great things don't come from comfort zones

1. Tell them how great they are and how much you appreciate them.

2. Be genuine and real in your relationships. Don’t pretend and wear a mask but share your true, authentic self.

3. Note, however, that being genuine doesn’t mean always dumping your garbage on those around you. Be respectful of their needs and feelings too – and recognise that we influence and affect others moods. That is, we can choose to either brighten or pollute the atmosphere.

4. Be a great listener. We feel loved and valued when others really listen to us.

5. Don’t try to fix, change and make them into different people. Instead, provide them with the freedom to simpy be themselves.

If you have periods, you know the struggle. You feel gross. You feel dirty. You feel crabby and sad and like the whole world is awful. Here are a few ways that I combat my PMS-induced blues.

• take a shower. I know it’s a lot of work, but honestly, it helps so much to get rid of that gross, dirty feeling.

• if you can and like to, shave your legs. You’ll feel like a goddess, and that helps, trust me.

• put on some awesome-smelling body lotion. You already look like a goddess, so now its time to smell like one. This can also help if you’re feeling self-conscious about that period smell (which no one else can smell, just btw. No one walks past you and says “ew that girl smells like period”, especially if you’re keeping yourself as clean as possible down there - eg changing your pad/tampon/etc as needed, making sure to wipe really well, etc.)

• if you can’t handle the process of taking a shower, at least wash and moisturize your face. Not only will it help to calm the menstrual breakout that a lot of us get, but you will also feel clean and rejuvenated.

• HEATING PADS/HOT WATER BOTTLES ARE MAN’S GREATEST INVENTION. If you need to leave the house (i.e. to go to work, run errands, etc), you can use one of those stick-on heating wraps they carry at most drug stores for joint and muscle pain, and it will hide nicely under your clothes and keep some heavenly heat on your muscles down there. However, BE VERY CAREFUL if you use one of those. The skin on your lower abdomen is very thin and sensitive, so make sure you don’t stick the wrap too low and don’t leave it on for too long. Also, don’t cover it too tightly with clothing - wear something loose if possible. If it starts to feel too hot or painful, TAKE IT OFF IMMEDIATELY.

• GET YASELF DRESSED. Wear something that makes you feel sexy and confident. It sounds like the worst thing ever, but getting dressed and looking like a million bucks helps my psyche soooo much when I’m on my period and miserable. Of course, sometimes you need a day where you never take off your pjs, and that’s okay too. But if you’re down in the dumps and feel ugly and gross, prove yourself wrong by getting dolled up and sexy as hell, even if you aren’t leaving the house. SLAY, QUEEN. YOU’RE A DAMN GODDESS.

• if you have stuff to do, DO IT. Some people have very severe menstrual symptoms, and in those cases you may not be physically able to move. That’s okay. You take your time and don’t you dare feel guilty about it. But if you at all can, at least /try/ to do some of the things you had planned. Don’t let Aunt Flo stop you. Moving on with my day as much as possible helps me to feel empowered and honestly just better about myself, even if physically I’m not feeling great. It helps me feel more in control, rather than being controlled by my period.

taurus: master of organization. sometimes a little confused. is stubborn and rarely changes their opinion but always listens to what other people have to say. quiet when lost in thoughts. financial genius. generous. sometimes a little mean. will never let you down. great friend / husband / dad. is actually a great cook but doesn’t eat 24/7. does sports and loves nature. is a “wow look at the moon”-person.

gemini: clever. hates boredom. always has a plan b/c/d. cares for their education. talks a lot. sometimes lost in thoughts. tends to overthink. always have a great story to tell. never underestimates others. believes in their friends. always know the answer. is not annoying 24/7. know when to shut up. bright smile. active. loves adventure. never shouting when angry. doesn’t let others feel their anger. nature-lover.

cancer: very caring. will ask you how your day has been. invites you to their house to make popcorn and watch your favourite movie/series. very funny. good sense of fashion. is the friend who will take you home when you’re drunk. makes sure you’re ok. is fascinated by science. lovely eyes. adorable. never loud but always present. emotional but not a cry-baby.

leo: proud and loud. not easily insulted but when they are they roar. knows so many cultures. is interested in new things. can be very soft but won’t show it unless they trust you. bright smile. always polite. will be there for you when you need them. unique sense of fashion. hard workers. chatty. always know how to handle a difficult situation. reliable. trustworthy.

virgo: feel much more than they would admit. don’t have many friends but would do anything for the friends they have. careful. neither waste money nor time. a little stingy. the friend that feels what you feel. can read your mind sometimes. loves to surprise people. to be avoided when angry. calm down easily. loves to make others smile. sometimes too caring. loyal.

libra: sometimes a little weird. hardworking. sometimes they believe in themselves, sometimes they give up on themselves. aesthetic-lovers. usually very well dressed. polite. interested in art, history and literature. doubt their skills a lot. sometimes a little absent. instead of shouting they don’t talk. loves conversations with new people.

scorpio: NOT EVIL AT ALL!! very emotional but never reckless. you can call them at 3am and they will be there for you. sometimes they don’t know what to do with all their feelings but they will never let you suffer because of that. the best friends. adorable. stunning look. hard voices, hard souls, soft heart. are interested and show their interest in you and your feelings. will apologize immediately when they see they treated you wrong and they are truly sorry. mysterious. when they trust you they tell you everything. a little revengeful but would never harm others.

sagittarius: hilarious. clever. tell great jokes. are interested and caring. fight issues. don’t show their emotions. won’t be angry for long. colourful people with colourful minds. somehow they always know what’s going on. love to work out. learn languages quite fast. honest.

capricorn: serious people. sometimes very stubborn. well educated. strong. smart. working to achieve their goals. never ever ever give up. never show defeat. don’t cry very often. love the sun. good at making friends. do not forgive easily. forgive but don’t forget. will remember almost everything they did / heard / said in their lives. loyal. know what they’re worth.

aquarius: entertaining. bright personality. you can always spot their voice. has a very emotional part they won’t show anyone. can make a bad situation good. great friends. sometimes a little bossy. tend to put on a show. won’t mess around. chatty and makes new friends easily and quite often. has many friends but only like 2-3 real friends they would trust with their lives. hate to show when they hurt. very intelligent.

a december spread!! art by punziella and inspo from maybestudy 💛

Discipline: “discipline is doing what needs to be done, even when you don’t want to”, which means that you have to force yourself to start doing things. 

Concentration: when you make a real effort in your work (study, homeworks etc…) you will be more likely to actually focus, understand and learn. 

Organization: always set tasks and goals and organize a study-schedule. Maybe you don’t really want to plan all the week, but if you just wake up and open your agenda/bullet journal/iphone calendar and write down all the things you have to do, setting due dates and deadlines, you’ll feel more conscious and encouraged to stay on track. 

Tasks-splitting: sometimes, you write down your tasks. Some of these tasks may be very hard and complicated, and it will take a long long time to complete them. So, you can split them in smaller tasks, so you will feel satisfied after a shorter period of time, instead of studying for hours and still seeing that chapter undone on your study-schedule. 

Watch the sunrise: when I wake up late, I feel like I don’t have enought time to do my work and lose my motivation. I literally panic and then I think “whatever, I could not complete all the things anyway”. So, if you wake up earlier you will feel more positive and  controlled. 

Smart reading: try not to read your textbook just like a newspaper. For every paragraph you read, try to underline and write down key words and then your question about that subject. Literally, turn your textbook into questions. If you write down question - particularly why…? - and think about the answer, you will be more likely to remember that stuff later. 

i’ve been really productive the past few months, which is actually quite rare for me bc i’m a slave to procrastination i get burnt out v easily. this time was a little different, i managed to keep my productivity levels really high for a whole 2 months all the way until exams ended, studying every single day without fail, around 10 hours a day, when i used to only do an average of 3 or 4. so here’s what worked for me and what didn’t!

what works: schedule your day

what happens when ur a virgo studyblr? u plan. i would write out everything i needed to accomplish for the day, the night before, and be really specific about it. i would then plug in the timings, this works for me, but u can choose to put the time in first and plan what u want to do around the time. 

a structured time plan pressures me and i end up getting everything done, especially when i set an alarm on my phone for all the timings!

what does not: cramming a lot of hours into a day

12+ hour work days are ideal, especially when u watch all the ‘study with me: 14 hour work day!’ youtube videos, but they are just tedious and unreasonable. 

let’s face it, even if u do complete one or two long study days, ur just gonna get bored and tired and have no mood to continuing this for a week or more. slow and steady wins the race!

what works: tweaking the pomodoro technique

i hate the pomodoro method. at the 25 minute mark, i’m normally on a roll and super focused on the task; and the 5 minute breaks were too short for me to actually take a break. 

that’s why i tweaked it to 45-minute study sessions with 10-minute breaks, and after 3 study sessions, a 30-minute break. longer study sessions meant i get a break when i really start to get restless, and longer breaks gave me more time to recharge. i suggest tweaking this to match what works for you.

what does not work; doing too many / too little subjects a day

1. u don’t want to cram all the same topics and subjects into one day. ultimately, it’s a choice of spending 8 hours solely on a subject / topic and not touching it for the next few days / weeks, OR doing just 2 or 3 hours of one subject / topic each day over a few days / week

2. just thinking about doing only one subject for a whole day already tires me out. i have tried it, but normally i get so sick and tired of it that after a few hours, i can’t bring myself to focus on it any longer. on the contrary, if i keep switching between subjects, i get super confused because i have to remember too much of very different info. 

what works: leaving the last portion of your day ambiguous 

i like to start and end my days early. but in the process, i found a benefit of ending them early: i end up w a chunk of time at the end where there are two scenarios:

i’m super motivated and want to continue studying

i’m rly tired and cannot bring myself to continue bc i need a break !1!!

surprisingly, option 1 does happen a lot. and i think this is a rly good work-life balance. u don’t get burnt out easily, but from time to time, u get a bonus extra few hours of work done! 

what does not work: forgoing sleep

sleep is so important omg. 3 hours of studying while sleepy = 1 hour of studying when ur refreshed and ur brain’s working. a tired mind is a slow mind, and an awake mind is a fast mind!

do not worry about that rly hard chapter that u must understand and complete! ur mind continue to works even when ur sleeping, i assume bc it’s rewiring and sorting through new information. after waking up, i find myself being able to better remember and understand information that i struggled on the night before!

what works: finding out ur energy levels and use it to ur advantage

some people work best at 6am and can’t focus after 9pm, some people can’t focus before 11am and work best at midnight. take note of and chart ur energy levels throughout the day for about a week or so, are u particularly refreshed in the morning? do u feel urself always dozing off at 4? are u the most productive at night? 

work ur body clock out and work around it! every body functions differently! like in the last point, 3 hours of studying at ur worst energy levels = 1 hour of studying at ur peak energy level! forcing urself to work when ur body refuses to do so will only lead to procrastination. 

♡02/10/17♡ - 🎏 monday 🎏

spread for week three!! it was the pre-finals week so frankly I barely had time to finish it up and take good photos, but the sunset lighting in my room was particularly pretty today ♡♡ tbh I’m super stressed out right now because of the end-of-year papers, but it’s just another week (and half a day) more!! wish me luck, I’m going to need it (；´∀｀)

anyway, the lovely @doctorsafraid gave me a coupon code for her etsy store @mochiandmoon ꈍ .̮ ꈍ she sells super cute, hand-drawn vinyl stickers of various kpop groups (no seriously, the DNA tae one is adorable) so do go and check her out!!! get the 10% off with the code @ ATTICSTUDIES ♡♡♡

if you realize you’ve been studying for hours: grab a snack to refuel your body and watch a sitcom to refuel your brain. then back to the books.

if you’re feeling stressed out: take some deep breaths, text your friends, maybe stair at a wall for a few minutes. gather yourself.

if you can’t seem to focus: get moving and get outside. take out the garbage, check your mail box, maybe walk your dog. just get moving and get fresh air. it’ll help bring you back.

if there’s something else going on in your life and you can’t get it off your mind: write down what’s going through your head, sort of like a diary entry. it’ll help you work things out.

if you’re just mentally and physically exhausted: set a timer for 25-30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll hit REM and you’ll wake up feeling just as tired. once you wake up, get some caffeine in you.

if the material is boring as hell: find another way to study. see if there’s a crash course video online about it or draw out what you’re trying to learn in diagrams and pictures to make it fun.

if people around you won’t shut up: listen to some music. soundtrack and classical music is always good because they won’t absorb you as much as music with lyrics. white noise (like ocean waves, rain sounds, etc.) also works.