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Study & Productivity Tips

@productive-tips / productive-tips.tumblr.com

High quality productivity/self-growth tips posted daily! Carefully curated and chosen with love, for you ❤️
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appreciate things more. small things like the view from your window, a knitted scarf, your favourite library, a home-cooked meal. appreciate the good memories, the words in your diary, people who stuck with you through thick and thin. spend less time yearning and more time appreciating everything you have with your entire heart.

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productive-tips

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Half-ass-ing It Really Is Better Than Not Doing It:

I have days where everything feels so overwhelming and big but there are still things that need to happen, so I click over onto Energy Saving Mode. Here are some examples: 

  • Some days washing my hair feels like too much and that’s stopping me from showering. So I skip washing my hair and just shower. Afterwards, if I need to go out, I’ll put my greasy hair in a french braid because it’s less obvious that my hairs dirty in this style (just do whatever you can manage that keeps your dirty hair off your face).
  • Having to fold and put away laundry often makes me just want to leave it on the line or not do the washing at all. So I don’t fold it. I dump the clean, dry clothes in a designated basket in my room. That way I can still get to my clean clothes and when I feel better I’ll fold them (or not because it doesn’t matter, all that matters is I have clean clothes!). The idea of not having to fold and put away clean laundry helps me actually do it. 
  • If I have to do a reading or prep for a lecture, and it’s just too much today, then I just speed read through the material. I might not be absorbing as much as I’d like but at least I’m vaguely familiar with the drift of what’s happening which makes it easier to keep up with the lecture content. (Sometimes I absorb nothing but at least I know vaguely what the lecturer is talking about when they refer to the reading, making it easier for me to go back and look for the info if I have to. It also gives me some context for the upcoming lectures which is helpful). 
  • Do the assignment that’s due tomorrow/tonight, even if you’re sure your answers don’t really make sense and it’s the worst pile of garbage you’ve ever handed in. It’s better to get a really bad mark than in incomplete. And if you’re super worried about the quality of the work, you can email your marker after handing it in and be like ‘hey, I was super sick this weekend and this is the best I could manage’. Sometimes, they’ll appreciate the effort and be kinder while marking. (I don’t do this as I’ve found I often think my work is trash that’s only going to get like 10% and then it turns out to be around 50% which is a mark that won’t sink my semester). 
  • I use ‘sick’ as a euphemism for when my depression/mania/anxiety leaves me low-functioning (although in this pandemmy I’ve now had to lie that i’ve been to the doctor and it isn’t covid). Normally, people just understand when you say your feeling sick (or have a cold) and don’t try and bully you into coming out nor do they ask invasive follow-up questions. It gives me a really good easy excuse to get out of things I just can’t do. 

 Going into Energy Saving Mode like this means that, after a bad day, I can get into bed and think ‘Huh, look at how much I did despite having my mental illness suck so much of my battery life today’. Even if all I really did was shower, eat and cut my nails, I still feel like I did a lot because I did more than nothing. It makes me feel more positive, meaning I sometimes have a better day the following day (or even a more productive evening of the same day), instead of doing nothing and beating myself up about it and carrying that negative momentum into the next day until I end up with a week where I can’t even get out of bed. (It’s also okay if Energy Saving Mode lasts for more than a day. It can go as long as it takes for everything to start feeling easier again). 

Energy Saving Mode is my version of self care, because if I did nothing all day and called it self care I would make things far worse for myself. (But if you need a day, every now and then, where you don’t do anything that requires getting out of bed then take that day! We all need different thing in order to be able to cope, this is just me!)

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reblogged

To be more mindful

  • Go to sleep earlier (Listen to ambient music to fall asleep faster(or things like the Calm app)
  • Wake up earlier (Put your alarm far away from the bed so you have to get up and turn it off)
  • Don’t go on your phone first thing in the morning
  • Tell yourself that it’s going to be a good day
  • Stretch for 5 minutes
  • Make your bed
  • Drink a glass of water (Personally, I like to keep a litre of water in my room so i can have it as soon as I wake up)
  • Lay clothes out on the bed(Or, go one step further and set the clothes out at night)
  • Go shower or brush your teeth and wash your face if you shower at night
  • Put lotion on, put clothes on and apply makeup/do your hair as per normal
  • Watch a 5-10 minute motivational video (Youtube has Inspirational channels, Ted Talks etc)
  • Eat breakfast(Smaller bites, appreciate the taste), and drink more water and plan your day
  • Make your lunch
  • Now, if you have extra time you can look at your phone and scroll through social media a bi before you leave the house
  • Look for beauty around you, in the smiles of people, their fashion, flowers, architecture, interior decorating. Try to take in as much as you can.
  • Look up from your phone(Delete the apps you don’t need. Be honest about what apps waste your time)
  • Make it a goal to make someone’s day better, whether it’s by buying a homeless person a meal, or by smiling genuinely at someone. Brighten someone’s day.
  • If you have extra time, write a journal entry for the day. Write about what you noticed in the world, your goals, your feelings, what excites you etc. Write about your thoughts, let them flow through you.
  • Carry a book around with you and read it when you find yourself doing nothing.
  • Notice how much time you spend on your phone or laptop. Try to replace some time that you spend on silly things with educational things. (Read the news rather than scrolling through memes for an hour, read a motivational book rather than toxic tweets)
  • Learn.Learn.Learn. If you haven’t heard of something, ask what it is. Ask people to teach you how they do whatever it is they do. Don’t settle for no answer. Dig deeper. Learn.
  • When you learn something, try to see if you can explain it to someone else. If you can’t, try to learn a little more.
  • Be nicer to people. Ask them how they are, listen to their stories, learn who they are. You’d be surprised at all the interesting, educational stories that people all around you have.
  • Go outside every day. Enjoy nature.
  • Appreciate who you are and where your life is at. Appreciate that not everything happens perfectly or as planned.
  • Appreciate that you can learn anything if you put your mind to it,
  • Spread positive feelings.
  • Cut off anyone who threatens your positive vibes.
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YOUR SOUL SHOULD BE TOO LIT TO GIVE A SHIT.
-me 2021

Just remember that progress isn’t for show-off. You’re here to make your own life better. True progress will first change your very own life before lighting up lives of others.

PRACTICALLY CHEAP AND AT-HOME SELF-CARE TO KICKSTART YOUR PRODUCTIVITY JOURNEY!

Posting small reminders that might help people to physically relax while mentally progressing which actually helped me a lot;

  1. acknowledge your emotions: tell yourself it’s completely normal to feel what you’re feeling right now. First step to healing your soul is accepting and embracing your soul with all its flaws and weaknesses and promising it you’ll stand by it through the storms. My point being, be affectionate to yourself. You deserve your own love too.
  2. promise yourself a better future: Just start taking baby steps towards your best self and life goal this minute. Don’t make a big deal about it. Stay low-key. Let progress make the noise. Start grinding, slowly at first and then pick up pace as you move along. 
  3. take a shower and just sit on the floor as you do so- it is actually therapeutic and a major mood booster. You may as well think about important things or just allocate this specific time to crying. Just don’t listen to music while showering, be present with yourself. 
  4. make yourself your favourite drink: and drink it with sunset or sunrise while carefully noticing the colours of the sky.
  5. Just lie down on your comfiest couch: and stare at the ceiling while making a mental note for everything you have to do this week.

Part 2 coming soon. to be followed by study tips and extreme one day declutter.

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reblogged

need a break? take it!

“I’m just going to finish this in 30 minutes” “My teammates need me to do this so I’m just gonna finish it”

There have been times where I’ve tried to continue to complete all of my work, however, things didn’t really work out and I felt extremely burned out afterwards. If you think that you need a break, then please consider taking it. 

Would you want to relax and come back with more energy or sit there endlessly and burn out?
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productive-tips

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greenstudies

Replace your bad habits

We all have habits we don’t like. It’s far easier to replace a habit than to get rid of it.

The theory is quite easy: Define the habit you want to change and then set an action to replace it with. Every time you want to do the “bad” thing, you immediately do the healthier thing.

Actually replacing your habits will be a bit more difficult: You’ll have to be quite mindful and present in your day to notice yourself doing/wanting to do the bad habit. Doing the healthier thing will also require a lot of willpower, since bad habits often are the ones that feel good in the moment.

Some replacement habit ideas:

  • Listen to a song that gives you courage
  • Drink some water
  • Do a few squats
  • Dance for a bit
  • Find an inspiring picture for your vision board
  • Walk around (a walk outside is a bit too long to use as replacement every time but would be a nice thing to use here and there)
  • Clean something
  • Read a page of a book
  • Watch a short inspiring/funny video
  • Talk to a loved one
  • Journal

Make sure to choose a replacement habit that isn’t too similar to the habit you want to change! If you want to stop scrolling on your phone so much, don’t choose youtube as replacement. If you want to stop weighing yourself or quit obsessing over weight loss, don’t choose squats as replacement and so on.

Also don’t add moral value to these habits. I used words like “bad” and “good” because it’s the simplest way to word things, but please realise that having habits you don’t want doesn’t make you a bad person. Not doing things deemed “right” is okay and normal and it’s okay to fail here and there during your journey. It’s important to try again!

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palesamkr

Feynman's technique

This is the reason I passed my mid year exams even if I procastinated at the beginning of the year and only studied days before exams.

This technique is just like teaching someone except you’re writing your words down.

You start by reading your textbook and notes and learn as much as you can for that study session. After that you take a notebook (prefaribly for this technique only) and you start explaining this the way you understand it. When you get lost, go back to the textbook and read again, close the book and explain that on paper.

I swear if I had started using this technique at the beginning of the year (unlike most my school year starts in january) I would have gotten straight A’s because it’s like photocopying the information to your mind.

You’ll know the subject like you’re a teacher.

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productive-tips

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virgil-studies

Here’s a short post that I made while procrastinating studying for my quantum mechanics class that is very heavy on the math :)

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positivelypositive
🌿
even though it may feel like...

...you just wasted time today, it is not really so.

when you spend the day doing nothing, you are giving yourself the opportunity to heal and recharge. doing a few little tasks means you were able to gather some strength.

being active all day can be good but it in no way is the only measure of a successful day. each day can be different. let yourself be ✨

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productive-tips

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bujopapercreationz

6 Small But Powerful Study Habits

Many students—including myself at one point—tend to think that making big strides towards their academic goals means also making drastic changes to how they’re used to approaching academics and studying; however, making big strides towards your goals oftentimes only requires that you make small changes in your day-to-day behavior. For instance, you can replace small unhelpful habits (like checking social media between classes) with small helpful habits (like reviewing notes or flashcards between classes). These little behaviors accumulate over time to lessen the burden of big tasks. They can also build a stronger sense of self-efficacy and mastery, both of which go a long way to motivating you when it comes to the bigger goals. Here are 6 small but powerful study habits that you can adopt: 

1. Do 5 minutes of revision everyday by reading through your class notes and creating questions for yourself to answer at a later time. 

Doing this will help you identify what you don’t understand early on so you have time to learn and ask questions. It also gives you a chance to practice and quiz yourself on material you may feel confident about. As a result, you might be able to narrow your focus on what you truly need to study come exam time and not waste time reviewing material you’ve already mastered.

2. Write down your homework and important due dates during or at the end of each lesson, ideally in a planner that you include other tasks and events. 

This is one of the simplest yet most important steps you can take towards better academic performance. It ensures you meet your deadlines and can help you realistically visualize the time you have available in comparison to all your other tasks and events. If you don’t have an accurate sense of the amount of time and energy you have to complete a certain task or meet a deadline, you won’t be engaging in other small, helpful habits to work towards that goal. 

3. Self-monitor your learning. 

During class, ask yourself if you’re understanding what the professor is saying. While taking notes, reading, watching an educational video, or doing any other study task, ask yourself what the key points were and try to identify areas that you can’t articulate or summarize well. If you identify these areas and come up with questions, be sure to write them down and fill in the answer at a later time to measure how well you addressed those lapses in comprehension. If you find that the answer still seems confusing, you can then ask your professor for additional guidance. 

4. File notes in the right place everyday. 

Make sure that your notes for each class are separate from other classes and grouped with other related notes. It would be even better if each subject was filed or organized in a way that you can easily distinguish between units and sub-units within each class/subject. Keeping your notes organized allows you to easily revise and review. It also creates a mental image of the information. For example,if you have a specific method to organizing your notes and use that method to review them, then you may be able to imagine going through your notebook or binder to find a particular piece of information during the exam. 

5. Read one online article or watch an educational video to supplement your classroom learning everyday.

Extra reading reinforces the ideas that you’ve learned in class and places them in a wider context. It also strengthens your critical thinking and comprehension skills. 

6. Reflect often. Each day, ask yourself: what went well? What didn’t go well? How could you improve?

The more specific you can be, the better you can identify solutions to improve. It’s also helpful to ask these kinds of questions after big events like the end of a project, essay, exams, and the end of the semester. 

Best Wishes, Bujo Paper Creations

➽──────────────────────❥

Tumblr: Bujopapercreations Instagram: bujo.papercreations YouTube: Bujo Paper Creations

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imuststudy

Study in a brain-friendly way: Making a week plan

  1. Write down all study appointments. For example: Lectures, work groups, seminars, deadlines for essays and exams. 
  2. Write down the already planned and important social appointments. For example: Working hours for a (voluntary) job, sports, important parties, dinner appointments. 
  3. Write down necessary time to relax. We recommend keeping at least one day free of study of study tasks, for example in the weekend. Also, take into consideration: Mornings after a late-night activity, and evenings after a long day of work. 
  4. Write down self-study time. When will you be able to study? Study appointments + self-study should comprise about a full-time job (40 hours per week). What will you do during this study time? When will you have breaks? 
  5. Now write down some buffer time. Life is full of surpries. In all lives unexpected events will occur. So, it’s absolutely necessary to plan in buffer time. In the time you plan in ‘in reserve’ you can complete tasks that have been delayed. If there is no (study) delay, buffer times becomes free time. 
  6. Think about the time-slots that are still empty. Are there specific things you would like to do in this time? If not, name them: ‘free time’. Especially if you’re a perfectionistic person, it’s good to also make your ‘free time’ SMART so you know when you are NOT going to worry about your studies. 
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productive-tips

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