Hi Everyone! Since The Holidays Are Over For Most Of Us, I Thought Id Make An Inspirational And Motivational

hi everyone! since the holidays are over for most of us, i thought i’d make an inspirational and motivational masterpost all about notes! upgrading your notes by changing the layout, adding doodles, banners, using sticky notes, changing your handwriting etc. motivates me personally to study! 

out with the sloppy last minute notes and in with the new!

handwriting

how to write in cursive

some fonts to try out

how to improve your handwriting

note taking systems

study methods summed up

stationery to make it all happen

sticker printables to jazz it up

notes

how to take lecture notes

how to annotate books

taking notes from a textbook - studyign

note taking system - theorganisedstudent

note taking system - emmastudies

another note taking system - academicmind

another note taking system - wonderfullifee

the 2 notebook method

note taking with highlighters and post its

pretty timelines

note taking printables

plot summary with sticky notes

20 uses of sticky notes

colour code your notes

method with columns 

the cornell note taking system

the cornell note taking system using onenote

in class notes

another in class note taking format

what are sketchnotes?

online whiteboard

flashcards

how to make flashcards

another how to make flashcards

an example

another example (with sticky notes)

and another example (biology)

8 ways to improve your flashcards

make  and test flashcards online

alternative to flashcards - studyign

print onto flashcards

mindmaps

how to mindmap (1)

how to mindmap (2)

some examples

apps

notability

banners

simple banner

more banners

it’s a banner party over here

banners (shown how to draw in gifs)

illustrate your notes

how to illustrate your notes - reviseordie

sketchnote tips (banners, lettering, doodles)

more sketchnote tips

even more sketchnote tips

how to make your notes pretty - theorganisedstudent

how to make your notes pretty - studyspoinspo

how to make your notes pretty - booksflowersandtea

what is visual note taking?

a visual alphabet

note taking printables

dot grid 

note outline printables

lined cornell method printable

grid cornell method printable

hope you all had a good rest and are ready for a new year of studying!

xoxo lou

I'm really pleased with this page I made in my bullet journal to track my trichotillomania! (For those who don't know, trichotillomania is a BFRB where people compulsively pull out their own hair.) I have my goals broken down by days gone without pulling, and I list my reward next to a space where I can tally off the days. Finally, I found some cute silver holographic stars I can put in the last column to celebrate reaching my goal! This is a great way to track other habits as well!

First bullet journal spread ever! I went for a fourth of July theme, and I left ample space for the last minute obligations that seem to pop up! Currently listening to: "Lion Heart" by Girls' Generation

When you're having a crappy day but you stumble into a huge sale at Jo-Ann's

If you can manage your time properly, you can have time for school, work, friends, and sleep – seems fake, right? But I promise! With the right planner and a little bit of discipline, you can be a social not-zombie with good grades (most days, at least – I’m not a miracle worker).

your planner, aka best friend

This is the most important piece of the puzzle (besides keeping up with it, of course.) 

I prefer daily planners, so that you can have every hour of your day laid out.

Day Designer (my top pick) Bloom Target’s daily planners

Weekly planners work well if you don’t have many commitments. I prefer Moleskine for this if your schedules not too busy, or Day Designer’s line at Target has a bit more room. 

You could also go the bullet journal route if you prefer!

Monthly planners/calendars are a good supplement to one of the above, but I would discourage you from using one on it’s own. 

Once you have a planner, it’s no use unless you actually keep up with it. Enter in assignments as you get them. Enter both the due date, and the date you should start working on it. Give yourself more time than you need! 

how to plan your day

I start every morning by checking my planner (okay, I actually check Instagram first). Look at what’s due soon, and make a quick to do list to start. Give yourself plenty of wiggle-room when you schedule, so that when things don’t go as planned it doesn’t send you into panic mode. You can either schedule your day hour for hour, or you can just make a general outline of what needs to get done that day. It all depends on your personality and how busy your schedule is; for me, some days are planned in detail and others I just have a simple to do list. 

managing study time

The pomodoro technique is my favorite strategy for managing time while studying. If you’re not familiar with the method, you set a timer for 25 minutes and work; at the end of the 25 minutes you take a 5 minute break and then start again. It keeps me on track, but still reminds me to take a short break to stretch or get a snack. The chrome extension Strict Workflow is my favorite timer, because it cuts off access to distracting websites until your break. 

Don’t waste your time staring at a blank Word doc! If you can’t seem to motivate yourself to do something, move onto a different project and try again later. You’ll feel motivated after knocking out an easy task and be able to write that paper even easier. 

If you have a lot of projects to work on, like during finals week, know when you’re spending too much time on one thing and need to walk away. I’m a total perfectionist, so it’s easy for me to get caught up in making one thing perfect and run out of time to do the rest. Keep an eye on the clock and remember if you have more things to do.

managing your other responsibilities

This is where it gets hard – balancing school and work and friends and maybe even sleeping at some point in there. A few tips:

Your to do list isn’t just for projects: if you need to put “take a shower” on there for it to happen, do it.

Take some time before you go to bed to tidy up.

If it takes less than two minutes, do it when you see it. 

Have a study free day: work ahead so that you can have one full day off to spend time with friends, get caught up on other things, etc.

Work ahead so that if something fun comes up, you won’t be stuck at home studying. 

Don’t be afraid to say no. Sometimes you just can’t take on another responsibility, and that’s fine. 

Go straight back to pre-K and give yourself a bedtime. Apple’s new bedtime feature will even give you an hour’s heads up, so you can start wrapping things up and get some sleep. 

Once you get the hang of planning and sticking to it, you’ll be amazed by how much free time you actually have!

#MOTIVATIONALPOSTERMONDAY