#rayslablr

also me: *buys more unnecessary stationary*

also also me: why don't i ever have enough money?

you’re that leader that i’ll follow to battle!! #BringBackAlexandria

today i received the first letter from my first penpal, it was really cute and i'm excited to do mine and send it 💌

also i started reading aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe, i'm liking it so far, it's a fast-paging book and i kinda relate to ari haha

Hello, rayslablr here!

First of all, I want to apologize for being inactive these days but it has been chaotic with a lot of assignment from university that I didn’t find the time to post original content in here. Secondly, just a disclamer: this are the things I do, they might not be any help for you but you don’t loose anything with trying besides it can motivate you to find what really works for you.

As students is common that we sometimes don’t have the time to properly study and do our assignment correctly hoping we get a good grade, but that is because we have other extracurricular activities to attend. Maybe you have intruments lessons, or you have choir practices or any sport practices, or perhaps you work and study at the same time.

Having so many things to do you sometimes try to schedule but end up leaving some stuff to work at night. That is totally fine, some people are more in the morning side and other in the night time side (I’m more of the last one)

Planning for a productive night doesn’t mean having an all-nighter, I don’t recommend that at all because is not healthy for the body and your mental health. Even though you might think that you get all your tasks done, what happens after that night? What are the implications for the next day? So for that I give you a few tips that might help when have tasks to do at night:

Before I begin, let’s talk about what is productivity?

PRODUCTIVITY:

According to the Merriam-Webster site, productivity is “the quality or state of being productive.”, and what’s productive? As state in the same site being productive is “yielding results, benefits, or profits”; “ yielding or devoted to the satisfaction of wants or the creation of utilities”  

For the Cambridge Dictionary site, productivity is “the rate at which a person, company, or country does useful work.”

Finally, as indicated by the Business Dictionary, productivitu is “a measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs.”

What we can gather from these concepts, roughly and vaguely, is that productivity not necessarily has to be associated with doing homework or any kind of assignments, it can also mean doing one push-up, making the bed, walk or breathe exercises, and endless other things. Being productive means that we’re using out time wisely by focusing on what matters.

SKINCARE: 

I know that sometimes skincare is the least of our problems, and after studying at night we feel exhausted that we forget to wash our face. It has happened to me a lot and I truly regret it. #AcneHasEnterTheChat

By doing your skincare night routine you start to feel good that you are taking care of yourself, and that idea of productivity can motivate you. So keep it going while you're still active. Do your skincare routine after having dinner or any other extracurricular activity, that way you can start fresh with your productivity process. The sooner you'd do it you have another less thing to worry about so you can properly focus.

When you splash yourself with water your brain actives because your skin is warm so water cools it down making you relax and it awakes you. Take that opportunity to stay active so you can take your time and divide it for things that matter.

Side Note: Always wash your face with lurkwarm water!! 

Side Note 2: If you ever want a blog about skincare let me know because I really love that topic and I’m all for it

COMFY OUTFIT:

Pajama. Shorts. Sweater. Underwear. What ever you feel comfortable with. But never do things in your bed if you really want to work on something otherwise you’ll fall asleep. 

This is simple. Just wear an outfit where your body doesn’t feel tight or uncomfortable, where you can stretch and feel relax. It has happened to me many times where I forget to change clothes and start working with my jeans, long shirt and shoes on, after a few minutes I get up from my sit and try to stretch without success and I keep doing my work; after other minutes I do the same and that is just distracting me more, so after a long moving day imagine how your body would feel.

Imagine getting inside a narrow hole, how do you feel? It feels uncomfortable, like you need air or you need to move, well that is how your body feels. At night. After all of the activities you did throughout the day. Tired   

So let’s make it easy, just change! That way you won’t get distracted or focus your attention in moving around or trying to find the a comfortable spot to work.

PRIORITIZE

We led busy lifestyles meaning that not every activity we have would be completed so don’t feel bad about that. Plan ahead of time, and know which activities you will leave for the night. Be realistic, it’s night time, you’d feel tired so don’t give yourself a lot of tasks, and if you have one big activity divide it into mini tasks so you don’t overwork past your limit. Every day review your list of tasks or your to do list and figure out the importance of each one of them. Figure out if all of them are worth your limited time and energy, you don’t necessarily need to pull an all nighter.

A tip for you is to organize your activities by categories, this allows you to recognize which task is more important than the others. What I like to do is an ABCD categories, meaning:

A: Crucial  --> I need to do this right now

B: Less important --> I can do this in a few hours

C: I shoul get this done --> Essencial task but I can do it tomorrow

D: I still got time --> I can do it the day after tomorrow or next week

This way you can analyse which tasks you can leave for the night and which ones you’ll do in the morning.

Another tip is giving yourself a time limit to decide until what time you will have your work done. This works for me, it might not work for you, but I always tell myself to stop working (even if I haven’t finish) around 11 pm max. so I could sleep more and don’t get exhausted. By the way, this also helps for your skincare; your skin cells start rejuvenate at 10pm and stops at 2am the next day, so it’s a way to help your skin stay fresh, young and healthy.

HYDRATE

This one is simple, JUST DRINK WATER!! There’s nothing more to say, water helps you stay energized and that transforms in motivation to be productive. So give your body a happy boost you’ll thank yourself later.

Here are some beverages that helps you stay hydrated in case you want to try different things.

WET RAG

Get any rag you find, get it wet then squish it to take away the excess of water, next put it in your freezer and wait 20-30mins after that put it around your back side of your neck and that is everything you need to do! Very simple! Now, why?The back of your neck absorbs the heat of the environment quicker than any other part, and by doing that you get agitated or some kind of discomfort because you’re warming your body so it gets relaxed to a way of tiredsome. 

So if you put around that area a cold wet rag you make your body cool down and helps you improves your circulation, ease stress and increase the alertness, in short words it keeps you active. Think about this: when you shower with lukewarm or cold water it wakes you up inmediatly and that is what happens with the wet rag but in a minor scale.

If you ever heard of the myth: “If you feel sleepy get your face wet”, well that is true, you wake up when you splash water to your face but sometimes that effect only lasts for a few minutes, if you want the whole experience put it in your neck for at least 15 minutes.

Another benefit of this, that you can do it at any time you wish, is that a heated neck is a big enemy for the pores. When your neck is hot it inscreases your natural control sebum making your pores enlarged which leads to wrinkles, pimples and more, so try this! Try putting a cold wet rag around the back of your neck because is very benefitial!

POMODORO

You heard of this before. You can work for 25 minutes and take a break of 5 minutes, this completes the cycle and this 30 minute period is then called a “pomodoro.” After four pomodoros, you take a longer break (15-30 minutes). Of course, the great part about ths method is that you can custumize it to your liking; you can take more time (without excessing) or less time if you are in a hurry. There are a buch of app you can search in the app store (I use Forest because not only it helps you not procrastinate but you’re helping the world by planting real trees) and even google extensions when you’re working in your computer.

Here are other  blogs that can help you understand this method:

“The Pomodoro Technique” @studious-simplicity​

“How to: my pomodoro technique” @aestaeric​

That is everything that I have for today, I hope these tips are somehow a help for you and that you have lots of days full with productivity and happiness which is the most important. 

Read more books: 2018 was a year that I barely read any books, so this new year I have decided to read more, even if it's one page a day! Read any genre so I don't limit myself to experience new adventures.

Be courageous and explore!: i have a goal of don't being afraid of things, learn to adapt and learn from that. always look at the positive side, like going on a walk without knowing where i'm going and get lost but always learn something from it...i don't know how to explain it!

Learn new things and be curious: this goes along side with reading more books but in a deeper way, like read etiquettes, instructions of something, learn small facts or how to use a programs, etc. but always have a spirit of learning even if it's odd or small.

Have a nice attitude toward challenges: when facing something different, difficult or that i haven't done before always look at the optimistic side and do it with a smile on my face, telling me that i can do it!

Study languages: there are tons of languges and cultures.i want to explore and learn so i gotta find time for that!

Learn/Practice handlettering and drawing: this is something that i really wanted to learn before, when i started to watch youtube vids about journaling and bujo so i gotta keep on trying even if it doesn't go well but practice makes master.

Go to bed early: DON'T. SPEND. UNNECESSARY. TIME. PROCRASTINATING. INSTEAD. OF. SLEEPING.

Get a driver license: my dumb self took the classes mid 2017 and didn't do the test now i gotta start over because i need a car.