Back to School/Uni Tips!

I’m headed into my 3rd year of uni, so I thought I’d make a post sharing my tips on how to do well in school, not burn out, and keep your mental health relatively stable.

1. Snacks - seriously, don’t leave home without at least 2 substantial snacks in your bag. If you’re go-go-going all day and suddenly your sitting in a lecture about to crash cause you haven’t eaten anything all day, you’re gonna want snacks. Some suggestions: Cashews (they’re not super loud/crunchy, so they’re perfect for lecture snackin’), a granola bar, an apple, cherry tomatoes, trail mix.

2. Don’t buy the textbook before you go to your first class - I’ve worked at a university bookstore for 2 years, and every year, people end up buying 700$ worth of first year text books, and then they don’t even use them. Wait. and then wait some more. If there are required readings, then get the textbook, if your prof says there will be questions from the textbook on the exam, then get the textbook, but trust me, for 90% of first year classes (and a lot of other ones) you don’t need the textbook. SAVE YOUR WALLETS

3. Take notes efficiently - honestly the best way to take notes, is type up the lecture notes that are provided, BEFOREHAND, and then during lecture, fill in the blanks/add information/take down any important things your prof is saying as you go through the lecture on your laptop in a different color. This way you’re much less likely to miss any important information, you won’t be confused about what to take down, and you won’t fall into the trap of taking down notes that are already being provided to you. After class, or while making study notes, copy these notes out by hand to remember what you learned.

4. Keep it simple - pretty notes are GREAT if you have the time, but once you get to upper level uni, and you have 100 slides of notes to turn into study notes, you will not have the time to make your notes look aesthetically pleasing. Just get the info down so you can focus on learning it.

5. Have a designated study space - i did all of my highschool homework and studying in my bed, and 90% of the time, I ended up falling asleep. My bed wasn’t going to cut it for uni, so I got a cheap ikea desk, and it’s made me so much more organized and productive.

6. Take as much ‘you time’ as possible - take a bath. light candles. binge watch a tv show. veg out with a book for 4 hours if you have the time. do your makeup super special one day. get yourself that venti pumpkin spice latte with extra whip whenever you feel like it. Uni is a shitty time I’m not gonna lie. It’s stressful as f*ck, and whenever you can spare a couple hours or a couple dollars to TREAT YO SELF, do it.

7.  If you have anxiety, CUT THE COFFEE. caffeine is a huge trigger for anxiety. Caffeine takes away from your sleep, messes with your adrenalin systems, and can make you super paranoid and anxious all the time. 

8. If you think your in the wrong major, change it - I started in geology, and I HATED IT. Now I’m in psych and I love it. It is never too late for a change of program. If you think you’re doing something you don’t wanna do, or your not enjoying it, don’t do it.

9. For mornings you have to be ready and out the door, or if you’re a person who always runs late, have a getting-ready routine and get it down pat. Have a mental list of things you need to do, and things you need to remember, and find out how much time it takes you. Get up at 8am, shower, wash face/brush teeth, get dressed, do makeup, pack bag, remember keys, wallet, laptop, notebook, pen and train pass, have breakfast, put on shoes, leave by 9am.

10. Utilize your time in transit. - finish a reading, go over flashcards, read study notes, listen to an album you’ve been meaning to listen to, read a book, read some fanfic, idk but don’t just sit there unless just sitting there is what you need.

11. Find a hobby or passion that is separate from your school/uni life. Whether its playing sports, or running, reading, collecting plants, making scrapbooks, curating a refined taste in tea, having baths, writing in a journal, find something that if you’re bored with watching shows or studying, you can go do it, and enjoy it, and get your mind off all the other shit that’s going on in your life for awhile.

10 Jul 2017 || ig

Study method of choice for integral calculus and real analysis. I rarely ever use flashcards, but i’m quite happy with how these turned out!

[ 20th February 2017 ] February is almost over and I have yet to do something productive with my life,,,,, why am I like this ;-; This spread is from 2 weeks ago and I took the pictures with a different background so any thoughts??

✨ Inspired by @studykouffee (my mom) and @studyrose (the really cool aunt)

15.02.17 • Making a start on some chemistry past papers 🌿

[20/2/17] Last week’s spread ft bts lyrics (100% relevant for the week) Those falling leaves are an embodiment of me under stress and falling apart since this week started on a very unproductive note ;-; Also, i started a study and sleep tracker (insp: @focusign) which is helping me stay organised and motivated!💫

April 15th 2016 • 10h33 Still working on my essay on Virginia Woolf and feminism. 💪🏻

09.10.16 cleaning my desk is so satisfying 💪🏻 wish me luck for the start of yr 12 tomorrow!

I👏🏻CAN👏🏻NOT👏🏻EXPLAIN👏🏻HOW👏🏻IMPORTANT👏🏻IT👏🏻IS👏🏻TO👏🏻START👏🏻YOUR👏🏻PROJECT👏🏻THE👏🏻DAY👏🏻YOU👏🏻GET👏🏻IT👏🏻AND👏🏻FINISH👏🏻IT👏🏻WEEKS👏🏻BEFORE 👏🏻THE👏🏻DUE👏🏻DATE👏🏻INSTEAD👏🏻OF👏🏻THE👏🏻NIGHT👏🏻BEFORE👏🏻

31:1 last day of jan ‘17 and i’ve finally decided to post again😭i apologise for the long absence, just busy getting my arse kicked by school. i’ll be answering your asks this week, just bare with me. how is everyone?! here’s last weeks spread!

3|2|17 this week…i’ve remained ridiculously unproductive, i don’t understand why i’m like this?!

This week there’s something more important than the Productivity Challenge or my photos of coffee and books or getting your bullet journal in order. This week is the week to engage, educate and resist. 

Engage with politics. This is the week to start if you haven’t before or to ramp it up if you’re already involved. Read, write, protest, repeat. Give your time and privilege to help others. 

Educate yourself. Your education is a radical act, don’t let it stop and don’t restrict yourself to your own subject. Learn about the historic struggles underpinning today’s politics and tell others. Use your education to inform your activism and your activism to inform your education.

Resist injustice. In the street, on campus, on the bus. Resist it at a protest or on social media. Do as much as you can, do not stand idly by whilst injustice occurs around you. Ignorance is complicity, action is resistance.

If you have queries/questions about this, hit me up. This week I’m going to focus on the crossover between our education and our resistance. If I lose followers, I will cope. 

While education ‘can’ be a radical act, “educating” yourself to be accommodated into an oppressive system is not resistance. And I understand that that is not the point of this post, but this community has been largely centered around our individual ambitions within educational institutions. That makes settling into your individual perspectives and goals feel validated and easy.

 If you are a pharmacy student, simply following the university curriculum in becoming a pharmacists while the pharmaceutical company increases their profit margins by rising prices, conspiring with insurance companies and corporate hospitals to deny people healthcare is not resistance. You obediently becoming a pharmacist within that system does not give people healthcare does not help anyone but yourself. You must resist the education that is being provided to you, demand more from your instructors, your peers, the society AND YOURSELF. Did you become a pharmacy student to provide medicine to others? Then is that system working? No. So take that upon yourself to know WHY, and what can I do and my classmates do.

The original poster placed Engage first in the list, remember that! Don’t think you are now free to push your individual ambitious to the forefront, only study their textbooks and their research goals to get that degree and feel morally justified.  The world doesn’t stand still while you reach your “professional” goals. 

That isn’t easy. But the system will continue to deny people their rights, their food, their health, their livelihood and their lives. Resistance is Action(s). It’s going against the current. 

^^^ yes to this ^^^

throw back to working in my local yumchaa w/sam ^_^

treated myself to some new moleskine notebooks…i don’t need them yet i shop still! i also did this handwriting challenge prompted by the gorgeous @studylustre on insta and im posting it here for you guys also✨✨✨

Today was such a relaxing Sunday. It rained all day but I was able to finish this amazing book, bike around my neighborhood, (i got soaked) and practice my guitar. I’m so pumped for the school year and for many more weekends like this to come. I hope you guys are also having a great day!

Same coffee, same table. Sorry, it’s been kinda long since my last post. My phone was stolen then I had to finish my semester and I accidentally got ill the same time, so I hope I will start over this February, so don’t forget to follow me, and thanks for the warm welcome to the studyblr community 😊

Coffee and a croissant are the ingredients of productivity.