ambiition:

8.5.2020

with all this extra time i’ve been spending a lot more time on my bullet journal. here’s one of my favourite spreads from back in april with some notes i did on blue zones - a really interesting concept!!

somehowistudy:

Adhd Study Tip: Routines

Since a major symptom of ADHD is never knowing how long a task will take you, routines can really help you get your stuff done. So how to trick your brain into making (and keeping) one?

Write your routine down!

Be flexible with times. Some things may have really rigid times (like class times, meals) but when it’s hard to know how long stuff takes, getting a general idea is better than stressing out trying to guess how long it takes to do your class readings etc

Have time for “busy work”— bad short term memory means that you forget to answer important emails, make appointments, do forms. If you set a specific time for this type of thing, it’s like a built in reminder to go deal with it.

Sometimes you just can’t focus as well as you’d like. Sometimes you get distracted talking to friends. Sometimes you randomly get invited to do something fun. Have times that are intentionally flexible, for work if you’re hyper focused, or fun if you need a break

Remeber that a routine is to provide sweet sweet structure, not to provide stress and guilt. It’s a guideline to help you, and you don’t have to feel bad if you don’t follow it perfectly.

eintsein:

College Note-Taking System

Having cohesive and effective notes is one of the key skills I think one should have, especially in an academic setting. When you’re receiving a ton of information each day, you want to be able to keep track of that and remember what you’ve learned. I’m constantly trying out ways to make my note-taking more effective and tailored to my needs. Here’s what my note-taking system looks like so far.

Quick note: click on the images for better quality!

Class Notes

Taking notes in class is an invaluable way to keep track of the new knowledge you’ve gained. However, depending on the mode in which the lecture material is conveyed, I take my notes differently. Here’s a summary of how I take my notes for each type of lecture, as well as some examplesfrom the classes I’m taking now.

Slides (e.g. Macroeconomics)

Macroeconomics is a class in which you should be able to intuitively understand a lot of concepts but also remembera lot of things. Because of this, I’ve tailored my note-taking method and habits to achieve that goal.

I write my notes by hand because handwritingis more effective in committing things to memory.

As for what I actually do - and this is what I’ve done for other classes in which the professor/lecturer uses slides:

1. Read/skim over the slide.
2. Read each bullet point as the professor goes through them.
3. Copy it down if it’s straightforward or write it down in a structure and diction that I understand better (not necessarily in my own words - sometimes it’s just restructuring, e.g. splitting things up or joining different bullet points together).
4. Take note of any other important detailsthe professor says about any particular point unless I think it’s intuitive or common sense.

Here’s an example from a Macroeconomics lecture.

Oral Presentation (e.g. Anthropology)

During classes in which the professor just speaks and doesn’t use much visual material, I listen before I write instead of attempting to write down every single detail mentioned.

Also, I typeup my notes instead of handwriting them since the exams are all open-book so I don’t really have to commit things to memory.

Here’s what I do:

1. Listen for a cue that tells you what this particular part of the lecture will be about (and write it as a heading).
2. Write down main ideas and their supporting facts/details. If the facts/details come before the main ideas, then I’d usually draw an arrow.
3. Write down ideas and details from readingsin their own section/subsection.
4. Sometimes, my professor also shows short clipsin class, in which case I’d write down the messagethat I think the clip was meant to convey, as well as things that the professor points out that I didn’t think of on my own.
5. I’d also look up concepts/ideas/people/events (in real time) that are important to my understanding of the lecture material.

Here’s an example of a Google Docs document from an Anthropology lecture.

Demonstrations and Sample Problems (e.g. Computer Science)

Classes in which the lecture is mainly going through demos and problems are kind of tricky, because you want to know and understand what the professor is doing, but you also don’t want to be writing down every single step that’s being executed. Here’s what I’ve found to be the most effective so far:

1. If there are any, I import the slides/handoutontoOneNoteandannotate directly on the slide. If not, I just write down things like definitions, important concepts, and syntax-related things.
2. I focus on understandingwhat the professor’s doing with the demo or problem.
3. I then summarize the steps they took and
4. Write down commentsand points they brought up, e.g. common errors, desirable habits/practices.

Also, these kinds of classes are usually classes in which you’d learn better when you actually do problems yourself, so I definitely learn more when I do assignments and labs than when I’m in class.

Here’s an example from a Web Programming lecture.

Here’s one from an Object Oriented Programming and Data Structures class. I often draw things to help me visualize the general points.

Rewritten Notes

My rewritten notes have definitely changed a lot since high school. Since most of my classes don’t require a lot of memorization, I organize my notes in such a way that they’d be easy to index or find information from. Here are some of the ways I do that:

Establishing a Visual Hierarchy

Having a well-defined hierarchy helps me flow through my notes really well as i read them. It helps me organize information like a mind map without actually making a mind map - I know the big topics and their subtopics and sub-subtopics and details … basically it’s easier to see how these ideas fit together.

But why don’t I just make mind-maps? See, the thing is, a lot of my notes require sequential or linear thinking, e.g. in macroeconomics it might be the sequence of events following a change in the economy, or in computer science it might be a general algorithm for solving a certain type of problem, or it might be proving or deriving a certain equation. These sorts of things just generally don’t work well with mind maps. Instead, establishing a visual hierarchy in my notes helps me organize different ideas while retaining the linear nature of the information.

Here’s what the hierarchy looks like.

Here is an example from my Web Programming class, which is a purely project-based class, so no prelims or exams. As you can see, I draw rectangles around important terminology so that I can easily find them while I’m working on a project. I also include examples from in-class activities as well as notes on syntax so I have an idea of how to implement certain things. These examples and notes are further grouped by terminology/concept.

Structuring Them for Easier Flow

My syllabi for my college courses are nowhere near as detailed as the syllabi for my high school courses - those of you who take/have taken Cambridge exams would know. In college, my syllabi are only lists of topics and not what you’re expected to know for each topic. Because of this, I have to find a way to arrange information so that I can achieve the most comprehensive and cohesive understanding of that topic, i.e. so that the flow of my notes is similar to the flow of my thinking.

For example, in my economics notebook, I like to have the details first (e.g. the separate markets: the goods market, the assets market, and the labor market) and then the big picture later (IS-LM-FE). Some people prefer the other way around - seeing the big picture and then going into the details - which I can understand and have done myself for certain topics.

Making Use of Proximity and Spacing

I very much dislike notes without good use of spacing and grouping things together. Keeping related ideas in visual proximity helps your brain (or at least mine) organizethis information. It’s also a lot easier to find things andvisualize your notes when they’re not just a huge chunk of text.

One thing I should probably mention is that I don’t use colored pens anymore because it just takes a lot of time to switch pens and think of a color palette. I also don’t have much use for it. In the past, I used color to help me memorize and group things in different categories, but now, I’ve found that there aren’t a whole lot of categories I need to keep track of, and when I do, I can do so with just one pen but changing the style of the text.

And that’s what my note-taking system currently looks like. It’s working well so far, but I still think there are other things I could try out that might be a better fit.

So yeah, hope this was helpful, and as always, feel free to drop an ask if you have any questions, or even if you have any suggestions or would like to share your note-taking system. Have an awesome week!

study-motiv8:

Day 4/100 Days of Productivity

Here’s some nice local library aesthetics™️ and my prep notes for historiography next term

Also I have a few questions in my ask box - I’m a bit busy at the moment so I haven’t gotten around to answering them but I will tomorrow! If anyone wants to ask me anything about Oxford/uni/studying history or anything else, get them in soon and I’ll answer them then :)

stealthboy:

stealthboy:

stealthboy:

the stuff I learned today about my brain and addiction was really interesting

if you were to scan an addict and a nonaddict’s brains, they would be lit up differently. the frontal cortex of our brain controls who we are, our morals, our decision making and reasoning skills, etc.

our mid brain handles life or death survival processing. there is no consciousness at this level. it’s only ability is to try to avoid death and keep us alive

in an addict, the drug of choice triggers the mid brain while damaging/shutting down the frontal cortex. it feels like we have no control over it because in a way we really don’t; the part of our brain that makes logical choices isn’t functioning. our mid brain that thinks we’re dying is functioning, and it sees that drug as the only means to survive

i also learned that we each have a certain dopamine (the chemical that makes you happy) threshold. we have a “bar” that must be reached chemically to make us able to experience joy and pleasure. if you’re over the bar, you’re happy. under it, you’re sad

addicts have set the bar so high that it frequently is the case that nothing can make them happy unless they are high first and foremost. they need a much, much larger amount of dopamine to feel joy because so many dopamine receptors have been damaged and shut down

you know what other group of people have extremely high dopamine thresholds? children in abusive or otherwise high stress environments

addicts and abused children both require much higher amounts of dopamine to feel happy compared to “normal” people. this is a huge contributing factor as to why a lot of these kids turn to drugs: for the first time in our lives we have the amount of dopamine we need to feel genuinely happy, and we never want to go back to being sad

yes! the longer you go without using your drug of choice, the lower your dopamine threshold becomes until finally it is once again at normal levels. the broken dopamine receptors will heal themselves, and with therapy and medication the frontal cortex will gradually strengthen so the survival-focused midbrain has less control and actual decisions can once again be made

yes, please do. please help spread awareness about the disease of addiction and end the stigma against it

sayitaliano:

gwendolynlerman:

Welcome to the “Learn the IPA with me” series, where I’ll be sharing my journey and all the information that I find useful so that if you want, you can learn along with me.

Resources

These are the resources that I’ll be using to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet.

• Explanation of phonetic transcription (in Spanish)
• Explanation of the IPA
• Interactive IPA Chart
• IPA Chart
• Learn the IPA
• List of English IPA symbols (in Spanish)
• The American English IPA
• The French IPA
• The Russian IPA
  
• The Spanish IPA (in Spanish)
• Wikipedia

Adding some Italian, hope you don’t mind:

ITA
Phonetic transcription online tool
Ipasources.com/it
vids:consonants|vowels* | spelling** 
our alphabet/pronunciation post + more post about accents and pronunciations we made in our grammar masterpost ( @sayitalianohome‘s first post )

For any question or doubt, here we are.

*sadly I noticed that bc of my area’s idiom, I pronounce some words (vowel “e”: treno/freno) differently from how he explains (despite the fact that he kind of mispronounce open vowels anyway but that’s okay to me), and I bet this is true for people all around Italy: as we always say, nobody here  (if not those who actually study for that) speaks perfect Italian, we are influenced by the way of speaking of the area in which we were born/live.

**  (you actually don’t have to double come va, dove sei and the words just before that “e poi…” )

willkommen-in-germany:

4 differences between Japanese and German approaches to work, communication and customer service by Pernille Rudlin, Oct 31, 2014

There are well-known similarities between Japan and Germany - they are both manufacturers of exports which are in demand across the world, they have excellent engineering skills and leadership in manufacturing and craftsmanship. Furthermore, both are serious about their work, precise in time keeping and execution of their work, and are reliable and trustworthy. Many German and Japanese companies are similar - Toyota and Volkswagen, BMW and Honda, Thyssen Krupp and JFE Steel, BASF and Mitsubishi Chemical, Siemens and Hitachi, Leica and Nikon, etc. Both countries recovered after WWII through their hardworking attitudes. 

So says Ulrike Schaede, Professor of Japanese Business at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. However she also sees four fundamental differences, particularly with regard to the average white collar worker.

1. Life priorities. Most Germans (so long as they are not consultants or lawyers or top executives) will leave work somewhere between 5 and 6 pm at night, so they can return home to eat dinner with their families or meet friends. However it is almost unheard of for a Japanese salaryman to leave at such a time on a regular basis. Even without counting “service” overtime (unpaid) that most Japanese put in, the average working year is 350 hours longer in Japan than in Germany. 

This is because Germans believe that they have a contract which pays them for 40 hours of work a week with their employer and therefore if an employer wants more hours, then they should pay more. If a Germany employee can’t finish all their work on time, then they will either try to work more efficiently, even skipping lunch, or they will blame the employer for giving them too much work to do. Work life balance in Japan has come to mean how to have better day care facilities so women can work, but in Germany it means a good balance between work and private life for all employees.

2. Process and result. Both Japanese and Germans believe there is a correct way of doing things. Consumers read instructions for the products they have bought and workers obey the rules. But the big difference is that Germans also value the result and getting to the result in the most efficient way. So they are fine if someone finds a quicker way to do something. If too long is taken on a business process, they start to become impatient. in fact they become downright rude. However for the Japanese, the process is just as important as the result. It should always be done the same way by everyone, then no one will feel left out. For a new way to be accepted, everyone has to agree. There is no room for individual initiative.

3. Say what you think. Germans on average are much more direct than most other nationalities. In fact they like to share opinions with others. Japanese people feel “debate” has negative connotations. Schaede says she has found it very hard to have discussions about politics world affairs or business with Japanese people, which to Germans means it is hard to make friends.

4. Customer service. German customer service is the exact opposite of Japanese customer service. Whereas a Japanese server might say “I am sorry to have kept you waiting”, in Germany the customer expects to have to wait to be served. In fact if you turn up too close to closing time in a shop, you might be refused service. The belief is that shop assistants have rights too - to go home on time. There is no concept that the customer is more important than the employee.

As Schaede says - and as a cross cultural consultant, who am I to disagree - there are two learnings from this. One is the importance of understanding cross cultural differences at a profound level if you are going to do business across borders. The second is that when you have a multicultural team each will have different priorities and different processes to reach a result. These are deep rooted and it will be difficult to bring everyone round to one point of view.

As seen on Japan Intercultural Consulting.

katliners:

— june 14 2019

finally some original content from kat lol. i’ve been pretty busy since school ended and obviously i haven’t had any homework or assignments (other than summer hw i don’t wanna do) so i thought i’d just show you guys some of my notes/notebooks from this year ! the composition books are my two earth science notebooks and the spiral one is my euro book notes

honig-prinzessin:

12.06.2019 // Usually I hate mind maps because they always turn out way too messy, but today I thought it was a good idea to get an overview of the topics because my summaries are very long. Guess it was a good idea!

Plan for today: Getting all that plus three small subjects into my brain - the exam is tomorrow!