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self discipline tips

here are tips I discovered very recently:

something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.

second drafts / reviews can be done after.

Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.

don’t think about doing it. just do it as fast as you can.

build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.

if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.

this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.

be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!

set smaller deadlines for your goals

have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines

e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.

take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.

write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want

on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.

it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.

spread daily tasks in the time necessary.

have a consistent sleep schedule.

if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.

have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!

(don’t forget these are effective only if you actually put them into practice! good luck babes!!)

Urgh. Enjoy??? (I started making this six months ago so I’m obviously v productive) ✩✫✬✭✯✮✶✷

since my last masterpost on mind maps was successful i thought i’d make a masterpost about general studying! this way i get to share with you guys what i’ve found out over the years with my personal experience! 

your study space

the space you choose to study is really important! it can be in your bedroom, another place in ur house, library, cafe, a park, etc

it should be somewhere u can focus + concentrate without distractions

have more than one place to pick from in case u ever need to change a little or can’t use one

lighting is really important. good natural lighting is always best; try to find a place where the light comes from your left if you’re a righty or from the right if you’re a lefty – you’ll thank me when ur writing and u can see everything perfectly

if ur in ur room, figure out whether having motivational quotes/pics on your walls help u or distract u – for me, i like to have a couple but not many, and mostly motivational quotes + sticky notes with the stuff i need to get done

keep it organised! u can use drawers to keep ur suplies so that they aren’t all laying around when ur studying if u don’t need them

lay out everything u need when ur about to start studying so that u don’t have to get up to get this or that all the time

study methods

it’s great to try out many different ones!

you’ll always have a couple u prefer but don’t be afraid to experiment

masterpost by @heystudy

masterpost by @etudiance

flashcards are awesome for memorizing + testing yourself! here are some tips for making them by @tbhstudying

here’s a great alternative for flashcards by @studyign!

mind maps are great for linking information + understanding + condensing. here’s a link to my masterpost!

rewriting notes is an awesome way to revise! 

when u rewrite ur notes, u can color code them + add lil drawings + diagrams, make them more visual overall

great masterpost on visual/aesthetically pleasing notes by @areistotle

if they’re available, always try to find old exams and take them to practice! u can take them under exam conditions or not, whatever helps u the most

background music

first of all, u need to figure out whether u work better with or without background music, because it may end up distacting u

if u don’t want music but still need background noise, u can listen to white noise or ambient noise!

classical music is awesome; studies have shown that it benefits the brain, sleep patterns + stress levels

u can listen from playlists on 8tracks, spotify or youtube vids [i prefer 8tracks]

check out my #music tag for great playlists + masterposts!!

pomodoro method

you’ve probably heard of it all over the studyblr community and that’s because it’s awesome

here’s a link to the official site!

it’s great for helping u focus; i work better like this because i couldn’t study for an hour straight if my life depended on it, + i still get everything done!

however, don’t adapt yourself to the times it sets for u but the other way around – if you’re working and the 25 minutes are done but u still feel like u can continue, you’re motivated and focused, go on! 

don’t know what to do in those breaks? here’s the list for u!

i use forest to time myself! it’s great cause it also keeps u from checking ur phone. focusnow is a free alternative for ios

general tips

start revising early, even if u know u can cram and get good results. i used to do the last thing and even though i got really good grades i was always super stressed the day before and it made studying suck even more

avoid checking social media while studying, even tumblr for “motivation”, because you’ll inevitably get sucked into it

form a study group or find a study buddy because they’ll help u focus, u can explain to each other when u don’t understand something, etc

know everything u need to get done and prioritize

make ur notes pretty only if u have the time + it helps u

if u don’t have the time to make ur notes pretty but are a visual learner, grab a highlighter and colour code them – e.g. green for terms, yellow for definitions, pink for dates/people

figure out whether u work best in the morning, afternoon or evening. try not to study at night unless necessary + get good rest bc it helps ur brain work better

+ masterposts

studyblr-ing 101

apps for ur life

how to mind map

i hope you found this masterpost helpful!! if u have any questions or request for a masterpost, send me a message!

sofi xx

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

littleanimalgifs.tumblr.com

Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

reddit.com

Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

Back to school series #2 - HOW TO BE DISCIPLINED

Welcome to this new post of my #backtoschoolseries!! if you haven’t already checked my last back-to-school related post you can do it here :D

The main topic of this post is discipline and how you can learn to manage it. When I was repeating my first med school year I learned how to discipline myself and it let me have a life apart from my studies. I used to wake up every day at 5.45 am for my morning workout, go to uni, come back home and study, cook my meals and go to bed early enough. I was also able to spend some free time with my friends and family during the weekends. This routine helped me manage my time, gave me a sense of accomplishment and made me go to bed almost every day knowing I had my sh*t together. 

So how did I manage to develop this busy routine AND pass my first year? Continue to read! 

Know the difference between motivation and self-discipline. Motivation is what will get you started, and is powered by your WHY. WHY do you want to go to college? WHY do you want to lose 10 pounds? WHY do you want to run a marathon? All of the answers to these questions are the main motor of your motivation. And motivation is the motor of discipline. Discipline is what will make you study every day so you’ll have those grades that will make you get into the college of your dreams. Discipline is what will make you wake up at 6 am every morning to go for a run. In other terms, discipline is what you need in order to keep going and stay on track. Discipline can’t exist without motivation and motivation is nothing without discipline. 

We all practice discipline is some aspects of our life. For some of us, it will be waking up every morning at a reasonable hour in order to not be late for school. For others, it will be taking their medication every day in order to stay healthy. So stop telling yourself you don’t have any discipline or willpower because you won’t even be reading this post otherwise.

Discipline is a skill, and like every other skill, it has to be practiced every day. You have to put effort and focus in what you want to achieve and sometimes you’ll have to literally force yourself to get things done. Like I said in my previous post about motivation, no one really wants to wake up at 6 every morning to do a workout, especially if it’s dark and cold outside, and that your bed is begging you to stay.

Know yourself, and know what your weaknesses are. When you acknowledge these, you can find strategies to overcome them. If you want to go to bed earlier but you’re always on your phone till late at night, try to force yourself to put your phone in another room when you go to bed. If you’re always distracted by your Instagram notifications whilst studying, put your phone in airplane mode, or delete the app from it. If you just can’t control yourself over junk food, just don’t buy it. Remove every temptation so you’ll only focus on what’s important.

Plan your days ahead and plan your future. Again, ask yourself WHY you want to be disciplined, and WHAT the willpower you want to develop will bring into your life. The advantages of you being more disciplined have to overcome the reasons why you shouldn’t be, and that’s how motivation comes in the way.

Know that sometimes sh*t happens. That’s why you need a plan B. Having a backup plan doesn’t mean you don’t believe in your dreams, it just means that you are some kind of realistic about life and you know that it doesn’t always go as you wished it would. Having a plan B will make everything a bit more flexible and you’ll feel less anxious about your goals.

If you’re trying but you just can’t find any willpower in what you want to do, ask yourself if there’s something that’s preventing you from being disciplined. Are you sure you’re doing whatever you’re doing because you want it? Or are you doing it to please someone else? Are you scared of the outcome? Do you feel something is going wrong? It’s really important for you to have this little talk with yourself so you can focus on what you really want in your life because when your goals are genuine and clear, motivation comes by itself and discipline will follow. 

Remember that it’s ok to screw up sometimes. You are not a robot and it is totally normal to have days where you don’t feel like it. Resting is also part of the process and will help you clear your vision and regain all the precious energy you need :) Forgive and take care of yourself!

I honestly think this post should be related to my post about motivation (if you haven’t read it already, I invite you to do it now!) 

As usual, I hope these tips will be useful! I’m curious to know how do you guys practice discipline :) 

(PS : sorry for my english)

Studygram 

Good luck! (ᵔᴥᵔ)

Bob Ross cares about me

Forget overpriced schools, long days in a crowded classroom, and pitifully poor results.

These websites and apps cover myriads of science, art, and technology topics.

They will teach you practically anything, from making hummus to building apps in node.js, most of them for free.

There is absolutely no excuse for you not to master a new skill, expand your knowledge, or eventually boost your career.

You can learn interactively at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home. It’s hard to imagine how much easier it can possibly be.

Honestly, what are you waiting for?

Take an online course

edX — Take online courses from the world’s best universities.

Coursera — Take the world’s best courses, online, for free.

Coursmos — Take a micro-course anytime you want, on any device.

Highbrow — Get bite-sized daily courses to your inbox.

Skillshare — Online classes and projects that unlock your creativity.

Curious — Grow your skills with online video lessons.

lynda.com — Learn technology, creative and business skills.

CreativeLive — Take free creative classes from the world’s top experts.

Udemy — Learn real world skills online.

Learn how to code

Codecademy — Learn to code interactively, for free.

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Udacity — Earn a Nanodegree recognized by industry leaders.

Platzi — Live streaming classes on design, marketing and code.

Learnable — The best way to learn web development.

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Treehouse — Learn HTML, CSS, iPhone apps & more.

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Dash — Learn to make awesome websites.

Learn to work with data

DataCamp — Online R tutorials and data science courses.

DataQuest — Learn data science in your browser.

DataMonkey — Develop your analytical skills in a simple, yet fun way.

Learn new languages

Duolingo — Learn a language for free.

Lingvist — Learn a language in 200 hours.

Busuu — The free language learning community.

Memrise — Use flashcards to learn vocabulary.

Expand your knowledge

TED-Ed — Find carefully curated educational videos

Khan Academy — Access an extensive library of interactive content.

Guides.co — Search the largest collection of online guides.

Squareknot — Browse beautiful, step-by-step guides.

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Prismatic — Learn interesting things based on social recommendation.

Bonus

Chesscademy — Learn how to play chess for free.

Pianu — A new way to learn piano online, interactively.

Yousician— Your personal guitar tutor for the digital age.

hello pals!! this is a masterpost of half (or so) of the reference posts i reblogged/made. i tried uploading this masterpost as just one big masterpost but i had over 250 links so that failed and here i am again. here is part one, encapsulating studying + certain subjects which will be followed by part two (slightly more general) here! enjoy ✨

studying, school, + learning

what i’ve learnt throughout my years of being a student

notes, studying, and self-study resources

self-study resources

starting a studyblr

college + uni

how to get studying

online study guides

good habits

exams!

study management

school is starting soon

back to school (1)

back to school (2)

back to school (3)

back to school reminders

50 things to know for back to school

get prepared for a new school year

school resources

final grade calculator

writing emails to professors

cheap textbooks etc!!

save money on textbooks

school

first week of school stuff

testing effect

make studying fun

high school tips

101 study tips

types of learners

lazy kid’s guide to good grades

catching up on missed work

university tag

igcse resources

sat tag

act tag

ap tag

ib tag

a-level revision tips

diy school supplies

test taking tips

a complete guide to studying (well)

time to study!

groupwork (1)

groupwork (2)

tips tag

study effectively from textbooks

studying better

surviving your least favourite class

studying a subject you hate

success

doing research

understanding the question

pomodoro

study tips

tactile learning

how to concentrate

concentration

exam day

ultimate study masterpost

study tips for exams

school survival

studying on the go

how to read academic journal articles

how to study smart

how to remember anything in 3 steps

distraction-free studying

motivation

my study instagram + study blog

+ motivation links

motivation masterpost

stay motivated

get that homework done!

reaching goals

getting motivated

motivation through anime

writing

writing tag

recover an unsaved draft

uni writing resources

add citations!

annotating (1)

annotating (2)

advice for writing papers

writing helps

essay writing tips

how to write an essay

writing term research papers

active vs passive voice

writing masterpost

academic writing resources

essay checklist

reduce your word count

essay writing links

how to write and execute a huge piece of work

summary writing

the discursive/argumentative essay

the narrative essay + the descriptive essay

note-taking

note-taking in class

cornell note-taking

cornell (2)

lecture notes

illustrating notes

banners

maintaining good notes

note-taking

sticky notes

flashcards

colour-code + highlight effectively

colour-coding

studying from textbooks

study guides

upgrade your notes

illustrate your notes

mind maps

note-taking for different lecture types

ribbon drawing

smart highlighting

lettering ideas

how i take notes

note-taking tips

aesthetically pleasing notes

fake cursive notes

languages + literature

the ultimate english masterpost

shakespeare

literature masterpost

annotating

studying a foreign language

100+ legal sites to download literature

approaching poetry analysis

write a killer unprepared text essay

literary analysis research papers

classics

how to ace lit

reading lit

write a rhetorical analysis essay

practice oral comprehension!!

how i study for english lit

poetry analysis (1)

poetry analysis (2)

how i learn languages

self-studying languages

languages tag

how to open a new book

literary devices

literaty devices w/ printables

literature masterpost

grow your vocab

a guide to vocab

language learning tips + resources

SUPER IMPORTANT FOR POLYGLOTS

tips + tricks for learning a language

chinese

english

french

german

greek

italian

japanese

korean

latin

maltese

polish

russian

spanish

swedish

humanities + other subjects

studying humanities subjects

gathering materials for a humanities research paper

philosophy

philosophy tag

psychology tag

politics + government

women of wwi

ap world history

coding

design resources

sciences + math

how to memorise diagrams

biology (1)

biology (2)

studying biology

biology help

biology note-taking

anatomy + physiology

physiology

physics

ap physics

chemistry (1)

chemistry (2)

chemistry note-taking

studying chemistry

maths tag

how to study for math

how to study math (1)

how to study math (2)

math (1)

math (2)

math (3)

10 tips to excel in maths

avoid carelessness in calculations

succeed in math without really trying

math resources and links

algebra (1)

algebra (2)

precalculus

geometry

space + astronomy (1)

space + astronomy (2)

hope this helps + please check out part 2 as well!! ilysm 💗 

ps here is a list of all my masterposts just in case 🐝

- helena xx