Sparkly Productivity

It is the day of your graduation. Finally, all those years of studying, reading, writing and staying up late preparing for tests and exams are over. Soon, you’ll be heading out into the real world- maybe you have a job lined up, or plan to look for one. Maybe an internship, or more study, or some other unexpected but equally wonderful path. You have done well academically, even if you lost motivation at times or messed up a few papers. As you get called onto the stage you stand in your shiny robe and look out into the audience to see the proud faces of your loved ones. You smile. All that time and effort had paid off, it was all worth it. 

It’s time for a screen cleanse! Get away from your phone, computer, or TV for just a minute if you can. Here are some ideas:

Cook a meal

Have coffee with a friend (alone is fine too)

Annotate a magazine article and feel very smart

Walk your dog

Cuddle your fur baby (whichever type you happen to own)

Take yourself for a walk and really notice things in your neighborhood

Journal or morning pages

Feng shui your home

Write a crappy or amazing poem (by hand)

Try out a new sport

Get your laundry done

Cull and organize your wardrobe

Make a mind map of the novel you want to write

Take a bath with salts or a bath bomb

Decorate your planner or bullet journal

Really groom yourself

Daydream

Yoga stretches

Adult. Coloring. Books.

Meditate for at least one minute

Find flowers and/or herbs to press in a book and/or dry

Go for a drive and blast your favorite songs

Treat yourself to a nice bottle of wine

Find a shady spot under a tree and just BE

Walk along the beach and look for shells

Swim in a crystal clear lake

Hike in the woods

Follow an essential oil recipe

Poke around the curios in a local new age shop

People watch

Visit the library & enjoy the serenity

Make your own matcha latte 

Rearrange your furniture

Write up a bucket list and try to check some items off

Buy a newspaper and challenge yourself to the crossword puzzle

Draw/sketch

Make flip book animation

Teach yourself to shuffle playing cards

Find an artistic medium you’ve never tried before

Play a board game

Pick wildflowers to put in a mason jar on your desk

Make new lists in your bullet journal

Organize your desk

Wash your sheets & make your bed

Wander around a museum for an afternoon

Shop at a farmer’s market

Repurpose old clothes (e.g. make a bag from old jeans)

Listen to vinyls and dance your pants off

Sort through your books and movie collections and donate titles you’ll probably never read/watch again

Have lunch somewhere with just a book or magazine as a dining companion

Anatomy:

I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again, Netter is one of a kind guys. It has helped me so much.

There’s also an app I used to have on my iphone, I think it was called essential skeleton. Any app/program would do, I especially love the virtual dissection tool because it helped me understand different layers so much better.

It can get a little overwhelming with the details but there’s usually a “clinical anatomy” or “applied anatomy” part in the end of every chapter, I prioritized that over everything else because of its clinical relevance and this has not only helped me in my rotations this year but also MCQs in academic usually target this area so .. you’re welcome hahah.

The lab is your best friend here, take advantage of every minute you have in there. Understanding is key so for example if I didn’t fully understand the action of a muscle, I’d pull the tendon & see what it does with my own eyes, what I’m saying is I never left the lab without understanding everything because anatomy isn’t one of those things you can just memorize.

If your school provides a pre lab learning guide use that, if it doesn’t make your own. Just don’t go into the lab not knowing anything because you will struggle, whereas if you go prepared it’s gonna help you out a ton, you’ll consolidate everything you know & basically be good to go.

So here’s what I did to learn an anatomy lecture: Before the class I’d read what we’re studying from Snell’s, then I’d take notes, attend the lecture, go home, go over everything from Netter & my apps (I considered that my pre lab work) and then the next day I’d go into the lab & sort of explain whatever we’re learning either to myself or to my partner. Et voilà, we’re done.

Physiology

This wasn’t really my forte, but here goes nothing.

As for physiology I found that textbooks don’t do it for me.

So what I would do before class to prepare is watch as many YouTube videos from different sources about whatever we’re studying. I could link all my favorite YouTube channels if you’re interested?

Then in class I’d pay FULL UNDIVIDED attention (physiology needs more concentration imo)

Then I’d get home and go through the material my school provides, I didn’t even make my own notes in physiology because it was ridiculously time consuming & I needed visual illustrations. Reading it was like passive studying, I couldn’t learn anything no matter how many times I read it.

But the one thing that I found helped me the most in physiology is answering a shit ton of MCQs, that’s the only way I could properly learn.

So my strategy for physiology was basically pay full attention in class & do a lot of practice questions rather than spend hours memorizing everything from a textbook.

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us." 

I want to be the best version of myself. I want to be proud of myself. I want to love myself. I want to achieve my goals. I want to be happy.

It is hard to follow ones dream, to be disciplined, to study, to work out, to eat healthy, etc. Everything that we should do is hard, nothing is easy at all. Yet I would rather exert myself than hate myself and my way of living.

I am ready to change. I want to change.

- 100 days of productivity challenge - always going to do my homework or try to at least - and do them as soon as I have the time to instead of waiting until I must do them - create a study plan for the next two months - be active during class, listen, answer questions, ask questions, get that B in oral - be organized, probably thanks to my bullet journal - try to build a better relationships with all my teachers accept that one stupid ass fucking man who wants me to fail I hate him - read more books, English, German and Italian - always take notes

- gym five times a week - cardio and weight lifting - 3 exercises for ass, 2 for arms and 2 for arms - drink a lot more water - more walking, less bus taking  - more bike riding, less bus taking - healthy diet - always use stairs if possible - no more eating 5 hours before going to sleep - three meals, three snacks - never go hungry! never skip meals! - meal prep if necessary - one cheat snack a day because I love sweets and they make me happy

- toxic people are not part of my life anymore, bye - no unnecessary beef anymore - try to not be as stressed anymore, mediate, do some yoga - 8 hours of sleep - fuck boys and girls and every other person who wants to put me down - cleanse, exfoliate, shave, take care of my nails, etc - put my own interests first, take care of myself first - smoke less cigarettes - be thankful, be kind - less negative vibes and thoughts, be optimistic or realistic - listen to my gut instead of my heart - never ever let a toxic man inside my life ever again

glazed doughnut : coffee drinker, handwritten notes, libraries, studying out loud, aesthetic photographs, lots of stationary 

jam doughnut : messy notes, disorganized, bursts of energy, sweet snacks to share, washi-tape 

chocolate doughnut : competitive studying, easily distracted, an iced drink in hand, doodling, double checking notes 

chocolate sprinkles doughnut : study groups, laughter, big sweaters, hot chocolate, travelling 

cinnamon twist : bullet journals, neat handwriting, always carries a notebook around, quiet, sweet 

It’s okay to spend time alone

It’s okay to not see your friends every single day

You aren’t weird for spending time with yourself

It’s okay to like your space

I recently set up a new language learning schedule for myself and I thought some of you might find my approach useful, so I decided to create a short guide and a printable (you can download it as a pdf here). Lots of people struggle with finding a way to study several languages at once (I do, too, as I’m currently learning 5 languages) and I think having a good plan is essential!

As you can see, it’s quite simple. Once you have downloaded the printable, you can create a perfect schedule for yourself in a few easy steps:

1. Define your goals

First of all, you should know why you need this schedule and for how long you want to stick with it. Do you want to plan your studies for next week, the next month or the entire term or (school) year? What exactly do you want to learn until the end of that time period? How many words, how many grammar topics, how many levels in your favorite language learning app? You need to answer these questions in order to be able to estimate how much time you should / can / want to spend on your target languages every day.

2. List your languages and resources

Secondly, you should make a list in which you mention the resources, methods and tools you want to use for each language. It should look something like this (the more detailed, the better):

3. Divide your resources into categories

I put six categories on the printable. Use a color code to show which resource belongs in which category:

4. Almost there…

There are a few things you should consider before creating the actual schedule:

How much work and time do you need to put in to reach your goals?

How much time do you actually have in a normal week? When do you want to study?

Are all of your target languages equally important? How often do you want to study language 1,2,3,…?

Do you have any classes that you have to prepare for / do homework for? If yes, you can include that in your schedule!

Do you want to avoid studying two similar languages in one day?

Do you want to focus on a special skill?

5. Set up your schedule!

Goals, resources, time management - you’re ready to make a detailed plan! Here is a random example:

In case you were wondering “why do the whole coloring thing and list your resources and everything” - I think this is a way to avoid procrastination. Let’s say it’s Friday, so you should be learning French vocab (orange) and practise listening (green) in Spanish. Now, if you never made a list with all your resources, you might end up wasting your time on tumblr or google searching for “Spanish listening practice” and reading arbitrary posts or watching videos you already know without really doing anything because you just don’t know what to do. If you consider your list, you will know that for Spanish, you will either have to watch a movie or listen to some music, and for French, you will have to do either Memrise or Anki. As I said before, this gets easier if your list is more detailed. Actual tasks like “watch a movie on website x about y with subtitles in language z” will force you to work with what you’ve got and use the methods and resources you already know. I read so many posts like “I keep downloading textbooks for that language but I never use any of them, I just keep downloading more” and this won’t happen to you if you use the list!

Hermione Granger - Harry Potter

Studying in the library. Borderline solitary confinement. Doing work ahead of schedule. Very few distractions. Old leather backed books. Musky smell. Vanilla. Sunlight peeking through the windows. Pumpkin pasties. Writing small so you can fit everything in. Taking great care. 100% all the time.

Katniss Everdeen - The Hunger Games

Questioning everything. What is the point? Procrastination levels to the max until someone tries to be better than you. Not studying much but getting an A. Using simplified words to understand. Technology is everything. Sleeping in late and then straight to work.

Tris Prior - Divergent

Straight back when you begin then suddenly you’re lounging on the floor. Greyscale. Minimal colours for effectiveness. Writing down everything. Actually paying attention in class. Auditory learner. Wanting perfection. Trying to pull an all nighter but failing.

Annabeth Chase - Percy Jackson

Managing everything. Working out in study breaks. Architectural sketches everywhere. Motivational quotes for inspiration. Thinking back on how far you’ve come. White desk. Having a clean study space until you actually start studying. Teaching yourself things.

Clary Fray - The Mortal Instruments

Paint speckled notes. Music blasting through headphones. Messy desks. Hair hastily pulled into a bun. Getting distracted easily. Random doodles on the sides of textbooks. Smart but doesn’t show it all the time. Study groups with lots of people. Quizzing each other. Collapsing on your bed after a long study session.

Teresa Agnes - The Maze Runner

‘I give up’ you say as you continue. Pushing yourself. Trying to beat the system. Piles of notebooks. Stretching your legs. Studying in bed. Using a laptop instead of writing. Study playlist which doesn’t help. Organized for two minutes then it ends. The sound of rain.