A Borderline Blog

hi hello hi how’s it going. welcome to the 3am-burst-of-motivation-tumblr-post-of-the-day, where i’m sharing all of my study tips that allowed my adhd/austism/ocd/bpd brain to somehow squeeze out straight a’s for the third year (sixth semester) in a row. 

1. study differently for different subjects. contrary to popular belief, flashcards and rewriting your notes does not work for every subject (unless it does for you, in which case ignore me and do what works for you). different subjects, at least for me, require different environments, techniques, and associations. 

2. association! sensory stuff works great for me because i tend to associate physical things with emotions and even personality types, so have something be constant every time you study. example: i have two tubes of chapstick, one peppermint and one pomegranate. i put on the peppermint one right before i go to bed and the pomegranate one after i eat breakfast - i associate the different scents with different activities (going to bed and starting my to-do list). 

3. to-do lists! mine are written on sticky notes and stuck to my mirror because i hate hate hate having the sticky glue stuff from sticky notes on my mirror and i’m not allowed to clean my mirror until all the sticky notes are off of it. when i can’t see my mirror, they’re on the outside of my backpack because they’re bright pink and the social anxiety makes me think people are staring at me if they are on my backpack. 

4. change your location often. specifically for my adhd peeps who have the attention span of an overexcited puppy, walk around. do things. go to a park or a coffee shop or a grocery store or a sidewalk or a bench somewhere or my personal favorite, the bank. when you’re understimulated go somewhere with lots of different noises and when you’re overstimulated so somewhere quiet or control noises (listen to music, noise-cancelling headphones, humming). 

5. keep a piece of paper next to you for the Random Thoughts That Come at Inconvenient Times and write down the stuff you want to look up/do/tell someone about and like… i don’t even know why that helps but it does. just having your thoughts out there i guess?

6. body doubling. find a person who will study with you. bonus points if it’s another neurodivergent person. they are depending on you to finish the studying and get the good grade. THEY ARE DEPENDING ON YOU. DON’T DISAPPOINT THEM. (side note anxiety people i would not recommend this for you)

7.  go to a place that will remind you to pee and eat and drink things. starbucks is great for this. so are most restaurants. 

8. get a new thing to study with every week. i like new things. if i have a new thing i am going to use it until it’s no longer exciting. i get a pencil, just a boring, manual pencil from the drugstore every monday afternoon for like sixty cents. it’s a fantastic method, at least for me. 

9. don’t drink something with caffeine in it while studying. you will either fall asleep or end up on a roof. it is not a good situation. caffeine for neurodivergents is like sleep pills, for me at least and most of the other ND’s i’ve met. if not for you, you’re lucky. 

10. spaced reps. in other words, find a big pair of dice and write vocab terms on each side, then hurl it at the ground and define each term. do this for like an hour. it’s fun and gets a lot of energy out. 

11. stim. vocal stims, physical stims, self-talk, fidget, yelp, squeal, tap your foot, walk around, shrug your shoulders, twitch your nose, jump up and down, ribbit like a frog. stim, stim, stim. it helps. 

This does not sound whiny at all omg you are not alone. This is such a valid struggle that many people deal with. In fact, I am also struggling a little bit at the moment because balancing mental illness and college is very challenging.

One tip I have is to know your triggers. If you know you’re going to be in a potentially triggering situation, such as visiting parents or seeing your fp since they dictate our moods, plan to get your work done before the potentially triggering situation.

Also, figure out what times you tend to be triggered the most. For example, I tend to get triggered the most during the night time, so it is best for me to get as much homework done during the day.

This is a very neurotypical tip, but use a planner and do a little work over the course of many days instead of a lot of work all in one day to avoid the added stress of procrastination. I still struggle with this but it’s so important because stress makes us more vulnerable to mood swings and other symptoms. Also, try to plan to get things done one or more days before the due date in case you have a bad mental health day. It’s impossible to do homework if you are having a panic attack or breakdown, so try to plan ahead.

This may not work for everyone, but I personally love listening to ASMR while doing my homework. It has to be a specific kind though. ASMR puts me in a calm state of mind that helps fight the inability to concentrate that comes with anxiety. My personal favorite ASMRtist especially for when I’m doing homework is Annura’s ASMR. I especially love doing homework while listening to this video.

Make sure you are eating consistently, staying hydrated, spending time with loved ones, taking your meds, etc. I find myself slipping up with these things when school gets intense, but not taking care of yourself leaves you so vulnerable to being triggered. I only recently realized that only eating once a day was a big reason my mood swings were so bad a couple months ago. Now that I’m doing a better job taking care of myself, the mood swings aren’t as intense or frequent. I still have them of course, but I am seeing improvement. Please take care of yourself.

Give yourself breaks! Try to give yourself one day every week where you don’t have to do any schoolwork. You can just relax or spend time with friends/loved ones. If you never give yourself breaks, you will run yourself to the ground and become burned out. You don’t have to be productive every single day it’s ok and necessary to just relax and rest.

If anyone else has tips feel free to comment/rb