Out With The Sloppy Last Minute Notes And In With The New!

For us students, Sunday is universally hated day. Full of last minute homework assignments, cramming for tests and existential crises, Sundays are almost always awful. Nothing is worse than having a stressful start to your week so in an effort to make things easier for all us, I made a Sunday Checklist for you get your life in order on Sundays so that you don’t get swept away by your mountain of responsibilities. 

Pull out your planner: Enter in all test dates and due dates that haven't already been inputed. Check to see what you have going on that week. 

Make a to-do list: Include all assignments due Monday/Tuesday and anything else you need to get done. Highlight or mark high priority items and get them done first. 

Start working: Finish high priority assignments first and then move on to the less pressing tasks. Use the Pomodoro technique to keep yourself productive. 

Review material: After finishing your assignments, spend some time reviewing last week’s material for each class to refresh yourself. It’s easy to forget what you’re studying if you don’t touch your textbooks at all during the weekends. 

Clean out your bag: Empty your backpack and reorganize everything for the week. You’ll be amazed at how much trash and stray papers you’ll find. 

Make food for the week: If you’re like me and hate cafeteria food, make a few dishes and refrigerate them for the week. Pasta is an ideal choice for me because its not only fairly easy to make but it packs lots of calories for long school days. 

Pick out your outfits for the week: Doing this will make your morning so much easier because literally all you have to do is get yourself dressed. 

Laundry: Getting laundry done during the week usually never happens with a busy schedule so get it done on Sunday night so you’re not scrambling for clothes mid-week. 

Clean your room: Keep your sanity during week by tidying your room up during weekends so you’re not left wondering where that homework assignment disappeared to. 

If you find yourself having really busy weekdays, try your best to keep Sundays free of any commitments so you have a full day to get all your homework and studying for the week done! I usually get everything done on Sundays and do minimal studying during the week. Also push yourself to get up early on Sundays; I know its tempting to sleep in but you will be surprised at how much more time you have in your day when you wake up early. 

Here’s to a happy school year free of stress! 

-Ramya // futurecristinayang

Hello, On september 2nd, i got the news that my mom had passed away, because of that, i missed almost 2 and half weeks of class, i take 4 college classes and was wondering if you have any tips on getting back on track. I could really use motivation

I’m so sorry for your loss, sweetheart. 

Here are some things you should do first:

Ask your teachers for advice: You can ask them for any hand outs you might have missed, ask them for practice tests, ask them what you can do to catch up, ask them to explain difficult bits after school,…

Ask friends/ classmates for their notes or help: If they don’t want to give your their notes, just ask them to explain things if your teachers don’t have time! 

Read through your textbooks and start making summaries: If you’re pretty much alone on this one, start by annotating and summarising your textbooks. You’ll be able to study and learn on your own.

some links:

a guide to motivation

v nice printables

the studyspo tag

how to start studying right after school

some good study playlists

buy some cute stationary

self care masterpost

self discipline 

motivational quotes

motivational wallpapers

My Bullet Journal! An In-Depth Guide

It has been HIGHLY requested for me to do a full, in-depth guide or post about my bullet journal.. so here it is!  I’m new to my bullet journal as well, so I’m sure as I go I’ll learn more and more about it and figure out little things that work for me, but for right now, here’s what I do!

As I said before, my “style” for this bullet journal was inspired by another studyblr: staticsandstationary.  The top banners and such are all from her styled bullet journal.  They looked fairly simple and I thought that they would work perfectly for me as well! I will list all of the materials that I use at the end of this post, and if you have questions as to where the stickers are from, just send me a message and I will try and link you right to it!

I’m going to go through it with you section-by-section, so I hope this is helpful! I plan on doing a video on this next week as well, if that’s something you guys are interested in.


Photo 1: Legend and Index

When you first open my bullet journal, this is what you see!  On the left is my legend.  This includes all of the different types of bullets I have and what they mean, and then a few color variations for personal things and work things. When it comes to school work, I use different colors for different subjects, but I plan on creating separate legends on a page at the beginning of each semester.

On the right side is the beginning of my index.  This is something I keep going throughout the use of my bullet journal.  Every time I enter into a new month, I put the page numbers for the end of the previous month and the beginning of the new month.  It seems silly, but the further you get into your journal, the much more convenient it will be to have in order to find certain pages.

Photo 2: Index and Fall Schedule

Here is my next page.  On the left is a blank area where I plan to continue the index.  I wasn’t sure how much space I would need for the index or whether or not I would do subcategories within each month, so to be safe, I included a second page.

On the right side is my class schedule for the Fall.  In hindsight, I would have liked to include this later in my journal, probably in the month of August, which is the month that this schedule will begin.  Oh well.  Hindsight is 20/20, right?

Photo 3: April Monthly View and Expenses

On the left is April’s monthly view.  I go down the line and put the numbers for the date as well as the first letter of the day of the week.  It helps me keep track of things at a glance.  This month only has beginning at the 15th, because that’s when I started my bullet journal.  I used different colors for different courses (this was around finals time).  I didn’t include those in my legend because they were the same colors I’d been coordinating with all semester, so I knew them by heart and didn’t feel the need to include them.  Pink still accounts for my personal tasks and events and orange is work-related things.

On the right begins the expenses.  This is for the month of April only.  I sort all of my expenses per month because I find that it makes it much easier to flip to your most recent expenses.  I don’t have a key for the colors in this either.. but oh well.  For these, I have three different colors: green, blue, and orange.  Green means that it was a reasonable and unavoidable expense (groceries, gasoline, etc.).  Blue means that it was a fairly reasonable expense but not 100% necessary.  It’s my in-betweeny.  Orange means that it could have been avoided (fast food, impulse buys, etc.).  I created a chart where I put the item on the left and the price on the right.

Photo 4: May Monthly View and Expenses

Here is May’s monthly view and expense page.  Yes, I skipped past some pages for April’s daily calendar.  I will show you those for May.

Photo 5: May Monthly Spread

Here is the first weekly spread for the month of May.  I create these to-do lists as I go, usually the night before.  As you can see on Friday, when I go shopping, I include the shopping list of the things that I purchased on a post-it note and I leave it on that particular day.  This way, I can keep track of when I bought certain items.

This is also when I started incorporating my stickers (:

Photo 6: May Monthly Spread

Here is another weekly spread.

Photo 7: May Monthly Spread and June Monthly View

Here begins the monthly view for June.  Yes, I planned ahead for you guys to kind of give a better example.  This monthly spread obviously doesn’t have a lot going on yet.  As I go through the month, I’ll add things to the monthly view.  I don’t keep everything in the monthly view, obviously.  Just large events or things tI need to remember at a broader glance.

Again, if you have any questions as to where any of the stickers are from, don’t hesitate to message me!

Photo 8: June Expenses and June Weekly Spread

This is my most recent page.  Obviously, June 1st is about a week off.  I planned ahead here so I could show you what I have been doing.  I got a few questions about planning ahead.  What if you have tasks you know that you need to get done on a future date?  What do you do to remember them?  I actually haven’t mastered this yet.  I still use my Lily Pulitzer agenda for that.  I keep all of my to-do lists for future dates in there, and then when it’s time to fill out my bullet journal, I refer to it and go from there.  for now, I’ve been planning on things that I need to do when I get back from Florida.  Those things are in pencil on the bottom right (if you can see it!).  I wanted to include that as a little tip.  You can always use pencil or post-its and erase and remove them later!

I hope this was helpful for all of you guys!  

Here’s a list of the supplies that I use:

Moleskine Large Squared Hardcover Journal

BIC Cristal Pens (Bold for Colors)

Stickers - Ask me!

Thanks for all the suggestions. If you have more, just send me a fan mail!

Studying & Testing

time management

help on reading and research

help with memorizing and testing

learn how to study

google citations

googling tips

citing social media

awesome study tips

study techniques 

tips for a productive study break

How to study

study tips

How To Pull An All Nighter And Do Well On An Exam

thinking & memorizing tips

how to get motivated to study

Make flashcards

tips to help you focus

chrome site blocker

time management & motivating yourself tips

Study tips

Learning

Solve any math equation

Solve any math equation (2)

Alternative to Wikipedia

Square Root Calculator

Cube Root Calculator

Expression Simplifier

Multi Step Equation Calculator

Slope Intercept Equation Maker

Can’t Do Your Homework?

Chemical Equation Balancer

Cliffsnotes

Sparknotes

PurdueOWL

Take online college courses

How to multiply big numbers

Science equations simplified 

Teaches Everything

Crash Course

Solve any math problem

Online calculator

Simplified science formulas

Teaches you any subject

Essays

Essay Structure Guide

bibliography maker

How to cite

how to write an essay

google citations

social media citation guide

The Five-Paragraph Essay

Using Punctuation Marks

Deadly Sins Checklist

Formatting Your Paper

Writing About Literature

Basic Essay

Revision Checklist

Planning and Organization

Editing and Proofreading

Latin Terms

Essay Structure

Tips on Introducing Quotes

Academic Writing Tips

How to write an essay

Dealing With Stress

yoga poses for stress relief

about relaxation techniques

Music/Sound:

calm/nature sounds

chill playlist

coffee shop blues

coffee shop sounds

concentration playlist

relaxation

study playlist

4hours of classical music

calm.com

rainymood.com

4 hours of classical music

good background study mixes 1 2 3 4 5

Study Break Suggestions

really good basic tips

MIT study break tips

how to be productive on a break

how long to nap

how to pull an all-nighter

Notetaking

How to Take Notes on Power Point Slides

How to Read Hard Readings

The Art of Pseudo-Skimming

Rapid Note-Taking With the Morse Code Method

Accelerate Q/E/C Note-Taking

The Story Telling Method

Taking Notes from Research Reading

Dorm Life/Socializing

how to deal with a roommate you hate

creative ways to organize your dorm

avoiding big mistakes when picking a major

how to have a healthy college relationship

making friends in college

college packing list

how to bond with your roommate

pros and cons of joining a sorority

why being single in college is okay

adjusting back to school after a semester abroad

making the most of your college years

Dorm room survival

Health/Safety:

what to do if you think you’ve been drugged

how to deal with a hangover

dealing with loneliness

Rape Escape

falling asleep tips

How long to sleep

how to talk to and help an anxiety-ridden friend

how to wake up in the morning

keep taking your mind off of it

mental illness recovery tips

need a motivational speech? i like this one for myself.

not having a good day? :c

picking up a hobby can relax you during the school year!!

seriously just please try to relax ily

take your mind off of it

tips on self-love

when to go to sleep/wake up

working out is a total stress-buster.

Classes/Programs

choosing a study abroad program

what to do if you want to transfer

what to do if you have a bad professor

find out about your professors before you register

scholarships and financial aid

Food:

10 cooking hacks to get more bang for your buck

essential foods to keep in your dorm

eating healthy in a dining hall

cheap & healthy snacks

chocolate muffin in a mug tutorial

Coffee recipes to help stay awake

Every Starbucks drink and pasty

For the vegans 

quick and easy soup recipes

study snacks i ii iii iv v

thousands of quick and easy snack recipes

Yummy cheesiness!

40 on-the-go breakfast recipes

Money:

8 places to snag student discounts and deals

7 money tips for college students

5 ways to survive college on a budget

tips for saving money in college

Success Tips:

how to make the most of your course syllabus

developing discipline as a freshman

using the urgency vs. importance matrix to get stuff done

8 things successful students consistently do

35 valuable tips for successful students

4 types of apps college students need to use

how to create structure in college with a calendar and a to-do list

how to deal with homesickness

Staying Motivated to do Well

How Can I Stay Motivated and Finish My School Work?

25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself

Get motivated to study

How to survive freshman year

Other

Cheat sheet for becoming an adult

Surviving college

Finals survival guide

Studying strategies 

Homework help

Flashcards

CrashCourse

App that helps you manage your time

Citation tool

Can’t remember a word?

techniques for studying and learning

5 Tips when it comes to Mind Mapping

1) Decide on your paper size Before you start writing anything it’s really important to work out what size paper you want to do your mindmap on. Be it A3, A4, A5 or any other size you can think of, deciding this early on will make things much easier in the long run and leave you with a much more organised mind map

2) Work out the basics Before you actually start writing anything it’s a really good idea to work out the basics of your mind map. What type of bubble do you want the title to be in? Spiky or a cloud or just a plain circle? What kind of lines to you want leading off from it? Arrows or just plain lines? Straight or curved? Taking 30 seconds to work these out before you start will make everything much easier in the long run and leave you with a much neater and better organised mind map

3) Choose what to write with This part is all down to personal preference. Do you prefer writing in a plain colour and then highlighting later? Do you want each section in a different colour? Felt tips or biros? Fineliners or pencils? This is the time when you can think about what you’re most comfortable writing with and what’s going to make it easiest for you to retain the information 

4) Add pictures and diagrams Adding little drawings to aid your explanations is a really great way to help you remember what you write. You don’t have to be good at art to make this work, just add a few little diagrams here and there and you’ll be surprised how much more easily you retain the information

5) Have fun with it You may be looking at a picture of a mind map online and saying to yourself ‘that’s exactly what I want mine to look like’ but in reality that’ll never happen. You’ll never manage to get a mind map that looks exactly the same as someone else’s and in all honesty that would be a bit boring. Instead just get stuck in and create your own unique masterpiece

How to Study Like a Harvard Student

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Preliminary Steps 1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you. 2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24. General Principles 3. Study less, but study better. 4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs. 5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 6. Write it down. 7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done. Plan of Attack Phase I: Class 8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. 9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something. Phase II: Study Time 10. Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair. 11. Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.” 12. Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done. 13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t. Phase III: Assignments 14. Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead. 15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady. 16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes. 17. Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on. 18. Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything. Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week) 20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe. 21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet. 22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom. 23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor. 24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad. 25. Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point. Phase V: Exam Day 26. Crush exam. Get A.

Are the habits you have today on par with the dreams you have for tomorrow?

Something my coach texted me today. She had no idea how much I needed to hear this (via chasingapr)

Studying When On Your Period

If you’re like me, that period thing can be a life-ruiner. Your mood-swings are off the charts. You have to pee all the time. Some days you go through more tampons/pads than you want to admit (even if you change it “just to be safe”). The back pain is killing you. And don’t even get me started on the cramps from hell.

But life doesn’t stop just because you started menstruating. You still have an essay due; that exam on Friday is still happening. You need to study when all you want to do is curl up and watch Clueless for the 106th time.

Let me share the knowledge I gathered over the last 6-7 years of menstruation & school/uni.

Wear something comfortable. If you have to go to class, you don’t need to look like a super model. Leggings (or sweat pants) and an oversized shirt will do. You’re there for the knowledge, not other people’s approval of your jeans’ fit.

Get comfortable. If you can study at home, choose a study spot that allows you to get into a comfortable position. (Lying on my side is my go-to anti-cramp position.) If you need a smooth surface, take a kitchen tray into bed with you. You might even want to invest in a laptop table. They’re as cheap as £2.90 (Ikea) or £9 (Ikea)

Take a hot water bottle with you. Even to class. (I’ve sat with a bright red hottie in lectures before…) The heat will help your muscles relax and soothe the cramps. It even serves as a natural pain-killer. (More info here.)  

Drink water. Lots of it. Even if you’re going to have to pee every 30 minutes. You’re losing blood. Staying hydrated is vital!

You might want to get iron supplements. If your period is very heavy, you might be losing too much blood too quickly. Which means the iron levels in your body are dropping, making you more tired than usual. (And causing worse pain than usual.) Look into iron-rich foods or get iron supplements from the pharmacy. The ones I have taste like cherry. :) (More info here and here)

Take breaks. During your period, your life can seem extra stressful and you just want to curl up and watch Netflix. That’s okay. Do that. But only watch one episode. Then it’s back to work.

Try doing Yoga. If your cramps aren’t too bad and you can somewhat move (there have been days when I was barely able to walk to the bathroom), you can try doing some yoga. You don’t even have to invest in a yoga book or class or instrucional DVDs. There are lot of yoga videos on youtube. Start off easy. You just want to relax your muscles and calm your mind. You can exercise when the blood has stopped pouring out of you.

Take those pain killers if you need them. If all else fails and those damn cramps won’t stop and you have to get to class and get your shit together, you should take some pain killers. Please be aware of the negative effects that chemical drugs can have on your body! A lot of pain killers can have nasty side effects if you take too many of them. Don’t let (non-medical professional) others limit your intake – but limit yourself. Only you know your body and how bad the pain is. If you need medicine to deal with the pain, that’s okay. Make sure you don’t take more than you need though.

Please feel free to add to this list. Let’s make life a little easier for all the female students on tumblr!

Crunch Day Studying:

Maybe you’re super ahead and want some pointers, or maybe you have a day or two before your exam(s) and you aren’t where you wanted to be. Life happens, you procrastinate, have fears of failure, saw your last set of grades, had a shitty schedule and sleep cycles to boot. 

I) First things first:

Go eat breakfast/lunch, keep refined sugar on the down-low to avoid spikes and mood-ruiners. Set a limit to how much caffeine you drink on the days before, because sleep is king. Grab some fruit and water to keep fueled for your trek.

Meet with a friend. 10 minutes, maybe even with your food. Get a quick hug, exchange a few words, just make sure you see a human face before you lock up so you don’t lose your humanity in the process. 

Take a quick shower if necessary, and at least wash your hands as a gesture to the sanctity of what’s to come.

Take a nap if necessary: trust me, just 20 minutes.

Set a bedtime alarm: and get 8 hours in for as many days as you can before your exam. Studying is all about programming those neurons to do the work on command, not treating them like slaves to your ideals of self-discipline and hardwork.

Clear some headspace: 5-10 minutes so you have a bubble to sit and study in, and nothing smells bad. If you’re feeling really energetic then run and put your laundry in and set up your laundry alarms. 

II) Environment: 

Silence your phone

Prepare your weapons: keep pens, stickies, paper, and printer at hand. And clear off that desk.

Light it up: Bring them over and turn it all on. I have a lamp and a million christmas lights attached to the underside of my bunk/over my desk

Get cozy: I wrap myself in my big fluff blanket and cannot study without it, #noshame

Not too cozy: don’t even look at your bed. Mine is lofted and hours go by if I ever get stuck up there. 

Put on some sounds or earplugs: contrary to popular belief most of us study better in silence, but some atmospheric pieces are listed below.

Gather your materials: printed notes and review questions in a binder

Set up your laptop: if you use it to study at all. I find it helpful if you:

close down all distractions: no steam, no calibre/ebooks, NO NANOWRIMO, no social media, no youtube/music, no anime, no manga, no photoshop, no fruityloops, etc whatever you do. 

have audacity: I record my entire study session, talking to myself in third person/teaching my friend Audacity how to do stuff because I love my friends but can’t trust them with my (academic) life. 

put up motivational photos: I open up some pictures on half my screen, like the one listed above (and more at then end of this post). The trick is to say “this is me, Imma do it” everytime you glance at it. 

use wordpad or evernote: they will suffice to generate that final study guide/practice exam: color code in whatever makes you happy, keep it under 5. Study method below:

III) One of many methods:

Take a practice exam/problem sets to determine your weakest sections (ahaha like the SATs), and to get a feel for the professor’s question style.

Make Outline of entire exam’s topics, thinking of that practice exam.

Fill in points, slide by slide (I digested the slides beforehand and wrote in sample test questions). Very effective for content heavy classes. 

Bold terms/concepts: especially if they showed up in the practice exam. (blue)

Make summary questions for each important bullet/subtopic, as you go (red)

Make test questions - finish each section, reflect, and write higher level, test questions (purple)

Mark down: Highlight anything that you need to review more. 

Test yourself using those questions, add in questions as necessary. Create a second study guide to focus on your weakest points for further refining. 

Have fun:

Sounds: sometimes it’s loud and generated noise is necessary (examples listed from white noise to musical)

SPACE ODYSSEY | Deep White Noise For Focus, Power Naps or Sleep | Sounds Like Star Trek TNG Engine

3 Hour Focus Music: Study Music, Alpha Waves, Calmi ng Music, Concentration Music ☯465

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim OST- All explore tracks - good if you need to do creative work or want to add emotional memory to your facts. “Broken Road” is exceptionally distracting for me though, so I’d use this at the tail of a study session.

Extended OSTs - mostly video game soundtracks 

More Motivational Photos: keep your favorites on your desktop or something

This Blog

r/getmotivated

Handle it ☕️