with them by @emmastudies

Time management

Time management by @academiceve

Time management tips for busy students

Motivation

My motivation tag

Other masterposts by me

Notetaking masterpost

College advice masterpost

Apps for students masterpost

Quit all of your social-media accounts except for your favorite one. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can visit your favorite social media for 15 minutes total. Set a timer. If you can’t stick to those limits, you have to quit that account, too.

When you wake up in the morning, exercise for 30 minutes.

Buy or check out two books every week and read them by the end of the week. Squeeze these books into the time you used to spend on social media. If you want to get audiobooks and listen while you exercise, you can do that, but get the other book in print.

Write down ten words to describe yourself. Then write down one reason each trait might exist in you, given your past. At the bottom of the page, write, “I will accept you as you are.” Tape this to the wall. Do this every Monday, until your wall is full. Notice how the words you use to describe yourself start to change for the better. You need to start taking pride in who you are. That includes taking pride in where you’ve been, and how you’ve adapted in ways you never give yourself credit for.

During the day, when you’re tempted to look at social media, when you’re tempted to go on Tinder, when you’re tempted to do something that will hurt you, when you’re thinking in circles, when you’re trying to DECIDE something, stop. Say to yourself, “My first job is to slow down, to be still. My first job is to enjoy this day. My first job is to accept myself and feel my feelings.” Make a vow not to abandon yourself, the way you did with the sleazy guy and the boyfriends of friends. You don’t have to manage your father. You deserve better. Make that your mantra. You deserve better from yourself. You deserve protection from these things that hurt you. I know you don’t think you do. That’s your disordered mind talking.

You are precious, Directionless. When you slow down, you will feel that in your bones. You will feel disgusting and horrible, but slowly you’ll see that it’s beautiful, this moment of knowing how sick you are. You will find your will to go on in spite of how horrible it all is, how horrible you are. You will find your direction. Stop thinking about it and instead, submerge yourself in other people’s work: their art, their books, their lives. Your brilliance is waiting for you to slow down. Your path is waiting for you, patiently. You have to learn to trust yourself. You have to search for your broken, scared self. Not someone else’s idea of you. Not someone else’s approval. Your broken, scared self is the only self that can lead you forward from here.

I know it sounds impossible. I want you to know that I hear you clearly. You want me to know that everything is fucked, that YOU are fucked. I believe you and I know it hurts. I know it’s worse than anyone else can see. I know how it feels to live there.

I also know that you’re ready to live somewhere else now. You’re ready to face the truth. You’re ready to be who you are, even when no one is there to approve of you or give you love or tell you you’re great. You’re going to give yourself what you need now, and it’s going to feel a million times more satisfying than anything else you’ve ever done.