• Deep clean your room - I’m talking about stripping the bed, going through clothes, papers, and belongings and having no mercy. Sweeping and damp mopping the floors. Dusting surfaces. Finding new homes for those miscellaneous items that just sit there in the way.
• Delete old contacts - I went from having maybe 30-40 contacts to 14. In other words, delete contacts you haven’t messaged or called in the last two weeks to a month (if so long). If they text you don’t be afraid or feel guilty for asking who it is.
• Go through your music library - Play all your songs and if you skip a song delete it without hesitation. The next time you hit shuffle on your playlist you won’t even notice it’s gone. What if you get in the mood for the song? That’s what YouTube is for my friend… or just add the song back onto your phone.
• Go through clothes - That dress you haven’t worn once in the past year- donate/toss it. The shirt you swear fits if you don’t raise your arms- get rid of it. Those worn out clothes- dump them. *Of course there can be exceptions but within reason.
• Journal/Do a brain dump - Write down any thoughts to cleanse your mind. Any ideas you might have. Good things that happened that day. Bad things that happened. Things you’re grateful for. It helps so much. Try it for at least three days straight and you’ll notice how much better you feel. Problems might not disappear completely but it’ll give you the strength to get through another day.
• Don’t try to force things to work out - It’s so hard and it can be upsetting when things don’t, but sometimes the best thing you can do for you is accept the way (some)things are.
• Don’t be hard on yourself for messing up -  It can be easy to physically or mentally punish yourself for making a mistake no matter how big or small, but I’ve learned that doing things like starving yourself, beating yourself  up (literally), or just scolding yourself repeatedly doesn’t improve the situation and it doesn’t improve yourself.
• Cut toxic people off - Remove them from your life physically (which sometimes takes time). Unfriend them from social media. Remove prominent traces of them from your life. It’s like suddenly a weight comes off of your shoulders.
• Practice self love -  I write/say this so often and sometimes I feel like it’s so harThe same do sometimes but it’s not. I’m talking about taking a break when you need to. Drinking water. Moisturising your skin. Getting enough sleep. Saying no. It’s the little things like that count as self love.
• Don’t run away from your problems - It’s tempting and hard but it’s important to face any problems you’re facing. No one is saying you have to be strong 24/7, only that you should try.
• Delete old files - Go through you computer, tablet, phone, USB drive etc. Delete old unimportant documents, old photos, music, apps and more.
• Clean up your daily diet - Often times you’ll have a goal for what you want your daily diet to look like but you fall off the wagon once and end up staying off. So when you notice you’ve been drinking more soda/juice, swap your next beverage for some water. Cut down your portions or eat more often if you need to instead of starving yourself. Hopefully, you get the idea.
• Reassess your goals/habits - It’s a necessary evil. Maybe you need to scratch a previous goal and pursue a new one or add a few extra steps so you reach it. The same thing goes for your habits. Maybe you need to exercise daily, or you need to break the habit of staying up on your phone instead of going to bed. Write them down and brainstorm how to build/break that habit.

• Good at helping you see relationships between ideas.
• Cause you to define a term, then see how it relates to a broader picture.
• Can help you see cause and effect, dissimilarities and similarities, and how different ideas interact.
• Maybe not good for learning what terms mean.
• Particularly useful for essay exams, policy, history, social sciences, and literature.

• Good at helping you differentiate between ideas.
• Maybe not good for comparing more than three ideas at the same time.
• Particularly useful for essay exams or if you are confused about two similar terms.

• Good at helping you place events in relative order.
• Maybe not good if you need to define events as well (there may not be enough space to do so).
• Particularly useful for exams that require you to memorize relative order, history, and literature.

• Good at helping you memorize short bytes of information.
• Maybe not good for learning complex concepts or connecting concepts.
• Particularly useful for learning vocabulary, foreign languages, and English.

• Similar to flashcards, but it is easier to see the differences between terms.
• Disadvantaged in that the order you see the terms is not random.

• Good at helping you learn how to do methodical problems.
• Maybe not good for learning the reason why you do the steps you do.
• Particularly useful for math and science.

• Good at helping you review concepts thoroughly.
• Maybe not good if you are on a time crunch or find yourself not thinking through each word you’re writing.
• Particularly useful for classes with a lot of details.

• Good at helping you see the main idea/big picture/key facts.
• Maybe not good if you want to see the relationships between ideas or if the ideas are very complex.
• Particularly useful for cramming.

• Good at helping you understand concepts.
• Maybe not good if you don’t know anything at all.
• Particularly useful for all classes!

• Good at helping you review very quickly.
• Maybe not good for memorizing or learning concepts.
• Particularly useful for skimming right before a test.

Organizers plan to continue workshops and host 2020 event

FERNDALE, Mich. — As the Transgender Day of Visibility approaches, two trans-led organizations, Transcend the Binary and Gender Identity Network Alliance, are celebrating a successful “Trans Day of Artivism” event and beginning plans for another event in 2020 due to an overwhelming response from the community this year.

“We couldn’t…

• self soothing.  having a toolbox to take care of yourself by yourself. bc sometimes nobody else is available and you just gotta put some lotion on, listen to a tune, and go to bed early. 
• checking in. checking in with yourself to see if you’re okay. knowing how to alter your strategies when your strategies aren’t working. knowing when your strategies aren’t working. this is just taking some time every day to reflect on what goals you didn’t meet and why and what you can do to fix that.
• there’s nothing you “should” be doing. if you get caught up thinking “i should be doing x” that’s false! stop that! “should” be doing better implies that you have some obligation to do whatever it is that you “should” be doing. you don’t owe anybody except yourself. analyze why you think you should be doing that thing and change that into…. “i want to be doing x because…” or “doing x will make me happier, because…”. overall, more productive and less self-shamey. 
• disconnecting from the crowd. eating in a crowded dining hall can be stressful! knowing how to be alone in a crowd and stay calm is helpful
• being okay with being alone.  tbh college is kind of… being alone a lot, in my experience. even though you’re surrounded by people, a lot of time is spent alone. making friends is hard. your friends have different schedules. you’re busy. shit sucks. we make the best of it.
• knowing yourself. this relates to a lot of what i’ve already said but like. knowing your emotional state and knowing what helps trick the monkey brain is helpful. stop repressing your feelings, friends.
• talking to strangers. ordering from a menu! paying library fines. going to office hours. asking for a cashier at the register if there isn’t one. ya this is hard. ya you gotta expose yourself. sometimes i just try playing a persona. like this isn’t me ordering a sandwich. this is a cool me who knows how to talk to people who is ordering a sandwich.
• you don’t have to be friends with your roommates. you just have to live together in a way that doesn’t make you two hate each other. ideally, you two will coexist in a way that doesn’t interfere with the other’s daily life.
• give and taking. on the topic of roommates, sometimes your roommate can be a shitty person, but sometimes you are the shitty person! give a little but if they’re negatively impacting your life, communicate.
• communicating during disagreements. explain what your emotions are instead of blaming them. “i feel hurt when you…” or “i feel frustrated when” or “i feel unappreciated when.” if things get heated, ask if you both can take a ten minute break and then come back. and don’t bring up disagreements when the other party is preoccupied or going somewhere. you can legitimately schedule a discussion.
• it’s okay to apologize. learning to swallow your pride gets easier each time.
• knowing that people work differently than you. some people are not gonna click with you and it’s gonna seem like they have this whole brain process up there that is totally unlike yours. and yeah! that’s how it is. and that’s chill if they aren’t hurting anyone else. work with them and be flexible!! 
• comforting people. you will probably/definitely see someone cry! hell if i know how to comfort people. someone please help. but some things i’ve learned are: 1) different people need different things. different people need different things! 2) people need different things at different times. 3) you can ask them what they want and it won’t be weird. 4) apparently a lot of people like hugs? but ask. and it’s okay to not want a hug. 5) just show that you care in some way if you don’t know what they need. i used to think that if somebody needed to tell me what they needed it was a sign that i just didn’t know them well enough and we weren’t compatible or i wasn’t being a good friend. that’s fake! friendship isn’t based off of fitting naturally in every way and making an effort to be good for them is important.
• knowing it’s okay to not be liked by everyone. it’s okay if strangers think you’re dumb because you said something dumb in public. you know you’re not dumb. it’s okay if not everybody you meet likes you. it’s okay if you do something cringey. everybody has their own shit to deal with and you will not shatter their world.  grow and move on!
• forgiving yourself. i’m trying this new thing where when i feel embarrassed about something i say. out loud. “i forgive myself.” and then i just try to grow from that and move on without getting caught in a spiral of shame.
• knowing what you need vs what you want and what is better at the time. what you need: a shower. what you want: to not do that. solution: take a shower! or maybe what you actually need is to go to sleep? but guess what. you probably know what is good for you. the hard part is actually doing it.
• realize that building habits is less work than discipline. emotional effort is expended every time you have to make yourself do something. just make it part of your routine and you’ll just think it’s normal to do all the good things! like, for example, i’m trying to make it a habit to eat structured meals instead of a “eat when i’m hungry” thing because i know that makes me skip meals, which is bad!
• you won’t be able to do everything. forgive yourself for that. write down  things that are top priority and focus on them. everything else is not important right now and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for not being able to do them.
• your health is important. i’m not saying health will solve all your problems. it won’t! but health will cause a lot of your problems to go away. because let’s face it. not sleeping causes a lot of problems. 
• it’s okay to ask for help. we say this a lot but it’s hard to internalize it. here’s a thought: there’s so much shame and hesitation about asking for help so by doing that you’re actually being proactive (which is respectable) and mature, and therefore… not weak or stupid. ask for help even before you need it! most people love to help others. and especially take advantage of people who are OFFERING help. for example: counselors at school or TAs. it’s literally their job. they want to do it. and if you don’t want to talk to anybody in real life, my inbox is always open.