Around November A Kid In My Class Got The Chickenpox. This Caused Our Class To Be Quarantined For A Little

Around November a kid in my class got the chickenpox. This caused our class to be quarantined for a little more than 2 weeks, which sucked even more because it started on the day before our over-night field trip. And it was pretty chaotic since we’re seniors. I didn’t see the need to post this before since not many of us on here lives in China, but now that most people are going through the same thing I decided to post some of the tips I have on staying at home and staying productive. Enjoy~

1. Set an alarm and wake up on time

I cannot tell you how many times some of my classmates missed homeroom (for us it’s mandatory cause they take attendance and it affects whether you graduate or not). Setting an alarm makes you wake up on time and prevents you from oversleeping. I admit there were times where I forgot to set my alarm, hit stop and contined to sleep, or literally slept through it. It happens. But you can’t let it keep happening. This messes up your whole day and might causes you to procrastinate even more because ‘everything is ruined anyways’ (though this may have smt to do with my mental health..). So remember to set an alarm to get started on your day on time!

2. Have a schedule and (try your best to) stick to it

Routine helps. When you literally have nothing to do, having a scheduled saves you from boredom and also from wasting your time thinking about what you have to or should do today. It doesn’t have to be packed, just a simple list of chores and activities would do. This also refrains you from delaying schoolwork for ‘tomorrow’.

3. Exercise!!

Yes. Staying at home and not moving much will not make you feel good. Especially to those who live in dorms or apartments. So move around, exercise a bit. You could do yoga, stretch a bit, or just freestyle jump around to music. Anything to get you moving, do it. It’ll help you from feeling cramped, stop you from gaining weight, and also make you feel better. Why? Because exercise=endorphins=happy people (and happy people don’t kill their husbands) . Doing some chores would work too! So get up and start moving!

4. Open the windows

For all those who grew up with your mothers opening the windows, you get it. You need to ‘change the air’. Right now you’re not getting any fresh air. And you can’t just go out to take a walk, right? Open your windows for half an hour in the morning, and you’ll feel a difference.

5. Have something to look forward to each day

This one is kinda related to the second point. I strongly recommend you to have something new to look forward to everyday. It could be eating a slice of the cake you decided to bake, an episode of your favorite tv show, or trying to achieve your goal of touching the ceiling idk. Having something to look forward to motivates you to get up everyday and keeps you from having your days mashed up together till you don’t remember whether you ate the bananas on Tuesday or Wednesday. Personally, I look forward to what I’m having for breakfast, that way I have another incentive to get up early and enjoy it before the rest of my family wakes up. So create a list of things you like to do (or would like to try), go over it right before bed, and choose one for the next day.

6. Change your clothes

Staying in your pajamas is really really tempting. However, your brain associates your pajamas with sleeping. So staying in it the whole day will make it question whether you should sleep or do something productive. This could also mess up your sleeping schedule. So lay out an outfit before you go to bed, and change into it when you start working.

7. Shower, please. And do your chores.

I don’t mean to sound like your mother, but just because you didn’t go outside, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to shower. If you are staying in your pajamas the whole day and for a few days now, go shower and get a change of clothes. And chores? Yes you still need to do them. It is your job to keep the area you live in clean and tidy. Plus, cleaning it would get rid of germs. Take care of yourself, please.

8. Journal

Last one, stay with me kids. This was a habit I developed during the chickenpox quarantine. Although it was solely for my mental health, it helped a lot to just sit there and write about my thoughts, feelings, and what happened during the day. For those of you who are alone and have no human interaction, this might help you when you feel like ranting. Just sit down at the end of the day, and pour your heart out. If you don’t feel safe having a physical book lying around containing all these intimate and vulnerable parts of you, download a journaling app. Some have locks, and worse case you can just delete it to never see it again.

9. Human interaction

Wait no, this one’s the last one sorry! Contact your parents or friends once in a while. For those of you who often see them physically yet don’t have a habit of holding conversations with them online, call them. It helps with the loneliness that creeps In sometimes. Catch up with them, make sure they’re ok.

So far these are all that I can remember, I’ll reblog this if I have more. Thanks for reading! I hope it helped~

i mentioned this briefly in my recent vlog about how important it is to gain a better understanding of finances + i figured that it might be nice to share some resources for gaining financial literacy! hope this helps ✨

why financial literacy is important

resources on financial literacy from the national credit union administration

harvard’s take on financial literacy + additional links within that page

how credit cards work

tips for improving your credit score

how to check and improve your credit score

khan academy course on finance

cnn money 101

mymoney.gov from the financial literacy commission

gcf lessons (includes lessons on work / career / internet / microsoft / etc as well)

ally wallet wise

money as you grow

adult budgeting 101

tips for paying off student loans

common ways you waste money

strategies for paying off student loans

how insurance works

personal loans 101

guide to getting out of debt

how student loans work

how i use google drive for university - pt 1: digital notetaking  by kkaitstudies

idk about you but i’ve tested a bunch of note taking methods. in my last few years of university, i was indeed lazy and rarely referred back to the professor’s slides in the course shell. i opted to read off the slides in lecture and take notes. while MS OneNote is great, i found myself enjoying Google Drive much more. so here is a quick overview of how i take notes using Google Docs. 

folders are your friends

make separate folders for each of your courses. google drive even gives you the option to change the colours of the folders. in these folders, add any relevant coursework such as the syllabi, readings, and your notes document.

use one doc for notes per course

once you receive the syllabi, take some time to take note of required readings, and assignment deadlines. i have created a free template you can save to your own google drive that you can access here. fill out:

- course code & name - prof’s name, office hours, and email - date(s) for each week of class - weekly readings (tip: if you have online readings, you can link them in the doc!) - & open the document outline (view > show document outline)

you also don’t have to use all these features. T B H, i didn’t do weekly readings. a lot. oops. BUT i did always pay attention in lecture. i simply deleted the “reading notes” header every week i didn’t bother to read.

make use of early access to lecture slides, headers, etc. 

some profs (bless their souls) post the slides sometime before the lecture. if you have the time, copy the lecture slides into your notes. and if they don’t…type real quick to get all the info as it’s happening (or go back to slides online after lecture to see what you missed out on). i separate lecture topics with headers, with the bullet points underneath (see above). if there is anything that the prof says during class that isn’t in the lecture slides, i will change the colour of the text to a different colour. any important concepts or testable material are highlighted.

…and that’s how i take notes! everyone is different. not all note-taking methods work for everyone. this is what worked for me in my last 2 years of uni. hopefully a similar structure works for some of y’all! also, let me know what you think and @ me if you end up using my template. have a great semester!

coming soon: [ part 2: grade tracker | part 3: gmail and gcal ]

How to remain productive with online classes:

A few tips from a broke neuro-divergent academic

Try and wake up early, and go to bed early too. I’m not saying get up at 5 (unless that’s you’re thing) but sleeping into noon is a productivity blackhole. I go for 8 or 8:30, generally, but that’s just what works for me.

Get dressed for the day. I’m not talking like, jeans and a business casual outfit, but a clean pair of sweatpants, fresh underwear, and a new shirt can really put you in the mood for a new morning.

Have a workspace. Whether it be the kitchen table, a desk, a spot on the floor with a lap desk, have a place that’s dedicated to your work. Have items that signify that workspace too, like your book, planner, laptop, lamp, whatever. It can help you get into the zone, being in that space.

Have a morning drink. I choose earl grey tea with honey and cream, but black coffee, herbal tea, lemon water, whatever works for you is awesome, as long as itll wake you up and start your day.

To do lists. To do lists and to do lists and more to do lists. I have three. One is a post it weekly planner deal (3.99 at a local grocery store). it’s a weekly spread already set up, and if you’re anything like me, its really hard to set up a weekly spread. Then I have an app called Ike. I have a daily to do list I write on that app, and then I have four more to-do lists of what I have to for each specific class.

Spread out your assignments. Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you’re professors are like mine, and have the due date for each module as Sunday at midnight. What I do is spread out all my assignments from Monday to Saturday, and I leave Sunday blank, so anything I didn’t do that week, I finish on Sunday. It works for me, it might work for you.

Have a folder for each class, and a notebook for each class. I hate spending money, I’m broke as hell, sono al verde as the Italians say, but a 0.99 cent folder and a 0.25 cent notebook can do wonders for motivating one to fill them up.

Study with a drink. Tea, water, coffee, whatever, but my go to is generally a warm drink. I cannot study if I’m cold, I get tired and groggy, so warm socks, a robe, and a hot drink really keep me going.

Take breaks. Make time for your hobbies, for something fun. Working without stopping absolutely destroys my motivation, and let me tell you, when I feel like that, an episode of Avatar and a snack gets me right back on the wagon.

Do self check ins. Does your back hurt? Are you sad? Stressed? Do you have to pee? Are you hungry? Never put your homework over your health. You won’t be able to get anything done well anyway if you’ve got those blocks.

Most importantly, get enough sleep. I beg of you. Sleep is so important, and it’s the game changer, at least to me. We as students have such an amazing opportunity to get more sleep than we ever have before during the year. Take advantage of that.

self care tips for your absolute worst days

so i’m sure we’ve all seen a hundred self care tips masterpost but so many of them just don’t help on my absolute worst days so i thought i’d make my own one to help me and you feel better on those days where it’s all just too much

for when you have 30 seconds:

click for a kitten and for a puppy (refresh the page for a new one!)

clean your face with a wipe or a damp towel. just literally rub it on your face for like 20 seconds and you’ll feel cleaner, trust me

spray dry shampoo into your hair and rub it in to feel cleaner!

stretch once. reach your hands up in the air as far as they can go, and then let them flop back down at your sides. curl up into a tight ball and then relax out straight again. kneel down and then curl your head forward to rest it on your knees.

click to watch a tree grow (refresh the page for a new one!)

drink a glass of water

hug a teddy in bed with you

send me a ask that you are feeling bad and i will reply with love and support! copy paste this text if you don’t have the energy to write anything: “hi i am having a bad day and really need some support right now”

for when you have 5 minutes:

stand under the shower for 5 minutes. you don’t even have to use soap or anything. you could even sit down. just get undressed and put on your favourite song and dry yourself afterwards. put on new clothes if you can, but it’s also 100% good to just put the same clothes back on.

change one item of clothing you are wearing. new socks. new underwear. new tshirt. put on a jumper.

eat a bowl of cereal. don’t have milk? dry cereal is tasty too. don’t have cereal? eat a piece of toast, or a snack bar, or a piece of fruit. just something small to give your body a little energy.

make a cup of tea/hot chocolate and hold it in your hands (once it’s cooled down a bit!). holding a warm mug releases the same chemicals in your brain as a hug does, so think of it as a small warm hug :)

if you have a pet, chat to them. if they are huggable, give them a hug. if you don’t have a pet, here is a cute video of a cat meeting a hedgehog.

wash up one plate. or one bowl. or one mug. 

moisturise!! u will feel softer and also smell good

get some coloured pens/pencils/crayons/ and a colouring book and go wild. you can find things on the internet to print out if you don’t have a book!

reduce the urges:

hold an ice cube

snap an elastic band against your wrist/ankle

paint your nails

dance/sing to your favourite music 

if you have the energy to leave the house, go for a 5 minute walk. or just open a window and breathe next to it.

i like listening to welcome to night vale which is weird and wonderful and the narrator’s voice is so gentle and soothing: here is a link to episode 1 on youtube 

phone a friend!

remember that you are important and loved and deserve so much happiness and so much care and that my ask box is always open on anon for whenever you need a few sentences of love from someone who knows how it feels 💕