this sloth is trying

journaling day

MON02DEC2019 • 001/100dop

hello hello!

GOOD STUDYING

Use recall. When you look at a passage and try to study it,  look away and recall the main ideas. Try recalling concepts when you are walking to class or in a different room from where you originally learned it. An ability to recall—to generate the ideas from inside yourself—is one of the key indicators of good learning.

Test yourself. On everything. All the time. Flashcards are your best friend. Use quizlet if you don’t want to hand-make flashcards. Get somebody to test you on your notes.

Space your repetition. Spread out your learning in any subject a little every day, just like an athlete. Don’t sit and study one subject for 2 hours, do half an hour every day.

Take breaks. It is common to be unable to solve problems or figure out concepts in math or science the first time you encounter them. This is why a little study every day is much better than a lot of studying all at once. When you get frustrated, take a break so that another part of your mind can take over and work in the background. You need breaks in order for your brain to retain the information. Try the Pomodoro method if you have trouble timing breaks!

Use simple analogies. Whenever you are struggling with a concept, think to yourself, How can I explain this so that a ten-year-old could understand it? Using an analogy really helps. Say it out loud, like you’re teaching it, whether it’s to an imaginary class or your sister who couldn’t care less.  The additional effort of teaching out loud allows you to more deeply encode.

Focus. Turn off your phone / iPad / any distractions and clear your desk of everything you do not need. Use apps like Forest if you can’t stay off them!

Do the hardest thing earliest in the day, when you’re wide awake and less likely to push it aside.

BAD STUDYING

Avoid these techniques—they can waste your time even while they fool you into thinking you’re learning!

Passive rereading—sitting passively and running your eyes back over a page. This is a waste of time, frankly, and doesn’t do anything to help information pass into your brain without recall.

Over-highlighting. Colouring a passage of text in highlighter isn’t helpful at all. It’s good for flagging up key points to trigger concepts and information, but make sure what you highlight goes in.

Waiting until the last minute to study. DON’T CRAM!!!

Doing what you know. This isn’t studying! This is like learning how to juggle but only throwing one ball. 

Neglecting the textbook. Would you dive into a pool before you knew how to swim? The textbook is your swimming instructor—it guides you toward the answers. 

Not asking your teachers for help. They are used to lost students coming in for guidance—it’s their job to help you. 

08.30.17 // feeling a bit better, but still working from home for one more day because i have the nastiest cough and i don’t think any of my lab mates would appreciate the sharing of germs. 

015/100 days of productivity

Shout out to all the other studyblrs out there that have a terrible camera resolution which somehow ends up looking even worse when you upload it onto tumblr.

31.10.19 || Happy Halloween

september 30, 2017 // EE Year 1

Cleaning & Tidying

Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it’s worth it.

Reset to zero each morning. 

Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit. 

Get a reed diffuser and stick it on your windowsill. 

Have a ‘drop-zone’ box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.

Roll your clothes, don’t fold them - or fold them vertically.

Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it - once the timer is up, finish the task you’re on and leave it for the day. 

Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they’re still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing. 

Clean your footwear regularly and you’ll feel like a champ. 

Organisation & Productivity

Learn from Eisenhower’s Importance/Urgency matrix. 

Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.

Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that’s more your thing.)

Try bullet journalling.

Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular. 

Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It’s brutal, but it works. 

Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don’t overload your to-do list or you’ll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate. 

If you’re in a slump, however, don’t be afraid to put things like “shower” on your to do list - that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that’s okay. 

Have a physical inbox - a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.

Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.

Try timeboxing. 

Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously. 

Save interesting-looking shit to instapaper. Have a set time where you read through the stuff you saved to instapaper and save the shit that you like from instapaper to evernote (or bookmark it properly). 

During your working hours, put on your footwear, even if you’re sat on your bed. (Why?)

Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP’s details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on. 

Try using StayFocusd and RescueTime (or similar apps/extensions). (I promise, you’ll find that you’re not as busy as you think you are.)

Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you. 

Money

Have. A. God. Damn. Budget. 

Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)

Have a ‘money date’ each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not. 

Pack your own frickin’ lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag. 

Go to your bank and take out £100 in £1 coins (or w/e your currency is). That shit will come in useful for all kinds of things and you’ll never be short on change for the bus or the laundry. 

Food & Cooking

Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.

Simple, one-pot meals (“a grain, a green, and a bean”) are a godsend. 

Dried porcini mushrooms make a fantastic stock to cook with. 

Batch cook and freeze. Make your own ‘microwave meals’. 

Buy dried goods to save money - rice and beans are a pittance. (Remember to soak dried beans first, though!) 

Consider Meatless Mondays; it’s healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.) 

Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new. 

Don’t buy shit for a one-off recipe, especially if you won’t use it all. If you really want to try out a recipe, see if a friend would be interested in making it with you, then pool for the expenses. 

Make your own goddamned pasta sauce. Jamie Oliver has a decent recipe here, but the beauty of tomato sauce is that you can totally wing it and adapt the fuck out of it. 

Misc

Have a stock email-writing format. 

Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!. 

Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it. 

Know your OTC pain relief. 

Update your CV regularly. 

Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!) 

Some final words of advice:

Organisation is not a goal in itself, it is a tool. Don’t get caught up in the illusion of productivity and get distracted from the actual task at hand. 

Routines and habits will help you. Trust in them.

december 30, 2017 - studyblr gif aesthetics

“when you’re in university or college, nobody is gonna babysit you. there’s no bell that goes off when it’s class time. there’s no attendance. you can skip all the classes if you want to. you really just have to take everything into your own hands and make the most of your experience…everything you need to succeed is right in front of you.” —kassie isabelle

featuring clips from jordan clark, lavendaire, krist & yu, rowena tsai, and tbhstudying!

008/100 days of productivity

I’ve been doing so much voluntary work/ work outside of uni lately. I only have time to study when its late… which doesnt make for aesthetically pleasing pictures, but who cares, right?

Today I…

went to my obligation law lecture

bought new stationary

printed out some material for my lectures

went to a meeting with my volunteer group

met my best friend by surprise! She studies in a different country and we hardly see each other anymore, but she came to visit for a few days and I was so glad to see her again.

Stay happy everyone!