#creativity action queueing

Waking up early is a struggle for many students, me included. As someone who wakes up at 6am every school day I know this all too well. So I decided to create this post to give you some tips on how to make it a bit more manageable to wake up early. 

It can be really difficult to force yourself out of bed but I think that there are more advantages than disadvantages to it in the end.

So here we go!

The night before

Start your night routine 1 hour before you want to close your eyes for the night. For me that time is 9pm since I want to go to bed at 10pm. So I try to stop studying around that time and start making my bag and such. That usually takes 30 min which means that I have 30 minutes for myself before bed. 

Put out clothes for the next day. This is a classic but it works really well. Check the weather for the next day and choose appropriate clothes. This way you will save time in the morning and won’t have to stress about what to wear. 

Make your bag. This is very effective and saves loads of time in the morning. Put all your school books in your bag for the next day and add any snacks or drinks that you’ll bring. 

Put your alarm somewhere you can’t reach it. Put it away from your bed so that you have to get up to turn it off. This way you are less likely to get back to bed. Also it prevents you from using your phone into the endless hours of the night. 

Put your alarm so that your have more time than you need in the morning. I personally don’t like being stressed in the morning so I’d rather put my alarm for a bit to early. 

Have a glass of water by your bed. In case you get thirsty in the middle of the night. 

You will have to go to bed on time. This is unavoidable if you want to feel alive the next day. I personally like to go to bed at 10pm. I’ve never been much of a night person. I would recommend getting at least 7 hours of sleep. 

In the morning

Let all that light in. Don’t dwell in the darkness because you’ll just make it more difficult to get up.

Don’t snooze! I know that it is tempting but don’t do it! You’ll just go back to bed and be more tired and get up an hour later and then be late for class. 

Splash your face with cold water. A kinder version of the cold shower. I personally don’t like to shower in the morning and this works just as well. 

Get dressed ASAP. Then you feel more awake and you’re less likely to go back to bed. 

Do something that you like. I like to watch a tv show episode in the morning because I really like my tv shows and it also gives me a reason to get up on time. If I don’t get up on time I won’t be able to watch my episode. But you could do anything that you enjoy like sudoku or drawing. It becomes a good start of the day. 

Food! I am personally not a big fan of breakfast to early in the morning so I eat really slowly which is another reason for why I like to have a lot of time in the morning. Make something that you know you like, and if that an is avocado sandwich then great but simpler stuff like a cheese sandwich works just as well. 

Decide on a time that you will leave the house. This will make it easier for you not to lounge around at home for too long.

Benefits of an early start

You have time to exercise in the morning! I know that this isn’t something that people like but it is a very good way of waking up. You don’t have to do a full out work out routine, it can just be a 20 min yoga session or a light jog. 

You add like 3 hours to your day. This is what enjoy the most when it comes to waking up early. It really feels like your day becomes twice as long. 

You can distribute your studying time. I personally like to study in the morning if my classes start after 9am. That way I don’t have to do all of my schoolwork in the afternoon. 

You get some me time. Wether this will be in the afternoon or in the morning is up to you. But in the end you will have more time for yourself. You can also be completely by yourself in the mornings since you’ll be the only one awake. I quite like that. 

You get to enjoy the sunrise! 

CAS can seem very overwhelming at first but in the end 150 hours over 2 years is very manageable if you spread it out. So here are some tips on what you can do to get CAS out of the way as fast as possible. 

Fist thing is to get the hours out of the way. This way you won’t have to stress about getting it all done before the deadline. You will have to continue with CAS even when your hours are fulfilled but you won’t have to stress about getting everything done. 

Do stuff during the summer! It could be anything really. Like waking dogs, swimming, jogging or renovating furniture. If you get one or two activities done during the summer you won’t have as much to do during IB12. 

Try and do two or three activities per term. This way you will be done with CAS by the end of the first term in IB12 (since you need 6 actives total). And if you do two activities during summer you will have the first term of IB12 free too. 

Join a school charity trip if your school has one. My school had a charity trip to Thailand during the summer between IB11 and IB12 for 3 weeks. The people that went got all of their 150 hours done during those weeks. They still had to do more CAS activities but they were done with their hours. 

Do an activity during a couple of days. I was part of a Christmas Wrapping that my school organises every year and the money goes to a homeless shelter for kids in Senegal. I got 35 of my Service hours done in 4 days. *boom*. 

See it as an opportunity to do something you’ve always wanted to try. If you’ve wanter to learn how to embroider try it! Whatever you want to do give it a try. That’s what CAS is all about. 

Ask you’re CAS coordinator if they can be your supervisor. This way you can do an activity by yourself and send in pictures of your progress as evidence. You can teach yourself something new on your own terms. 

If you’re running, use an app. Runkeeper is an approved CAS advisor which is amazing. So take a screenshot after your run (the part with all your stats on it) and have it as part of your journal as evidence. 

Write your evidence journals after every time you do the activity. If you don’t do this you are very likely to forget what you did. It will become a lot to write in the end as well. If nothing else write them at the end of the week for the activities that you did during the week. 

Get your CAS project out of the way. The faster the better. And it doesn’t have to be anything big. Hanna and I are running this blog as our CAS project and then we don’t really have a set schedule for when we write stuff. 

Join school clubs (or create one). Another good way of getting your CAS hours. I joined my schools MUN club and I was part of it for a term. Some guys in my class created a table top game club. You can get quite some hours from doing it once a week. 

Some stuff you could do for CAS

biking 

Swimming

MUN

EYP

Knitting 

Dance course

Live streaming a computer game and the money goes to charity. 

Learn an instrument

Start a band

Volunteer at an animal shelter 

Start a Studyblr

Join Amnesty 

Clean local beaches

Try some Yoga

Gym 

Online courses

Help younger kids with their homework.

Play an instrument on the street and give the collected money to charity. 

Christmas wrapping at a local mall.

Syllabus

Here is the syllabus! It is important to look through this so that you know what you need to know. 

Here is also the formula booklet. 

Websites

A website with a lot of documents on each topic as well as practive questions!

Here is also another website with a lot of links to more review material as well as questions. 

This website explains logic and probability with examples. 

Videos 

Khan Academy: Good for reviews and explanations, although it doesn’t follow the IB curriculum. 

Teachers teaching on youtube 

Richard Parina: He goes through several of the syllabus topics with examples. 

Past Papers 

Past papers from 2013 and earlier. 

past papers 2014-15 and earlier. 

Here and here are also some quizzes. 

Tips

Do as many questions as possible. I know that you hear it a lot but its truly the only way to really learn a new concept. Sometimes it can be tedious to do many questions at once and you feel like you know everything. Its good to put it aside for a while when that happens and pick it up later in the day or a couple of days later and see if you still remember it. 

Also, ask questions! This is another advice that is often given but its for a reason. If you don’t feel confident doing in class approach the teacher afterwards or ask your friends about it. 

1/100 days of productivity

Productive procrastination: having an essay due in a couple of days but reluctantly chooses to do homework instead.

Early bird: waking up at 6am and having a nice study session before school starts.

Late owl: stays up late to finish that one essay you procrastinated doing earlier.

In through one ear and out the other: reading the same paragraph five times and still wondering what it's about.

Slow but steady: when I make slow progress but I'm very proud of myself.

I don't want to: laying on your bed and continuously thinking that you will start studying in five minutes. Alternatively you stare at your book for a prolonged period of time.