#self-improvement

obliviatestudies:

THINGS TO TRY TO HELP BOOST PRODUCTIVITY

Hey everyone! Lately, I’ve been finding that my productivity and just the want to work (and effort I put in when I do) was been lacking…badly. So, I’ve decided to compile a list of small things to help me improve my productivity, things I want to try out and things I know have worked in the past, so I hope these can help you guys too.  

• Start the day by time blocking; i’ve been using just the calendar app on my iPhone/Mac, and basically i just block out times during my day to get certain things done, and even if it’s not done (unless it’s due that day) i move onto the next thing to keep the workflow going 

•  Keep a workflow; if possible, don’t have large breaks of time between your studying and change the class that you’re studying every 1-1.5 hours depending on the amount of work that needs to be done, this will keep you on your toes and overall less bored

• Change your study space; even if you can’t (or don’t want to) get out of your house, rearranging your workspace or even going to a different room to study for a few days out of the week can really help

• PUT YOUR PHONE OUT OF THE ROOM; this has been the biggest thing for me as i kept finding myself getting distracted, and if i need to work on my laptop, for ex. i need lecture slides or an online textbook, when possible, i load everything then turn off the wifi on my laptop

• Study with someone; or just have an accountability partner, i know a lot of people don’t find this very helpful, myself included, but something being in an environment where everyone else is working too makes you want to work as well. or even putting a study with me (realtime) can help you be more efficient

• Make your study space a positive place; by this i mean, don’t bring a negative attitude towards it, even if you don’t want to study, if you go in with a bad attitude, the fact of the matter is that you more than likely won’t get much done, or if you do it won’t be as good as your work would be with a positive headspace. i sometimes light candles or put on instrumental background music to make the space more inviting

• Take breaks; your productivity is the best in 50-minute chunks. your mental attention is proven to begin declining after 30 mins and steeply decline after 50. if you’re not in a good work/productivity swing try a 5-10 minute break every 50 mins of uninterrupted studying, but this doesn’t mean that if you are working hard, you should stop the flow!

I hope these little tips can help boost your productivity a bit more, even if you don’t do all of them, maybe try to implement some of these into your study routine and see the difference a  small change can make

If you have any requests for posts or something you want me to talk about, feel free to leave a comment, msg, or ask!

-Obliviatestudies

teacupstudies:

1. Set habits, not goals

The problem with goals is that they’re literally just the end result that we wish for. When we set goals we don’t usually specify HOW we are actually going to get to that finish line, we lack an action plan. HABITS > GOALS. Instead of making a list of things that you want to achieve this year, make a list of habits that you want to achieve every day or every week. Let those be your only goals, and set them in a way that lets you check if you are actually on the right path.

Example: Instead of “Lose weight” make it a daily goal to “Make half of my dinner plate veggies” or “Work out 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)” or “Always put a bottle of water on my bedside table before going to bed and drink it upon waking up”. 

Be as specific as you possibly can! Plan habits in a way that lets you check them off every day. The satisfaction of doing that will keep you motivated!

2. Baby steps. Seriously.

Ok so before we get all excited and plan to incorporate a thousand habits into our daily routines: LET’S CALM DOWN. What is actually, realistically achievable? Because let’s be honest, even though it’s a nice thought, we probably won’t be able to go from eating one vegetable a month to drinking water in the morning, going for a run, eating a salad every day AND drinking 3 cups of green tea every day. It’s just not gonna happen. So. Ask yourself again. WHAT IS REALISTIC? Now cut that in half. Choose only one (1!) of those goals to start, and make it an easy one to achieve. Make it so easy that it’s impossible to fail. (Example: Read 1 page of a book) Do that for 3 or 5 days before either leveling it up (Example: Read 2 pages) or adding another habit (Example: Drink a cup of water upon waking up). Keep going like that, giving yourself enough time to feel those daily goals transform into literal habits that you just do because they’ve become a part of your life. Keep adding something small here and there, but know when to stop. Listen to your body, listen to your mind. See it as a sport, as something you can get better at only by increasing its difficulty little by little. And remember this quote by Bill Burnett: “The unattainable best is the enemy of all the available betters.“. Just think about that.

3. Write it down, baby.

Literally. I don’t care if it’s in your planner, your phone, a notebook or a piece of paper, but you need to see your habits in front of you and when they are supposed to completed. This way you can also check them off as you go, which is really motivating, especially when you look back and see everything you’ve already achieved. Keep it simple if you want by just writing simple checklists for every day, or make it pretty by using colors and stickers, but make it YOURS.

4. Be a team player.

If you have a friend who wants to join you on this journey you can keep each other in check, maybe even sitting down together once a week to discuss how your past week went. If not, tell someone. Tell them about what habits you’re going to incorporate into your life and ask them to check in on you from time to time. This way you know that you’re going to have to explain yourself if you don’t follow through, which most of the time is motivating enough to just do it.

5. Reward yourself.

Just like you plan your habits, you should plan rewards! But again: it’s all about achievability. Learn to be proud of small improvements and encourage yourself the same way you would a friend. For example, after completing a habit 5 or 7 days in a row, pamper yourself by taking a bubble bath, putting on a face and hair mask and eating your favorite food. You can also plan a picnic with friends, go for a hike, buy that lipstick you’ve been eyeing for so long, go out to dance with friends… there are so many options! Rewards will keep you motivated by being a short-term goal you can work towards, which most of the time is much easier than just thinking of that long-term goal that seems so far out of reach.

6. Be kind to yourself.

Always treat yourself the way you would treat your best friend if they were in the same position. What would you tell them if they fell off track and messed up? You’d probably say to them that it’s okay, that things like that happen. You’d tell them to just start fresh and that everything will turn out just fine, right? Tell yourself the same things when you mess up, because you will mess up. Nobody is perfect, we’re all just human and there will come a point when you’ll be tired, stressed or busy and you won’t be able to keep up with everything, and THAT’S OKAY. Instead of beating yourself up over it and losing all motivation learn to forgive yourself, take a deep breath and get back on track. You can do this!

fjo814:

fjo814:

fjo814:

fjo814:

fjo814:

This year (semester) will be mine.

I will take care of myself by concentrating on what I love:

• Spending time with my girlfriend
• Working out
• Creating art (music, sketching and writing)
• Going to therapy

If it means I will only write 5 exams, so be it. I want to learn to say no, to set boundaries; and be more honest. I want to say what I think and not overthink it to the point of not saying it. My voice may drown in this loud world, but I still want to utter them for the occasion that someone might need to hear them

You heard it here first, updates will follow.

Oh and of course I want to absorb more art. I want to go to concerts, I want to read and to watch movies.

The first appointment for my training is booked, more will follow

This morning I went out to the river delta and danced like no one was watching me and you were there.

~07.01.2022, 7:00

First appointment for therapy is set. I am basically living with my girlfriend and having great and not so great times with her. I feel more connected and more honest than ever before.

Also, I kept my promise to make art by buying two calligraphy pens and using them to fill a notebook. And my second concept album will come out on Valentine’s day (14th February) on soundcloud: rainbow playlists!

It was bigger than expected, so I couldn’t finish it in time for valentine, but I finished it anyway and wrote two more songs, so there you go:

It is a long way to go, but I feel like I am doing better. I am more open and found the time to write two more songs, one of them being my latest:

hergan416:

therainstheyaredropping:

homunculus-argument:

Imagine if you met someone who can’t eat watermelon. Not that they’re allergicorunablesomehow, but they just haven’t figured out how to do that. So you’re like “what the hell do you mean? it works just like eating anything else, you open your mouth, sink your teeth in, take a bite and chew. If you can bite, chew and swallow, you should be able to eat a watermelon.”

And they agree that yes, they do know how to eat, in theory. The problem is the watermelon. Surely, if they figured out where to start, they’d figure out how to do it, but they have no clue how to get started with it.

This goes back and forth. No, it’s not an emotional issue, they’re not afraidof the watermelon. They caneat any other fruit, other sweet things, and other watery things (“it’s watery?” they ask you). Is it the colour? Do they have a problem eating things that are green on the outside and red on the inside?

“It’sredon the inside?”

Wait, they’ve never seenthe inside? At this point you have to ask them how, exactly, they eat the watermelon. So to demonstrate, they take a whole, round, uncut watermelon, and try to bite straight into it. Even if they couldbite through the crust, there’s no way to get human jaws around it.

“Oh, you’re supposed to cut it first. You cut the crust open and only chew through the insides.”

And they had no idea. All their life this person has had no idea how to eat a watermelon, despite of being told again and again and again that it’s easy, it’s ridiculous to struggle with something so simple, there’s no way that someone just can’teat a watermelon, how can you even mange to be bad at something as fucking simple as eating watermelon.

If someone can’t do something after being repeatedly told to “just do it”, there might be some key component missing that one side has no idea about, and the other side assumed was so obvious it goes without mention.

Yep.

https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/how-to-do-everything had a nice list of additional examples like this, with (non-)obvious major insights with regard to opening stitched bags, cleaning your bathroom floor, using a search engine, catching a ball, pinging somebody, proving a theorem, playing sudoku, passing as “normal”, improving your writing, generating novel ideas, and solving your problem.

If you’d asked me six months ago how to get better at something, I’d probably have pointed you to how to do hard things. I still think this is a good approach and you should do it, but I now think it’s the wrong starting point and I’ve been undervaluing small insights. […]

I think my revised belief is that if you are stuck at how to get better at something, spend a little while assuming there’s just some trick to it you’ve missed. You can try to generate the trick yourself, but it’s probably easier to learn it by observing someone else being good at the thing, asking them some questions, and seeing if you have any lightbulb moment.

My fiance played the clarinet when he was in school. When he was first learning to play, he rented an instrument from the school to learn on. He was the last chair clarinet, had been for years, because he could not make notes that required the register key. For years, they kept making him do embrature exercises and he started to get a few notes, with lots of effort. Eventually he had to get private lessons to stay in band.

Every time he tells me this story, his frustration by this point in the story, years later, is evident. He still sounds frustrated by it, despite all the time that passed. Teachers had been giving him crap for years because he hadn’t been making much progress with the instrument.

When he got to the private instructor, she acknowledged his frustration, and asked him to try to play for her. He did, and she saw all he was doing. She then did something no one else had done before. She asked him to put his mouthpiece on a different clarinet and try to play the same notes. Like magic, it worked. She looked at the clarinet he had been using and found that the school’s clarinet needed it’s pads replaced.

He went from last chair to first chair nearly overnight, having been taught far more techniques than typically taught at that age just to overcome the broken instrument preventing him from making noise.

Sometimes you don’t need to brute force a problem. Sometimes your clarinet is just broken.

A bad grade, a guy who told you you’re ugly, a small mistake, a broken iPhone, a coffee stain on you’re favorite shirt…Is that something that’s going to affect your life in 2 or 10 or 20 years? No? (And I know quite for sure that in 80% of the cases the answer is NO).

Then DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. If it’s in the past, then leave it in the past. It’s gone, it’s not happening right now, you survived it, whatever it is. We often worry and stress about things that in a few weeks or months won’t even remember, so yes, maybe you had a terrible day and you feel sad or humiliated or stupid but just focus on all the bad things that happened in the past and you don’t think about anymore.

I know what it means to struggle with anxiety but PLEASE, don’t ruin your day and your mood thinking over and over again about small setbacks. Sometimes our brain transforms small, meaningless inconveniences in calamities or tragedies, but don’t surrender to this mindset. 

Project yourself in the future, when you’ll no longer remember about that or at least when it won’t seem so important. 

 - from-the-depths

I tried giving up a lot of times.

But then my eyes kept opening

and my feet continued walking,

not wanting to leave me hanging

without giving life another try.

One more time. Let’s give it another try. // ma.c.a

#164 Safe at Home

tiny-reminders:

April will be filled with joy.

April will be filled with love.

April will be filled with peace.

April will be filled with trust.

April will be filled with kindness.

April will be filled with miracles.

April will be filled with hope.

Hello all! I wanted to try something social to start off the new year!

A Post it Note self portrait challenge! 

I use little post it notes all the time! For planning, reminders, ideating, sketching, clothing, food… uh- well overall, they are really positively charged symbols for me, they remind me of progress, self improvement and direction. 

SO, I came up with this fun and simple pass it on challenge idea! 

Here’s how it will work (ideally):

1.I am officially tagging/inviting all of you to draw/paint/create some sort of self portrait…on a post it note! It can be however you want -however you feel- no restrictions to your approach or medium what so ever. Sometimes, working on a smaller, less intimidating surface area can help you get your best marks and ideas out!

2. Use the hashtag #post it note portrait challenge when you share it so I can find them easily. :)

3. When you post your portrait, tag/invite 5 other friends/artists (or more if you want ) to participate so we can keep the challenge going!  (let them know about the hashtag too) 

4. I will feature all the participating artists and portraits in a follow up blog post next Sunday the 17th. I’m not sure if this will get much of a response- But I want to try, I’m a tryer! (and I want to get to know you better <3) 

It didn’t take very long, and I personally had a great time, So…

Go forth and make something!