universityandme reblogged
palaeolithics
university week one: library visits and autumnal sunsets
universityandme reblogged
Still reeling from the realization that bullet journaling was essentially created to be a disability aid and got legit fuckin gentrified
Like I'm at work and don't have the time to properly organize my thoughts atm but like.
-bullet journalling was invented by a man with a learning disability (99% sure it was ADHD but his website now just says learning disability so I can't be 100%) as a system for organizing his life/way to work WITH his learning disability
-the general concept is bullet point the important things you need to do and use a simple system of symbols to mark whether it's done, rescheduled, cancelled, etc. with very little fanfare, keeping it all in one notebook so you know where to easily find the information at a glance
-people pick it up and it starts getting popular
-bullet journaling becomes an aesthetic movement largely populated by white neurotypicals
-bullet journaling has turned into creating an extremely pretty notebook that has some function, but largely depends on complicated decoration and aesthetic function that takes more time to set up than is tenable for the people it was created for
-new entries to bullet journaling feel pressure to shop at particular stores, use particular brands, purchase lots of stationery purely for its aesthetic value, and prioritize the artistry of the pages rather than the information being stored on them
-people who would massively benefit from the original system can only really find information on it from members of the aesthetic movement. There is now a barrier to entry for ppl with ADHD and other similar conditions, as bullet journaling now requires a focus and motivation to start that these same people often lack or struggle to maintain consistently
-bullet journaling is no longer a disability aid and has become an aesthetic movement largely for middle class white neurotypicals, pushing out the people who the system was created for to begin with
This is the original guide from the person who made bullet journalling. Super simple. Not at all high maintenance.
It was eye-opening to rewatch this after getting used to bullet journal meaning "work of highly decorative art you might journal in if it doesn't detract from the decoration" everywhere online.
universityandme reblogged
“What’s true of both the crisis situation and the daily situation is that at any given moment, you can only ever actually be doing one thing. The problem is that in everyday life we stress ourselves out – spurred on by economic forces, of course – by trying to do more than one thing; wondering if whatever we’re doing is the right thing; and driving ourselves ever harder because we’ve got one eye on all the other things we feel we need to fit in by Friday afternoon. In the end, the only point of any personal productivity system, goal-setting technique or “life planning” exercise is to help you make a slightly better decision about what to do, right now, so you can mentally put everything else to one side for the time being and immerse yourself in that one thing. Which explains the extraordinary efficacy of a method that’s so embarrassingly simple I hesitate to mention it, but which never fails to deliver me from procrastination or grouchiness to clarity: 1. Think of something it would be worthwhile to do right now, without any expectation that you know what might be “best”. (And don’t forget that it could be “take a nap”!) 2. Write it down. 3. Do that thing. 4. Cross it out. 5. Go back to 1., writing the next thing underneath the one you just crossed out. Repeat (forever). And just to spell it out: the point here isn’t “stop multitasking and focus on one thing, and you’re a bad person if you don’t!” Rather, it’s that (with a few technical exceptions) you never actually are multitasking to begin with. Instead, you’re just anxiously switching your attention rapidly between things – because you’re not sure which one’s more urgent, and/or because you think you’ll get them done quicker that way, which is almost never true.”
— Oliver Burkeman, One thing, now (via luxe-pauvre)
Being overly attached to anything in life invites suffering. The solution is to see major goals not as the only way to achieve happiness but as points of navigation that set a direction for your lifelong journey. That way, when storms arise and new opportunities present themselves, you can set a new goal and gracefully let go of your old one, thereby avoiding disappointment and missed opportunities.
When setting out your long-term goals, try writing them down followed by these words: or something better. This gives you explicit permission to diverge from these goals as life circumstances dictate—which you can and should do without disappointment if the original goals are no longer appropriate.
arthur c. brookes, “are you dreaming too big?”
universityandme reblogged
girls!!! we gotta fail more often!!! we’re so scared of failure and disappointing people and looking stupid that we don’t even TRY things! men?? men brush off failure like it’s nothing! if a man doesn’t get a job he wanted, it’s because they didn’t review his application fairly! it’s because the competition was tough this year! it’s because he just needs to try harder next time! men just DO things!!! and you know what DOING things builds?? confidence!!! even if you fail!! the more you fail, the more confident you are that you can fail and survive! women don’t even wanna try unless they are 100% certain that they’re qualified and competent and won’t disappoint anybody! but that is NONSENSE. men are out there getting positions they’re not even qualified for, while over-qualified but less-confident women are staying where it’s safe bc they’re afraid to rock the boat!!! DO. IT. apply for the thing! ask for the raise! enter the competition! get used to failing ALL the time! fail quickly and move on!!! if a cocky but mediocre man would do it, then for the love of god, GO DO THE DAMN THING. you are SO much more qualified than you think you are.
universityandme reblogged
october 4th 2020 - after a three week long break (two weeks of which consisted of mock exams lol) I am slowly getting back into a routine. slow sunday morning with some civil law.
universityandme reblogged
Day 2 with a Breville at home~
I woke up late today. I got up and went to the kitchen to eat,,, and then I saw that the caramel sauce I ordered arrived huhu. So I have the BBE + vanilla syrup + caramel sauce!! So I made my first Caramel Macchiato at home and it's so good I'm so proud haha. The rest of the morning felt peaceful. I called the school to fix matters regarding my enrolment,,, found out school doesn't start until the 20th. I continued to read Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri while drinking my coffee. Now that I finished my coffee I think I'm in the mood to watch One Punch Man hahaha. Somebody's happy😏
universityandme reblogged
Asking for a Letter of Recommendation
I’ve seen some people post about being nervous/scared of rejection/etc so here is my strategy for requesting a letter of rec:
1. Title the email clearly, so recommender can access later: “Recommendation Request for NAME LASTNAME”
2. Greet them formally: “Dear Dr. X,” (I tend to do this no matter how close the relationship is)
3. Make the request: “I am writing to ask if you would be willing to write a letter of recommendation to support my application to WHATEVER THING.”
4. Tell them the deadline: “I would need the letter by MONTH/DAY/YEAR.” (If you want to give a reason, you can also say that the application is due, or that you are hoping to submit your application by that date.)
5. Why Them?: Share 1-2 sentences about why you think they are the right person to recommend you, or what they might add to your application. “Given your role as my advisor/mentor/colleague/etc, I believe you could offer a clear picture of my interpersonal skills/research abilities/developing strengths/academic abilities/etc.”
6. Offer to Help: Let them know that if they accept the offer, you will provide guidance and support in letter-writing. “If you are willing to write the letter, I would be happy to share more information about myself and my experiences, as well as information about where to send the letter.”
7. Help them decide if they are the right fit: Attach your CV, so they can take a look and make a more informed decision about whether they can confidently recommend you. “I have attached my CV in case you would like to review it.”
8. Thank them for their consideration and/or time
9. Sign off: Make sure your contact information is included in your email signature.
universityandme reblogged
“Evaluation by others is not a guide for me. The judgments of others, while they are to be listened to, and taken into account for what they are, can never be a guide for me. This has been a hard thing to learn…I have come to feel that only one person (at least in my lifetime, and perhaps ever) can know whether what I am doing is honest, thorough, open, and sound, or false and defensive and unsound, and I am that person. I am happy to get all sorts of evidence regarding what I am doing, and criticism (both friendly and hostile) and praise (both sincere and fawning) are a part of such evidence. But to weigh this evidence and to determine its meaning and usefulness is a task I cannot relinquish to anyone else.”
— Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person
universityandme reblogged
today’s set up.
it’s drizzling out but I’ve got my tea so all’s well. also. peep my messy in class notes.
!!!and the new mug I bought myself!!! I love it so much, it says “love is love is love is love” around the rim :))))
universityandme reblogged
from perfection there is nowhere to go but down
“When we choose growth over perfection, we immediately increase our shame resilience. Improvement is a far more realistic goal than perfection. Merely letting go of unattainable goals makes us less susceptible to shame. When we believe “we must be this” we ignore who or what we actually are, our capacity and our limitations. We start from the image of perfection, and of course, from perfection there is nowhere to go but down.”
— Brené Brown, I Thought It Was Just Me (but it Isn’t). Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I Am Enough” (Penguin Publishing Group, Feb 2007)
“Everyone who's worked on difficult problems is probably familiar with the phenomenon of working hard to figure something out, failing, and then suddenly seeing the answer a bit later while doing something else. There's a kind of thinking you do without trying to. I'm increasingly convinced this type of thinking is not merely helpful in solving hard problems, but necessary. The tricky part is, you can only control it indirectly. I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any given time. That's the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they're allowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it. Which means it's a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind.”
universityandme reblogged
“PhD programs in general have fostered this culture, online in particular, that insists that being a doctoral student is this really terrible difficult thing. I remember there was a blog that was popular when I was in grad school and writing about this stuff that was called “Dissertation Hell”. It was just all self-reflectively about just how hard and terrible and impossible it was to be a PhD student. I do not like these cultures. Here is why I think these cultures emerge … My observation at the time when I was a grad student is that, a lot of PhD students struggled with the worry that what they were doing was not a real job. Their friends had real jobs where they had to go to an office and work hard all day, their parents had real jobs, and let’s be honest, being a doctoral student does not feel like a real job. You go in, you see your professor maybe once or twice a week, there can be whole days where you do nothing, and other times where you’re busy. My somewhat flippant analysis was by cultivating these cultures of misery around doctoral work, it at least gave you a way of saying, hey this is really hard. This was implicit, you might not be doing this consciously, but it was a way of saying, oh this is really difficult, so therefore it’s justified as something to do. The other aspect at play behind these cultures is that there’s just almost no structure in doctoral programs, and for some people, and by some I mean basically most, it’s really really hard. It’s really really hard sometimes to build up a years worth of self motivated work with high stakes evaluation, without structure, without milestones along the way, and so some of this sense of failure and misery is just that it’s novel. Lack of structure is a novel set-up for work that takes some adjusting to. I point that out only to say, those are largely constructed cultures. … You are going to be fine. Focus on the process.”
— Cal Newport, Deep Questions Podcast (14th June 2020)
universityandme reblogged
thank u bob ross
universityandme reblogged
how to learn new content and never forget it
save this for your next academic year and finals, and it’ll save your grades and time.
1. whenever you read a paragraph with new content, close the book/look away and ask yourself: “what have i just learned?” explaining the concept to yourself right away and asking follow-up questions will change the way you retain new material forever.
2. at first, it’ll be daunting, and it’ll be pretty hard to actually bring yourself to do this. trust me, it’ll be worth it - as this is scientifically proven one of the most effective study techniques.
3. to try this out, set yourself a timer for how long you estimate learning a concept might take. now take away 20% from that estimate. you won’t be able to reach this goal with basic highlighting and re-reading techniques - but with active recall, you will.
4. once you’ve understood the concept, use spaced repetition systems like anki flashcards to force yourself to retrieve this information in a set period of time. this way, your brain will always be reminded of this concept before it could possibly forget it.
5. teach it to others as much as you can. as with the old wisdom “see one, do one, teach one”, one of the only guarantees you’ve really gotten something is when you can effectively teach it.
hope these are helpful for you!!