Self Discipline Tips

self discipline tips

here are tips I discovered very recently:

something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.

second drafts / reviews can be done after.

Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.

don’t think about doing it. just do it as fast as you can.

build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.

if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.

this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.

be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!

set smaller deadlines for your goals

have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines

e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.

take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.

write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want

on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.

it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.

spread daily tasks in the time necessary.

have a consistent sleep schedule.

if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.

have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!

(don’t forget these are effective only if you actually put them into practice! good luck babes!!)

My Notes Masterpost

Hey guys! It’s finally that time of year, the time where I post all of my notes from the semester! (I’m actually posting all of my notes from the last three years) Feel free to use and distribute these notes as you please, but please do not repost on Tumblr without giving credit!

High School Notes

Algebra II- These are by far my largest files to date. Both PDFs are a mixture of my own notes and notes that my teacher gave me. 

Physics- I don’t have a whole ton of these notes, but they include key ideas, as well as step-by-step instructions for 1-D and 2-D motion problems.

AP Human Geography- This folder includes chapter outlines, worksheets, articles, and practice tests.

AP World History- FIFTY PAGES WORTH OF APWH NOTES! These are the notes that got me through the exam!

AP Psychology- Chapter outlines + two projects I did. I don’t have a whole lot of notes on this subject because I mostly used a workbook.

Introduction to Digital Technology- These notes are helpful for anyone taking a computer science class, but these do focus fairly heavily on web design.

Digital Design/Web Design- These are from second and third year web design classes, focusing on HTML/CSS.

Sociology- All vocab from a textbook written in the 90s.

Spanish II- I’m gonna be honest here and say I did very poorly in Spanish, but I did at least take a decent number of notes.

College Notes

ENGL1101- These are all Blackboard handouts from my professor. 

ENGL1102- These are all vocabulary terms for all things literature.

HIST2111- EXTREMELY HELPFUL FOR APUSH. This folder is literally hundreds of pages of American History notes from my college lectures.

American Government- Every single vocabulary term from my American Government textbook. These notes were written with Mildliners so I apologize for the light-colored text.

That’s all I have for now! As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions/technical problems with these notes. Remember that what I did may not work for you, but I hope these notes will at the very least help you out come exam time! Good luck and happy studying!

What’s in my pencil case + essay planning

Essay planner printable from @emmastudies

Grow Up - Glo Up Tags Masterpost

The tags have been available on the blog site for a while, but I decided to put them in a post that you lovelies can save for future references as well. Enjoy💋 

Bathroom ~ Cleaning and bath time fun

Beauty ~ Skincare, makeup, you get the gist

Bedroom ~ Organization, decorating, and possible relationship advice

Carpe Diem ~ How to get yoself together and become a better person

Cleaning ~ Overall organizations and cleaning tips

Education ~ Your brain is your biggest asset, so feed it

Earth ~ Zero waste, and other things regarding the planet we depend on but treat poorly

Finance ~ Money, and how to get more, and keep what you have for longer

Fitness ~ Get off the bed and keep your body and mind fit

Food ~ Any recipes or food related content

Garden ~ Plants, gardening, and how to develop a green thumb

Glo Up ~ Inspirational glo up pictures and stories

Grounding Box ~ Hobbies and knickknacks to ground yourself with when responsibilities overwhelm you

Health ~ I just want y'all alive and well

Home ~ How to turn your house into a home

Kitchen ~ Y'know that place in the house where you’re supposed to cook and store food?

Languages ~ Learning languages is always fun and good for you

Luxury ~ The finer, more selfish, things in life, because I’m selfish

Mod Musings ~ Just me rambling into the abyss and sharing snippets of my life with strangers on the internet

Mod Stuff ~ Any updates or information I want to tell you guys regarding this blog

Moving ~ We can’t all live in our parents’ basements forever

Parenting ~ Can you believe some of us are responsible for little humans?

Pets ~ They’re basically millennial kids, anyways

Relationships ~ Platonic and romantic

Resources ~ External resources that may be beneficial to you

Reproductive Health ~ Your body, sex, and how to do it right

Safety ~ Stay safe, slay safe

Socialize ~ We all have to talk to other humans at some point

Style ~ Clothes, fashion, just put something on, please

Tech~ Tumblr-related stuff and other technology and internet stuff

Travel ~ The world is your oyster so explore it

Vegan ~ Any recipes or food advice that applies to the vegans as well

Work ~ Unfortunately, capitalism makes the world go round

Writing ~ For the little souls with lots of stories to tell

Any ideas for efficient breaks between study sessions?

I’m a pro at this;

For a 5 minutes breaks;

Clean your desk. This is very important because you would want to have a clean space when you want to return to studying. It’ll also help you focus more.

Grab a healthy snack. Carrots and nuts are my favorite snacks tbh. 

refill your bottle of water.

Solve a rubix cube (if you know how to solve it)

Check your email or messages, but make sure you don’t spend more than 5 minutes. Just reply to the important ones.

Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee.

For 10-15 minutes breaks;

Prepare some oatmeal! I love oatmeal and I always have some during my break. It’s very nutritious and it wakes you up frankly.

Have a shower. Sometimes when I’m sleepy, I just take a short shower, usually moderately cold, maybe even warm, and change into fresh clothes. That boosts my level of concentration AND makes me feel amazing.

Tidy your room. This is a nice way to control the mess and it sets you in a better mood, knowing that everything is in place and neat. 

Call a friend! You sometimes need to chat with someone that makes you feel happy.

Watch a youtube video (preferably motivational). This is what I do most of the time. It really gives me a boost of motivation and kind of reminds me why I’m doing what I’m doing. Why I shouldn’t stop.

Exercise; some yoga sequences, crunches, squats, ANYTHING REALLY! Maybe practice your splits or bridge. I don’t know, just MOVE your body. I frankly dance. I just place some music and start to choreograph to it. Or I also practice my kicks for karate (trying to get them higher than usual). Just do any kind of exercise that moves your body.

For 20-40 minutes breaks;

POWER NAP YAASSS. If you feel too tired, just sleep. Tell someone to wake you up in 20 minutes or so. but don’t exceed the 40 minutes or else you would wake up tired rather than energized. Tbh, a 20 minutes power nap is the best option.

Read a chapter from your favorite book. Just one chapter yeah?

Prepare lunch, or dinner. I honestly just go heat up my food and eat it, or maybe actually prepare some (noodles bruh). and then I watch something while I’m eating, like a part of that musical I’ve been wanting to watch (Heathers is what I’m currently watching).

Prepare next week’s spread. I tend to do that during the weekends.

Skincare! Since I have rosacea (it sucks), I use this time to wash my face, apply a face mask, then wash my face AGAIN then put some serum to regenerate the skin. Not only is this good for my skin, but it also makes me more relaxed.

Go outside! go to the library, the coffee shop, the grocery store, the park. ANYTHING. You need fresh air. 

For 1-2 hours break; 

THIS IS THE MOST YOU CAN GET.

Watch a movie. Preferably something that doesn’t have sequels. 

Watch an episode or two from your favorite show. if the episode is for 1 hour or more (Sherlock or GOT) you probably should watch one episode.

Go out. Have lunch with a friend, or by yourself (quality time aye)

Go shopping!

Write. I have a two hours break every Saturday and Sunday to write.

Clean up your closet. You probably have many shirts and pants that don’t fit you anymore, so why not give them to someone that actually needs them?

This is what I can think of at the moment. Hope they’re useful!

And remember to actually be productive for you to take a break yeah?

How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!