F3e2f1 - Webweaving/comfort/warmth.

Your life is a gift. Sadly, this gift won’t last forever. There are only so many years, months, days in which it will be around for. While you possess this gift, be sure to live it fully. You have it, right now, and it’s all yours. This life that you were given, with all of its many ups and downs, is completely yours to do what ever your heart desires. So take this gift, and fully embrace it. Do so every single day until the moment comes when it must finally be returned to its origin.

Nicole Addison @thepowerwithin (via thepowerwithin)

How focusing (aka. not multi-tasking) changed my study life

I had heard it occasionally - that multi-tasking was actually not good for the quality of whatever task I was doing. It made sense, but I loved mult-tasking so much. It gave me the illusion of productivity. 

Until I actually tried focusing for a while, did I realise how much I was actually losing by multi-tasking -  educationally and emotionally. Scrolling through tumblr during boring parts of a lecture seemed fine, since there were notes and it probably wouldn’t be tested in such depth anyway. Eating, while scrolling through social media, while watching a tv show, while messaging someone on facebook seemed ‘productive’. 

It turns out it was the opposite. It may seem fine, and at times it may actually be okay, but what matters is the principle. Dedicating your whole being to one task, focusing on it, produces much better results. It’s a quality over quantity thing. It also helped to calm me down emotionally - I used to always feel rushed, like there was so many things to do but not enough time to do them. Focusing on one task at a time - though it was hard at first - helped slow me down because I did everything properly, and didn’t have the feeling like I needed to go back and do things over again. 

Focusing on one thing wholly is also a form of practising mindfulness. Mindfulness ‘meditation’ isn’t something that requires you to sit down and meditate - it can be applied to our daily life. 

Since I started practising this mindful skill of focus, I’ve become much calmer, it’s been so much easier to stay on top of my work load and meet deadlines, I don’t feel rushed, I don’t feel unprepared or unorganised, and I do more quality work than when I used to multi-task.

There are times for multi-tasking and times for focus. Find the right balance and enjoy the task in front of you.

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL:

focus on your own shit.

you know that feeling when you’re out in nature at 5 or 6am and everything’s still quiet and the air still smells like night time and it’s fresh so you shiver a bit but then slowly the first rays of sun peak over the edge of the earth and everything is bathed in foggy, golden light and you just stand there watching the earth awaken.. if that’s not soothing idk what is

destroy the idea that intermediate goals aren’t important. maybe you can’t play the entire piano piece yet, but you can play the right hand and that’s good. maybe you haven’t figured out your major yet, but your minor or your field and that’s progress. maybe you can’t hold a full conversation in your target language yet, but you can ask for directions and that’s fine. setting high goals is good, but don’t diminish the small goals you achieve on your way there. they are just as important.