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Hello 👋🏻 I'm Nisa, a dorky potato 🍟 😺
In a mission to clean the Potatodom reputation, I use this blog as an accountability journal, so I can be more productive!
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INTJ / Type 4w5
Part-time Communications student + learning Japanese
Specialty coffee enthusiast ☕
UX writer (+ trying to do creative writing for fun! ><)
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Ongoing: 100 Days of Ghibli Life | #potato's journal 🌼 | #potato's writing ✏️ (🇮🇩)
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<not-so-secret shortcut>
🔔 the lurking bell
🔏 personal style guide
Early this morning I started researching ideas for my psychology thesis. It was rainy and there was no sugar for my coffee, but I’m happy to have started! I now feel closer to finding my thesis topic ♡
My preparation for the bar exams started last Monday, and I have accumulated a total of 21 hours and 31 minutes of study time this week so far. It's less than what I planned based on my weekly study plan, but I'm avoiding that feeling of frustration and chose to be gentle to myself since I'm still getting back on track from the past idle month when our mock bar exams ended up until graduation.
I woke up at around 8:30am, and went right to studying.
I went on a run at 5pm. I was able to run for 5 kilometers under 33 minutes. My left knee hurts right now, and it's my fault for trying to run a sub-30 without training.
I went back to studying at around 6pm. I was able to study for a total of 8 hours and 31 minutes today, and covered half of the syllabus for Civil Procedure.
I also finished the revisions for the digital guidebook I'm assigned for work.
once again the friday post is late 😔 idk why im even trying
- anyways, still fighting unreal and after a call with one of my lab mates i realized that i wasted an entire week bc of a misunderstanding... yay 🙃
- but the good news is that i managed to make really good advances on the metahuman speaking thing. IT'S ALIVE!! the movements are a bit unsettling, but im proud nonetheless
- I also sent the poster draft to my professors. one of them said everything was okay, im still waiting for feedback from the other prof (my main advisor), but hopefully he wont have many notes about it
- on other news, we are starting to go crazy with the cubes in my lab. the two pastel ones are mine, then the other guys brought two more. it's madness in here
hello hello… all i’ve been doing with this cold front is knitting and watching hockey and drinking cute little drinks. i finally learned how to make cheese foam at home, so i’ve been having that with cold-brewed oolong! also homemade muffins, vietnamese su su soup with ground pork, gongfu tea… the good stuff. hope yall are staying warm <3333
🎧 : right back where we started from - maxine nightingale
Currently rereading the thesis notes i have written so far and every time i think i have an interesting thought or link to make i find out that past me has already done that
*some fake flowers I keep on my nightstand, my necklace collection on my wall, and my beautiful baby boy sitting on my books (he only has one eye, but he is the cutest little guy ever)
February 10th, 2026
today is gonna be a productive day for me, honestly. I woke up early with my bf, and once he left, I set my bedding to wash, made coffee, talked to my dad on the phone, and did some gratitude journaling. feels like a really good start to my day for me.
I was able to get most of what I wanted done last night, though not all of it. I realized a lot of my school stuff can get done today, so that made me feel a bit relaxed. I don't have class today as we have an online exam (with lockdown and webcam 😥) on Thursday, so no class today or Thursday. After my bedding is all in the dryer, I'm gonna head to campus and stay in the library until I gotta go to work at 2pm. Luckily, I don't work tomorrow because I have a tattoo appointment I requested the day off for. Super excited!
anywhos, here's my todo for today:
wash + dry all bedding
sweep bathroom
clean litter box and refill with clean litter
shower + morning skincare + oral hygiene
study for exam 1 advanced nutrition
finish chapter 3 notes advanced nutrition
chapter 2 notes food policy
chapter 3 notes food policy
chapter 3 notes nutrition research
chapter 4 notes nutrition research
start reading through research articles for proposal/project
work 2pm to 9/930pm
shower + skincare + oral hygiene
that just about sums up my day right there. if I find the time, im going to fill out some scholarship applications and complete some essays for some existing applications I have open. I also need to fill out my school's scholarship portal application asap too. I might head to my professor's office hours today, too. I don't know for sure yet. depends on if I get an email back or not about my research stuff.
found a new cafe near my house, and it has the only matcha in this city that agrees with my palate 👍 doing my stuff for 4 hours after the job at the torture matrix while listening to medieval library ambience. went home and did more of my stuff. not doing much else.
🎧 - matahari, chrisye. keroncong and gospel combining their joint slay went so hard
You know that popular Studyblr post, oh, to be so disgustingly overeducated.
After years, these quotes never really vanished from Tumblr. I still see them on my dashboard from time to time. And every time I do, I feel like there’s something ‘wrong’ with them, though I wasn’t sure why. Until just now.
I think it has so much to do with my relationship with the label “naturally smart.”
Wanting to be highly educated is not wrong. But maybe you need to listen honestly to your heart. What makes you want that? Is it the pleasure of knowing so many things and how useful that knowledge is in your life, or is it because of prestige? Sit down and try to really listen to yourself — are you pursuing the knowledge itself, or unconsciously wanting the title of being “overeducated”?
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When did thriving start to feel like a burden to me?
(it used to feel like a challenging but fun game)
My parents never forced me to excel in school. They only wanted me to be responsible and try many things while I was still young. I grew up carefree, without stressing too much about achievements. I wasn’t overly competitive; I was just enthusiastic about many things. I did my best in competitions and activities not because I wanted to win, but because I genuinely enjoyed them. I loved giving my all and trying everything.
During middle school, I started to discover my main interests and focus on my strengths. I was passionate about my hobbies and channeled them through extracurriculars and other school activities. Still, I remained carefree and not overly competitive. I was quite sportive and mature among my friends. I don’t remember feeling jealous of their achievements; I would happily congratulate them even when they outperformed me or achieved something I hadn’t. I knew my weaknesses and didn’t stress too much about them. I didn’t see them as threats, and they never made me feel worthless. Somehow, along the way, I still did well in many things without really trying to prove anything.
That was when my relationship with effort quietly began to change.
One day, I started receiving compliments from friends and their parents for seemingly achieving many things effortlessly. The more I heard those compliments, the more I unconsciously tied my worth to being “clever”; to understanding and learning quickly without much effort. Slowly, effort itself began to feel like a weakness.
I didn’t want to show that I was trying too hard. The less effort I appeared to give, the better. If I did put in effort, then the result had to be spectacular. Otherwise, it felt embarrassing to achieve something mediocre after trying so hard. I think this was when I started becoming a perfectionist and an overthinker — an “overachiever” who never truly achieved anything, a dreamer without effort or results.
The fear of achieving less, and being seen putting in too much effort, filled me with anxiety every time I started a project or worked on school assignments. It became hard for me to even start anything because I felt I needed ideal conditions: no one around, just me. It bothered me when someone glanced at my screen, even briefly, to the point that my hands would shake.
Sometimes I could reach a flow state where ideas came easily and everything moved smoothly. But other times, even being alone wasn’t enough to quiet my anxiety. Other fears took over: running out of time, or failing to create something as perfect as it was in my head. Deadlines give some people an adrenaline rush; they only made me panic. Good ideas motivate some people to act; for me, the abundance of possibilities made it harder to begin. Instead of starting, I often did nothing.
While I tried to calm myself, time kept passing. I wasted so much of it, then grew even more anxious because of that. Years passed, and I regretted letting fear stall my progress and growth.
Looking back now, I think I know where it all began.
The compliments. The pride of being “naturally smart” without much effort. It slowly threw everything off balance.
So what does this have to do with being “highly educated”?
Trying to be highly educated just for the sake of the title can quietly harm you, just like how I tried to maintain my “naturally smart” identity for years. Wanting knowledge itself is never wrong. It feels good to understand things, and it helps you move through life with more clarity. But chasing the prestige of being seen as intelligent or “overeducated” can turn learning into something heavy and frightening.
It’s okay not to know things yet. It’s okay if your assignments are still lacking in many aspects. That’s the beauty of learning: you find your weaknesses and turn them into little missions to improve, like daily quests that slowly help you level up. As long as you take it seriously and genuinely enjoy the process, it’s all good.
hi. just a reminder.
no one threw you a parade
and you're not getting a trophy
but you made it through, and it counts
even if all you did was hold down the fort
and keep sh*t together
love,
someone who's learned some victories are quiet on purpose
in complete honesty, i left this morning’s study session feeling scared. i’d intended for the practice test i took this morning to be my last before the real thing, but my score from today’s practice exam dropped a whole five points from where i’ve been averaging for the past month.
i’m going to spend the rest of the evening on corrections and working through different perspectives on the topics i’ve been struggling with, and then i’m going to make sure i get a good night’s sleep. my brain function is a lot better when i make sure that i’m well-rested and well-fed, so i’m going to try to sleep early, wake up early enough to make breakfast tomorrow, and decide where to go from there — whether or not i just want to read through the lessons on lawhub, do some drills, watch other people’s lsat tips on youtube, or take another full-blown practice test.
this was definitely a frustrating setback, but i think it’s more helpful to myself to reframe this as a really good opportunity to regroup and reapproach the problem from a new angle. with about 30 hours left until my test, i’m going to do my best with the time i have.