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Attention Management: How to Take Control and Live Intentionally

We live in an age of information, and it’s becoming even more difficult to be in control of our attention. Every second, it seems like there’s something new to be consumed, something new to pay attention to. Because of this, it’s important to take control of our attention and more intentional about how we spend our time, and we can do so by practicing attention management.

Keep reading below for a transcription + some other posts you might be interested in:

Energy Management

Flexible Time Blocking

The Mandatory Midday Break

A Small Guide to Journaling

Staying Focused while Studying

Hope this helps!

Keep reading

How to write a bomb ass personal statement

I’ve had a few asks about how to write - as one of you put it - a bomb ass personal statement. I’m a bit reluctant to write this, seeing as I haven’t actually got an interview/offer yet! But I guess it might be helpful to those of you applying around now :)

HOW TO START

Bullet point what you want to include - I suggest listing out what you want to include. It’s a good idea to do this at the beginning, to make sure you don’t leave anything out; and it can help form the basic structure of your statement.

Do not start at the start - this is one of the most important things I learnt when writing mine. It is so hard to write that first sentence - so just leave it until the end, and begin writing with the actual content, something you’re more comfortable writing about.

When you do get down to writing that first sentence - do not start with a cheesy quote or the typical “I have always bee passionate about…” as these are things that can immediately put off an admissions tutor. Try and be original, or just simple: “I want to study X because…”

THE CONTENT

Just keep writing - don’t worry about the 4,000 character and 47 line limits. Literally just write, and keep going, even if you think what you’re writing is bad - just get all your ideas out there, and put down everything you would want to include. It’s so much easier to take things out rather than adding things in. My personal statement was around 8,000 characters at one point!`

Get the balance right - different unis want different things from personal statements, so check their websites to make sure you’re getting in what they want. You need to get the balance of intellectual curiosity/passion for the subject with your personal qualities and extra-curriculars. 

Back up everything with evidence - don’t just say you are great at working in a team, give examples that demonstrate that you have worked well in successful teams in the past.What to include?

WHAT TO INCLUDE

Why you want to study that particular course

Why you are the right person to study the course

Extra things you have done to show commitment or interest about the course - volunteering, subscriptions to journals, further reading etc.

Any relevant work experience

Any relevant awards you’ve won (e.g. maths challenge or physics olympiad) or responsibilities within the school (e.g. prefect or house captain)

Demonstrate desirable skills for your course - problem solving, teamwork, leadership etc.

WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE

Cliches - like “Ever since I was born I have wanted to study…”

Quotes - this is a personal statement, so don’t start quoting other people! Plus way too many people do this to make it original.

Jokes - it may be that the person reading your statement has a very different sense of humour than you do.

Really long sentences - you want your personal statement to be as easy as possible to read, and long confusing sentences won’t help that.

Repetition - it’s such a short document, you don’t have space for this. Plus it gets boring!

Names of unis - the unis you apply to have no idea where else you have applied, so don’t name any of them in your statement.

THE ENDING

Do not end on a cheesy quote or joke. Just sum up why you’d be a great candidate and reinforce what you have told them throughout the main body of the statement - that you’re fabulous!

Once you have finished a draft you can start trying to cut down on the word count. Maybe ask a teacher to look at your spelling/grammar, and you can always get your friends’ opinions too, on what should come out, and what should be kept in. Make sure you don’t let other people have too much influence - it has to be a personal statement!

copying out some old book notes into my commonplace book with my fountain pen!

Duke Humphrey’s Library, the Bodleian, Oxford. May 2019.

Re-uploading these because I finally figured out how to format them!! I will never stop being grateful for the chance to study here.

On The Writers of History...until recently

“Too male, too pale, too stale” - a professor

When writing history proposals, the goal is not to say that the older historians got it wrong, per se. The goal is to “move a conversation forward.”

So far this week I have transcribed 4 early modern English manuscript pages, had two paleography classes, done two Latin lessons, got 60 pages deep on Johnson's Equal in Monastic Profession, and finished the first chapter of Beard's SPQR.

Probably not going to achieve as much reading as I had hoped this week, but at least I finally started Johnson's book.

Advice for writing scholarly articles to be published? O.o

i haven't published a full length article of my own any journals yet—just my chapter in the kubrick book and the double book review in the one journal—but here are some of the general tips we were given in my program!!

know the major journals in your field and read them!! knowing the type of content they publish, what their formatting is like, when they do special issues, etc. etc. is key for figuring out where/when to submit

pay attention to call for papers!! the upenn cfp website is great for keeping up with conferences, journals, and special issues so you can time when to submit papers/abstracts

read the guidelines for submission in detail

know that your article is likely to go through revision; most journal articles won't get published without some type of editing/revising process

make sure that you have 5,000 to 10,000 words worth of content to say about your given topic; that's a general estimate of article length for most major academic journals in the humanities/arts (i can't speak to science stuff)

The cohort when we hear Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

Little Women (dir. Gillian Armstrong, 1994)

Essentials of Success:

Motivation, persistence, and determination Self-discipline Imagination and creativity Excellence Specific goals Specialized knowledge Adaptability Responsibility Cooperation Self-reliance Mental rehearsal Time management Concentrated, sustained attention

—Octavia Butler

Learn to love reading and research I promise you’ll never be bored again

one of the deans in beijing dance academy rehearses with students

Writing isn’t about waiting for some magical burst of motivation to hit you. If you’re sitting around waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll never get anything done. Writing is showing up on the bad days, when the words feel like they’re dragging through mud. It’s not glamorous, it’s work. But here’s the thing, every time you push through that struggle, you get stronger. You don’t write because it’s easy or fun all the time. You write because the story inside you needs to be told. So sit down, put in the hours, and watch what happens when you refuse to quit.

Nia Long as Nina Mosley in Love Jones (1997) directed by Theodore Witcher

“Rich kids should go to public schools. The mayor should ride the subway to work. When wealthy people get sick, they should be sent to public hospitals. Business executives should have to stand in the same airport security lines as everyone else. The very fact that people want to buy their way out of all of these experiences points to the reason why they shouldn’t be able to. Private schools and private limos and private doctors and private security are all pressure release valves that eliminate the friction that would cause powerful people to call for all of these bad things to get better. The degree to which we allow the rich to insulate themselves from the unpleasant reality that others are forced to experience is directly related to how long that reality is allowed to stay unpleasant. When they are left with no other option, rich people will force improvement in public systems. Their public spirit will be infinitely less urgent when they are contemplating these things from afar than when they are sitting in a hot ER waiting room for six hours themselves.”

— Everyone Into The Grinder