My College Life

Scrolling through Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. for study vibes. Lots of people would say this is a waste of time, but getting in the mood to study significantly helps me. As someone that rarely has the motivation to do things and struggles with low-energy levels daily, seeing aesthetic pictures or watching study-with-me videos gives me the inspiration and motivation I need. 

Multitasking is my best friend. If I’m interested in what I’m working on, this isn’t always necessary, but usually, having multiple things to do at once is helpful. Jumping between similar assignments, working 20min on one long assignment or chore, then finishing a smaller one, then going back to that longer thing, etc. It helps me avoid burn-out and taking breaks that turn into just giving up. 

On the subject of breaks, taking breaks isn’t always the best for me. I know a lot of people rave about the pomodoro method, and while it works to help me get started on something, I eventually let go of that timer once I’m in the groove of working. Taking a break– long or short– will usually just incentivise me to stop working altogether because that ‘break’ is sooo much better than working.  I much prefer long hours or scheduled out work vs play times. 

Having multiple drinks on my desk. This is another form of multitasking to me. Water is always a necessity, but juice, coffee, tea, etc. is a needed addition. Similar to chewing gum, it helps stabilize me and prevent burn-out since my brain has multiple forms of stimuli. 

Long to-do lists. I will literally have 20-30 things on a to-do list typically. Sure, I don’t always finish it all in a day, but writing out that to-do list helps get my mind organized and keeps me focused. Plus, it also helps to avoid procrastination. If I only write out 5-6 things, I’d think “Sure, I can wait to do those. There’s only a few” whereas 20-30 things pushes me to work as soon as possible. 

...as a humanities student focussing on languages and history.

do all your readings at least a week in advance. honestly a lifesaver. make a list of the readings you'll need to have done for the next week and divvy them up along the current week.

annotate your readings. either by hand, or download them, import to a pdf annotation app (or just google drive) and make comments/highlight important parts,

don't sign up for early or late classes, especially if you're a commuter. i signed up for a 9-11 AM class and a 6-8 PM class and they were both hell even if I enjoyed the material. Don't do it.

join the class group chat. if there isn't one, make one. you might not think you need it, but you do, you really do.

if you can't get yourself to do the whole reading, read the first sentence of every paragraph. listen, we've all been there when the reading is 36 pages and you're just not feeling it. most well-written academic articles start with a topic sentence that will give you a sense of the general direction of the work, so skimming the first sentence of each paragraph can actually equip you better than nothing for your discussions.

the syllabus is your bible. read it THOROUGHLY at the beginning of term and reference it CONSTANTLY.

skip lectures. NEVER skip tutorials. it's better to not skip lectures either but sometimes they're just not helpful. but ALWAYS go to tutorial.