get your shit done!

This is a sideblog, if I'll follow you it'll be with my main blog soscrewdestiny. Just another girl who needs motivation and a blog to write her stuff. Italian girl. Graduated in Communication. Still trying to find my path, even at 32.

[gets-shit-done]

✏️ new supplies 🖊️

[tortagnamgnam]

This is the lucky clover cat. reblog this in 30 seconds & he will bring u good luck and fortune.

[unclebabie]

THIS ONE!!! THIS IS THE ONE THAT WORKS!!!!!

I reblogged him the day i started treatment and 1. GOT TO MY APPOINTMENT ON TIME 2. FOUND A FREE PARKING TICKET SOMEONE LEFT IN THE METER FOR ME AND 3. GOT FREE STARBUCKS AFTER MY APPOINTMENT!!!!!

[cutedemonbabe]

I’m convinced bc I reblogged this on Friday, got hired at a job I had a million interviews for, went on a first date that went well, and got kissed a billion times so like hell ya to the luck cat

[noteology]

They say that a clear space makes for a clear mind. This post will provide you with organization advice for your pencil case, backpack, desk, papers, and computer to help you function at your best!

PENCIL CASE

Don’t go overboard with the stationery. From personal experience, these are the absolute essentials you need to bring in your pencil case/pouch on a daily basis:

2 black or blue pens

2 pencils

lead refills (for mechanical pencils)

sharpener (for wooden pencils)

try to get a sharpener with a locking top so the shavings won’t spill out!

eraser

2 highlighters or colored pens

calculator (if your class requires one)

And these are some non-essential but useful items:

black Sharpie

correction tape

colored pencils (useful for drawing diagrams)

mini stapler

6-inch ruler

sticky notes and page flags

if your writing utensils are expensive and you don’t want them getting stolen, maybe bring an extra cheap pencil you feel comfortable lending out

Group writing utensils together with rubber bands. Save yourself the hassle of rummaging through your entire pouch to find one particular pen. Make groups of all your similar writing utensils (ex: pencils, gel pens, felt-tip pens, highlighters, colored pencils), then tie each group together with a rubber band for easy access.

BACKPACK

Get an actual backpack. If you’re carrying more than one or two books, please please please get a normal, two-strapped backpack (and make sure to wear both straps!). Tote bags, purses, and messenger bags are terrible for your shoulders and spine.

Place the heaviest items closest to your back. Textbooks and binders should go in the largest pocket, while your cell phone, novel, pencil case, etc. should go in the front. This helps distribute the weight better and prevent back strain.

Alternate the directions of your binders to fit more. Don’t put all of your binders facing the same direction like this. Instead, alternate the direction like this– put the first binder in with the rings on the left, then flip the second binder so the rings are on the right, and so on. This also works for spiral notebooks to prevent the spirals from getting caught with one another!

I recommend keeping the following things in your bag:

pencil case

obviously, books, notes, homework, binders, and anything else required for class

planner

phone + earbuds

house keys

water bottle

granola bar and/or dollar bills to buy snacks from the vending machine

hair ties

lip balm

gum or breath mints

tissues

feminine hygiene products

travel-sized hand sanitizer/wipes

DESK

Make “to-do” and “done” piles. Each evening when I get home, I take out all the work I have to get done and put it in a “to-do” pile. This pile is usually a mixture of textbooks I have to take notes from, worksheets I have to complete, flashcards I have to review, and books I have to annotate. As I complete my work over the course of the night, I move the finished items from the “to-do” pile into a separate “done” pile. At the end of the night, I take everything out of the “done” pile and pack it into my backpack to turn in the next day. This is by no means necessary to stay organized, but I’ve found that keeping a physical representation of both what needs to be done and how much I’ve accomplished is extremely motivating.

Take advantage of vertical space. If your desktop space is limited, make use of magazine holders, caddies, and stacking letter trays to hold more papers while taking up minimal surface area.

Use cable ties and labels to manage your electrical cords. Winding up excess cord, tying it with a cable tie, and labeling it with tape will keep your desk neat, keep your mischievous pets safe, and prevent you from tripping.

Book stands are your friends. Book stands can prop up your giant textbooks and save you desktop space. They also make reading for long periods of time more comfortable, since you can look straight ahead instead of down.

Keep a trash can and recycling bin within easy reach. This is a great way to prevent paper clutter. You won’t be tempted to leave junk papers lying around if there’s a bin right next to you.

Do a seasonal deep-cleaning. Every few months or so, take everything off of your desk and do a complete overhaul. Dust off the eraser shavings from the corners. Wipe down the surface with an antibacterial wipe. Go through all of your stuff before putting it back– if you find papers you don’t need anymore or pens that have dried up, don’t put them back.

PAPERS

I personally use a 1-inch binder for every subject. I like binders because they’re durable, easily dividable/rearrangeable, and they keep papers from falling out. Separating each subject makes it super easy to grab the work I need for just one class– for example, if I want to study math at the library, I can take that one binder and go, as opposed to lugging the papers for three other subjects along with me.

Within each binder, I keep 5 dividers. The labels on the dividers vary for each class but generally they include notes, handouts, graded work, and reference materials.

If you’re looking for lighter binder alternatives: consider 2-pocket folders, accordion folders, or binder/notebook hybrids.

Keep your papers in good shape. If you’re using binders, consider splurging on either reinforced loose-leaf paper or adhesive reinforcements so you don’t end up with a bunch of papers dangling halfway out of your binder. If you have a tendency to accidentally tear your papers or spill coffee on them, you may want to scan everything into your computer as soon as you get it so you can always print out a second copy if the first one gets destroyed.

Keep a “general” folder. Get a pocket folder and fill it with extra lined, graph, and blank paper. You can also keep other general things like your schedule, a map of your school, your report card, and/or school announcements in here. Take this folder with you to every class.

Organize weekly. No matter how well-oiled your system is, you’re inevitably going to end up shoving some papers into a random pocket. Once a week, take some time to rearrange things, put papers back where they belong, and hole-punch anything your teacher didn’t.

Transfer regularly. After we finish the first unit, I always ask my teacher if I can take out my old papers and keep them at home. The vast majority of the time, the answer is yes. I transfer all my papers from completed units from my 1-inch binder to large 3-inch binders that I keep on my bookshelf. I label each topic within them with page flags for quick reference. This way I have all the resources to study for midterms/finals, but I don’t have to carry them to school every day.

Purge yearly. At the end of the school year, I recycle all of my papers. The exception is papers for subjects I’m continuing with the next year. For example, if I’m taking US History II next year, I’ll save my US History I papers because there’s a good chance I’ll need to refer to them later. If you’re not sure whether you’ll take a subject again, I’d recommend keeping the papers in the big binder just in case.

COMPUTER

Create a folder for each class. All of your files for one class should go into the same folder. If you have a big project that involves several files, you can make a project folder within a class. At the end of the school year, you may want to combine all of your class folders into a giant grade-level folder so your old files don’t clutter up your desktop.

Save your files properly. When you’re in a rush, it’s tempting to save your essay as “asdjksdfj” to the desktop, but your future self will thank you if you take ten extra seconds to give it a sensible name and save it into a class folder.

Use separate desktops for separate contexts. I have three different desktops on my laptop: school (for academic work), extracurriculars (for managing this blog and the other clubs/activities I’m involved in), and fun (for Netflix and online shopping). Keeping these three aspects of my life on separate desktops allows me to draw the line between work and play. I won’t get distracted by having Tumblr open next to my history project, and I can focus better on the task at hand when I “switch off” from one desktop and go to another. Learn how to set up separate desktops on your computer here: {Windows//Mac}.

Tag your documents. Create a tagging system to make your files easier to search for. Your tags can be by type (“essay”, “notes”) or section (“chapter 1″, “unit 8″).

Backup your devices weekly. Accidents happen, so always be prepared. Make sure to backup your computer, phone, tablet, etc. to cloud storage or an external hard drive every week. Or at the very least, get Google Photos, which will automatically backup your photos from your phone.

Thanks for reading! If you have questions, feedback, or post requests, feel free to drop me an ask.

+Click here for the rest of my original reference posts!

—Sophia :)

[dsxsbx]

[gets-shit-done]

I graduated!

After all this years of university I finally graduated on monday! It was one of the greatest days of my life, and now I have like six months of relax (beside work) before starting my Master’s Degree. I feel so sooo weird though. It’s the first time in a lot of years I don’t have to think about studying and exams. I still can’t believe it.

[gets-shit-done]

I’m finally done with my exams. A week ago I took my last exam at university and I’m beginning to write my thesis. I still can’t believe it, my life isn’t easy, work, university, film classes, organizing everything is difficult but I made it and I’m proud of myself.

[studispo]

REBLOG IF YOURE A STUDYBLR

I’m new to studyblr (recently started a levels gotta get in the habit of hardcore studying) so I’d love to follow more blogs!!

like / reblog and I’ll follow you!

[staticsandstationery]

How to Take Notes: from a Textbook

(Be sure to change the post type from link to text post when you reblog, if that’s what you want to do)

This method is best suited for textbook or article notes, and is a version of revised notes. It is also well suited for books you plan on returning to the bookstore or books you have rented, as it does not involve writing directly in the book itself.

First, you’ll need to find a notebook, and the pens you like the best. My favorite notebooks to work with for note-taking, especially for my “revised” notes, are the Moleskine, hard or soft cover, in size extra large. For this specific class (Intro to Gender and Women’s Studies), I decided that lined pages would suit my needs better. For my math, engineering, and science classes, I usually opt for squared paper, as I draw in lots of diagrams and graphs.

My favorite pens ever are Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, so even though they show through the pages a little bit, I still choose to use them. I just love the way they write. I usually write out my notes themselves with a Pilot G2 05 with black ink, as it writes with a finer line and doesn’t bleed through quite as much.

I usually try to set up my notebooks about a week or so before class starts, that way it’s ready to go on my first day of class.

You’ll want to start off by setting up your notebook. On my first page, I put my course code for my university, as well as the course title.

Next, and this is perfectly optional (I just like the way it makes the book look, especially at the end of the semester), I include some sort of related quote to the course. For my engineering courses (which are related to my major), I put a different quote at the beginning of each section. But as this is a two-month long course during the summer, I opted for one quote by Mohadesa Najumi at the beginning of my book.

Next I set up my table of contents and include a page with basic course information. As this course is all online, my course information just included the start and end dates of the course, what time content is posted and on what day, and the name of my professor. For my usual courses, I will include the days of the week the class meets on and where, TA names and contact info, as well as posted office hours for my professors and TAs and tutoring hours either in the library or in the College of Engineering.

Next is one of the things I’m most proud of.

While I religiously use my Erin Condren planner to map out my days, weeks, and months, I have found throughout my college experience that including monthly views for the months my class ranges has been helpful. This way, there’s no sifting through the multiple colors I have in my planner, and everything related to that class is in the same notebook.

On this calendar I include start dates of the class, the end date, the dates of exams or quizzes, assignment deadlines, office hours, etc.

For this course, as I just started a few days ago, I don’t have a lot of dates or information, so my calendars are still very empty.

Next up I go to my weekly overview. At the beginning of each week, I set up a weekly layout, and I include a list of assignments, tests, quizzes, tasks, projects, etc that need my attention throughout the week, and I place the days I plan on doing them or the days they need turned in onto the weekly layout.

Now you’re finally ready to get into taking the notes.

Gather your book, some sticky notes, and your favorite pen or pencil.

I color code my stickies so that the “revision” process later goes a bit smoother. In this case, I’m using blue to denote something interesting, intriguing, or thought provoking, greenish-yellow to represent the facts or important concepts, and pink for important vocabulary words and their definitions.

Read the selection once.

As you read along the second time, write notes on your stickies, and place them in a place of relevance directly on the page in the book. Just make sure you don’t cover up anything you need to keep reading.

Now, once you’ve read all the material in questions (you can choose to break it up however you want, but since Chapter 1 was assigned for the week, I’ve elected to break it into chapters), carefully remove your stickies one by one and lay them out on a flat surface. This is when having a separate color for vocab can be helpful, as I sometimes put all of my vocab at the beginning or end of a section, especially if the section of reading was particularly large.

Organize your stickies in an order that makes sense to you, and use this order as your basis for transferring those notes into your notebook. The order you choose can just be lumping them under similar headings. Some classes even lend themselves to a nice chronological order. Whatever you choose, just make sure it’s something that will make sense to you when you come back to it in the end.

Okay so up there I wasn’t following my own advice, I just thought I would include the picture because my handwriting looks nice…

Now organize the stickies!

Now you just start writing everything from the stickies into your notebook. I like to take each category or subgroup and put them in the book on the facing page, then put them back in my textbook as I finish with each post it.

Moving on to the next category.

Before you know it, you’ve written all of your stickies into your notebooks.

Now you’re revved up and ready to go. You can either keep going and make a note summary page (which I’ll show you next week), or you can leave it. These will also be helpful when reviewing for tests and quizzes. You can highlight or underline, or use even more stickies (which is what I usually do) as you review.

Well, that’s all I have for you right now. Happy studying!

(To view this post on wordpress, click here)

[gets-shit-done]

July 9th | the exam is on monday, and on the same day my friend graduates. Thank God I have to take my exam in the same city and building or I would have miss her graduation! I’m trying to cram everything I can because I absolutely have to pass this one, or I won’t be able to graduate in October 😰 Plus, this weekend I won’t be home so I won’t have time to study. Crossing everything 🙏🏻

[gets-shit-done]

July 5th, 12:05 am | late night study session, because today was too freaking hot and I didn’t do much. One more topic and I’m done for tonight 🙏🏻

[gets-shit-done]

June 17th, 4.30 pm | Just got back from my history exam. I passed it with 23/30 and I'm super happy 'cause I didn't feel I was prepared enough to pass it! I'm so glad to put away my history notes. Now I'm going to take a nap, I'm up since 5 am and I'm dying. Relax for the rest of the day and tomorrow back on track for the last two exams. Hopefully I'll pass both then I'll be done with exams and I will be able to graduate in October!

[satorugojjo]

Hate that horrible silence while you’re working/studying? Perhaps your music is annoying you? Or maybe you just want to relax. Try these to help you fill the silence:

Coffitivity - Coffee shop environement stimulator

RainyMood - Sounds of rain

USS Enterprise - Engine hum

Celestial - Sounds like airplane engines

Fireplace - Sounds of a crackling fire

Nature - Forest sounds

Oceanside - Waves Crashing

Train - Sounds from onboard a train

MyNoise - Customazible background noises

Try these out and you’ll feel yourself focusing a little more.

[soapynotes]

I thought I’d collate a bunch of useful posts/links that I’ve liked and that I think would be really helpful. So here goes!

Managing stress during exam periods

Tips for effective studying

Study tip: timed memorisation

Studying tips

How to make mindmaps

5 apps for studyblrs

Get the most from your iPad (student edition)

Revision tips

Note taking tips

20 quick tips for better time management

Language learning websites

How to illustrate your notes

Printable productivity tools

Write the perfect essay

Synonyms for words used commonly in student’s writing

Online study planners

How to make flashcards

University packing list

Create a soundscape to help you concentrate

10 websites to increase productivity

Condensing your writing

Free organisation printables

What to drink whilst studying

Other Masterlists:

Masterlist to help you survive school

Everything you need to survive school masterlist

Masterlist of study help

Stress relief masterlist

Back to school masterlist

[studyingetc-blog]

My Top Ten Tips for Studying Well

I’m quite conventional when it comes to studying. Chances are, you’ve probably heard of some of these at one point of another. But I’m here to show you how they have worked for me, how some are helpful and others not so much.  Detailed post below!

1. Find your motivation. 

The first thing you need to do is find motivation.  Now I’ll admit, this is the hardest but definitely the most important.  It will define your work ethic and as work features so centrally in our lives, your character and purpose in life. 

List out your motivations for studying.  Think properly about them. Think about the things you value most in life and how they relate to your studies. Though this may be an important part of it, try to think about it beyond just what your parents, school and society expects of you. 

 And bear in mind, they may change as time passes too. That’s why you need to constantly ask yourself: Why am I studying?  And make sure you can answer it clearly and truthfully. 

2. Mind over matter

Your brain is like a muscle. It needs to be trained, pushed and honed to function at it’s fullest potential.   Just like those crazy fitness junkies who enjoy the burn / torture exercise. (Blogilates y u do dis?!) They tell you the pain is really all in your mind.  80% of the battle is mental. 20% is  the actual effort.  

Sitting down to actually do your work is arguably the most arduous first step. Half the time when we don’t want to start something is because we’re scared of failure. It will happen, so just embrace it and move on. An unfit person will always struggle at first. The decisive factor is whether they continue even when they don’t feel like it.  

A lot of this process is conditioning your mind.  You must believe that you can do it and will do it in order to actually do it. This can include positive affirmation, reminding yourself of your values and goals, imagining the process and the results.  I had a teacher who told us about a student who would approach his essays with an attitude that he had already finished.   This would take off the pressure and the stress he felt initially so he could actually do it. 

Therefore, most of my tips below relate to making the first step to sitting down to studying easier and mental conditioning, rather than actual study techniques.  

3. Create the space

This is obvious but: find a clean, quiet place to study free of distractions.  And then stick with it.   This is part of mentally conditioning your brain to associate one specific place with studying.  Don’t play games there, don’t eat eat there, don’t hang out there. Only study there.  This is to combat procrastination and distractions.  Your brain will eventually cease to seek out things to do other than study once you condition it to think there is nothing to do but study. 

Make it an environment you want to be in. Mood is largely dictated by atmosphere.  If you wouldn’t want to be in a messy room generally to begin with, you are so not going to study in it. 

Here’s my checklist for a solid study environment:

Good lighting - Poor lighting strains your eyes and makes you sleepy. Natural sunlight, a well lit room or a solid white light lamp are the best.

Minimum noise - Some people can study with a lot of background noise, I can’t.  I try to places with minimum talking or music because it interferes with my concentration.   

Chairs and Table - Find a solid chair with a back.  Your back will get tired if study for long periods with nothing to lean on.  It is important to also find a chair that is proportionate to your table and body height.  Normally if you are sitting up, the edge of your table should line up near your belly button. (Can be hard to find, so don’t be super pedantic unless it’s an adjustable chair.)

Aesthetically pleasing - I make sure it’s neat and tidy.  For the decorative types, motivate yourself by sticking up inspiring pictures and quotes.   You’ll find yourself much more excited to study in this visually appealing space than usual.

4. Plan 

Plan backwards.  Start from your goals and work out how you will get there. This will extend from plans on a long term to mid-term basis all the way to daily disciplines.  You’ll find that once you’ve thought about what you need to do and how to get it done, the overall process of studying is less overwhelming.

It’s helpful to brain storm and list out how you will achieve your goals over a year long / semester long basis.  Once you’ve got the long term figured out get a diary, a planner, a piece of paper whatever.  Plan out your weekly schedule to include your activities, study sessions and rest.  This will help you to see if you are on track to achieving your long term plans.  To do lists are also helpful in planning what specific tasks you need to complete in a day.  Prioritising tasks helps you to not waste time because you always know what you’re supposed to be doing. 

An important thing to keep in mind while planning is that ironically, things do not always go to plan. Don’t be disheartened if they do (took me a long time to learn).   Make sure you set aside buffer time for distractions, interruptions, things that come up and the spontaneous moments that make up life. 

5. Be organised

What’s the difference with planning and being organised? You ask. Well, planning just means knowing what to do, being organised basically means knowing where your stuff is.  Like planning, organisation helps reduce the overwhelming feeling that you have no idea what is going on.  It gives you a sense of control over your studies.  

Firstly, figure out what medium is most helpful to you whether it be computer, paper and pen etc.  Create a comprehensive system where you know where all your content goes.  Make it a priority to review and reorganise those folders whether digital or paper every week. 

Physically organising your information is a way to review your work and also help your brain compartmentalize the information.  If you understand the contents’ order and purpose in the syllabus you’ll have greater recall. Furthermore, it saves you all that time trying to organise notes during the week of exams which you could use actually studying. 

6. Study in blocks

The key to studying well is not studying more, but studying effectively

I’ve had many people moan to me about how much they study but how little it pays off. That’s because they’re doing it wrong.  12 hours of study in one day does not equate to 12 hours of effective and productive study.  (Unless you are a machine.)

This is essentially another aspect of mental conditioning and body hacking. Your brain can only concentrate to its highest capacity for a certain period of time.  On average it’s an hour, depending on the individual and the task.  After around the one hour mark, your brain begins to wander and it cannot take in as much information.   The way around this is to study in timed blocks with timed breaks.  

My study blocks are based on the tasks:

1.5 hours with 30 minute break- Out put orientated tasks e.g. essay writing

45 minutes with 15 minute break - In put orientated e.g. readings 

30 minutes with 5 minute break - Computer orientated e.g. typing notes 

Taking a timed break helps boost concentration by giving your brain a break so it doesn’t feel so tired.  Normally breaks should be taken away from your study space doing something different to what you were doing before.  It’s best to not to spend your break on Facebook or YouTube, as it interrupts your studying frame of mind.  The best things I find to do are: reading, eating, listening to music or talking to people. 

7. Create an incentive system

This really relates to the above study block system during breaks but extends to other forms of incentives too.   

After completing your required study for the day, treat yourself to something.  It can be you get to play a game, watch an episode of Friends, eat a whole chocolate cake as long as it proportionate to the work you’ve done.   This way, you’re mentally conditioning yourself to think that study is rewarding.

Other more long term incentives may be a day out, a holiday, a chance to do something you’ve really wanted. Try to think of a creative incentive that motivates you (aside from your academic goals.)  

8. Maintain healthy habits

People tend to underestimate this, but your health is the absolute cornerstone of your existence, let alone your academic performance. 

You need to get enough sleep.  At least 8-9 hours to be functioning at a healthy optimal level. 6-7 hours is just not cutting it.  There is countless research out there showing us that inadequate sleep effects you in every way.  Therefore, constantly pulling all nighters for assessments will not allow your body to perform optimally for  exams.  Your recall, concentration and  problem solving skills will not function as well as it would after a good nights sleep.  

Another key thing is also when you sleep.  If you sleep for ten hours from 3am-1pm, chances are you will still not feel very great. The sleep deficit myth is a trap.  You cannot make up for lost sleep by oversleeping on the weekend.   Our bodies function best when we follow the patterns of the sun.  Of course, in our day and age this is very hard so it’s best to be asleep by 11pm in order to allow your body to get the rest it needs from deep sleep between 1-2am.  

Other key things include eating well.  Overeating or a poor diet can have direct impacts on your concentration and energy levels.  Try eating a massive Maccas meal and see what happens? Food coma.  

Staying hydrated is also connected to concentration. A lot of the time that I have headaches is from dehydration.  Also constantly sipping water makes you want to go to the toilet which keeps you awake.  It’s better than coffee!  (Which makes you dehydrated.) 

9. Balance out your life

If your life is all about studying, you are very soon going to find it is a miserable and isolating slave driver.  Study is a means to help you understand and interact with the world, not the ends of itself. 

Remember what you value in life and stick with it.  Make as much time as you would for those activities and relationships as you would for study.  This will help you to keep perspective as to why you study. 

Do not make my mistake or one that I constantly see repeated in many others, to throw my social life, my hobbies and passions at the mercy of study.  I reprimand myself for how I neglected people and things that were equally, if not more important to me. 

A healthy work life balance is important to your mental and spiritual well being. Many scary stories are told to us law students about lawyers driven to anxiety, depression and even suicide through insane 70 hour work weeks.  I myself developed what I considered to be a mild form of anxiety that came and went through my last year of high school through to the first few years of university. 

If you are developing some form of mental or physical health issue due to the effects of study, stop.  It’s not worth it.  Make sure you talk to someone about it, whether it be a friend or even a doctor or counselor. You worth more than your performance. 

10. Be intentional with your rest

In light of the last point, you can imagine how important this is.  Rest needs to be ingrained into your schedule.  Without it, you will soon find yourself burnt out. 

I have also come to realise that rest is not just simply being a potatoe and watching netflix and scrolling through my feeds a million times over.  Often I find these activities tire me even more and do not motivate me further.  

You have to use you time of rest intentionally.  Think about what things invigorate you most: that inspire you, challenge you and build up your character.  For some it may be spending with family, doing something you love like music, art or volunteer work.  For me, it is spending time with God and realising that all of the above that I do is only made possible by Him and for Him.  I am reminded that here is why I study, what my goal is and where my identity really lies.  

Of course, you always do need some time to be a potatoe and just watch netflix. 

Hope my own tips and ideas were helpful and all the best! (:

[gets-shit-done]

June 3rd, 2015 5.30 pm | I went to work this morning so I took a nap to be more rested because I wanted to study. Guess what? I'm so regretting it now. I overslept. Quick look at my bullet journal, coffee and then onto History!

[untamedunwanted]

Let him go. You were not meant for each other. And that isn’t as terrible a thing as it may feel like right now. So what if someone else will make him happier than you can? Someone else will make you much happier than he could ever dream of too. And to give that a chance, you need to let him go.

The Best Break Up Advice I Have Ever Received | Nikita Gill (via untamedunwanted)

[psychedaboutstudying]

8 tips on getting started

Getting started is the hardest part of studying. Once you’re ‘in the flow’ it’s usually easier to keep going, but to sit down, open that book and get to work is the most difficult task. Here are my eight tips to overcome starting anxiety.

1. Organise your study spot. You’ve probably already heard this before, but a messy desk is one of the least motivating things. Do a big desk decluttering and try to keep it that way.

2. Use the pomodoro technique. 25 minutes study, 5 minutes break. In this way you’ll know that in 25 minutes that break is coming, whether you’ve finished that chapter or not. Not only can this motivate you to buckle down for 25 minutes, it also makes sure you don’t overwork yourself by forgetting to take breaks.

I love to use the Pomotodo app, which combines a Pomodoro timer with to do lists. Plus you can change the time of study sessions.

3. Pretty stationary. This seems so stupid. ‘Oh, that’s just your excuse to buy yet ANOTHER notebook’. But no, having five sets of coloured pens and twenty backup notebooks and a drawer full of post its, really made me want to study.

4. Studyblr. Okay, this seems stupid as well, but I made a completely new Tumblr account on which I follow studyblrs only. I set it on my mobile app and opening it is one of the first thing I do in the morning. Having all those ambitious studying people on your dash will motivate you to move your ass too.

5. Start with the easiest. Sometimes it’s best to start with the hardest, because otherwise you keep procrastinating that part. But sometimes the hardest is so hard it keeps you from starting at all. When I find myself completely unmotivated to start, I try to start with the shortest chapter, the simplest assignment, or the most INTERESTING TOPIC. (see 6)

6. Become interested. There are two ways to do this. The first is “If I study this topic, I will later be able to use that information in that situation.” (eg. in your dream profession) The second is “I only know this and this about this topic, but it would be cool if I also knew that.” This doesn’t work for everyone, but I think it’s word the try.

7. Set a daily goal and stick to it. Eg. “Today I revise chapter 2 & 3”. Do nothing less and nothing more. If you’re already done with that at 4pm, good for you! You deserved this night off. Another example. “Today I will set up an outline for my essay.” Don’t write the introduction, don’t elaborate on all points. If you know that when it’s done, it’s really done, it will be easier to start.

8. Make sure you’re comfortable. Clothes, clean hair, nice background music or silence, proper chair, proper light, etcetera. Simple, but important.

[z-studyblr]

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[sturdystudy-blog]

Great tips!