#ask caeruleuz

these are the things i found help the most:

have a dedicated place for studying. personally, i feel like i get distracted more easily when i’m just in my room, so i started going to the library more often

study in public spaces. continuing with the whole library thing, you’re much less likely to procrastinate if you know other people see you doing jack shit. similar things would be filming yourself/streaming when studying

get an accountability partner. ever since my housemate got back and we started going to the library together, we’ve really pushed each other to make the most of our day and we’ve become more productive

have a to do list. plan your tasks the day before/in the morning and focus on getting the most important task done (some people do more, but start with one if you find this particularly difficult)

most of the time my maths questions are quite specific and after some googling, i’m usually able to come across pdf’s that help me with whatever i’m struggling with.

nonetheless, having resources to come back to is extremely useful, especially if you just don’t know wtf is going on in lectures. so here’s some stuff i find very helpful:

Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas — i swear the whole physics department simps over this book. it gets mentioned in literally every office hour/drop in session. we all just love Boas

Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering by Riley, Hobson and Bence — just ordered a physical copy because this is THE MATHS BOOK for physics students. it contains everything you’ll ever need and more (PhD students still use it!) and i literally use it every day. it’s less rigorous than Boas and you can definitely tell it was written by physicists, but that’s what makes it so useful for me because they knew EXACTLY what I need

Dr. Trefor Bazett on YouTube — idk why, but his explanations just. make. sense. and he’s even put full courses on his channel! what a legend

blackpenredpen on YouTube — personally, i haven’t really watched a lot of their stuff, but my housemates absolutely swear by it

there is no right or wrong as to what to put in a glow up journal. just if a certain thing worked for one person, doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d also do so for you — maybe it does, but perhaps you want to include completely different things in your journal. it’s very individual.

anyway, here’s roughly what alivia put in hers:

introduction: motivational moodboard, dream self, problem & solution

routines: morning and night

food: “picture this” (i.e. the relationship with food you want), old & new habits (cue -> routine -> reward), meal plans, weight loss tracker

academics: goals (what? why? how?), study plan, inspiration page (moodboard)

self investment: checklist (to do’s)

finance: money & budgeting (expenses tracker)

self care: list, lazy day essentials

theme pages: weekly reflection page

i’m sure you’ll find loads of people with tips or ideas for other things to include in our new discord server!!

i went for the 128 GB iPad, since i did not have a laptop at the time and idk it just made sense?

this is how much i currently use, but tbh there’s probably quite a bit i could get rid of:

this is basically all i use (the app is called goodnotes btw)