s t e t h o s n o t e

june 24. 2018 // a formula sheet for my maths exams a few weeks ago. I can’t believe there’s a little more than a month until trials too many exams help

Before I start, I just want to say that I’m far from being the smartest person that I know. What made me one of the best students in my class was hard work. High school was really hard for me and I spent hours (per day) studying. I’m not saying that you must study as much as I did. Please, don’t get me wrong! This was my study routine that I found the best way to achieve my personal goals. My ask is always open if you want to send anything!

Class notes: what I basically did during classes that didn’t require any type of calculus was writing down everything that my teacher was saying. For me, this turned out being the most efficient way to learn and understand. Sometimes I just recorded the lecture on my phone and took my notes at home.

Exercises: most of the time, my school books had around 100 per subject matter. I didn’t have the time to do all of them, so I choose the most important ones, including easy ones. In my classes, we solved (with the teacher) around 5 exercises. Because of that, I found really important to take a little time to study not just theory.

Math and Physics: they are my weaknesses and I needed to give them some extra effort. I didn’t do any notes of those subjects, besides copying the examples. From those examples, I tried to understand every single thing that was going on before I start studying by resolving exercises. There’s no way to study math and physics besides practising.

Home studies: I had classes from 7 am to 12:40 pm, so the whole afternoon was free. First of all, I read all my class notes and made sure that everything was well understood. Then, I would move to my textbook and highlight what I found useful, like extra examples or information. Last, making a summary was way too essential for me.

Online platforms: online lectures saved my ass when I had no clue of what was going on. You can find videos on youtube, but I paid for an online platform for two years and I don’t regret it. I did as if I was in a classroom, so I took my notes - while the video was playing - in the exact same way. I can not recommend any platform unless you are from Brazil so I guaranty you that Descomplica is the best one. 

Speaking: most of the time I was speaking alone in the room teaching myself what I’ve just learned. Helping my friends was also a good thing for me because I wasn’t just helping and teaching them. Speaking at loud makes me memorize things better. That was also how I did my revising, just putting out everything that I know.

🌊 LUCIEGRACESTUDIES 🌊 7 SEP 2018 🌊 7/100 DAYS OF PRODUCTIVITY 🌊

Hey youuu! Welcome to the first post of my back to school mini series! I think these short posts may be a good way to put you in the best mood for your new academic year (and if you have already started, good luck!!).

Today I want to talk about how to adopt new habits to incorporate into a new routine. Whether you want to eat healthier, study more or even just flossing every night, this post is for you!!

So how do you start new habits in the easiest and most natural way? Here are my tips!!

First of all, remember to do things for you and not for the others. Don’t start a new habit because someone said you have to. A new habit has to be beneficial for yourself and has to make you feel good and proud of your accomplishments. Doing things for someone else never ends up well, and only cause pain and frustration! You have to make yourseld proud in the first place.

Make a list of the habits you already have and that you do everyday without even thinking about it (like brushing your teeth, showering, eating breakfast, going to bed, etc)

Then, make another list of the things that you must do and that are main priorities (going to school, walking your dog, etc).

Now take these 2 lists and think about how you are going to incorporate the new habit you want to adopt. For example, if your goal is to eat healthier but you go to school everyday, try to bring your own food from home at school. You have to include this new habit in the most naturally way so in the beginning it doesn’t feel like your day a big mess that stresses you out (because if it does, you’ll soon stop practicing the new habit)

Start small. But like, very small. If your goal is to get fit and you’ve never really worked out in your whole life, it will be hard for you to go to the gym everyday and you’ll probably end up unmotivated. That’s why you have to take little steps, steps that are so small you can’t find any excuse to not do them. For example, let’s say you want to drink more water. In order to do so, you can start by drinking a glass of water every morning. Then, add another glass of water at noon, etc. You can do this for every kind of habit. You want to workout more? Start doing 5 pushups everyday, then 8, then 10, etc. You want to study more? Add 30 minutes of studying everyday, then one hour, etc. Starting really small is the best way to gently incorporate a new habit and stick to it!

Put a reminder of your new habit. Make a tracker in your bullet journal, or just put an alarm on your phone that sounds like “hey honey it’s time for you to do your daily workout”. It’s easy to “forget” about the new habit, especially if you have other stuff going on in your head. Having the reminder helps you each time to take the decision of doing it or not and makes you think twice before not showing up for your new habit!

Reward yourself.This is the most important part : you did your homework? Tell yourself that you made a good job! You read only 2 pages on the textbook? Amazing! At least you did something! You just did 10 squats? Congrats you smokin’ hot babe! That’s how it works. That’s how you will stick to your new goals. Buy yourself new clothes or stationery if you managed to stick to your new habit for 2 weeks. Eat your favorite meal, do a face mask, anything. Every steps counts as much as the reward! Be proud of your accomplishments even if you judge them to be small (for example : you ate only one biscuit? Well done! A week ago you would have eaten the whole box!)

Find your motivation : I invite you to read my article that I wrote a few months ago about it :). Think about why you want to change your daily routine, what this will bring you in your everyday life and also imagine what your life will be in for example 2 months, 6 months, a year from now!! For me it’s always a big mood booster to think this way !

It is said that you have to stick to a new habit for at least 3 weeks in order to make it part of your new routine so keep going !!

I hope these tips will help build new routines that will get you closer from your goals.

What habits do you want to incorporate in your routine guys? Let me know in the comments!

school starts for me again in about a week so i thought i’d make a quick post of some of my ‘back to school’ resolutions! most of these are quite general but some are very specific to me personally, so those maybe won’t be as relatable to others, but these are just my personal resolutions for the new school year. 

1. make sure my notes are kept organised

currently my school notes are an absolute nightmare. some of my class notes are on my laptop, others i wrote down in an assortment of notebooks, sometimes i’ll write them on lined paper and then put them in my folder, and then when i come to revise i can’t find them anywhere! even worse, i never know when i should and when i shouldn’t be writing notes while the teachers is talking (because sometimes what they are saying will just be reiterated on handouts or on my school’s google drive, and they often talk so fast i can’t write anything down in an understandable format, just messy short hand), so there are several parts of my courses that i don’t have any information for outside of my confusing textbooks! making sure i have clear and concise notes organised all in the same place is really important for me this next academic year. 

2. use my free periods wisely

i find my school environment very overwhelming for my mental health to the point where it’s difficult for me to focus in class snd i’m physically incapable of work, so last year i was using over half of my free periods in a week to just read or watch youtube videos to try and give my brain a break before having to go back to class again. that worked fine last year but if i really want to step up my academic performance in the next year i really need to start using the majority of my time away from class while still in school working, and save my rest periods for at home. for me personally i don’t think it’s going to be possible for me to work in every single one of my free periods without being completely overwhelmed, but i’m going to aim to use at least five out of seven of my free periods a week do some kind of school work

3. pay attention to what i’m eating in school

i am extremely lazy when it comes to what i’m eating at school, and on a regular day i’ll find myself eating some fruit at first break and just a pastry or something similar for lunch. i feel like i really need to prioritise making sure at least three days a week i have some form of packed lunch and i’m not just eating fruit and pastries at school every single day because that definitely isn’t good for my body or my brain. part of the reason i dont pack my lunch is because i leave for school at 6:00 and my lunch break isn’t until 1:00 so the food is just sat getting gross in my locker for seven hours, so if anyone has any recommendations for some good school lunches that won’t go bad i’d really appreciate them!

4. keep off my laptop during lessons

i don’t do it all the time but certainly during some of less engaging classes (cough cough philosophy) i have a tendency to switch between my class notes and the tumblr/buzzfeed/goodreads tab i happen to have open in my other browser. its a really really bad habit of mine so next year i’m planning on setting a website blocker on during the classes i have a tendency to browse during to try and prevent the temptation of doing something more fun than taking class notes.

5. think before i speak

school is coming! (my last cry for help)

some revision notes for my calc test tomorrow ✨💭 i swear i’m not panicking,,