Summertime

To keep a positive mindset for fitness and weight loss | We can do this | And studying | Things to acheive!

[verenadrawsthings]

The most autumnal thing for me personally: homemade apple strudel, which the house constantly smells of during september and october 🍎

[eintsein]

A Small Guide to Journaling by Eintsein

Something you may or may not know about be is that I journal. However, only recently have I gotten the hang of it and stayed loyal to the habit of journaling. Here are some tips and tricks on how you can journal successfully. Hope you like it :)

[kurdiyyahstudies-deactivated202]

9/17/21

My new keyboard came today 🥺 الحمد لله I’m so excited to use this and perfect timing because I’ve got like 1 assignment and 2 discussion boards I need to do before midnight and I just got home it’s already 7 :’) oh well it’s so cute, it’ll motivate me!

[11990904]

[fikastudies]

rainbow over amsterdam on the way to the university :-) and some nice coffee!

[sarita-daniele]

Discovering the best in fiction, essays, and poetry

I love the ritualistic nature of this poem by Leila Chatti. I’ve found it grounding throughout this pandemic, a poem that reminds me to refocus on the small, personal rituals that bring me back to myself. 

Tea

Five times a day, I make tea. I do this because I like the warmth in my hands, like the feeling of self-directed kindness. I’m not used to it— warmth and kindness, both—so I create my own when I can. It’s easy. You just pour water into a kettle and turn the knob and listen for the scream. I do this five times a day. Sometimes, when I’m pleased, I let out a little sound. A poet noticed this and it made me feel I might one day properly be loved. Because no one is here to love me, I make tea for myself and leave the radio playing. I must remind myself I am here, and do so by noticing myself: my feet are cold inside my socks, they touch the ground, my stomach churns, my heart stutters, in my hands I hold a warmth I make. I come from a people who pray five times a day and make tea. I admire the way they do both. How they drop to the ground wherever they are. Drop pine nuts and mint sprigs in a glass. I think to care for the self is a kind of prayer. It is a gesture of devotion toward what is not always beloved or believed. I do not always believe in myself, or love myself, I am sure there are times I am bad or gone or lying. In another’s mouth, tea often means gossip, but sometimes means truth. Despite the trope, in my experience my people do not lie for pleasure, or when they should, even when it might be a gesture of kindness. But they are kind. If you were to visit, a woman would bring you a tray of tea. At any time of day. My people love tea so much it was once considered a sickness. Their colonizers tried, as with any joy, to snuff it out. They feared a love so strong one might sell or kill their other loves for leaves and sugar. Teaism sounds like a kind of faith I’d buy into, a god I wouldn’t fear. I think now I truly believe I wouldn’t kill anyone for love, not even myself—most days I can barely get out of bed. So I make tea. I stand at the window while I wait. My feet are cold and the radio plays its little sounds. I do the small thing I know how to do to care for myself. I am trying to notice joy, which means survive. I do this all day, and then the next.

Author’s Note

This poem was the first I wrote in a long period of drought. I was, as the poem alludes to, suffering from a depressive episode, one that dislodged my language and made the simple tasks of living significantly difficult. There was one act of self-care, however, that I could bring myself to do with regularity: make tea. All day, each day, I did it; it’s true. I made the connection one day between my love of—dependency on, even—tea and the cultural role and history of tea in my Tunisian ancestry. Tea is so beloved in Tunisia that when it was under French rule, colonial administrators believed Tunisians’ tea consumption was a psychological condition, teaism, similar to alcoholism, and that the amount of tea my people drank had poisoned both their bodies and minds. I was interested in examining my own experience with my body and mind, harm and care, pleasure and survival, as it relates to tea, and this poem tumbled out of that. As a note to this note, my pantry continues to be stuffed to the brim with tea—enough to last me over a year, at least.

[determinationandcaffeine]

If you’re not a morning person, you know the struggle. It’s not just about waking up, it’s about actually getting yourself to do stuff in the morning. While I usually recommend you adapt to your body’s own schedule, as you’ll work much better, school, work or other activities may not allow you to do so. Therefore, here’s a guide on how to get shit done in the morning.

The night before

Prepare whatever study materials you’re going to use that day. Open your notes and make sure you know where you should start (i personally lay a pen on the exact paragraph).

Put a bottle of water and some tea (with caffeine) or coffee on your desk so that you don’t have to go get it next morning. 

If you’re usually cold in the mornings, get yourself a blanket. I promise you mine has made me more productive than all the coffee I’ve ever had.

Write a to-do list for next day. Then distribute those tasks in a schedule (you can either use a printable or just scribble it on some piece of paper). Take into account you’ll need time for breakfast and personal hygiene. 

Other than that, don’t leave anything else on your desk, as it may be distracting.

Make an effort to go to bed at least an hour earlier. It makes a huge difference when you wake up 

Actually waking up

if you struggle to wake up, try the following:

Ask someone to wake you up (a parent, a roommate).

Put your phone accross the room and inside a glass to amplify the sound.

If your phone has an option for voice alarm, use it. Make it something really motivating or, even better, really annoying.

Combine all of the above for foolproof results.

Tips to get stuff done

Chug your liquids! - The very first thing you should do after your feet touch the floor is drink some water and drink something caffeinated (yes, in that order) (caffeine because it will kick in by the time you’re done with breakfast and water because caffeine can be dehydrating + water will also jumpstart your body).

Put on some fluffy socks - okay maybe this is just a personal thing but I’m personally much less likely to go back to bed once i have some socks on.

Smol workout - do something that will send blood to your brain. It can literally be ten jumping jacks.

Breakfast? Not yet - you’ve gotten up, you want food, understandable. BUT remember that book/notebook you put on your table last night? Well, get to work on it for 15-30 minutes. You may be sleepy and not able to comprehend much of what you’re doing, but the important thing is that once you come back from having breakfast, you will already have started, which is the most difficult part.

Avoid anything with a shit-ton of sugar - it will give you a sugar crash in about an hour and all you’ll want to do is go back to bed. (Personal rec is overnight oats with some fruit on top - delicious, fast af and super filling and energizing).

A big breakfast can make you sleepy. Instead, make it a little bit smaller and have some healthy snacks (like hummus) throughout the morning. Look at them as your reward for studying.

Stay off the internet. During breakfast, I find that social media (especially youtube) tend to put me off working afterwards, as they give me something more insteresting to do. Therefore I reccommend you either find something else to do (write your to do list, read a book) or limit your Internet time to 5-10 minutes.

Remember that you control your mindset. If after doing all of this you still don’t feel like studying, it’s perfectly okay to stare at your desk for five minutes and have an argument with yourself about how much you do want to study. Seems stupid but trust me, it works most of the time.

Other masterposts

How To Stop Procrastinating

First Time in the Lab Advice

Skincare 101

Memorization Tips

Implementing a Study Routine

Use Studyblr to Become Productive

[stillstudies]

how I keep myself sane during summer break.

I think we can all agree that the mere idea of having holiday breaks from boring lectures and all-nighter study sessions sounds like heaven; although this romanticized idea of having so much free time often turns into wasted summer days, oversleeping, and basically an anti-social teenage version of house arrest. so, to help you out (or, more to help Myself) here are some things I do to keep myself busy, on a budget (kind of), and mentally healthy during long breaks from school.

continue your morning routine. this is important; by this I mean to basically treat your summer mornings as you would your school mornings, without the rush and alarm. brush your teeth, brush your hair, start/continue a skincare routine, get out of your pajamas and into real clothes, make your bed, make some coffee, eat some breakfast, do it with some music on, whatever you want. this keeps your mind and body into a daily routine. don’t let all your precious no-class mornings of summer go to waste!

savor sleeping in, but not too much. I know its super tempting to go to bed at like 2 AM and wake up the next “morning” at 12PM, but trust me, you’ll regret fucking up your sleep schedule once you actually have to set an alarm and get your ass to class next fall. I’m not saying you should force yourself to set a summer alarm (although, if you really want to train yourself this isn’t a bad idea tbh) but for the love of god, at least go to sleep and wake up at reasonable times. don’t waste your entire day!!

force yourself to see your friends a couple times a week, even if you really don’t want to. obviously this excludes mental health days, but I’ve found that spending time with my friends actually distracts me from any anxiety I’ve felt during the past week. I love my alone time, but human interaction is super important both mentally and physically. as college students we’re all pretty much broke, so don’t underestimate the power of free things- watching netflix at someone’s house, having a boardgame night, going to parks, you name it. as long as you’re with your friends, you’ll have a great time!

clean out your music library + make a playlist or two. y’all know I love a good playlist. this is something totally 100% FREE, and a perfect way to make use of your free time. delete all the stuff you don’t listen to anymore and make a few playlists of your favorite songs, or even go with playlist themes to organize your songs. it’s fun and your future self will probably thank you later for getting rid of so much audible junk.

get back into reading. this is something that was on my personal summer to-do list. I haven’t read a book for myself (aka not for a class) in sooo long, and let me tell you- I don’t know why I ever stopped reading. I know for a fact that once the semester starts I’ll have zero free time to read for myself, so summer is the perfect time to get into a new book or two!

eat your three meals a day +hydrate. I mean this. its very easy to skip/forget meals when you really don’t have any set schedule whatsoever, so plan your meals into your day. even make an alarm if its necessary. also: if you don’t know if you’re drinking enough water, you probably aren’t.

deep clean your room/workspace/closet. I’m super guilty for putting this off but, long breaks like summer are the perfect times to deep clean! what makes it easier for me to clean my room is to go section by section, which means not doing it all in a day (because that gets hella overwhelming and stressful, let me tell you). grab a garbage bag, put on some tunes, and pick a section to clean that day; you’ll be done with the entire space in no time!

outfit plan. for someone like me who has way too much in my closet and somehow still “never has anything to wear”, this is essential! set some outfits out on the floor/bed and take pics of them on your phone so that you can look back on them for some style inspo the next time you have “absolutely NOTHING to wear”.

find a new hobby, even if you’re bad at it. make some collages of your friends, make a scrapbook, learn photoshop, paint a little, learn how to sew, garden, cook, practice your phone photography skills… if there was a time for you to try out new things, it’s NOW.

make a post about all the shit you should do. I’m doing it right now. literally. you’re reading it right now. its not a bad idea.

if you know you have shit to do, plan it into your day! this is where the planner/agenda/bullet journal aspect comes in. having no class and no homework is not an excuse to stop planning out your day, your week, or your month. make some task lists and pencil in your dentist appointments and dates with people and whatnot; and even journal your days while you’re at it! if you’re a planner, never stop. Future You will thank you for it, I promise.

[softlystudying]

i spend way too much time on spotify and thus have way too many playlists, but here are some of them as a thank you for 11k !!

neptune / soundtrack to a warm coffee on a sleepy afternoon 

pluto / 3am, lying upside down off the bed with dim phone light on your face

saturn / laughter, pillow fights and intentionally bad singing-along

mars / quiet piano floats through the window on a warm, windy evening 

lunar / during windows-down summer car rides with your friends

solar / fingers tracing on a thigh and quiet evening humming 

jupiter / gentle, wordless, beats to see you through revision 

eclipse / a soft voice paired with a guitar, and a cup of tea

earth / for dozing off amidst gentle yawns, wrapped in blankets

cosmos / a face amongst the crowd, stairs to the subway, city lights

galaxy / clink of glassware and muted murmurs amongst background jazz

sapph / for the girls who love girls

cappuccino / the feeling of a 9am coffee on a gently sunny morning 

instagram

update ;; here is part 2!

[autumndesk]

8:23am ; 10 dec 20

it has been a crazy few days! i had a lot of school work to finish, so i’m glad it’s over!

[apricitystudies]

here’s my brainstorming process for writing essays! the example questions i used are pretty straightforward but i use this for more abstract essay questions as well.

[andlifemovesonn]

[whoneedssexed]

A surprisingly potent technique can boost your short and long-term recall – and it appears to help everyone from students to Alzheimer’s patients.

When trying to memorise new material, it’s easy to assume that the more work you put in, the better you will perform. Yet taking the occasional down time – to do literally nothing – may be exactly what you need. Just dim the lights, sit back, and enjoy 10-15 minutes of quiet contemplation, and you’ll find that your memory of the facts you have just learnt is far better than if you had attempted to use that moment more productively.

Although it’s already well known that we should pace our studies, new research suggests that we should aim for “minimal interference” during these breaks – deliberately avoiding any activity that could tamper with the delicate task of memory formation. So no running errands, checking your emails, or surfing the web on your smartphone. You really need to give your brain the chance for a complete recharge with no distractions.

[peachblossomstudy]

// guide to getting your life together for a new school year 🌷

[divinecynicism]

There is a certain beauty in understanding the strangest ways in which nature does her work. The ways in which everything seems connected, somehow, whether by chance or by intelligent design. It’s strange that something so rooted in absolute logic can be so beautiful.

[softlystudying]

wednesday, 09/05/18 — 19:45 (19/26)

☕️ breakfast & hazelnut milk coffee 🚲 cognitive level of analysis: psych revision

[catchymemes]