#rivkahstudies

[rivkahstudies]

if no one’s told you lately...

you’re really cute!! your smile is delightful!! you’re really good at doing your thing, so keep doing it, no matter what it is!! even if your day/week/month/year has been dark and rainy, i hope the sun shines for you soon!! i believe in you!! you’re going to do great things, small or big great things, and i just need you to keep your head up and have faith in yourself!! i have faith in you and you are worthy of love and care, from yourself and others

[noodledesk]

a lot of you have asked how I actually use notion in my day to day life, so I’ve broken down my task manager for all of you! hope this helps :) happy notion-ing! 💖

my other posts on notion: goal setting 📚

edit: i’ve made my template available for everyone to duplicate here! happy notion-ing!

entire post below!

how I use notion to time manage, prioritize, & get shit done

how it works

all tasks (and I mean ALL!) are sorted into 12 categories in a 4 x 3 matrix. this method was adapted from @howtomusicmajor’s post, how to handle having too much to do, which i’ve linked in the post below. i’ve changed things slightly to fit my own personal preferences.

every row is how long a task takes. I’ve got the following: 5 min 30 min hours future

every column is when they are due. i have the following: today tomorrow later

future refers to my tasks that are more abstract, fit are kind of like goals, and aren’t as tangible as ‘Chapter 1 homework’. this allows me to write down everything I have the intention of doing in the near future without trying to quantify them right away. examples of tasks that go in future include:

create new portfolio website (takes a while, not a priority, but I’d LIKE to do it) submit to poetry journals (not pressing, but I want to do it in the near future and having it on my to do reminds me to make time for it) learn cinema 4d (again, kind of abstract, relatively large undertaking that I want to remind myself of)

what are these numbers?

the numbers refer to what order I do the tasks in. 1 is first, 2 is second, and under future, which are more abstract/ long term, the order goes from later, even later, and one day. the core of my tasks are in 1 to 5 for each day, and I move around the rest of the tasks as I see fit.

example of where these tasks go:

chapter 11 stats questions → 30 min & today or tomorrow

water plants → 5 min & today

make portfolio website → future & later

why sort it this way? why notion?

i use this method for 3 reasons:

prioritization: a grid allows me to discern from a glance what I have to do at any given moment, whats important, and what’s not. I also need to be able to move things around, so using a digital resource is better for me.

scheduling: I find that I work better when I can see all the tasks that I have to do in the next few days vs. one day only. I also don’t typically schedule out my days because I find it really difficult to estimate how long tasks take, so I will put tasks I think I can focus on for one day and move them around as needed. it allows for more flexibility in my days!

breaking up tasks: I’ll usually break up my ‘hours’ tasks into pieces, which I then put under 30 min, which allows me to avoid procrastinating. I only need to follow one rule: the numbers! always knowing what to do next with a way to break up tasks makes it a lot easier to tackle things.

how to actually build yourself a grid in notion

sometimes it’s a little hard to build your own customized page in notion, so I started off with a template that would let me speed up my process. I used the weekly agenda template under the Personal category, but any page similar will be fine for you. from there, I just moved around each block until I got a 3 X 4 rectangle.

make it something you WANT to use

some ways that I make my task manager cute and enjoyable to use (you have to like your system or you won’t use it!)

cute cover photos every few days (change things up to keep your tracker fresh!)

recent excerpts from poems I read (inspiration!)

emojis that follow a theme & fit my current mood (tip: you can also use any image or transparent art that you want, so it’s super customizeable!)

and that's it!

finally, what’s most important is that you customize the manager so that it works well for you. if you notice that a process works better a different way, definitely change it! this works remarkably well for me because I alter it as I encounter better solutions. that being said, I hope this post was helpful! changing to this tracker has helped me much better manage school, being vice president of two clubs, my hobbies (like this blog!), sleeping enough, and making time for what’s important to me :)

references: 

adapted from: https://howtomusicmajor.tumblr.com/post/130098710517/how-to-handle-having-too-much-to-do

art: https://hugolemonnier.tumblr.com/post/189172150081

poem by yang chia-hsien: https://aaww.org/summer-of-many-smokes/

[smileystudies]

jan 17 2021 // days 12 & 13 of 100 days of productivity

do list:

finalize last statement of intent

submit last grad program application (!!!)

practice Arabic vocab

IRB revisions (saving this till monday oh boy 🙄)

taking a bit of a break today, I really need one! so catch me painting and messing around on duolingo ✨

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

Feel better soon :( I am heartbroken to hear you've got it. My cousin had it and stayed quiet the entire time bc they didn't want to deal with harassment from deniers in our fam. I wish you health and peace.

Thank you so much. I’m fortunate in that everyone in my family absolutely believes it, so they’ve been helping me out. I’m super grateful to actually have a support system. Even if I feel like shit, I at least have resources available to me.

[arabic-langblr]

Hi love! This is a bit of an odd question, but how do I get over my disdain for the way I am taught Arabic in college? Maybe disdain isn't the right word, disinterest perhaps? Basically, we use a poorly organized textbook and ALL of our homework (2-3h a night) is writing and listening. It's not that I've learned nothing, I am just demotivated to put extra time into a language I LOVE, especially when I have 3 other hard classes. Plus, I am still on Modern Standard, so I feel detached from any particular culture. Do you have any tips for me to remediate this on my own, and get excited once more?

Hello, dear!

I needed to think about this a lot because I feel that I relate you this issue, I’ll try to give you some tips which I hope would help ^^ 

Although you’re following a specific text book, try to set concrete goals to attain within a specific period of time, for example you can say that my goal in December is to be able to have a short conversation about sports in Modern Standard Arabic and start looking for vocabulary related to this topic. Set short term goals and long term goals, by achieving them, you’ll feel more motivated and excited. 

If possible, try to join a study group or discord server, or maybe try to follow langblr/ studybly related events. Doing things with people can help you feel more motivated about studying.

Since you’re interested in learning dialects, take your time to compare the different dialects and see which one you’re more interested in learning when you feel that you’re comfortable with your MSA, you could start learning about that dialect. Here are some tips about picking a dialect to learn.

Try to listen to Arabic or read Arabic books as much as you can, it would be helpful if you choose something you’re interested in, for example if you like a certain series or movie, try to watch it in Arabic dub or if you like a certain style of music listen to it in Arabic. It helps a lot to train your ears so that you’ll be able to detect the language and with time you’ll be able to  know what sounds right and what doesn’t. 

[lattesandlearning]

My state didn't take down the mask mandate but they did reopen restaurants at 100% capacity, to the point where some owners have their OWN table limits bc they're disgusted by how mediocre of a job my governor is doing. So I feel ya

That’s insane- I’m glad that the owners were like, “oh heck no” and set their own limits, but I know they probably deal with so much bs because of the restaurants being open at full capacity :c I’m sorry you guys have to deal with that

[sophocused]

Your post hit me hard. I had to spend all day emailing professors I barely knew and opening up that my financial problems are causing me to work two jobs and COVID is killing my will to live, so I have to be strategic with which classes I take. They were all super helpful and compassionate but like bruh, why do I have to do this. Why can't all profs teach classes I can actually learn from in a pandemic instead of me having to play roulette.

YES RIGHT? I have to work 5 days a week, terrified as I bus 2 hours a day through downtown where cases peak most, and my profs have the audacity to ask why I don't make it to their 1-hour office hour window to express my concerns.

Thank goodness your profs were compassionate, my genetics prof really said "it's eat or be eaten" about how we'd work hard or not to succeed, I almost ended the whole zoom call during that lab.

I hope your work load eases up somehow in some way shape or form because this is really the last thing you need.

My mom snapped me out of my constant tensed state by saying "you are not paying them 8k a year to drain you of any will to live" and it has made me calm down a little more about grades and getting As, because really, the odds feel most against us students with these conditions.

Wishing you a lot of rest soon 🥺

[hannybstudies]

✎ 11.25.2019 // some monday motivation for you all ❁ t-minus ➍ days until an exciting announcement! I'll be sharing more details and some sneak peeks as we countdown to November 29 (aka Black Friday!) ❀ watch this space!!