Academia is cool and sexy until I’m expected to do work
noise dept.
DEAR READER
Mike Driver

oozey mess
No title available
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
NASA

blake kathryn
styofa doing anything
No title available
Claire Keane

@theartofmadeline
RMH
Xuebing Du
Jules of Nature
Today's Document
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Janaina Medeiros
hello vonnie
ojovivo

seen from Israel
seen from Germany
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from Türkiye

seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany

seen from Mexico

seen from Germany

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from India

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Türkiye

seen from Slovenia

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Germany
@estudacatarina
Academia is cool and sexy until I’m expected to do work
Winter Studying Challenge
7th January: Do you like the cold?
I think it can be refreshing and nice but I much prefer the feeling of coming in from the cold! I've been raking leaves in the garden this morning to get over what happened in Washington DC last night and now I'm moving onto my next essay. X Emily
you deserve to rest without feeling guilty about it
MOTIVATION VS SELF-DISCIPLINE
When studying, most people try to find motivation thinking that this will get them through their study session, or they will see their failure as a result of a lack of motivation. But motivation isn’t always what we need - what do you do on the days you have no motivation? This is why we need self-discipline.
MOTIVATION VS SELF DISCIPLINE
Motivation - a willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. A goal or reward that you look forward to that will encourage you to study - while this is useful, what happens on a day when you just don’t feel like studying?
Self-Discipline - making yourself do things you know you should do when you don’t want to. Being trained to routinely study regardless of how unmotivated you are - this is what will get you out of bed on a day you don’t feel like studying.
So if motivation is ‘why we should do something’ - self-discipline is more ‘what to do next’.
HOW TO BE SELF-DISCIPLINED
Make a commitment with yourself that you will make studying as your habit. This is super important. Commit yourself to make this as your new habit. Don’t half-ass any of these suggestions or any other suggestions that other people give. Don’t give yourself silly, illegitimate excuses in the process. For this, you can do it by remind yourself on what your long-term goals in life are. Or if they don’t sound rewarding enough, remind yourself what failure feels like/ could feel like.
Set yourself a routine and stick to it
Never have a zero day - try and study every single day - even if you feel absolutely awful - 10 minutes is better than nothing!! Do flashcards from your bed or watch youtube ted talks if you can’t physically study. This will help help develop a routine and make it easier for you to cope. Also, by studying everyday your brain will know that the content you are learning should be stored as long-term information so this will benefit you in the long run!
Avoid long breaks. Unless you know that taking an hour long break means only an hour, then you can ignore this. But fo the majority of us, once we’ve taken a while out of studying it can be hard to get back into it again. One minute you’re taking a 20 minute break for a snack and some phone time and the next thing you know you’re on Youtube and four hours have passed! To avoid this, try stick to shorter breaks - five or ten minutes for a snack break, toilet break and to check any phone messages. A good method to try for this is the Pomodoro Method!
Build on your productivity, not your failures.
If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once. Start things slow and in steps.
Set yourself smaller deadlines for your goals like monthly and weekly deadlines - e.g. if you are doing a project, due 27th June, set personal deadlines, like have the introduction written by the 8th, have your literature review written by the 15th, have project complete by the 25th.
Break down the things that you must do into smaller, concrete activities and put those smaller activities in that to-do list; allocate specific time periods to do each smaller activities and put it the to-do list as well; set an alarm reminder for each smaller activities. Say you have to study for English on Tuesday, because for whatever reasons you just decided to dedicate your time this Tuesday to study English. However, I’d suggest that you break down that specific activity (or “daily goal”) before putting it in your to-do list. So, instead of just putting “study for Physics”, try putting “read and highlight Chapter 9″, because putting very general/broad activity like “study English” can actually make you too confused on where and how to start doing it, and make you very prone to distractions in the process.
Know your limits. Self-discipline isn’t doing as much as you can until you break - it’s about having control, knowing what you can realistically manage and getting that done.
Give yourself rewards! I love to have something to look forward to as I get work done! This means mixing motivation and self-discipline. I tell myself after this lecture I can have an animal crossing break or check some messages etc.
Track your progress – don’t forget to put a checklist on your to-do list after accomplishing a task. It would relieve your stress a bit and motivate you to continue doing the remaining activities on your to-do list.
Remove distractions from your study space! Personally, if my phone is out and I notice a notification…I’m gonna check it. It’s human nature! So to combat this, I use apps like Forest that force me to stay within the app while I study. If I know I might get hungry during a study session I’ll keep a little snack by my desk so I don’t have to get up and somehow find something else to distract me.
Just do it isn’t that easy. I find to get myself in a ‘work boss’ mood I need to feel good about myself so I put on a nice outfit and maybe some eyeliner and hype myself up so I know I can do my tasks and get stuff done! It feels so much better than lazing in my pyjamas trying to study.
Be patient. It’s going to be a rough journey, it’s going to be hard but you’ve got this! Take it one step at a time. Start off by completing one task a day, then move to two, then three, and the next thing you know, you’ll have a regular routine where you will constantly be ticking off your to-do list everyday! But remember to be kind to yourself, know when your body is not in the right state of health to study and don’t force it. Only force yourself to a limit, you’ll know when to stop and that’s okay. Just try again when you feel better! Your health is much more important!
What to do when you’re having a poor executive function day/been sitting in front of your computer for a few hours wondering why you can’t do your work:
1. Take a deep breath - Let out all that anxiety over the project you’re doing so you can think clearly
2. Pull up a clean sheet of paper and something to write with - You can use a fresh word doc, new page in your journal or planner or whatever else works for you, the idea is that after this you will have a physical list to look at to help keep you on task.
3. Identify your obstacles (i.e. What is keeping you from doing this task?) - For example: Is it scary? If so, why? Does it feel too hard? Is there something else that you feel needs to be done first? Write these down!
4. Plan how to overcome your obstacles - This can take some creativity and some thinking to best figure out how to overcome the obstacle. I’ve included examples below for potential plans.
Example 1:
Obstacle: I don’t know the best way to approach this task.
Plan: Brainstorm on paper ways that you might be able to approach this task. Google ways to accomplish this task. Review lecture notes or example homework problems on how to accomplish this task. Ask a friend/coworker/classmate how they might start the task. Write down everything you feel might be relevant until you feel like you know where to start and where to go.
Example 2:
Obstacle: This feels too big and overwhelming so I don’t want to do it.
Plan: Break down the tasks into smaller, tiny tasks. Make them as small as you need to make them feel manageable. Write down all these tasks check them off as you go.
Example 3:
Obstacle: I’m waiting for someone to get back to me with comments on this project but they’re taking too long.
Plan: Follow up with this person and identify what you can do without their comments. For example, if you’re waiting for someone to sent you a section of a project or paper, write your section to the best of your ability. Can you have someone else review this project and still get good feedback. Or tell yourself you’ll revise/edit your project and integrate their comments later when you get to them. Often when I identify what feels out of order, I can move past it or put it farther down my list so I’m no longer just stuck waiting.
5. Encourage yourself and commend yourself for filling in the gaps actively that your brain couldn’t do on it’s own today. - You’re doing a great job!
Sincerely,
A Graduate Student with Adult ADHD
for the remainder of our term, we will be taking online classes; however, unlike others, our professors refrained from requiring us to have synchronous online meetings, so many of the things i have to do, i have to do on my own time. with this, i have been using notion to plan, organize, and manage my time, and i thought it would be nice to share how i do so!!
hi! i’ve been wanting to make a post like this instead of the usual typed out text post wt a few pictures. i know i’m not the best at it, i’m not rly creative and i’m not skilled at making nice ppt presentations, but i’m trying to get better at it and this is my attempt in doing so !!! i rly hope this helps some of you !! it may look a bit complicated, but it’s honestly the most effective way to plan and schedule for me !! i hope you guys have a great day! :)
23-October-2020
Hi everyone! Long time no see 🍁 As an update about my life - I moved to England for Uni and it's the best choice I've ever made. The sights are impressive, I can't wait to show you around. I'll try sneaking in more pictures :). I'll try and start posting again from now on, so I will see you around!
04.11.2020 // getting through my research with the help with colonel sanders!! he needs to hug my hand to fall asleep :")
04.11.2020 Studying for exams as Boston grows colder and darker, the soundtrack to my revision is the hissing of the steel radiator while my soft lights twinkle.
Road to Thesis ✨ Panic Mode
Hey everyone I’m back and sharing with you a couple photos from my not as aesthetic set up here in Lisbon.
I’m freaking out a bit (a lot) because I have to submit the first version of my MSc Thesis by the end of the month and I still have so much writing to do and experiments to finish. So, I decided to try and do a little 30 days of productivity challenge to keep me accountable and not leave everyting to the last minute.
These are day 1 and two, I made my first final figure (yay), started the draft for my first chapter of results and read the journal club article for this week (partly while rewatching glee but I’m still counting it as productive).
8am, sunday 1st of november 2020
one positive effect from starting work at 6am every week day is that I am now officially a morning person! I’m beginning to really enjoy my early, quiet, cosy sunday mornings 😊
just got this adorable new plant from my college’s plant sale!! I’m v happy with how my new dorm room is coming along. instagram: studyplants
12/10/20
Made a new account to celebrate joining the studyblr community! I’d love to meet new people and use this platform as motivation❤️
things are changing fast, and the anxiety is kicking in. lately I’ve been trying to figure out the difference between leading with positivity and setting your expectations too high to be realistic. I still don’t know the answer. but what I do know is that a support system is essential to your success. and I’m hoping that one day I’ll feel just comfortable in who I am as they are of me. and know that what/who I am is more than enough.
I’m not there yet. don’t worry, though- I’m working on it.
Changes ✨
Studygram
finally got some new friends 🌿💻 still need to get some pots for them, but i just love how they look on my table! i really wanted to get more of them, but i don’t think they would all fit in my small room… even so, it’s crazy how they make the room way more lively despite being relatively small 🌱
studygram
Official day 1 of my ✨ Road to Thesis ✨
I love coming home for the weekend when I get the chance, my mom has a giant plant jungle in the house which really helps with the study aesthetics and I get to hang out with the fam (especially the cat).
It’s a great opportunity to slow down a bit and reset too. I need finish my introduction draft as soon as possible because I have a ton of new data to analyse and I hate seeing that work pile up.
Today I took the chance to steal my mom’s desk for the evening and I’m determined to finish my topic on why Drosophila is a good animal model in biomedicine. I love those bugs but it’s some of the most boring writing I’ve done recently.
I realized a lot of my lack of motivation reflects on me distracting myself with my phone everytime I get the chance, so I’m setting a counscious goal to spend less time on it and I’m starting on not going on it before bed and when I wake up.
I wish you all a happy week and fun studies 🥰