#studying advice

My Technique for Productivity

For writers, artists, and people with ADHD/AuDHD, here's an alternative to the traditional Pomodoro technique! Use this time table for writing, drawing, studying, or any other task!

⏱️ 1 minute timer (write/draw/study)

⏸️ 5 minute break (stretch, scroll, take a walk, etc)

⏱️ 2 minute timer -> ✍️📖🖌️

⏸️ BREAK (5 min)

⏱️ 3 mins -> ✍️📖🖌️

⏸️ BREAK (5 min)

⏱️ 5 mins -> ✍️📖🖌️

⏸️ BREAK (5 min)

⏱️ 8 mins -> ✍️📖🖌️

⏸️ BREAK (5 min)

⏱️ 13 mins -> ✍️📖🖌️

⏸️ BREAK (5 min)

⏱️ 21 mins -> ✍️📖🖌️

⏸️ BREAK (5 min)

⏱️ 34 mins -> ✍️📖🖌️

During your breaks, feel free to scroll, eat a snack, take a walk, etc. Try to take a break from your screens at least once an hour.

I was able to write 30k words of fanfic using this technique, and I have autism, adhd, and depression. Hope this helps!

You know... I really am just trash. No. The scum at the bottom of the bin. The mold that the Garbage Pail Kids don't even enjoy. Because I was wrong. Of course I was wrong. I really was thinking the worst in people again, assuming I'd wake up to the most asinine questions. And turns out, the questions aren't asinine and I'm just an ass.

Because here is my second inbox question, another one that has turned out to be respectable.

You, Anon, are providing so much value to this wretched world for what you're studying in. More value than I could ever achieve.

So I'll share with you what I can about how to retain information more.

Let's see...

What is important to you about wanting to be a veterinary assistant? Like the most important thing. Whatever you're studying for it, write down how that topic relates to whatever that most important thing is to you.

Even if it seems like the topic has no correlation to being a veterinary assistant at all. Just sort of... think and think and think I guess until you can come up with a believable excuse like a woman listing off a million reasons why she can't give you her number for the phone you don't even have after literally pissing your pants from the fear of asking her for it. There's always something.

If you can relate the information to what matters to you the most... then it might be easier to remember it.

For me this is usually stuff like cleaning my room, getting ready in the morning, doing homework.

You just break these tasks down to the point where it seems almost stupidly easy

"Wow, i literally just have to pick up the clothes on my floor, fold them, and that's it. Wow that's so easy"

"I just have to grab my book and sit down and read it, i could do that upside down. I just need to make sure i understand it."

Like it just feels stupidly easy when you break it down into these points

Hey love!

I'm doing as well as I can in the circumstances, how are you doing?

I'm probably not the best person to ask for studying advice because it's 10.40pm and I'm planning to stay up late working on my assignment due tomorrow, but I'll do my best! Honestly, when it comes to studying, you gotta do what you gotta do, especially when you're balancing your studies with a house, a job, mental health etc...

Here's what I can think of, from the top of my head...

Make your study space as 'you' as possible - my desk is full of little trinkets which people have gifted to me over the years, it's got a little calendar on it, it's got all my studying essentials on it, the coasters I use have sarcastic quotes on them... make your study space as defined as you can with what you have, and keep it as your study space. Make it fun, fill it with things which bring you joy. Or don't - some people like clutter, some don't. The point is, make your study space yours. It's hard to study, you deserve/need to be comfortable while you're doing it.

Create a little routine which always starts your studying - for me, I always study with a litre of iced coffee to start, I always watch a study vlog to make me feel less alone in the process, I always make sure my hair is in a state I'm happy with, and I make sure I have something to snack on while I work. With all those little things in place, it's easier to sit and study because once the routine is complete and I found something I can watch while I study [which is usually some kind of horror film], I can focus.

Make a five minute rule. Or if that's too much, a one sentence rule. Starting is always the hardest part but once you have momentum, it's usually pretty easy to keep going. So study for five minutes or write one sentence of notes. Just do something because once you start, it'll be easier to carry on.

Reward yourself little and often. You wrote a whole paragraph? That's amazing!!! Give yourself something delicious, your favourite sweet treat if you have one, take a small break to listen to your favourite song, just something as a little boost for your productivity.

Take breaks when you need them. [I don't take breaks because if I do, I'll lose my Focus Zone, even if it's only for five minutes. I gotta keep going or I'll stop and won't be able to carry on studying for the rest of the day, which is why I can do twelve-fifteen hour study stints. If I don't do it like that then I can't do it at all. But I know this isn't healthy or ideal, so I'm being a hypocrite and recommending that you take breaks.😂]

Keep your promises to yourself so you build a good trusting rapport with yourself, which will make it easier to be consistent with studying in the long run because you'll trust you can do it, and you will. So if you say you'll study for twenty minutes and then go grab another coffee? You gotta do it!

If you can, keep in contact with other students to help you feel less alone in studying or ask your professors for help when you need it, even if you think it's something small and silly. My grandad always used to say that the only stupid questions were the ones you didn't ask, and the older I get, the more I realise that he was right! If you're asking for help when you need it, it's too late! Ask before you need it, and be honest if you're struggling. Most people are really understanding and will help you if you ask.

Don't be afraid to watch YouTube videos or go outside of the syllabus to help you understand complex topics, just use critical thinking to make sure it's a reputable academic source and isn't going to be full of misinformation. There are lots of teacher channels who explain things as they would in a classroom, and it's helped me many a time when my textbooks just won't let concepts stick in my brain.

Consistency is key! If you can only do five minutes a day, that's okay! Just be consistent - small and steady wins the race, and it's not how fast you get it done! It's quality, not quantity.

I saw this article about the 50% rule linked on a language learning form. It is an article about art: how when you draw, try to draw 50% of the time just for fun. For yourself, for the sake of drawing and getting it to become something you enjoy and that can be imperfect. If you study, like in drawing that would be following lessons or utilizing references and trying to emulate something or practicing techniques, then try to only spend 50% of your time doing those study activities you aim to do "well" and improve with.

The idea of spending 50% just drawing for the fun of it, for the sake of creating something, not caring if it's that nebulous definition of "not good enough," it's really worth doing. For one, it's stress relieving and makes drawing something more enjoyable, and as humans it genuinely makes us feel good to CREATE things just for the sake of expressing ourselves. To get to create things, make whatever we picture and even if it doesn't come out the way we'd hoped at least it exists now? It's a release. It's letting your ideas and things you want, get a chance to really exist, when perfectionism otherwise might mean you avoid ever even trying. At least, to start to exist: because you might always try an idea again later, make it differently next time, make it again in a couple years when you're more capable. But the point is: try making it now too. Whatever you want, try, and enjoy the process.

(And as someone who's been drawing since I could hold drawing utensils as a toddler, to be honest with you a LOT of improvement in drawing skills naturally happen as you attempt to draw things you "can't" draw. Because at first, you can't draw anything. You have to draw a face, imperfectly, to figure out HOW to draw a face a little bit different the next time - and the next time - and the next time - and you start being excited how the outcome is closer to what you imagined each time. I didn't actually "practice" drawing until I was 9 and started looking at cartoons, trying to draw based on how a cartoon looks, and trying to get closer to that. Everything before that was just imagining stuff, trying, and it gradually getting closer to what I imagined. And even after learning how to look at references and try to emulate them, and learning techniques like shading, in the end a lot of drawing improvements still came from me going "I'd like to draw someone dancing/flying/holding someone/from an angle above their head" even though I 'didn't know how to' and had never tried before, so I tried, somewhat successful and somewhat not what I imagined, and then the NEXT time I tried? It got closer to my imagination, and closer, and eventually it was no longer hard to draw someone flying or holding someone. What I'm saying is: creating something just for the sake of it, even if you don't know how to make what you imagine yet, is worth it for many reasons).

The language learning forum linked this article, because the idea was "in language study, at least sometimes, just use the language" whether that's talking to a friend, reading novels, watching shows you like, podcasts, audiobooks, writing a journal and not correcting your errors. Spend at least some time using the language, while giving yourself the space to NOT stress yourself out about mistakes or gaps in understanding. That time can help you get used to using the language, just to use it, and just making a habit of using the language as a normal regular thing you do. I thought that was a great suggestion. Especially because I tend toward perfectionist, so reminders to "give myself space to BE imperfect" is always worth hearing.

The advice can also apply to writing too. (I don't if I've told you all I write, but I could post my writing in-progress rants on here if anyone's into that. Mostly I post the writing-progress-updates on @mejomonster under #mejo writing). Just the idea that: yes, 50% of the time you might be checking your grammar, or reading an author you like and noting their writing style and trying to brainstorm how to do some similar things, writing a story outline, writing a chapter and really draining yourself by second-guessing what style you're doing and what kind of narration you're aiming for and what you want the audience to know and thinking about the process a lot.

Haven’t you noticed that it’s easy to write something that you’re emotionally engaged in? So, make yourself emotionally engaged in your essay by making the first draft Bullshit No.1 and being totally, completely honest about what you think of the subject.

You know that essay schools want you to write, basically marketing yourself as the perfect balanced of “tortured but learned soul”? 

Well, time to bring out that sassy side of yours and write your heart out about who the hell you are.

Example:

“I am Ari, and you’re about to read the most dull thing ever and you’re gonna enjoy it! I am 5′2″, built like a dwarf, and the most overambitious, absent-minded INFJ you’ll ever have the misfortune of meeting.”

Essay on history?

“Listen up, this is the story of how humans once again proved themselves to be idiots.”

Essay on biology?

“Guess who won the prize for most boring lectures ever? Professor of Biology! And now to delight y’all with just the facts.”

Be emotional about what you’re writing. Be venomous about how much you detest what you’re writing.

It’s easy and fast to write when you’re emotional. It’s easy and fast to edit when you know what an actual essay should look like. Which you do know, otherwise you wouldn’t have such a hard time writing the first draft. Don’t try to edit and write at the same time: write the shit then polish the turd. Don’t polish and shit at the same time, it’ll just create a mess.