may 22nd, 2020 -- tfw textbooks write more than what you can understand // productivity 2/5
Less than 30 minutes until today becomes tomorrow, but better late than never to record my studying! I continue my studies on entropy, although I’ve watched videos and read like four different articles, I’m still not 100% sure I can perfectly articulate what entropy even means. Instead of writing normal notes, I’ve been writing questions instead in order to activate my brain’s ability to recall.
To be honest, I really do think that doing notes like this is much better than simply paraphrasing what a textbook says, which I’ve been doing for the past 9 years. I’ve been regurgitating shit on paper without actually understanding what everything means, how it connects with other topics, and why it even matters. I really still don’t know how to properly study, but I’m taking tiny steps to figure out what works best for me.
I used to love the pretty notes and cute decorations and calligraphy but now that I’ve seen how useless my pretty notes actually are in learning, I’ve become unfazed by such trends now. All the multi-colored pens and expensive books won’t make me any more better at mastering material if I don’t even know how I best learn.
While I’m studying tonight, I went on Youtube and searched up for white noise to listen to. Now I’m listening to eerie wind sounds, the type that occurs when you step out of your dead car at the side of a stranded highway at night. The comments say it sounds like being on an airplane, but I’ve never taken a flight before, so I can’t relate. Not like I’ve been stranded on a highway before either.
may 21st, 2020 -- regular, huh? // productivity score: 1/5
Today I haven’t done anything in terms of studying, except read an interesting excerpt my professor recommended to better understand macro/microstates and its relation to entropy. It’s amazing how complicated topics are much more appreciated when explained in layman’s terms and everyday analogies.
So, what did I really do for the most of these twenty-four hours? I woke up, ate as healthily as I could, wore a peel-off face mask, lounged about, avoided emails, finished catching up on Hospital Playlist, had a crisis about my future career plans, etc. I don’t really feel guilty, because I know a consistent stream of productivity is difficult to achieve on the first try. It took me a few weeks to even find a rhythm of me cutting out processed foods and eating less of oily/sodium based products, despite my family being used to eating whatever. It also took me a while to wake up much more early than I usually did, especially with online instruction--the past version me would never wake up at around 7 AM if it weren’t for getting ready to go out. Everything takes discipline, yet patience with myself in order to permanently grow and change.
Also, I’m still waiting for my NCT 127 album to ship. I love The Final Round so much and am glad that I waited for it so that I can have all seventeen iconic songs. This is the main reason why I check my gmail in the first place.
I hope to eventually establish a specific posting time for this blog too, hopefully where I update every day about what I’m doing, to keep myself accountable.
