This way of organizing my tasks has really helped me, I hope it’s useful for you people 😘 💫

Your Life is Happening Now

So about a year ago my philosophy teacher said something that has really stuck with me.

“When I was your age I couldn’t wait to grow up,” he said. “All throughout high school I was waiting for my life to start. I used to tell myself once I got a car then my life would begin. And then I did, and it didn’t. ‘Okay,’ I thought, 'When I get to university then my life will really start.’ But then I got there and it wasn’t much different, until a few years later it hit me: oh shit, my life is happening now.”’

That’s something I’ve tried to keep with me, because it’s so easy to forget. I’m sure many of us do. I am guilty of thinking in a few years, once I’m settled down and can afford things, my life will begin. Or when I get my license, or a move out. I’m guilty of cancelling time with the people that matter to me because I’m planning for that day in the future when 'I can do stuff’. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with working towards a goal and being disciplined but it’s so important to remember that you shouldn’t fantasize about the ideal you and a time when your life can finally begin without working towards it. Your life is happening now.

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!

my desk 💫

yt | ig

A Small Guide to Journaling by Eintsein

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 :)

looove this !!

Best advice I’ve received so far

Meditate on these statements. They are so very powerful! Xxx

10.22 Today was really busy for me, I was at uni the entire day, but I was able to get a bit work done which is nice. I also spent an hour at the library after school printing out all the PowerPoint presentation so I can start to study for my cell bio midterm which is next week >.<

Pic credit (found on google msg me if it’s yours, I’m going to start posting my own pictures soon) Have a great day/night/evening loves H.

How To Write an E-mail To Your Teacher

One of the things that can totally stress out an overthinker like me is formal e-mails. Somehow I always end up anxious about all kinds of useless things. Did I make everything clear? Wasn’t I rude? Over the years, I’ve learnt to become more comfortable with writing formal e-mails, but I thought I’d share some of my advice to make things a little easier for you as well :)

1.       Spell check spell check spell check spell check

2.       Also, grammar check

3.       Better too formal than too informal

4.       You want to clearly mention:

5.       To continue on that, ask yourself why you’re writing, and most importantly what you wish to achieve by this. Make this the main point of your email: what do you expect of this teacher?

6.       Don’t make it unnecessarily long

7.       It’s okay to expect a certain degree of understanding in difficult situations

Don’t just assume your teachers will automatically backfire if you want to explain a personal situation to them. If they won’t listen at all, they are just being rude tbh. They should at least listen to what you have to say. What I’m aiming at here are e.g. situations where you have been dealing with panic attacks, maybe someone died, you’ve just been having a really hard time and your school work may have suffered under this. In these cases (or actually all cases) your (mental) health is more important than anything. Expect them to at least consider that. 

8.       Don’t worry too much; at the end of the day they’re just people

9.       For longer emails you may want to repeat any requests at the end

10.       Be friendly :)

Some more random questions you may end up asking yourself:

What if my prof mails back informally?

Personally, I prefer to maintain a formal writing style even in the mails take the form of “K, thnx.”. However if you feel like you and this teacher are well acquainted or if you don’t feel comfortable going all formal after an informal reply, that’s okay. Do what feels right for you, just keep in mind that you’re not two pals chatting – unless you are quite close ofc :)

What do I do when I forget the attachment?

Google mail has an amazing function these days that sees when you mention an attachment and stops you when you want to send the mail without it. If you don’t have this kind of function most mailboxes should come with an option to retrieve sent e-mails within a certain amount of time. If the ‘damage has been done’ (this happens to me aaaaall the time btw) you can always write a clear and short email in which you explain what happened and of course don’t forget to attach the attachment.

How do I start and end an email?

It kinda depends on your situation, again, and the level of formality. I personally tend to go with this:

Dear mr./mrs. [surname],

Blablabla

Kind regards,

[full name] [optionally followed by student number]

[sometimes I add my study + the year I’m in]

 Note that I don’t use any official titles when I email e.g. professors. This is not because I don’t show respect or anything - it is just that this is the kind of addressing that I feel is most natural, neutral and generally acceptable in my context :)

I struggle with saying what I want to say. How do I write a good email?

If you just don’t know how to say whatever you want to say, just take a piece of paper and a pen and jot down what it is that you’re mailing for. Sometimes it happens that it is hard to request something, or to clearly explain a situation, or to write and email and not come over in a certain way. Try to make a short list of what you need to say.

Once you’ve got that, you want to keep the points I mentioned earlier in mind. Who are you, why are you mailing, and what do you wish to obtain? That should get you somewhere. In any case, just try to be clear and brisk.

Allright that’s all I have I hope this helps ;) 

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post, and I figured that these tips might be extra helpful with exam season approaching. As someone who struggles a lot with procrastination, I do everything I can to fight the urge to put assignments off until the last minute (even though I’m not always successful). 

As always, good luck! (ᵔᴥᵔ)

Huge Masterpost

Hi! Just thought I’d compile a list of masterposts that I’ve seen and reblogged on Tumblr. Let me know if any links are dead!

HUGE masterposts:

Writing:

Being a studyblr:

General study tips:

College:

Self-care:

small and easy health tips that make a lot of difference

10 day back to school challenge

hey guys!! last year around this time I made a back to school photo challenge, so this year I thought I’d create a back to school action challenge to help you prepare for the school year! If you’re following along, you can post pictures or updates to the tag #universi-tea challenge. 

Feel free to do them at your own pace and in whatever order works best for you. Keep an eye out for more posts in my back to school series, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

17/? days of summer study - july 20, 2017

lookin 4 more studyblrs to follow

if youre a studyblr reblog/like this post & i’ll check out ur blog (+probably follow)

xo

Hi! I’m Devika- but I just go by Dev! I’ve been stalking studyblr for a while and I’ve had this blog for like 2 years with the intent to actually do something but I just now decided to. My main motivation for this was to help me focus and hopefully do better in school- this is a really important year! Anyway, I really hope to study neuroscience/psychology or medicine in college. 

Stuff about me:

Classes I’m taking:

Studyblrs that inspire me:

@emmastudies @studyign @studypetals @eintsein @revisicn @focusign @katsdesk @lycheestudy @studywithinspo @elkstudies @zetudiant @notesworthtea @intellectys  and sooo many more !

AHHH HELLO FELLOW THEATRE GEEK welcome to the community!!! i’m an intj too by the way =D

SO MUCH ANNOTATING UGH. On the plus (sorta?) side I’ve watched 3 Harry Potter movies today lollllll