#paper notes

16 June 2024

Got bored and doodled this

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD QUESTION 🤌🏻

I use both digital and paper notes for different purposes:

Digital Notes

- Edit presentation during lectures

- Practice exercises in order not to waste paper

- Language learning especially because there are so many free printables there! I don't like clutter and I can reuse the digital ones for let's say ... alphabet learning

Paper Notes

- Theory using the Cornell method

- Creating my own set of notes from both presentations and textbooks

- Rewrite past exam paper's in order to retain information that I know for a fact will be recycled (if you wanna know more on that let me know 🤫)

In conclusion...

I prefer digital for ecological purposes as well as note taking during lectures

𝐐𝐎𝐓𝐃: What is the longest time you can focus for?

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The study mindset is literally the mindset when you're productive and learning at the same time. From personal experience, it's something that is painfully hard to get into, especially if you're a super hyper student like me. Here are some things that have helped me slip into a mind space that allows me to think productively. Enjoy!

𝟏. 𝐃𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬: It's very common that people watch TV on their work station and study where they sleep. The issue with that is, you're confusing you own brain as to what it's supposed to be doing. Let me explain. Your brain associates certain places with certain mindsets; your bed is for rest and relaxation, your study area is for your grind and your dinner table is for eating. If you mix up your activities and don't do them where they should be, your brain will still continue to associate that activity with what you normally do there. So if you do your HW on your bed, high chances are that you'll get tied real quick.

𝟐. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝: Before I work, I like to calm my thoughts using breathing exercises, with calm music, or a simple and quick meditation. If your thoughts are racing, it becomes really hard to focus and in turn, to get work done. Trust me, calming your mind down makes so much of a difference.

𝟑. 𝐔𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬: When you run, you take a break right? Because our muscles aren't machines that can be worked continuously. Our brain is in fact a muscle too, and it needs break from that consistent grind you make it do sometimes too. Use breaks when you can afford it. They allow your mind to regain and realign its focus after hours/minutes of concentration. If you don't take breaks, you risk being burned out too (which isn't something anyone likes dealing with).

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𝐀𝐎𝐓𝐃: I usually work for 50 minutes and take a break for 10. I've tried doing more, but it's simply not possible for my mind lol.

[03/03/2021] It’s been raining recently so I have been adding candles, slippers, and a blanket to my study routine for some comfy motivation.

Great question!

The picture above is a stack of all of the paper I used (not including the ones that the university provided) over one year of my undergrad degree. 

Times this by 3 and I roughly had three kilos of paper that was stuffed inside every crevice possible and spread across my student house and my parents house. So that’s reason 1: I need the space

Reason 2 is that I’m disorganised with paper. I’ll take a note of a webinar or a detail on any of the dozens of notebooks I (used to) own and then never be able to refer to them again. Theres *no* point to doing this.

And lastly, reason 3 is my back. Unlike a lot of you, I have in-person university now and a hefty laptop and textbooks to lug around (which is different to my undergrad) and I’d rather not add paper to that list.