Ｏｒｉｏｎ❤️ @orion-96 - Tumblr Blog

here is a gif showing how blood flows through the heart in case you need extra motivation

Hello, lovelies! I’ve gotten a couple of asks about studying so I decided to condense them into one post for you guys! I’m trying to hit a bunch of different topics so if you need an even more specific post you can send an ask! Without any further ado, have some tips! My studyblr is @spacey-scholar

Prep

First, you always need a good base for your day! Especially if you’re studying a lot.

Make a good full breakfast! Ex. Eggs and Toast, Smoothie and fruit, Pancakes and a cup of juice.

How’s your hygiene? Do you need to shower, brush your teeth, wash your face, condition your hair? Do it! You’ll be distracted if you feel messy!

Get dressed like it’s a normal day. Staying in PJ’s is okay! But being ready for the day seriously helps focus!

Likewise, your space should be clean. A clean space is a clean mind! Remove dishes, trash, scrap paper, and extra items. Wide down your desk, organize your pens and books. Your space should feel like your space!

Now make a list of what you need to get done! What needs to be done Now, what needs to be done Soon, and what needs to be done Later?

Order your list how you want your day to go, and don’t put super-tough subjects back to back, or subjects that are similar exercises i.e. reading thirty pages of two different books back to back is no fun.

The Studying

It’s important to buckle down with No Distractions! If you find yourself distracted put your phone away! If you need your phone, put it on Do Not Disturb until you’re done. I also do this at night for better sleep.

Pick the best technique for you, Pomodoro, reward-based, group studying, etc.

Play music but only if it will not distract you! If you sing along or daydream it’s the wrong music! Classical, Lo-fi, and White noise are all good! My Spotify Here has some good ones.

Use a nice journal (I don’t mean expensive!) and pens/pencils you enjoy using. I like to have a specific journal and color dedicated to each subject.

Take notes on recorded lectures and classes, if you’re doing online classes right now try to screen record or record the audio! That way if you space out you can play it later and take notes, and you can absorb the lesson better instead of being distracted.

Don’t worry about your notes, stationary, pictures, being beautiful and your grades being perfect. Life doesn’t always look the way it does on Instagram. And the people who spend hours trying to get a good photo of their coffee are not studying!

Use flashcards! Quizlet is good if you need premade ones! If you can save up and buy them, Barrons AP Flash Cards are the best in my opinion. Very clean, not too long, very durable, and cover all subjects.

Feeling Distracted

If you catch yourself drifting off and getting into your head, get up and take a quick walk, stretch, or energizer.

It’s okay if this happens, don’t guilt yourself! practice affirmation. The best and smartest still get distracted.

If you are drifting, why? Are you hungry? Tired? Thirsty? Bored? Get a snack and some water, take a break and rest, find a way to make your studying more enjoyable.

Remember that Motivation and Discipline are different things. Sometimes we just won’t be motivated, we won’t want to do it and it will be rather frustrating. But the cure to this is not shaming its discipline. Remind yourself “This may be hard, and I may not want to do this, but I want to reach my goals and If this is what It takes I will make it happen.

Always do just one more page of you’re tired. One at a time and oh you did it! Maybe just one more? One more? Eh, one more just to finish the train of thought, Oh just- I’m done? Nice!

If you really can’t focus just move on and come back to this subject, you can always ask for help.

Supplementary Things

There are so many apps you can use to study, for free! My favorites are Tide, Quizlet, Focus Keeper, Forest, Flora, Egenda, SpanishDict, Photomath, and Kahn Academy.

You can also join a study group! You may know one, but if you don’t, there are a lot of online ones! I’m in a study Discord and have been for a while! it helps a lot and motivates me to finish my work!

You can make a studyblr, but don’t do it just for the aesthetics! It’s about studying, and sometimes that gets messy! Sometimes we fail a test, we spill our tea on our notes, we cry because we don’t understand the formula. That’s the part you don’t see!

Having cute stationery can really help, as well as nice organizers and decorations for your space! I don’t have much money so I get a lot of stuff on Amazon or FB Marketplace.

Health

Remember that no matter what you are good enough. It’s okay if you fail, it’s okay if you struggle.

It’s also okay if your path doesn’t go the way you expected! Maybe you go to a different school than expected! Or choose a trade instead! Maybe you take a gap year! Maybe your passion changes! Maybe it changes six times!

Your health is always more important than your school. If you are in pain, mentally or physically, if you are anxious, exhausted, burnt out, talk to your teachers about it! You matter more than a grade.

Your best is good enough! And your best doesn’t look the same as someone else’s best! Don’t compare!

Now go get out there and study!

academicheaux

adapted from this response

1. Write your notes in a way where you can test your retention and understanding.

Many people write notes that do a great job summarizing their materials but their notes are not designed to promote learning, retention or diagnosis of their weaknesses. But my notes can – and so can yours. Simply put my notes can be used like flashcards because I write them in a form where I separate a “stimulus” from a “response.” The stimulus are cues or questions (think: front side of flashcard), while the response is the answer to the cue (think: back of flashcard). But the stimuli are to the left of a margin, while the responses are to the right. The key advantage of this is that just by putting a sheet of paper on top of your notes, you can hide the responses, while leaving the stimuli visible. You can have multiple margins and multiple levels of stimuli and response for greater information density. When you get good at this you can write notes in this form in real-time. To get some idea of what I’m talking about google for “Cornell Notetaking method”. My notetaking method is a variant of this. I usually use completely blank paper to do this because regular lined paper has too small a margin. To give you an idea of how powerful this notetaking method can be, I learned several courses just hours before the exam and still got an “A” in all of them during a difficult semester where I had too many competing priorities to spend long hours studying. Had it not been for this notetaking method I don’t think that would be possible. 2. Develop the ability to become an active reader (this is the perhaps the most important advice I have to share).

Don’t just passively read material you are given. But pose questions, develop hypotheses and actively test them as you read through the material. I think the hypotheses are part of what another poster referred to when he advised that you should develop a “mental model” of whatever concept they are teaching you. But a mental model can be much more than simple hypotheses. Sometimes the model resembles a story. Other times it looks more like a diagram. But what they all have in common is that the explain what is going on. Having a mental model will give you the intuition and ability to answer a wider range of questions than would be otherwise possible if you lacked such a mental model. Where do you get this model? You creatively develop one as you are reading to try to explain the facts as they are presented to you. It’s like guessing how the plot of a movie, before it unfolds. Sometimes you have to guess the model based on scarce evidence. Sometimes it is handed to you. If your model is a good one it should at least be able to explain what you are reading. Having a model also allows you to make predictions which can then be used to identify if your model is wrong. This allows you to be hypersensitive to disconfirming evidence that can quickly identify if your model is wrong. Oftentimes you may have two or more models that can explain the evidence, so your task will be to quickly formulate questions that can prove one model while disconfirming the others. To save yourself time, I suggest focusing on raising questions that could confirm/disprove the mostly likely model while disproving the others (think: differential diagnoses in medicine). But once you have such a model that (i) explains the evidence and (ii) passes all the disconfirming tests you can throw at it then you have something you can interpolate and extrapolate from to answer far more than was initially explained to you. Such models also make retention easier because you only need to remember the model as opposed to the endless array of facts it explains. But perhaps more importantly, such models give you intuition. Of course, your model could be wrong, but that is why you actively test it as you are reading, and adjust as necessary. Think of this process as the scientific method being applied by you, to try to discover the truth as best you can. Sometimes you will still be left with contradictions that even your best models cannot explain. I often found speaking to the professor after class to be a time efficient of resolving these contradictions. I discovered mental modelling as a survival mechanism to pass my studies at the University of Waterloo – where their teaching philosophy is misnomer because their teaching philosophy is to not teach as well as they could. You can see this from their grading philosophy. Although they don’t use a bell curve or other statistical grade adjustment, they make their exams so hard that the class average is usually between 68 (C+) and 72 (B-) in spite of the fact that their minimum admission grades are among the highest in Canada (you need more than A+ to get into several of their engineering programs). The only way they can achieve such low test averages from otherwise high performing students is by holding back some of what they know, and then testing what they didn’t explain well in lecture on their exams; or by not teaching to the best of their ability. This forces students to develop the ability to teach themselves, often from materials that do not explain things well, or lack the introductory background knowledge needed to understand the material. I realized I could defend against such tactics by reverse engineering the results into theories that would produce those same results; i.e. mental model induced from scarce facts. Then when I got to MIT I found myself in a place with the opposite teaching philosophy. Unlike Waterloo, if the whole class got an “A” the MIT professors would be happy and proud (whereas at Waterloo an “A” class average would be the cause for a professor’s reprimand). The mental modelling skills I developed at Waterloo definitely came in handy at graduate school because they enabled me to learn rapidly with scarce information. 3. Be of service to your fellow classmates.

I’ve personally observed and heard anecdotal stories that many students in highly competitive programs are reluctant to share what they know with their peers; a good example being the vast number of students in a top ranked science programs competing for the very few coveted spots in med school. I’ve seen people in such situations be afraid to share what they know because the fear it could lead to the other students “getting ahead” while leaving them behind. I would actually recommend doing the opposite: share liberally. You can’t expect help from others if you are unwilling to help others yourself. I spent hours tutoring people in subjects I was strong in. But, conversely those same people were usually happy to help me with my weaknesses when I needed it. I also found it easier to get good teammates – which is essential to getting good grades in team-based classes. I found I learned a LOT from other people. And their questions helped me to prepare for questions I may not have thought of – some of which would appear on the exams. 4. Understand how the professor grades.

Like the real world, the academic world is not always fair. You need to understand who is grading you and what they are looking for. Oddly, if you actually answer questions as written, you won’t get full marks from some teachers. Some professors expected more than the answer. Some only accepted the answers taught in class as opposed to other factually correct answers – which coincidentally can easily happen if you rely heavily on mental models. Some expected you to not even evaluate whether the answers to their multiple choice answers were true or not; only to notice which answer choices aligned or did not align with the theories taught in class. Some highly value participation in which case you ought to have a mental model of what they are teaching based on their assigned readings. The sooner you know who you are dealing with, the sooner you can adjust to their way of grading. Thankfully I considered the vast majority of my professors to have graded in a fair manner. 5. Get involved in research while still in undergrad.

Academics is a means to an end. To me that end was “solving problems” and “building stuff” specifically systems and organizations. Depending on the school you apply for, your research may be just as important, if not more important, than your grades. In fact if all you have are good grades your chances of getting into a top ranked CS program with a research component (e.g. MIT, CMU) are slim to nil; though you might still be able to get into a top-ranked courseware-based Masters (such as Stanford where there is no masters thesis). I did an Artificial Intelligence research project in undergrad and posted it on the internet. Not long after it was cited in three patents from IBM, AOL and another inventor. Then 40 other people cited my work. I feel this helped me get into MIT because they saw that I could come up with theories with practical applications. It also led to internships with top research teams whose work I am still in awe of. This research also helped my graduate application. None of this would have been possible if I didn’t do research in undergrad. 6. Attend classes.

I do not understand the students who claim they did well without attending class. Many professors will only say certain things in class. Many classes only present some of the material in class. If you don’t attend class you simply won’t get that material. You also won’t be able to ask immediate follow-up questions. I also found speaking to the professor after class was an efficient way to resolve contradictions I had found with my mental model. 7. Time management is key – especially in undergrad.

In my competitive undergrad program I once learned that a friend who achieved top 5% status actually timed how long he ate. While I do not suggest going to such extremes I offer this modest advice. I suggest spending no more than 30 minutes trying to solve a problem you can’t solve by yourself before appealing to office hours or another knowledgeable student. I also suggest you ask questions of your professor during or after class as opposed to leaving the class confused. This reduces wasted time in an environment when time is a very precious commodity. 8. Going out and having fun is conducive to good grades.

In my early undergrad years I studied as hard as I could. And I thought this meant putting in as many studying hours as possible. But I later realized that going out and having fun refreshed the mind and increased grades. Unfortunately it took at least 2 years for me to understand this lesson. 9. Learn how to do advanced Google searches.

This is an essential skill that enables you to answer your own questions, quickly. At a minimum I suggest you learn how to use the following Google search operators ~, -,*, AND,OR, and numeric ranges via the double dot (“..”) operator. The “site:” operator is also often helpful. I also found adding the word “tutorial” to a Google search often yields great introductory materials.

10. Turn weaknesses into strengths.

While studying for standardized exams I learned the importance of addressing one’s weaknesses as opposed to ignoring them. If you make a mistake on a question, it is because of a weakness within you. If you do not address that weakness it will follow you to the exam. I learned this lesson when studying for standardized exams. I was able to legally buy 30 old exams and thought the best approach to studying for the exam was to do as many old problems as possible. But as I completed each exam I kept getting the same score (+/- 5%) over and over. I had plateaued! But then I made a tiny tweak and my scores kept going up. Specifically, after each old exam, I would identify my weaknesses that led to each wrong answer, prioritize the weaknesses according to the degree to which they affected my score, and would address them in that order. When I did that, my scores increased steadily all the way to the highest possible percentile (99%). I later realized that such standardized tests are designed to provide consistent scores (if the student does not study in between the subsequent exams to address their weaknesses). In fact that is one of the statistical measures used to measure the quality of a standardized exam and it’s called “Reliability” (Google for “psychometric reliability” to see what I’m talking about).

eintsein

College Morning Routine

Hey guys, so after one semester of college, I’ve found a morning routine that works for me. Here’s how I start my mornings so I’ll have a productive day ☀

P.S. click on the pictures for better quality.

Check out this YouTube video for more!

kuroristudies

I didn’t have much homework last night but instead of doing stuff for college apps/math team I just went to sleep. I regret nothing.

livelovecaliforniadreams

chaoticum

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites.

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

heyrosiebee

🌻 little habits/things to do more of 🌻

dailies

make your bed. (no, really.)

set your top 3 to-dos for the day.

do your top 3 to-dos for the day. (heh)

stretch.

unpack your bag when you get home.

prepare your things for the next day before sleeping.

skincare. (your basic cleanse and moisturize)

sweep the floor of your bedroom.

talk to your plants. (if you have plants)

update your financial report/expense tracker.

take a good photo.

meditate.

hug at least three people. (seriously.)

weeklies

polish your school shoes.

mop your bedroom floor.

dare i say, laundry. (don’t put it off!)

exfoliate.

take a leisure walk.

review your past week and plan your next week accordingly. (a part of your routine may not be working–try something new)

make a piece of art. (a sketch, a collage, a quote in pretty lettering, a god-awful poem..)

sanitize your gadgets. (whip out the wet tissue and wipe away at your phone, your laptop, your mouse, your earphones–just don’t forget to IMMEDIATELY follow that up with a dry cloth to prevent fogging and short circuits)

watch a TED Talk.

make a new playlist.

monthlies

wash your bag.

wash your shoes.

change the sheets of your bed and your pillows.

clip your nails. (honestly)

wax/shave. (if you want. i just really like how fresh my skin feels after i torture it with razors and wax strips)

wipe your shelves/the tops of your furniture clean. (try to avoid dusting. it just scatters the dirt everywhere. use a damp cloth instead)

see if there’s anything in your storage that you don’t need/want anymore and give stuff away or sell them.

review your month and plan the next one accordingly. (just like your weeks. remember to refer to your Life Goal/Year’s Goals page)

finish reading at least one book. (and review it!)

discover new songs.

- 🍂

emmastudies

Hi lovelies! Today I decided to make a small post on a few note taking tips I’ve used whilst in my final year of high school. It’s always useful to hear what other people have tried and what’s worked for them, so hopefully this will be of use you too.

Always add a title and dates to your notes - Knowing when you learnt a particular topic can be handy for when exams are coming up and you need to study or when you need to organise your notes. Dates can also give you an indication of when you should be revising the material to ensure your remember it. Have a look at this post, it outlines the curve of forgetting and can help you determine when you should start studying.

Read the textbook prior to your class - This helps give you an outline of the material so you can summarise and shorten your notes. You also have the opportunity to clarify anything you might not have understood from just reading.

Use the layout of the textbook or syllabus to organise your notes - I found copying the headings and subheadings really helped simplify my notes and helped to ensure I was learning each section. If this is not for you, use the titles given by your teachers as mentioned before!

Include different ways to show the information - Use mindmaps, bullet points, graphs, flow chats and symbols to help visualise the content. This also helps break up large blocks of text which can be boring to read.

Remember to (try to) write legibly - It sucks having to spend ages trying to figure out something you wrote so find a writing style that is comfortable for long periods of writing. Some tips on improving your handwriting can be found here. If you want to change your writing, check out this post for some examples!

Have a small colour coding system - An extensive colour coding system is tricky to use in fast-paced classes where the teacher is quick to move on. Using a mixture of black, blue and red pens can help differentiate parts of your notes without having to change your pen constantly. My colour coding system can be found here.

Make note of what your teacher is saying - They’re knowledgable in your subjects so be sure to pay attention to what is being said and not just what is on the board or powerpoint. You can use small post-it notes for this kind of thing!

Add your own personal touch - Draw doodles, acronyms, ribbons and abbreviations in your notes. You can check out this and this as inspiration. Also this masterpost has some links to help illustrate your notes.

Avoid distractions - Whilst in class it’s obviously best to be focused. Try sitting where you can see and hear well, put away your phone and only use your laptop if necessary. Chatting to friends can also make you miss important information so if you don’t help but talk, sit away from them.

Don’t be shy - If you don’t understand something, raise your hand and ask! You’ll be able to add to your notes and understand more deeply if you thoroughly know what you’re learning. If you struggle to speak up during class, ask your teacher after the lesson has finished or send them an email!

After class - Use a binder or folder to organise your notes in order after you’ve finished. Remember to review your notes after class, highlight them and add any extra information you have. Also compare your notes with friends or a study group!

I hope these few simple tips can help you out. If you have any questions or suggestions for future posts, feel free to send me a message. Thank you for reading. Love, Emma x

arystudies

Hi, everyone!! I’ve had a studyblr for about a week now and have already met so many kind, supportive people. I couldn’t be more thankful. That said, I really wanted to give back to such an amazing community! So here’s my first printable for you!

It includes:

a 5AM-10PM schedule (for my early hustlers)

‘Top 3 Priorities’ + ‘Can Wait’ categories

a ‘To-Do’ list

Daily Goals, Notes, Doodles

a water tracker (stay hydrated, friends!)

10 Good Things (reflect back on your day and jot down the little things that made you happy even if your day wasn’t the greatest)

They’re available for download in PDF and PNG formats + in pink, blue, yellow, and white! I’ve also made a grid and grid-less version!

Grid

Blue: pdf / png Pink: pdf / png White: pdf / png Yellow: pdf / png

No Grid

Blue: pdf / png Pink: pdf / png White: pdf / png Yellow: pdf / png

And here’s a link to the entire folder on my DropBox!

Please tag me with #arystudies or mention me if you use these!! I’d love to see them in action. :’) I’m also really curious to see what you all think of them, so please let me know!!

Be sure to check out my monthly calendars too!

Happy studying!

night-studying

Morning Habits Worth Starting (Especially for College)

Give yourself enough time to get ready before you have to leave in the morning. For me this means setting my alarm about an hour before the time that I have to get my foot out the door. Eat a proper breakfast, do a little stretching, figure out your plan for the day. Having a slower paced morning is a lot more relaxing, and you can get your day started correctly.

Drink water first thing. I used to be a pretty heavy coffee drinker in the mornings in high school, but I realized that I could get away with a lot less caffeine if I started my morning off with a nice glass of cold water. You’re probably dehydrated after sleeping and water helps wake you up.

Make your bed. Making your bed is a visual reminder that sleeping time is over and that it’s time to get up! If I have a messy bed, I want to climb in and snuggle back into my blankets. This is especially true in the winters when it’s cold and dark. The movement also helps you wake up, which brings me to my next point:

Move! Your! Body! You don’t necessarily have to run through an entire yoga routine or go for a run (but hey, props to you if you do), but getting some movement in your mornings will help you wake up. I like to stretch a little bit, warm up my joints, maybe loosen up my limbs. It helps to get your blood flowing.

Open your curtains. In the winter it might be kind of dark and depressing where you live, so this isn’t always something recommended. I like to open my curtains when it’s sunny out so I can get some natural light, which helps your circadian rhythm so you wake up better - and fall asleep at night better.

Do something productive before your class begins. If your first class is super early, this might not apply. But I find it tremendously helpful to get something done, whether it be a flash card set, a work out, or a load of laundry, before my first class. It’ll get you into a productive mood for the rest of the day, and even if you aren’t productive for whatever reason, you can go to sleep knowing that at least you got something done that day!

undergradnerd-blog

Words I should really start to live by😂❤️

carriesstudies-deactivated20180

some tips for back to school!

monday is back to school (or at least for students in england, it is) so guess what that means? time for more back to school related posts! i’m starting it off with some basic tips that have helped me, and that will help me when i finally start taking my own advice…

anyway…

1. quizlet. just… quizlet. flashcards are brilliant inventions, right? but surely always-accessible, no-space-taking-up, environment-saving flashcards sound SO much better? well, my friends, let me introduce you to quizlet. i’ve had it on my phone since the start of year nine (just over a year ago) and let me tell you, it saved my grades. i’d never been a big flashcard user before then, but what i love about the app is that it’s on your phone so you can access it wherever you are, without anybody seeing you and thinking “oh shit she’s cramming, she is NOT prepared”… also, bonus point for looking extra prepared BECAUSE you have a revision app!

2. group study sessions. i recently found a new friend group, and these people are smart and somewhat motivated, unlike my old friends, which means that during lunch breaks before an exam we’re all in, we can have a group study session. these are so super helpful because you get to see other people’s notes and how they define things (when defining things i tend to leave out words, but then when i see how others have written it, i realise i probably need those words, for example), and hear an explanation from somebody other than your teacher, because no matter how much you say “sir/miss, i don’t understand”, they’re limited in how they can explain it, so if somebody entirely different does it, it offers a whole lot more help.

3. ask for help. this is one i’m going to have to start following because i am a very anxious human and i HATE putting my hand up, so quit rolling your eyes and saying “you don’t understand, carrie! i CAN’T do it!” i know it’s fucking hard, but i’ve built good relationships with some of my teachers which means i’m actually brave enough to ask for help… if you just can’t put up your hand, talk to the person next to you and be friendly, so if you need help, they’re willing to give it instead of looking at you like you’re a crazy person for daring to talk to them (i’ve been there… it doesn’t help my social anxiety :/)

4. vary your revision. by this i mean write your notes out in detail, then write more condensed versions and aim to take up ¾ or ½ of the space you took up with the first set of notes, make mindmaps, make flashcards (refer back to point 1), come up with cutesy diagrams (in gcse geography last year, i came up with two drawings of volcanoes called “angry bobby” and “happy bobby” to remember composite and shield volcanoes, and my friends ended up remembering bobby as well and it may or may not have saved their grades…. sorry, i’ll stop boasting now…)

5. get more sleep. this was a goal of mine last year and i sort of failed. it depends on each person because everybody’s bodies need different things (don’t read this and think, “i get four hours sleep and i’m coping” because no, you’re not, you’re a zombie and you yawn all the time and your skin is probably not doing so great and you’re more sensitive, you need more sleep. seriously. not optional. get your ass in bed.)but i personally need 8-10 hours to function at my best. i’ve also figured out that setting an alarm half an hour before my other alarms helps wake me up, and i’ll be out of bed after hitting snooze once or twice instead of my usual fifteen… my sleep routine is as follows: 9:30-10pm - get in bed and read/check social media (this is a bad habit) then sleep. then at 5.30am, a single alarm will go off. i turn it off and go back into a light sleep that is still effective and restful without sending me straight back to dreamland. then at 6am, my alarm will go off, and a backup alarm at 6.05am and 6.10am, though i don’t usually need that last one.

it’s important you find out what sleeping pattern suits you best and leaves you most energised, because not only will this stop you from being a zombie all the time, it will help you to be healthier, fight off illnesses a little better, retain information better and be more motivated to get stuff done.

6. have termly goals. i am a massive journal-hoarder, and towards the end of last term i started a “wellness journal”, which i’ll get into more in the next tip. anyway, i’ve been writing end-of-term reviews and new-term-goals for all of this year, and now i’m doing them in this journal. it’s really bloody helpful and keeps you motivated, and whenever you feel like poop, dig out your term goals and read it. feel the energy and enthusiasm and hope you had when writing that, and realise that you, sir (or ma’am, or whatever you want to be called - it’s 2018, come on), have goals to complete and you best get doing them.

7. keep a wellness journal. this is something i came up with, but people have definitely done it before… so, i sort of came up with it. i thought of it, then found out it was already probably a thing… anyway. this journal is your safe space. any and all entries in this journal are positive and a place of solace for you when you need that comfort and guidance. in this journal you can include: self-care routines, entries about topics such as productivity, mental health, wellbeing, studying, friendships, self love, eating,coping with mental illness… the list goes on. you may also include reminders and plans for what to do when you feel like poop, because when i’m in that situation i feel absolutely helpless and need somebody to tell me what i need to do, so write a plan. for example.

“hey, you don’t feel so good. that’s okay, that happens. before i tell you what to do, take a deep breath. you’re okay. you’re gonna be fine. you always wind up fine.

okay. chin up. ready?

- if you’re flopped on your bed right now, get up. if you’re slumped on the floor in your room, get up. wherever you are in the house, get up and head to your room. make your bed as comfy as possible - fluff the pillows, grab extra cushions from the living room (and that super nice fluffy blanket) and make your bed as lovely and squishy as possible. don’t get into it, just prepare it.

- head to the kitchen and make yourself a cup of tea. take your time. there’s no rush. this is your time.

- grab a good book and wrap up in bed with your tea. or, if you need to cry, put the tea down a second and have a good, long cry.”

and so on, and so on. what you just read is exactly the kind of thing i would write. i need to be as gentle as i can, because that’s what i need when i’m laying in bed or slumped on the floor in a pool of my own snotty tears.

8. remember to take breaks, kid! jesus, you can’t expect yourself to work 24/7, can you? you’re not a machine, you’re a human and you HAVE A LIMIT. don’t push it, it’s not healthy.

9. get yourself a little plant such as a cactus or succulent to keep on your desk as a study buddy. it’s odd how comforting a tiny plant can be, but i have three cacti on my desk (leonard, miguel and humphrey) and there they are, cheering me on, looking all happy and perky and healthy… how could anybody be sad when there are cacti as happy as that right beside you??? (i sound completely insane… there’s no way to even come back from that….)

10. spend time with friends or family. the family one is a big one for me, because i spend so much time holed away in my room, annoyed at everybody and getting mad if i get asked to do the simplest thing, which is dumb. so now every evening i make sure to go downstairs, even just for a bit. usually, since my parents sit in the living room and come in and out of the kitchen while they make dinner late and my mum makes her lunch for the next day, i make a cup of tea and sit on the windowsill in the kitchen and chat to them as they come and go, which means i get to see and spend some time with them while still getting to be in my own company. also, talk to your friends. i have a groupchat with mine and although everybody’s slowly left it, it was good for a while… heh… anyway, make sure you text your damn friends and check up on them and like their posts and send them stuff that made you think of them… just be nice and remind them that you have insane amounts of love for them :)

that’s all for the first part of my back to school series (which will flop… future carrie, don’t abandon this, you have now tied yourself to this “series”… you have to finish it) which i will be continuing into the new term as much as i can in an attempt to restore my account which is slowly dying…

have a great term!

- carrie

(p.s. if you have any questions or want advice, my askbox is always open!)

orion-96

True

rain-bowly-deactivated20180331

Hope you find it useful, write me if you need some tips or if you have some question.

Keep it together ;D

orion-96

Notes

theredheadness

1. Cut toxic people out of your life.

You don’t have to put up with toxic people. Cut them out where you can, make time for people who support you.

2. Accept that you will fail.

Knowing and accepting you will fail makes starting things so much easier and thats going to make 2018 a whole lot better.

3. Digitally declutter.

Clear out your phone, clear space and move your photos to Google Photo, delete apps you don’t use, organise the item you use the most.

4. On that, try for Inbox Zero.

Inbox Zero is just that, your inbox with Zero unread emails.

5. Clean out your cupboard

We all know we accumulate more than we need. Clean it out and have a fresh start with the things you use and need.

6. Deep clean your car, desk, workspace, house or bedroom.

You deserve to work and live in a clean and functional space. Allowing you to work on things that you love and to have that time to yourself.

7. Get better sleep

You might not need more sleep, but better sleep is something almost everyone needs.

8. Make your bed when you get up in the morning.

It is one of the small everyday habits that has a profound effect on your day. You get up in the morning and make your bed, you’ve just ticked off two things on your daily to do list!

9. Write a list of SMART goals.

The best goals, SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, RELEVANT and TIME BOUND. Breaking the goals down to make sure you do them.

10. Say ‘No’

Say no to things that will not challenge you to grow and reach your potential. No point in spreading yourself thin and produce work that is not your best and to stress on top of it all.

11. Get your finances in order, or at least under control.

If getting them in order just isn’t possible, at least get them under control. Create a show-box budget, file your paperwork, label it.

12. Carve out time weekly for you to focus on you.

Even if it is one hour at the end of every week MAKE that time where you can be with you. You’re important, you deserve it.

13. Switch ‘Sorry’ for ‘Thank you’ when you possible.

Switch it up, you don’t have to be sorry, you can be humble and recognise kindness rather than apologise for kindness and consideration that you deserve.

14. Learn just one new thing.

Even if it is how to boil an egg to perfection. Learn just one new thing, how to make a cocktail, how to drive, to touch your toes, a language. Whatever it is, just one thing.

15. Get a small plant and look after it.

You’re making yourself responsible for a small living thing. They make your space beautiful and bring you in to contact with nature, which we often forget.

16. Put your emotional, physical and mental health first.

Your health is important, treat it as such.

17. Ask for help

From the people who are supportive, caring and loving of you. Ask, even if they can’t help at this moment, they will be there for you.

18. Shift your perspective

Outlook is everything. You don’t need any more bad vibes than the ones the world already throws.