Quick Tips To Just Get Started When Youre Struggling

quick tips to just get started when you’re struggling

break down goals further and further into easily achievable tasks/steps

visualize your end goal

visualize all of the steps

tell yourself you’ll just do the first part of the task/work for five minutes (and then see if that momentum carries yourself forward)

ask a friend for encouragement

close all of your tabs/apps, close your laptop, and start over

change your physical environment (go somewhere else, even if it’s just a different room)

picture a goal and then set a short count-down timer. try to complete the goal before the timer runs out

picture a reward – could be the reward of that good feeling that comes with completing something, or it could be a piece of candy, etc

come up with the first step (should be very easy, like “stand up”) and then count backwards from 5. you should be doing that by the time you reach 0.

make a schedule even if you have no intention of following it.

if you don’t want to do the first task you have to do, just start in the middle with something you feel capable of doing

It’s Ya Girl’s College Scholarship Masterpost

Hello internet civilians! As some of you may or may not know, my name is Dana and I am a high school senior that is ALWAYS on the prowl for trying to get to college for as cheap as possible. I’ve come across 1000′s of scholarships that I simply don’t qualify for, so I thought “hey, why not share these with random people on the internet that don’t know where to start?” You asked the question and only answers you shall receive.

Please remember to credit me for this masterpost because I spent a lot of time and energy on it :)

PLEASE ALSO REMEMBER THAT A SCHOLARSHIP IS WORTHLESS IF YOU DO NOT APPLY FOR IT. 

SO DO NOT JUST SAVE THIS POST IN YOUR DRAFTS AND NEVER USE IT. ACTUALLY WRITE AN ESSAY OR FOUR

Scholarship Databases:

fastweb.com

cappex.com

http://www.uncf.org/

http://schoolsoup.com/

http://www.tuitionfundingsources.com/

http://hsf.net

https://www.collegeboard.org/

http://apiasf.org/

http://hispanicfund.org

www.maldef.org

www.supercollege.com

www.finaid.org

www.collegeispossible.org

www.mach25.com

http://chegg.com

www.HBCUmentor.org

“Big” Scholarships That Cover: Tuition, Room Board, Books, or Full Scholarships

Gates Millenium

Posse Foundation

Coca-Cola Scholarship

AXA Scholarship

Dell Scholars Application

Ron Brown Scholarship Program

Burger King Scholars 

Horatio Alger Scholarship

Questbridge

Voice of Democracy Scholarship

Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship

Hertz Foundation Graduate Scholarship

+ 111 Full Tuition Scholarships to Universities!

Scholarships

(**Some May “Prefer” Minorities, But That Does Not Mean You Should Still Not Try For It**)

http://blackstudents.blacknews.com/

May/June 2015 Scholarships

http://www.fastweb.com/college-scholarships/articles/the-2015-scholarships

http://blackstudents.blacknews.com/opportunities/

Scholarships for Minorities: White House Edition

LGBT Scholarships

Buick Achievers Scholarships

Cultural Diversity Scholarships

50 LGBT Scholarships - 1 Application

50 Top Scholarships for 2014/2015

National Association of Black Journalists

7 Prestigious Undergrad Scholarships

The Jackie Robinson Foundation

500+ Scholarship List

Masterlist of College Minority Scholarships

4 Scholarships That Are Easy To Apply For

Do Something Campaigns

Need help on Scholarship Motivation?

HOW TO WIN A SCHOLARSHIP: FROM A GIRL WHO’S APPLIED FOR 300+ AWARDS

12 Tips on Winning Scholarships

Skip these 6 Scholarship Errors

Students with Average Grades Can Win Scholarships!

4 Ways To Make Your Scholarship Essay Stand Out

Get Rid of Student Loans!

How I Got Rid of 60k Student Loans in 3 years By Living in a Hotel

10 Steps To Minimize Loans

Minimize Student Loans

Know How Much Student Loans To Take 

Paying For College

Miscellaneous Articles That Are Good Reads

Out-of-State Colleges That Offer In-State Tuition

5 Myths About Financial Aid

How To Negotiate A Better Financial Aid Package

How To Read A Financial Aid Letter

How To Deal With A Low SAT Score

Great Schools That Accept Low SAT Scores

How To Demonstrate Interest in a College

I Told Harvard I Was An Undocumented Immigrant. They Gave Me A Full Scholarship.

Credit: @jesussbabymomma

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

littleanimalgifs.tumblr.com

Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

reddit.com

Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

Notetaking

Sound Note - take notes while you record audio

Evernote - notetaking that syncs across platforms

Paper 53 - minimal notetaking that syncs

Microsoft OneNote - collaboration and syncing, best for Office users

Google Keep - jot things down, best for Google suite users

Notability - take notes and annotate PDFs

Mindly - create mind maps

Day One - a digital journal

Flash Cards

Quizlet - the quintessential flash card app

StudyBlue - another commonly used app

Cram - best for its “cram mode”

Eidetic - uses spaced repetition for effective memorization

Planner 

My Study Life - schedules, tasks, reminders, and more

StudyCal - keeps track of tasks, exams, and grades

24me - automated reminders and event planning

iStudiez - schedule and prioritized task list

Google Calendar - a calendar, best for Google users

Glass Planner - a calendar and to do list with incredible functionality

To Do List

Clear - organized to-do and reminders

MinimaList - simple to-do and focus timer

Trello - collaborative project organizer

Todoist - clean and functional task manager

Default notes app on your phone

Time Management

Forest - plant trees by staying focused

Pomotodo - pomodoro timer with to-do list

Timeglass - custom timers

Tide - pomodoro with white noise

Alarmy - forces you out of bed 

Pillow - smart alarm that tracks sleep cycles

Productivity

Workflow - automate tasks

Habitica - turn your habits into an RPG

Continuo - simple, colorful activity tracking

Freedom - block distracting apps

Free Learning

Coursera - free MOOCs

TED - listen to Ted Talks

Duolingo - language learning

Memrise - spaced repetition language vocabulary

Khan Academy - free video lessons

Ambient Noise

8tracks - curated playlists

Spotify - online music streaming

Coffitivity - cafe ambience

Noisli - background sound generator

Rain Rain - rain sounds

Binaural - binaural beats

Health

Rockin Ramen - recipes based on ramen

MealBoard - meal planning

Lifesum - healthy eating

Stop Breath And Think - mindfulness meditation

Pacifica - mental health management

Sworkit - personalized video workouts

Waterlogged - hydration tracker

Reference

WolframAlpha - Google on steroids

Oxford Dictionary - all of English at your fingertips

RefMe - citation generator

PhotoMath - solve math problems by taking a photo

Mathway - step by step math help

Desmos - free graphing calculator

Wikipedia - not the best source, but it’s handy

Miscellaneous 

Companion - stay safe when walking alone

Mint - money management

Toshl - finance manager

Tiny Scanner - scan documents

Just a reminder in case your mind is playing tricks on you today: You matter. You’re important. You’re loved & your presence on this earth makes a difference whether you see it or not

135 Ways You Can Practice Self-Care

You are more important than your to-do list, so prioritize your well-being above some of the little extra tasks you might think you need to do—to help yourself feel better. Saving your self-care for when you have time on your hands results in putting it off. This is why it’s important to start now, you are your own best friend.

1. Drink some water first thing in the a.m—stay hydrated. 2. Write down five things every day that didn’t totally suck. 3. Make a menu for the week. 4. Try that new yoga class. 5. Take a new route to work, or learn a new language. 6. Have a mini dance party. 7. Take five minutes to decompress every day. 8. Move for at least 30 minutes a day. 9. Get some sleep already. 10. Practice kegel exercises. 11. Start your day with something pleasant. 12. Get your om on—mediate. 13. Confront your negativity—on paper. 14. Get a tomato plant. 15. Stop to smell the coffee—literally. 16. Volunteer just one hour a month. 17. Go purse shopping, get a smaller handbag (for your back). 18. Have a family dinner. 19. Sit up straight. 20. Don’t eat the kale if you don’t like it. 21. Detox from technology and work. 22. Plan a workout date with a friend. 23. Enjoy breakfast. 24. Do some planks. 25. Say no to those dinner plans if you dont want to go. 26. Cleanse your space—declutter. 27. Listen to music. 28. Treat yourself to trips to the cinema. 29. Practice gratitude. 30. Laugh out loud. 31. Read for pleasure. 32. Enjoy the beautiful weather. 33. Make self-care mandatory in your life. 34. Take your creativity off the shelf and start a new project. 35. Talking—you are not alone. 36. Brain dump. 37. A to-do list item. 38. Hang with kitties. 39. Take a bath. 40. Get a massage. 41. Get your hair done. 42. Get a manicure, and a pedicure. 43. Ice cream and wine. 44. Buy fresh flowers. 45. Call someone. 46. Get some sun. 47. Watch clouds. 48. Let yourself have a good cry. 49. Comfort food—suck on some hard candy, or have some chocolate. 50. Do a puzzle. 51. Colour. 52. Go to the beach. 53. Go for a drive. 54. Garden. 55. Watch the sunset. 56. Plan your vacation. 57. Watch the sunrise. 58. Cuddle with a pet. 59. Snuggle a human. 60. Light a scented candle or some incense. 61. Make a little pouch and fill it with rice and some lavender, or dried rose petals; use it as an eye pillow. 62. You can also make one that fits in your palm; it’s a great thing to fuss + fiddle with when you are feeling anxious. 63. Scream it out. 64. Get some professional help. 65. Take meds daily. 66. Write in a journal. 67. Start small. 68. Read a self-help book. 69. Join a support group. 70. Think about your positive qualities. 71. Practice asking and receiving help. 72. Buy yourself a present. 73. Practice forgiveness. 74. Play with children. 75. Pray. Find spiritual mentor. 76. Make a vision board. 77. Plan short term and a long term goals. 78. Go on with dates. 79. Get out of debt. 80. Just relax. 81. Write a poem or a book. 82. Cook out. 83. Learn to play an instrument. 84. Learn to say NO. 85. Take time off. 86. Get “me time”. 87. Turn off cell phone. 88. Self reflexion. 89. Learn who you are. 90. Figure out what you want in life. 91. Get coffee with a friend. 92. Get out of bed. 93. Be inspired. 94. Go to symphony or ballet. 95. Social justice engagement. 96. Say “I love you”. 97. Talk to an old friend. 98. Ask for nurture. 99. Kiss. 100. Turn off the TV. 101. Swaddling in a comfy blanket. 102. No make-up day. 103. Compliment someone. 104. Smile at yourself in the mirror. 104. Drink some soothing tea. 105. Set a boundary for yourself. 106. Pop some bubble wrap. 107. Play your favourite board game. 108. Go on a date—even if that means taking yourself out. 109. Create a self-love box/jar. 110. Re-arrange your room. 111. Leave yourself a note in your lunch. 112. Deep condition your hair. 113. Place a few drops of an essential oil (lavender) behind your ear. 114. Plan a mini stay-cation. 115. Change the background of your computer or phone to an uplifting quote. 116. Go on a weekend retreat. 117. Search random things on Pinterest. 118. Start a blog. 119. Share your responsibilities with someone. 120. Share a recent accomplishment with others. 121. Spend some time near a lake, river, or stream. 122. Download an app that helps with anxiety and stress relief. 123. Streeeetch. 124. Let go of something that has been bothering you lately. 125. Move 1 thing from today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s to-do list. 126. Thank someone who is deserving. 127. Send a funny Snapchat. 128. Prepare and eat your favorite meal when you were a kid. 129. Exfoliate your skin. 130. Catch up on TV shows that you haven’t had time to watch 131. Look up more often, and I mean this quite literally. 132. Watch funny cat videos on YouTube, meow 133. Spend some time in silence. 134. Write a love letter to yourself. 135. List your reasons for living.

Self-Care looks different to different people.  Create a more permanent and lasting self-care routine that best fits you and your needs.

source: Health Journal & others.