study-cat

"5 minutes later..." you continue scrolling

STOP NOW. 🫵 This post is going to teach you how to (make sure you 🫶) reach peak motivation and get back on track !!

resources are hyperlinked!!

Firstly, why should I start gamifying my life?

A: It instantly motivates you and encourages long-term motivation to it's game elements (eg: levelling-up) , making reaching goals and doing work so much easier!!

1)Track your progress ✍️

A popular website/app for gamifying your life is HABITICA!

HABITICA a highly customisable habit/to-dos/goal tracker website/app for students and working adults. I use this website for the daily grind, and I can testify that ITS WORKING, I'M ON THE GRIND 💪.

Completing your habits/to-dos/goals gives you coins, which you can spend on rewards (eg: eating ice-cream) and cool armour! You can even join a clan to fight monsters with your friends using your completed tasks.

HABITICA keeps you engaged with a point system, competition with other clans, incorporating game elements, and rewards.

2) Keep consistent 📈🔺

Many seem to reach a plateau in their productiveness or simply lose inerest in their goals and habits.

It's important to keep consistent so habits stick, and we can reach our goal.

[ 💫The consistancy formula 💫]

Identify your motivator

Ask yourself these three questions everyday

What is my motivator?

What will I gain from this?

What will I lose from this?

You can even write this down on your HABITICA as a daily or any other notebook/ website of your choice!!

3. Visualise the outcome of when you have completed your habit/goal/to-do

Running these scenarios adds an extra boost to your gamifying experience, driving you to work towards the outcome of the goal and further away from quitting.

3) Reflect, revise and reward

It's important to take a look at your ticked to-do list at the end of the day and your HABITCA dashboard to see how much you have accomplished.

The visual tracking of progress motivates greatly, and even seeing the rewards you gave yourself can spur you on.

Then, you can decide how much rewards you can have, how much EXP you gained, and how much you can level up. Maybe you even gain a new title ;)

In addition, it's important to reflect on the mistakes you made, for example, it may be overscheduling tasks or rushing through an essay, and deduct EXP and points. (ouch!!)

Improve your gami-life step by step, level by level, and life inexplicably becomes just like a video game.

-cybersugar!! 💗

If this post helped you, do consider leaving a like and reblog :D, and follow me if you're interested in more posts like these!!

As always, feel free to ask any questions, requests, or drop me a tell!! I'd really appreciate some feedback on what you like and don't like, and if you think my tips are applicable. ;)

i'll totallly try my best to answer EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM 👹 (laughs in burnt-out student)

studying, the cat way.

Relax.

You work best when you aren't stressed.

Pour a cup of tea, open the curtains, and play some lofi. Set the mood to something you're comfortable studying in. Don't rush in with stacks of papers and a laptop. Take breaks when you need to.

2. Sleep.

Sleep is such an overlooked part of studying.

For those aged 13-18, you need 8-10 hours of sleep a night.

For those 18 and above, you need 7 or more a night.

Never underestimate the benefits of a good sleep. Not only do you get better health, your academic performance and skills improve too. Take it from me - I retain a lot more information from an 8 hour night comapred to cramming until 3.

Here is my personal favourite video on sleeping and how to change your circadian rhythm (selected from 50 sleep-related videos):

And here's more evidence, sleeping tips and memorization tips. A must-watch for students or anyone, really. :

3. Me, myself and I.

Learn to say no.

Put yourself first, and learn not to feel guilty when you reject someone's plans.

If you know you have to study, then reschedule your plans to another date. I used to have this problem a lot, which resulted in lots of late night studying.

It's perfectly ok to do something for yourself than for others.

And it's perfectly ok to work on yourself too. Before helping others, help yourself.

Of course, you shouldn't place study over everything, but it's important to filter through all your events and only leave the important ones.

the end.

-cybersugar💗

you've been through it

that's why you're reading this, because we want to make a change.

First of all, let me congratulate you for reading this post. You're making the conscious action to change, or at the very least, you're thinking of doing it.

That's not easy. I'm so, so, so proud of you.

Secondly, what are you planning to do to change?

If you have nothing in mind, it's fine. We all need a break in life. When life sucks, I like to pour some tea, grab a book, and sink into my chair. Block out the world for a few hours and simply relax.

But if you have something in mind, I'm going to tell you exactly what to do.

Take out a blank book or any online writing application you want.

Write "Reset' in big bold letters as the title

For the first page, just journal. Write- About what you want. About what happened. About how you feel.

For the second page, write about your ideal life.

On the third page, refer back to the last two pages. Write down solutions for your problems, guiding you towards your ideal life.

For each solution, detail exactly what you are going to do for them

Eg: I will study more -> I will study for 30 minutes everyday, get one more blue highlighter, and participate more activiely in class.

Be specific!

7. Then, using one solution each page, add boxes, or any interactive element you want.

Whenever you do something working towards your goal, colour in one box. Watch as the entire page starts becoming more and more colourful.

8. Using the rest of the pages, document what you did to achieve your ideal life, your accomplishments, and even your to-do-list.

Make it personal. Add pictures, quotes, and doodles. Look at your ideal life page everyday to motivate you.

When life sucks, we embrace it.

What are you waiting for?

-cybersugar 💗

Hey guys so my exams are finally over and i’ve come back! I’m working on answering a few qns and finishing up so posts, so you can expect consistent content from now on 😚 Today, I’m sharing with you how I actually start studying. This post contains an original tip that can be found no where else, so do consider checking it out. (Thank you @theultimatelmao for giving me this idea!)

1)Deadlines

Firstly, I set a deadline for myself. Then, I tell myself no matter what, I need to finish the task by the deadline.

Of course, because we always underestimate how much time to take to finish something, we aren’t going to be able to finish it by the deadline. However, the ⏰ time pressure of the deadline will push us to finish the task quicker and faster.

Knowing that there’s no way for us to finish the task by the deadline just makes us work at it even harder. Think of it as rushing your 2000 word essay 10 minutes before class!📝

If I can’t finish the task by the deadline, I set a further deadline for myself.

The cycle repeats 🔁 until i’ve finished the task!

“But what if I still can’t bring myself to start?”

2) The 5/5 rule

This is a rule that I came up with! It uses both the 5 second rule and the 5 minute rule. You may already know both these rules, but have you ever tried combining them?

The 5 second rule is where you count down from 5 and once you’ve finished counting you immediately start the task. This simple yet effective rule uses (say it together with me) ⏰ time pressure!

Someone here obviously loves time pressure 🙋‍♀️

The 5 minute rule is setting a timer for 5 minutes. Then, you start your work until the timer rings. By the time 5 minutes is over, you’ll already be in the flow state. You can check out my other post related to how I get into a flow state here 👇

I combine these rules together by starting with first the 5 second rule then the 5 minute rule. After using the 5/5 rule, you can set a deadline for yourself to ensure you keep going!

The ultimate formula:

💫🌸[ 5/5 rule + deadline setting]🌸💫

The end.

I hope this post helped you! Free free to request for specific tips in the comments! 🤧

I’m sure many of us have tried (and failed) using the pomodoro method. Here is why I dislike using it and what kind of people should avoid it!

Why I dislike this method

You’ve just tried out this awesome new technique everyone is talking about, but it doesn’t work for you. It’s the pomodoro technique, where you rest for 1/5 the time you study. The most common structure is studying for 25 minutes and resting for 5.

When you try the 25/5 method, you take 5 minutes to focus, so you only end up doing work for 20 minutes. It’s not nearly enough time. You also know you’ll be breaking your concentration when you stand up to have a break. It just isn’t worth it for 20 minutes of work.

And when you try longer variations, like the 50/10 you get too distracted during the breaks.

“It’s 5 already?”

From my personal experience, the pomodoro method is not for:

People who take longer to concentrate

People who get distracted easily

People who have a lot of work to complete in a short amount of time

There are a lot of other alternatives to the pomodoro method for these people:

Flow time and time blocking are great alteratives.

For flow time, you have to grab on to the flow and work and work and don’t stop.

For time blocking, you have to separate your day into different blocks for different activities.

I hope this helped you! Feel free to ask for specific study tips! ❤️

Sometimes things that i’ve been memorising just doesn’t stick in. So, I’ll be sharing with you how I utilise the blurting method effectively to memorise things! The tips i’ll be sharing are like none i’ve ever seen before so def consider reading this!

Note: Blurting has many purposes, such as to understand material, but in this post, i’ll be covering specifically how I use it to memorise. Let me know if you’d like a post on other ways I use it!

Firstly, here’s the materials you’ll need:

Paper

Pens of at least two different colours

Highlighter

Post-it notes

⭐️[Now, here’s the steps] ⭐️

1. Divide

Write down the topics you want to cover on different sections on the paper

Divide the topics further into subtopics

The key to this step is to be specific!

This way, you’ll be able to tell exactly which parts you need to memorise further

Write these headings out with a thicker pen/ highlighter so you can refer to it easily

2. Blurt

Write down every thing you know

Squish your brain dry of every last once of knowledge there is 💪

3. Review

Write down everything that you missed with a pen of a different colour

Highlight important concept/ideas you want to reinforce

Using sticky notes, write down the topics you don’t know , but phrase it in the form of questions

eg. why are leaves broad in the tropical rainforest if you don’t know the adaptations of leaves in the tropical rainforest

4. Revise

Paste the sticky notes over the areas where you’ve written incorrect information or have written nothing

Answer those questions

Check the answers by lifting the sticky notes up

When you can answer everything, you can take the sticky notes off and revise the paper as it is

Easily check topics which you’ve gotten wrong before by reading the coloured answers

Easily check important concepts/ideas by reading highlighted parts

The end.

I hope this helped you! Feel free to ask for specific study tips! 🌸

Don’t you always try to study but end up scrolling on your phone for the entire day? Yeah, me too. That’s why :

I’m sharing with you how I stay motivated!

Find your motivation

Okay, I know this one’s a bit obvious, but so many people miss the importance of it. Finding your motivation helps you push forward, to endure all those struggles until you finally achieve your goal.

You want to be the top scorer? For what? What do you hope to achieve by being top scorer? How will it help you?

Because we don’t have specific goals, we don’t have enough conviction to finish what we want to.

Another thing that tons of people miss is the outcome. I haven’t seen anyone else talk about this, but visualising your ideal outcome gives you a great boost of motivation too.

💫[Here’s the formula to find your motivation] 💫

Have a specific goal.

(If you don’t have a vague goal yet.)

Where do you see yourself in five years time?

What will make you happy?

What do you like about life? How can you improve those things?

What do you dislike about life? How can you improve those things?

(For those who already have a goal in mind)

What do you want to do it for?

What do you hope to achieve by doing it?

How will doing this help you?

How will doing this make you happy?

What will you feel and do once you have accomplished this?

2. Visualise your desired outcome

Where will you be?

What will you be doing?

What do you see?

How do you feel?

How will people around you react?

3. Put it into action.

Once you have your goals and desired outcome in mind, motivation will come to you immediately. What you need to do is to act on it.

Ask yourself : how will I accomplish my goal?

And build an actionable plan around it.

Make time for it in your schedule

Prepare yourself for the sacrifices you will have to make

The end.

I hope this helped you! 📚 Feel free to ask for specific study tips!

The most difficult thing i face when studying is staying focused , so:

here’s a study tip to stay focused during a study session that personally really helped me!

1) Get into a flow state

I find it really hard to concentrate, but when I get into a flow state, I can clear out my tasks faster than ever before. To get into a flow state, you can:

Do the hardest thing first to gain momentum

Set up an optimal environment with no distractions

silence your notifications

only have things you need for that particular study session

Tell your family and friends not to disturb you

put a glass of water besides you

listen to music that sets the optimal mood for you

( this one is particularly important. I see many people saying to listen to music with no lyrics , but I think you should listen to whatever gets you into the studying mood. For example, at night, I prefer to listen to rap and rock as they help me focus way more than lofi, which I listen to while studying in the day.)

3. Have clear goals

Here are some guiding questions:

What will make me feel happy if I finish it by the end of the study session? —> What do I need to do to finish it?

How long will it take to finish?

Specifically, what topics do I want to cover?

Specifically, what pages do I want to do?

What methods will I use to study this?

The end.

I hope this study tip helped you! Feel free to ask for specific tips 💗

Resources:

My favourite lofi’s: