"The only thing I know i that I know nothing."- Socrates

Pam’s 2.6k follower celebration

An Overview of Note-Taking Styles

So.. Schools are closed, everything is basically down and you’re up to at least 2 weeks of quarantine. You’ve bought your toilet paper, made your pasta stock (no penne lisce of course, who tf eats them anyway?!), completed 30 levels of CandyCrush and now you may be wondering… What the hell will I do during this whole time??

Well… I got you covered. I’ll just make a couple of articles on how to help YOU to make the best of this homestay! side note : this may be the first and the last time that you can save the world from your couch, so be happy about it : we’re living a historical moment!).

First things first : MAKE A LIST. If you don’t stop one moment and think of everything you need to do, you’ll end up doing basically nothing, and this is why SUMMARIZING what you need to do can help you have a clearer vision : What are your top priorities (school work, job/college applications, deadlines, thesis, etc.)? What are your other priorities (exercising, cleaning the house, doing your laundry, washing your hands, feeding the cat…)?

Now that you’ve listed your work/home obligations you have 2 choices : either you have so much workload that you’ll basically only do this (and this quarantine will rather look like an exam session => I’ll write a 2nd article on how to study efficiently at home) OR you have still plenty of free time !

Which leads to asking yourself what are the things you’ve always wanted to do/improve/try but never had the motivation/time to? The examples are infinite : finish a book, start a blog, declutter, meditate more, journaling, etc..

Once you’ve made your list, you can PLAN your days. It doesn’t need to be super serious like a study plan but just knowing what you’ll be up to each day will make you less anxious and the time will pass faster.

Last thing : don’t forget to CHILL ! As I said, it’s the first time you won’t feel guilty about staying at home! So keep some time apart to watch your favorite TV show, enjoy precious moments with your family, sleep, and take care of yourself.

So tell me.. What would you like to do during this quarantine? Do you have any goals?

I’ll come back very soon for more details !! In the meantime, please STAY SAFE, wash your hands and AVOID close contact!!

Not all galaxies are lonely. Some have galaxy squads. ⁣

NGC 1706, captured in this image by our Hubble Space Telescope, belongs to something known as a galaxy group, which is just as the name suggests — a group of up to 50 galaxies which are gravitationally bound and relatively close to each other. ⁣

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, has its own squad — known as the Local Group, which also contains the Andromeda galaxy, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds and the Triangulum galaxy.

I learned a lot about essay writing in high school and now I barely use it in college, so I thought I would share some of the tips I learned with y’all

just as a disclaimer, these are the basics that I learned in high school. always make sure to talk with your teacher / professor if they have specific guidelines or requirements for an essay (especially if it’s an academic / scientific paper). also, please don’t forget to cite your sources !!

when you’re feelin’ a bit ~jazzy~

when you’re feelin’ like actually studying

when you’re feelin’ a bit like ratatouille 

when you’re feelin’ a bit like taking over the kingdom

when you’re feelin’ a bit of the oldies

when you’re feelin’ a lil in love

when you’re feelin’ a bit happy

when you’re feelin’ a bit of girl power

when you think ur in love but it’s just u romanticizing a friendship

me:

Give yourself a specified grieving time. You’re going to feel absolutely miserable after you fail - disappointed, angry at both yourself and your university/professors, emotionally drained and you’re probably going to convince yourself that you ARE a failure, so why do anything, ever again? You’re going to lie in bed all day and wallow in your own negativity for a while, and you need to let yourself do this! But - after a day or two, you’re also going to need to have a stern talk with yourself, have a cry if you need to and make yourself physically move on from this. Get up, take a shower, have a cup of coffee and go for a walk. Make yourself feel like a human being again, and then have another talk with yourself - this time, focusing on “ok, so what can I do about this?”

Identify the reason behind your failure. Did you procrastinate it to death? Why? Were you scared of failure? Were you scared of success? Do you feel like it’s too big, too much for you to handle? Did it stress you out to the point of being paralyzed to even begin? Do you simply just hate that class so much you’d rather feel like this for failing it than face it? You didn’t have the time? You didn’t make the time?

Forgive yourself. Personally, I could answer yes to all of those questions. I was a mess during my second year of uni, and I just couldn’t dig myself out of the hole I was in. Everything piled up, fast, and I just didn’t have the energy to deal with any of it. I’m not proud of myself, but I also no longer resent myself for this. Even if you didn’t have any “real” reasons for failing, you still need to find it within yourself to allow yourself to move on from this. Otherwise, you’re just trapping yourself in a loop of guilt and self-flagellation which is only going to stop you from actually doing anything to make it better.

Make a game plan. Sit down with your notes, and skim over everything. Determine what you need to do in order to get this done and WRITE IT DOWN. Find online resources that will help you when you get stuck. Find someone to explain the things that are still flying over your head. If your professors/assistants are approachable, ask them for pointers. Look for blogs or ask your classmates how they dealt with this class. If you get stuck on something, move on and come back to it later, but DO COME BACK TO IT. Maybe research what study technique is best suited for this particular exam, try to get some past exam papers so you can see what your prof focuses on - in short, try to make it as easy for yourself as possible to do the work and get payoff!

Once you make a plan, do your best to stick to it. It’s hard to get back in the studying game after a long rut. It’s even harder when you know you’ve already failed this once, and the fear of that happening again is constantly looming over your head. But, the only way you have any chance of beating this is by trying. Get up in the morning, look over your game plan, do things over and over again until they finally stick, allow for it to take time. If you fall back, that’s ok, you’ll do better tomorrow. Take breaks, but don’t let them last a week. Get some sleep. Go for walks. Try to eat healthy. Even if you don’t put as much work in as you’ve scheduled for that day, that’s ok too, you did something - and that’s always better than doing nothing!

Give yourself scheduled break-time! Prevent burnout at all cost! If you’re anything like me, you have now achieved a delicate balance of productivity and PANIC, and it’s very prone to tipping on either side depending on your frame of mind. Do anything you can to keep it in the productive zone, which includes giving yourself time to recharge. Take “activity breaks”- don’t let yourself just sit and stare at the material on your screen all day, get up and move around, wash the dishes, make yourself a snack, play some music and dance around… whatever works for you! Also, set an “ending time” to your day and STOP THEN. All-nighters fueled on the panic of “I didn’t do everything I needed to do today” are the absolute worst thing you can do to yourself. Get some rest and try again tomorrow.  

Find a commitment device. Either it be an app, a studyblr, a classmate, a friend, your mum - whatever works for you! Find a way to keep yourself accountable for what you’re doing and it’s going to help to keep you actually doing it.

And, finally, the thing I wanted to share the most:

Try the 5-second rule to keep yourself motivated.

This is a life-saver for people like me, who procrastinate as a reaction to stress. The “5-second rule” was invented by Mel Robbins, who used this method and is now a successful business-woman after her life literally fell apart. If you have time, please do yourself the favor of watching this video (x). In short, she has found a scientific way of beating procrastination, (even reigning in the symptoms of anxiety and depression) which is this: Every time you catch yourself thinking about doing something, be it as small as “Oh, I should probably take out the trash.” or “Oh, I really should study for this scary exam.” count down from 5, breathe in, and GO. This is going to stop your brain from having the time to talk you out of it.

She did her research and found out that, by counting down 5,4,3,2,1 you are actually not giving your brain the chance to react in a way that’s going to stop you from doing whatever it is that you know you need to be doing, because it’s going to shift to the prefrontal cortex, which is the decision making part, from the basal ganglia - which is where your habits live. Procrastination is actually a habit your brain has developed in order to protect you from emotional hurt - of fear of not being good enough, or failing, or being laughed at, etc. It also works for intrusive thoughts, I’ve found - every time you can feel yourself sinking down that hole, when your mind goes “Why are you even doing this, you know you’re not good enough, so why bother?”  try counting down from 5, take a deep breath, imagine yourself succeeding and go back to it. So, if you have done all of the above, made plan after plan and scheduled everything to death, but somehow just can’t make yourself do it - give this a try, it might just be the thing to get you going.

Because sooner or later, you will have to do it. You won’t get through high school and/or college without doing it. Here’s how to get a good grade on the first try.

1. This isn’t the same thing as writing a story. In fiction writing, bending grammar rules and stuffy writing conventions is okay. In academic writing, it’s not. Get the facts across first and worry about character later. Academic writing is kind of boring, I know. Act like you know what you’re talking about. Don’t abuse the thesaurus until you sound like a post from r/iamverysmart, but try to sound educated.

2. Pick a specific topic. One of my essays from high school was a comparison of youth activism against violence, in the 1960s versus the 2010s. Ridiculously specific? Not ridiculously. If you pick a topic that’s too broad, you’ll end up pulling your brain every which way and overwhelming yourself. You might have some hits and misses with this, but it’s an important part of writing. Going over the word limit is just as annoying to your teacher as going under.

3. MELELEC. My 11th-grade English teacher taught me this little trick and I use it as a mainstay for writing. It’s helped me ace assignments and win scholarships. MELELEC is a paragraph structure that helps you write paragraphs that are not only thicc and will eat up page space, but also are packed with meaningful content. The format is Main Point - Explain - Link - Explain - Link - Explain - Conclusion. You introduce the idea of the paragraph, add some extra information, link a related point or piece of information, explain that, link another point, explain that, and then conclude the idea expressed in the paragraph. It works, I swear. Teachers and professors love it.

4. Absolutely NO second-person. That’s when you directly address the audience as “you.” Yeah, don’t do that if you want to sound professional. I’m doing it right now and sounding hypocritical af because I don’t need to sound professional. It’s Tumblr. Enough said. Anyway, second-person statements tend to have a defensive effect on the audience, which makes them automatically more hostile to whatever you’re trying to say. (”Nuh-uh. I don’t think that. I would do that. That’s not how it works for me.”) And given that the whole point of your essay is to convince your audience that you’re right, that’s counterintuitive. The only time the word “you” should appear in academic writing is when it’s in the context of a quotation.

5. Avoid first-person, too. In some cases, you might need to write an essay in the first person, like when a college prof asks you to write about a personal experience. Yeah, good luck writing about your life without actually mentioning yourself. But in more impersonal writing, like informative or persuasive essays, it looks unprofessional. Sorry, but the audience doesn’t want to hear your take on stuff; they want to know the facts. (Well, if you want to be really specific, they want to hear your take on stuff when it’s expressed as fact and backed up with, ya know, actual facts.) Which leads me into my next point…

6. State opinions as facts. Don’t do this in real life, as it makes you look like a pompous asshole, but do it in academic writing. In other words, never soften a sentence with “I think” or “In my opinion.” Everyone already knows it’s your opinion, anyway. Instead of softening the the blow to lessen the chance of it offending someone, cite some evidence or make another point to back up your claim. That’s substance, which is what your teachers and profs are looking for.

7. The thesis. It’s all about the thesis. The thesis is the TL;DR of your paper. It’s the answer to the question “What’s the doodly-darn point of this essay?” The traditional spot for the thesis statement is the last sentence of the first paragraph – it’s punchy and to the point there. Take time to have a good thesis 

8. Don’t ask rhetorical questions. You’re the one who should be answering the questions that your audience has. So predict what they might ask about your topic or the points that you make, and answer them. It’s not the audience’s job to answer your questions, for the love of all things good. You can make them leave thinking about what you wrote without being so anvilicious.

9. Three is the magic number. In high school, the typical format you’ll have for an essay is the five-paragraph format. Now you might be going “Whut? I thought you said that three was the magic number, Saybyebus.” Well, yes, I did say that, but two of the five essays are the introduction and the conclusion. So that leaves you with three paragraphs to really get into the meat of your essay and dish out the important information. So one of the best ways to work with this is to make your thesis three-pronged, and use each of the three paragraphs to address a point of your thesis. Boom-shacka-lacka. I just laid out the structure of your essay. Does that mean you have to cite me as credit? IDK, actually. But that does remind me of my next point…

If you’re in school you know how easy it is to forget about taking care of yourself. With deadlines, homework, projects and everything in between, it seems like there is very little time left to yourself! So, here are some of my tips for taking care of myself during the school year! 

(Disclaimer: This is aimed more towards college students but it’s easy to adapt to those in middle and high school. Also, obviously these things won’t work for everyone, so don’t beat yourself up if something doesn’t go the way it’s “supposed” to.)

Leave water somewhere you can see it. It’s super easy to get dehydrated in general, so add in limited focus on anything other than school and bam, a recipe for disaster. To remedy this, try leaving a glass or bottle of water in view and every time you look up from studying and/or your eyes pass over the bottle, take a sip!

Pre-pack healthy snacks. In-between classes it’s easy to stop at the campus store, dining hall or vending machine to resolve your hunger. However, often the options available are things like candy and potato chips. By packing healthy things in advance it saves you money and also saves you from the empty calories. (If you don’t have a dependable way to get fruit, etc. take some extra apples or bananas from the dining hall every time you leave and store them in your room!)

Pre-plan out your outfit the night before. Pack your school bags too! That way you can sleep in a little longer and your morning is a little less stressful, because you won’t be scrambling to get everything together!

Avoid hangovers. Drink a huge glass of water before you start drinking and before you go to bed, and make sure you eat a lot during the day. Not only do hangovers suck, but they also take away valuable study time!

Go to the gym with a friend! Working out can suck, especially if you’re not used to it. So go to the gym with a friend! It keeps you motivated and can even make things fun!

Take a multi-vitamin! Even if you never had to take one during high school, it’s easy to eat horribly/not enough, and getting your daily vitamins is really important!

Don’t give up your morning/bedtime routine for anything. This one might sound a little dumb, but trust me. Skipping a face wash or shower might sound okay at the time, but when you start breaking out or feeling less than your best, you’ll see what I mean.

Buy some Melatonin! Even if you don’t have sleeping problems, college takes away a lot of your sleep and has a lot of distractions that make it hard to fall asleep (ex: noises neighbors). Melatonin helps you fall asleep and sleep better, so even if you only get a few hours, it was a few hours of better quality sleep than it probably would have been. (Because Melatonin is a tablet, it’s important to read the warnings on the packaging and consult a doctor before taking it!)

Buy earplugs. Trust me. They’re a miracle worker when you’re trying to go to sleep, stay asleep, or get some work done in a noisy/distracting place.

Keep your surroundings sanitized. Wash your hands on a regular basis and disinfect your room (focus mores on the things you, your roommate and friends come in contact with a lot like light switches, door knobs, etc.). Carry a little pack of sanitary wipes or a thing of hand sanitizer with you in your backpack at all times. It may sound like I’m going overkill on all of this but the plague is real and consistent in college. You remember how in high school everyone would come back from school breaks sick? Well it’s the same way in college but 24/7. You’re going to be surrounded by people from all over the country (most likely) that come in contact with things you don’t, who will bring them back to school with them. Being sick during college is one of the worst things ever, so try to avoid it if you can!

Am I aware that time is just a concept and a new year means nothing? Yes. Do I care? Nope. If you haven’t set any goals and resolutions yet, here’s a little guide that might help:

Think about the last year -Think about what made you happy and what needs to change. Keep the good and change the bad.

Set goals in several cathegories -Body, mind, soul, social, work/school and financial. Of course you can leave out any of these but I do recommend at least one goal in each.

Be realistic -You most probably won’t become a millionaire by the end of January okay?

Plan baby steps -Baby steps are important. If you go full force on all the goals right on 1st January, you’ll be throwing it all away in two weeks. For example if you want to eat healthy and meditate every morning, give yourself a week to start the habit of meditation. Then on top of the mediation try eating healthy breakfasts. Then add healthy lunch and maybe some exercise. Plan it all out!

Get people to join you -You are way more likely to keep working on your resolutions when you’re not alone in them.

Never too late -Don’t forget if you fall out of a habit or anything, you can come back anytime! You don’t need New Years Eve to start changing your life.