“Never lie to someone who trusts you and never trust someone who lies to you”

— (hatin)

Even perfect effort is impossible. You’re going to read a lot that it is better to aim for perfect efforts over perfect results. But thing is, even the former is impossible. When working on a project or preparing for an exam, you will reach a saturation level where any improvement beyond that point will be minimal. You need to figure out a point of balance between your school work and the other parts of your life by learning when enough is enough, otherwise you will lose yourself in endless frustration because you will keep pursuing an unattainable goal.

Grades are meaningless. This is something that took me 1.5 years of weekly therapy sessions to realize. Your self-worth is not in your grades. Your self-worth is in who you are as a person, which rests in your passions, your relationships and the things that you do to make the world a better place. You are your own person and you will keep being just as awesome as you are right now even if you don’t get that A, even if you don’t get a passing grade and even if you drop out. School is hard, but there are other things which are hard and just as rewarding as school, such as kindness, friendship, volunteering, sports, honesty, and so many other things. You don’t need a grade to prove that you are a valuable human being, because, guess what, you are valuable no matter what a report card says about your academic performance.

Perfect discipline will strangle you. Do plan your assignments and study sessions, use a planner if you feel like it or whatever you like. But don’t get hung up on yourself for skipping, postponing or just not doing something. Being perfectly disciplined 100% of the time is impossible, and trying to be so will only cause you stress and anxiety which will hinder your productivity. It’s okay to change your plans and it’s okay to take time for yourself and to take time with your friends. Give yourself an empty day every once in a while, you not only deserve it but you also need it for your mental balance.

Set yourself reasonable goals. Your to-do list doesn’t have to be 10 feet long even if you are late in every course. The day doesn’t get longer just because you add more stuff to do on your list. Even if you don’t finish everything by bedtime, going to bed later won’t allow you to be more productive tomorrow. It is way better to underestimate your capacity on a given day and end up doing a few extra things than to get mad at yourself for not doing everything you wanted to do that day.

It’s okay to botch things. Sometimes you just don’t have time to do everything perfectly and you need to prioritize. It’s okay to do so. Everyone does it to some extent and everyone gets through just fine, and so will you.

Nobody notices those minor mistakes you hate yourself for. I swear. Nobody. Fucking. Notices. For your teacher, your copy is likely to be just another copy in the pile of hundreds they have to go through every time they correct an assignment. If they do take notice, they will not think less highly of you for it because everyone makes mistakes. All the time. Even your idols have made mistakes in the past and still make them frequently. So really, none of those matters.

Living with perfectionism is living a life dominated by fear. You don’t deserve to be constantly scared of fucking up, to hate yourself for every minor mistake you make or to be terrified that someone will uncover your (perceived) lack of worth. You deserve to be happy, to be fulfilled and to have fun. If you feel like your aspirations to perfection are taking over your life, please seek help.

APR 18 / 20

some pages from art journal #5

042420

As most people are working and studying from home right now, I wanted to share some concrete, implementable ways you can help yourself feel better. Though I believe productivity and quantity of work done (or lack thereof) doesn’t/shouldn’t translate into your self-worth and how you view yourself, when you get work done, you actually do feel better in your own body. 

By the way, it’s the first time I’m formatting a tips/guide post like this, so I apologize that I couldn’t be more concise.

I’ve spoken to a licensed professional counsellor as well as to some professionals who have been working from home for a long time, and some of the advice above is from them. I’m also sharing from my own experience as someone who used to be very productive and an (ex-)overachiever, and still attach a lot of my self-worth to grades and other tangible accomplishments. I hope these slides can help you. In case it’s hard to read, I’ve included it (reworded) in text form if you’d like to read more. 

Keep reading

A Guide to Planning Systems

It’s important to have a system of getting things done, whether it’s tackling tasks as the day progresses or having a carefully planned schedule for every single hour of the week. How can you create an effective personal planning system that suits your needs and preferences?

Mentioned in this post:

Attention Management: How to Take Control and Live Intentionally

Energy Management: A Human-Based Organization Method

Flexible Time-Blocking: A More Breathable Way to Get Things Done

The ABCDE Method: Accomplish Tasks More Efficiently

My other posts

N.B. some categories include a few examples but they are no means limited to the ones listed here, e.g. there may be methods of organizing tasks other than the five listed here.

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Unusual Study Tips

How To Do Uni Readings

Active Revision Tips

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Active Revision Techniques

“One of the hardest decisions you’ll ever face in life is choosing whether to walk away or try harder.”

— Ziad K. Abdelnour 

Little Women (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig

1. take notes every time you’re in lecture, and on applicable readings. so many people say that they’re bad at taking notes…when they NEVER take notes. taking notes is like any skill; the only way you get better is with time and practice. once you take notes consistently, you will develop a style of notetaking that works for you. 

2. rewriting your notes is valid. i see a lot of studyblrs and studygrams talk about how they never rewrite notes and that rewritten notes are a waste of time. i don’t agree. i think rewriting your notes can be an effective study method, provided you do it as soon as possible after the material is covered in class. not only does rewriting your notes make them neater, which can be nice if you have hard to read handwriting, but rewriting your notes lets you actively review material to solidify gaps in your understanding, rather than passively reading over the notes. of course, don’t do it just for the aesthetic, but i rewrite most of my notes and i’m okay with it.

3. handwriting your notes > typing your notes, in most cases. some people genuinely need to type notes and that is okay too. but most studies show that typing notes in lecture means they’re less effective at helping you remember the information covered. this is because when you type your notes, you’re more likely to copy down the information verbatim because most people type faster than they can write. when you handwrite your notes, you have to pick and choose what to write down because you can’t go quite as fast, and you are more likely to convey the information in your own words. if you like the convenience of digital notes but want to handwrite for better retention, consider taking your notes on a tablet with a program like goodnotes, which lets you handwrite with a stylus. but good old fashioned pen and paper works just as well if not better! i’m a pen and paper stan myself. 

4. functionality is more important than aesthetic. you don’t need to own any specific type of stationery to take good notes. maybe you don’t live near a muji store, maybe you like ballpoint pens better than gel pens, or maybe you just can’t be bothered to buy “aesthetic” stationery when what you can find at dollar tree works fine. that’s okay! purchasing specific stationery items won’t necessarily get you better grades. it’s really all about how you’re taking the notes. similarly, you really shouldn’t feel the need to worry about drawing elaborate diagrams, putting calligraphy titles on every lecture, or having the best handwriting when you take your notes. if these things help you learn or motivate you to study, that’s great, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to have “fancy” notes if it doesn’t suit your learning style.

5. for humanities classes, focus on concepts. for stem classes focus on examples. you kind of have to shift gears when you’re taking notes for different types of classes. in stem classes, understanding how to apply the concept is paradoxically much more important than having a super great understanding of the definition of the concept. so if your lecturer is working through a really long example, that’s not an excuse to zone out because you’ve already written down what the definition of the concept is. memorizing the pythagorean theorem is useless if you have no idea how to apply it. for your humanities classes, define as many key terms in your notes as you can if you don’t know what to take notes on. i’m grossly oversimplifying here, but you can kind of think of these classes as vocabulary courses where you’re looking to really understand what the words mean. you can later go back in and add examples. 

6. for faster notetaking, use a highlighter, a quick drying pen, and correction tape. fancy gel pens might feel nice, but when you are taking notes in a fast paced lecture, waiting for them to dry so your notes don’t smudge can be a real hassle. i would honestly recommend using a ballpoint, felt tip pen, or quick-drying gel pen as an alternative, even though these maybe aren’t as “aesthetic.” if you make a mistake, go for correction tape over correction fluid, because you don’t have to wait for it to dry and you can write immediately on top of it. if you like to add color to titles or key words, use a highlighter instead of a colored pen, as this is a lot faster than switching between pens.

7. don’t make your color-coding too complicated. i don’t use a strict color code for my notes because it’s not really practical for me, but i do like to add color to their notes, especially when it comes to memorizing specific types of information. if this is a tactic you’re considering trying out, i would recommend that you keep it very simple. try to limit it to three colors max. too much more than that and you’re liable to mess it up and get confused. you want the colors in your notes to simplify them, not make the information more difficult to digest.

8. focus on what the lecturer is saying, not what’s written on the slides or handouts. you’re not going to lecture to read powerpoint slides; you’re going to learn what the lecturer has to say, so if the lecture is going really fast, focus on the things that they’re saying rather than the presentation. this may feel counterintuitive, but most lecturers provide slides/other supplementary materials prior to lecture or after the lecture, and if they don’t, you can always send an email and ask. if you find yourself mindlessly writing down the info from the presentation or handouts and then zoning out, consider printing out the slides prior to class and annotating them with the lecturer’s comments. if they’re good at lecturing, most of the information probably won’t be on the slides anyway. remember, a lecture is a one time thing. you can always get the slides later obviously, this has changed a little in the time of rona because a lot of lectures are recorded for you to watch later, but i still think this is relevant because i don’t think anyone wants to go back and rewatch a zoom lecture because they weren’t paying attention!

9. organize your notes in a way that makes sense to you. you want your notes in a central location when it comes time for that final! maybe you want to have separate notebooks for every class, or maybe one binder or notebook with multiple sections. maybe you want to date your notes or title them so you can remember specifically at a glance what is covered in each section. maybe you want to mark up your notes with page flags so you can easily flip to the most important sections. how you organize your notes is up to you, but it’s important to have some kind of system so you can study them with ease. 

10. for notes on readings, summarize, summarize, summarize! if you have readings you want to take notes on, it’s not necessary that you copy down every single fact or key term. this will take forever, and more often than not, you will burn yourself out. instead, try to summarize what you’re reading in your head. try to write every paragraph as one or two sentences. this will force you to put the reading into your own words-active learning again-rather than painstakingly writing down extraneous information. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmAmV74gZjv/

time blocking method

Hi all, this is werelivingarts, a new post about time management method: TIME BLOCKING! Time blocking allows you to divide your day into big blocks and helps you to complete similar tasks in one-go without any interruptions! 

You can do your time blocking on:

Google Calendar (simple and easy to use)

Plan (drag your to-do list and organize them in blocks)

TickTick Premium (offer pomodoro timer)

Hope you find this helpful! ⭐️

Here’s a short post that I made while procrastinating studying for my quantum mechanics class that is very heavy on the math :)