@striving-for-success / striving-for-success.tumblr.com
Something you may or may not know about be is that I journal. However, only recently have I gotten the hang of it and stayed loyal to the habit of journaling. Here are some tips and tricks on how you can journal successfully. Hope you like it :)
““Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.””
— Louise Hay (via amargedom)
Please, keep looking. Not for a person, but for your passion, your love, your courage, your goals, your dreams, your happiness, yourself. Keep looking. Explore yourself before you explore another. Know your worth, know yourself. Only then will you know what you need over what you want. You need yourself to become your own.
edit: i changed the title because there was a lot of misunderstanding around it, which is fine. you don’t have to do all of these to feel like you have a better life/you are a better person, however these tips do no harm, so you might as well do what you can!
When studying, most people try to find motivation thinking that this will get them through their study session, or they will see their failure as a result of a lack of motivation. While motivation might be useful in the short term, discipline is what you need in the long term to succeed.
motivation- a goal or reward that you look forward to that will encourage you to study - while this is useful, what happens on a day when you just don’t feel like studying?
discipline- being trained to routinely study regardless of how unmotivated you are - this is what will get you out of bed on a day you don’t feel like studying.
1. Just do it. Whatever the task is, whether its due in a month or due tomorrow, just get on with it. No point procrastinating because you’re wasting time. Instead you can do the task and then reward yourself! Be harsh on yourself (but not too harsh!). Set short term goals, make a to-do list, delete all social media, do whatever it takes to just get that damn task done!
2. No zero days!. whether its studying for 30 mins or 3 hours, study for some time everyday. This will help help develop a routine and make it easier for you to cope. Also, by studying everyday you’re brain will know that the content you are learning should be stored as long-term information so this will benefit you during exam season!
3. Avoid long breaks. Unless you are 100% confident that taking an hour break means ONY an hour break then you can ignore this step. But like the majority, we can get extremely distracted and our hour break can end up being a 4 hour break and then we realise it’s time to go to bed?! To avoid this, only take small breaks when you know you are losing energy/ concentration. The last thing you want is studying for 30 mins and your brain is in the mood to be productive, then you take a 15 min break and come back but realise you want a longer break and not in the mood to study anymore.
4. Be patient. It’s going to be a rough journey, it’s going to be hard but you’ve got this! Take it one step at a time. Start off by completing one task a day, then move to two, then three, and the next thing you know, you’ll have a regular routine where you will constantly be ticking off your to-do list everyday! Also, please be kind to yourself, know when your body is not in the right state of health to study and don’t force it. Only force yourself to a limit, you’ll know when to stop and that’s ok. Just try again when you feel better!
thank you for reading this and I hope this has helped, please feel free to message me!
writing conclusions in papers is like the stupidest thing ever though like what’s the point of dedicating an entire paragraph to “so yeah i know you just read my paper but this is a summarization of what you read in case you need to be reminded about what you just read” like why can’t the paper just end
I keep seeing this post and similar ones, and if y'all’s teachers and professors have left you with the idea that a conclusion is a summary, they have failed you in a big way.
Your conclusion is your “so what’s the fucking point” section. You’ve given you’re reader a lot of info and now they need to know why they care. Depending on the type of paper you should be giving a plan of action, explaining how this knowledge changes our understanding of the topic, link your paper to other disciplines, suggest further areas of study, etc.
One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received is that if you can’t envision yourself dropping the mic and strutting off stage at the end of your conclusion then it’s probably not strong enough.
“So whats the fucking point” is more helpful than all 6 years I’ve probably been writing papers
Listen up, chucklefucks: I have a point to make.
Some shit went down. Here are the receipts.
Here is the tea.
^ Introduction, supporting paragraphs, conclusion: a basic essay structure.
There are three major things to put into any major essay:
The What
The “So What?”
And the “Now What?”
Your conclusion is the “Now What” — you’ve convinced your readers that they need to pay fucking attention to something, and now you tell them what to do next. It’s not just summarizing and wrapping up your main points for the sake of repeating yourself. It’s like the last five minutes of class where I’m reminding students of the big takeaways about what we learned and giving them the homework that reinforces it in a way that holds their attention while they’re trying to pack up their shit and get out.
Would’ve been nice to know this while I was in school!
This is so great! I would recommend, within each paragraph, to follow:
WHAT - HOW - WHY
- What has happened?
- How did it happen?
- Why does that matter?
Hey! so i just created my very first studygram (shameless self promo @decafstudy follow me) and one of my irl friends saw my stories and posts and asked “How many hours does your day have? ´cause mine only has 24″ and that got me thinking abt how i take the most advantage of my days to make them feel (or look) 48 hours long! Here are a few of the things I incorporate on my daily student life to be more productive!
• IF YOUR FIRST CLASS STARTS LATE IN THE MORNING WAKE UP 2 HOURS EARLIER THAN NEEDED i know, am i crazy? ok so here´s the deal. If your first class starts, let´s say, at 11:00 A.M you might be tempted to wake up at 10:00 A.M, get dressed, and head to school. Not only does this create bad habits for when you get assigned a 7:00 A.M class (which will happen) but you lose MANY HOURS OF PRECIOUS TIME. Get your 8-9 hours of sleep and do not let yourself wake up later than needed. My class sometimes starts at 11:30 A.M so i wake up at 8:00 have a nice morning, relax, work out a bit, light up a candle and get ahead on reading and work for school! Your day will start and feel more productive!
• NEVER LEAVE CLASS WITH A DOUBT ON YOUR MIND I know this might create anxiety for people who are shy and do not like asking questions during class (i am one of those people) If you feel just too scared to ask during class APPROACH THE TEACHER AFTER CLASS ENDS. as soon as he dismisses class, approach him and ask the question. If you are not able to do so DO NOT STRESS, BUT WRITE THAT QUESTION DOWN ASAP ON A POST IT AND STICK IT YOUR NOTEBOOK. that way you will have the question at hand and you can seek tutoring later and ask, or even ask a friend BUT NEVER LET A QUESTION GO, NEVER think “i will ask it later” BECAUSE YOU WON´T and IT WILL DOOM YOU. This will save so much time when you study, because all your questions will be at hand and you will know what you have to focus on studying.
• WHENEVER YOU HAVE FREE TIME, USE IT TO WORK WHILE DOING SOMETHING FUN instead of just diving head first into watching a movie, ask yourself if there is something more productive that you could be doing rn (reading ahead, reviewing, doing extra math exercises) if the answer is yes, then put that movie on mute and work while taking a peek at the movie ever once in a while. This will not only help you with discipline and learning to keep yourself from distractions, but it will occupy your free time in something that your future self will thank you for later on.
• NEVER ASSUME THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO IT LATER again, think in terms of your FUTURE SELF how much would your future self love it if instead of studying 3 days before the exam, you studied a week before it? How much would your future self love it of instead of reading until 12:00 PM tomorrow, you divided the reading between today and tomorrow? never assume that you will have spare time ahead because chances are that you won´t and you will end up with A BUNCH of work that you didn´t do and that you can´t do at the moment. FUTURE SELF THINKING has saved my life.
• LEAVE TIME OPEN FOR MENTAL HEALTH/PHYSICAL/RECREATIVE CARE as much as i always put work first, I KEEP MY THERAPIST VISIT AND MY GYM ROUTINE STABLE no matter how much work i have. This helps me feel more balanced and like i am on top of everything, not just school, feeling good=more productivity.
• POMODORO TECHNIQUE i know many people know about this but if you don´t, this is basically a studying technique in which you work or study for 25-30 minutes straight NO DISTRACTIONS and then have a 5-6 minute break, and then repeat the process as many hours as you need. This really helps me not get burnt out when I have a heavy load of work. Watching study with me videos on yt is a good way of keeping the pomodoro system going. Some good apps that I use for POMODORO are Forest and Tide.
• HAVE AN APP CARPET ON YOUR PHONE THAT IS CALLED “PRODUCTIVITY” ie. download a BUNCH of cute as hell apps that help you get motivated and organised when you look at them. This will make you more prone to look at your phone as an INSTRUMENT rather than a DISTRACTION. (my fave apps are Taskade, Forest, Tide, Brainscape and Pocket)
• Lastly, GET MOTIVATED i know this sounds cliché, but the reason why i love keeping my day busy is because i surround myself with a romanticised idea of studying. Doing these kinds of posts, following a bunch of accounts with pretty notes, having a clean room and desk, going to the library and appreciating the color scheme or sounds around you, listening to relaxing sounds or music while working, downloading many pretty apps to keep myself on track while having a cute aesthetic… all of these things might seem small, but they make you feel cleaner, more balanced and more prone to LIKING the work you do.
Anyways i know most of you already do these cause yall are on top of your game alllll the tiiiiime girl, but if any of these helps, ill be very happy!
you’ve gotta stat romanticizing your life. you gotta start believing that your morning commute is cute and fun, that every cup of coffee is the best you’ve ever had, that even the smallest and most mundane things are exciting and new. you have to, because that’s when you start truly living. that’s when you look forward to every day.
as a child, i had this really interesting way of dealing with executive dysfunction:
when i needed to do something but did not get the impulse to actually start, i counted to 20.
and at 20, i did the thing.
i started this in order to get me out of bed in the morning, and after a few weeks it was a reliable source of starting impulses. every time i hit 20, i got started.
somewhere along the way i stopped doing it, because it was weird and nobody else needed to count in order to do stuff.
it makes me wonder, how many brilliant coping skills do we loose or never develop because we live in a neurotypical world and nobody teaches us these things? because we think they’re weird, because we don’t have words for what we’re doing, because they seem to have no place in this world?
My first finals at uni are coming up in two weeks! Let me know what your favorite tips and tricks are for studying/getting through finals week
A November pep talk and a lil reminder that I have officially re-launched my Etsy shop! Click here 2 see lots of goodies and (most importantly) pre-order the 2018 pep talk calendar!
Please don’t erase the caption and always tag/link me for credit if you repost elsewhere x
All set up in one of the graduate libraries on campus, it’s such a quiet peaceful place to get some work done. 📓🎵11.18.17.
Monday: New week, new motivation, a pile of finished homework and a nicely organised pencil case. A clean, fresh bullet journal spread and empty to-do lists. Your outfit is ready for you when you wake up, prepared the night before.
Tuesday: Getting into the rhythm, your favourite tunes and morning runs. Your journal starts to fill up, cute drawings decorating the pages. The world seems slow, the week long as it has just started; yet it is chaotic at the same time.
Wednesday: Hump day. Early morning coffee and messy lecture notes, sticky notes with reminders and to-do lists, scribbling on white boards and collapsing in bed with blankets and a good book after a long day, the distant sound of rain hitting your windows.
Thursday: Grabbing brunch with friends and laughing at old memories, green smoothies and almond croissants. Friendly curious talks with your teachers and professors. Working on an assignment due weeks away and watching a movie by the fireplace.
Friday: Looking forward to the weekend, early morning study and typed notes. Going through colourful flashcards at a local cafe, friendly smiles and latte art. Going out at night and loud music blasting through your ears, walking home with friends under the cool air and peaceful stars.
Saturday: Green tea and cold water, warm showers and sleeping in. Readings and PowerPoints, looking out into the busy streets from your beautiful desk. Getting dressed up, sharp eyeliner wings and meeting with friends, engaging conversations during dinner and later crawling into the warmth and comfort of your bed.
Sunday: Lazy mornings and making pancakes in your pyjamas, finishing homework and getting a head start on next week’s readings. Dancing freely as you clean and organise and being comfortable in your own skin. Watching your favourite TV show at night and going to bed early and ready for next week.
