#studylikeyoumeanit
I’m stressed and nervous and terrified and if I were granted one single wish now, it would be to skip forward until midday tomorrow so it would all be over with in a blink. I’m just saying this now because it’s perfectly natural to be stressed, and it’s good to be aware of stress and not discount it. After all, there is a lot riding on what happens tomorrow, and it’s perfectly natural to worry about it.
This post is going to be a bit different from the other Results Day wind-up posts, because it’s also going to tackle different kinds of self-care in relation to your studying (which you can use more generally), but if you follow the natural progression of these steps, it might help you get through today, because by tomorrow it’s going to be all over, but you need to get through today.
1) The Long-Term Self-Care (useful for the morning and afternoon)
This is the kind of stuff I was talking about in my Month Before Results Day post: it’s the exercising, eating balanced meals, taking care of your mind and your body, planning ahead. It’s green smoothies and early mornings and drinking water and it’s fantastic for your daily living, especially when you’re under intense mental and physical stress. If you’re like me and you have a holiday job, then you’ll be at least distracted. If you don’t have one or are lucky enough not to need one, then pick out elements of this type of self-care over the course of your day: go for a hike with your family, or go for a run on your own, or do something that gets you on your feet and doing things. Even if you don’t like exercising, at least it will help you sleep better.
2) Self-Care in Distraction (useful for a couple of hours in the day)
As I said, it’s good to have a job to engage and distract you, but there are plenty of other kinds of distractions. This self-care is getting lost in a new book (or an old favourite), going shopping with friends, going to see a movie, binge-watching a series on Netflix or YouTube or wherever, or learning to play or sing something new. It could be exercise, but it doesn’t have to be. Spend a couple of hours today doing something you really love that you haven’t done in a while. It’s a means of taking care of yourself by removing yourself from the stress, even for a little bit.
3) Self-Care in Self-Indulgence
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the difference between self-care and indulgence or vanity. On days like this, it’s perfectly fine to treat yourself. This self-care is ordering a pizza with your favourite toppings and extra cheese, binge-watching (as a distraction but also as a treat), making yourself a hot chocolate with marshmallows, buying new socks, or new makeup, or something you really want. It’s all about spoiling yourself, and whilst this isn’t a normal practise for day-to-day self-care, it’s a way of making yourself feel special and important. Because you are. Don’t be consumed by your stress. You are not defined by what comes. You define the situation for yourself. You deserve to be spoiled.
4) The Relaxed Evening Self-Care
This is having a long bath with a bath bomb and a face mask, having a cup of loose-leaf tea, meditating, praying (if you are so inclined), curling up under blankets and watching things on Netflix that don’t require too much concentration (even if you’re not a huge fan of romcoms I would recommend them on this occasion). This kind of self-care is about calming down, finding balance and relaxation, getting yourself into a situation where you will be able to sleep better. If you think it will help, try a natural melatonin supplement to help you sleep (non-prescription and non-addictive). Take deep breaths. Watch the sun go down. Do some yoga/stretch whatever feels tight. Unclench your jaw; relax your shoulders; breathe out.
You’ve got this.
Hey guys, it’s me- I know today is not the most fun of days, and is arguably worse than actual results day, and I just wanna redistribute this and also, as someone who’s made it out the other side, want to remind you that no matter what happens, you are going to be ok and things will work out one way or another. It may not be according to the plan that you’ve laid out, but that’s ok. You’ve got this. I promise ♥
9.8.2019 || Doing a bit of pre reading for the year ahead
01.08.2019 || August bullet journal layout || A little experiment in watercolour
NEW REDBUBBLE MERCH!
It’s been a while, but I’ve got a new design out on my Redbubble store (adding to my collection of designs that are already up)
I have a bunch of other stuff there (as well as these designs on a bunch of products), so for sure take a look around! I’ve got another design ready to upload soon-ish, and I will post about it when I’ve got it all sorted.
As always, you can also support the work that I do using my ko-fi link: as a broke student doing an unpaid internship over summer I need all the help I can get, so it would be great if you could support me there, and if you comment what you’d like to see on my ko-fi page, I will instantly prioritise it and produce content you request as quickly as I can (ko-fi is basically an alternative to patreon where you donate one time rather than every month, and they don’t take commission on the money that you pay, meaning that it all goes to the content creators!)
As always, new stuff coming soon!
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things I wish I had known when starting a studyblr - study-like-you-mean-it
It’s been a looong time since I made this studyblr; I started it in Easter 2016, which means it’s over 3 years old now (which doesn’t seem like a lot but going from GCSEs to having finished the first year of university is a long journey). I thought I’d share a couple of things I’ve learned along the way, through trial and error (mostly error), and hopefully this will help some of you out! :)
- Experiment with your look: It’s great if you settle into an aesthetic straight away and want to stick with it for the whole time you have your blog, and if that works for you, that’s great! If like me you want to keep trying out different styles, go with that (I still haven’t settled on an aesthetic and that’s chill)- most of the time, people will see your posts in isolation anyway so don’t put too much pressure on finding aesthetic cohesiveness
- Don’t think you have to buy all the stationery: You’ll see a bunch of brand names popping up over and over again in people’s posts, and whilst brands like MUJI and mildliners may work for some, you absolutely do not need to buy all of these things in order to keep up a certain ideal aesthetic. I, for one, have strayed from mildliners and use stabilo pastel highlighters now, as they are cheaper and last longer. My go-to writing pen when I work is a BIC biro, which I bought in bulk so it costs 24p per pen. I do have MUJI pens for working on my bullet journal and the B4 notebooks for taking to lectures, but it’s really not necessary to cash out on all the kit in order to be a “legit” studyblr. All you need is a phone camera, a pen, and a piece of paper.
- You don’t need the “studyblr” handwriting: Scrolling through the myriad of studyblr posts, it’s easy to become convinced that you need this stereotypical ultra-neat “studyblr” handwriting, and whilst it does look nice, it’s not the only handwriting that looks nice. I used to take ages to try and write my study notes out so that they conformed to this aesthetic, and it ended up slowing down my studying to the point that I never finished the notes or the material I wanted to cover in a given day. I also ended up making notes for the sake of studyblr posts that ended up not being an effective way for me to study (I learned this the hard way). I’m quite lucky in that my regular handwriting is quite consistent, but to be honest, the overall aesthetic of a post is more important, and sometimes this studyblr handwriting fits into the aesthetic, but I can guarantee it’s not a necessity and you don’t need to spend your time on it if your handwriting doesn’t look like that.
- Composition and lighting are most important: Long story short, you can’t take a good photo of your notes if the composition and lighting aren’t there. Take a look through the most popular photo posts and you’ll see what I mean: it doesn’t matter what the actual content of the photo is, just that it looks nice overall. Again, this is a case of what kind of a look you’re going for: some posts will have this super clean, neat look with no shadows, and other will tactfully play with the shadows for a different kind of image. However, if the shadows in the picture don’t match the aesthetic you’re going for, or you try and edit them out after taking the photos, I can guarantee this is a recipe for disaster.
- Edit, but don’t overedit: Everyone with a studyblr edits their photos. I personally use a combination of VCSO and Snapseed, and have been doing this for a while, but even then I often make errors in judgement about filter strength and editing, and sometimes my photos end up looking overprocessed and frankly unattractive. I have 11.5k followers, and even now I get posts with 0 reblogs because my photo editing has been so bad. It happens (and the posts get deleted once I realise), and that’s just something you just gotta keep trying at.
- Be inspired by others: See something that you like that someone else is doing? There’s no harm in trying to recreate something similar yourself, as long as you’re not plagiarising or downright stealing.
- Regularity is important, but you are more important: Obviously, uploading and/or reblogging content regularly is important to your blog. However, it’s a studyblr, and if you find that it’s getting in the way of doing actual work, there’s no harm in taking a break. I rarely upload during term time, or even in the holidays, because I’m so busy trying to get my actual life sorted and enjoying my university experience. For me, I worked the most on my studyblr last summer after I finished my A-Levels, and that’s when I experienced the most growth through very regular uploads (and since everyone else was also on their summer break, they had more time to spend on tumblr and see my content). From there, it’s just been growing by itself, and it’s almost 10x as big as it was in January of 2018. Don’t feel pressured to dedicate loads of time to producing content if you simply don’t have the time. If you’re a studyblr who reblogs rather than produces content, it’s always possible to just queue up stuff so it’s released regularly whilst you are working.
- Stick at it: It took me over two years to experience any real growth, and by that time I’d poured many hours of work into it. Growth doesn’t come overnight, and no matter how hard you work, you’ve gotta keep working. My first text posts got 10k notes and that did almost nothing to my follower count. Keep going and it will happen, and when this happens, you’ll be able to reach out to more people, directly and indirectly, and it becomes an even more rewarding experience.
I hope this helps some of you, and as always, you can access my Redbubble store here, and if you think what I’m doing is kind of cool (and want to request content that becomes top of my priority list/support what I do), you can find my ko-fi link here (it’s like patreon but they don’t take commission).
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01.06.2019 || As promised, the new bullet journal is here, and I’ve kicked it up a gear this year to be more arty and more journally and still be as functional as before
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ONE YEAR WITH A MOLESKINE BULLET JOURNAL || MY IMPRESSIONS AND HOW MY NEXT BULLET JOURNAL WILL BE DIFFERENT
Hey guys! It’s been a while- I’ve been swamped in exams and various things after, but I’m back now! Also, a little disclaimer: sorry about the lighting and the background in the pictures here- I’m currently working at my summer job helping to edit the translation of a book, and I don’t have access to my usual lighting and background conditions, but without further ado, let’s get into it!
I’m going to go through a bit of what I thought about the bullet journal I used this year, and then talk a little about what I’m going to change for this coming year based on the experience that I had this year.
Bullet Journal: July 2018 to June 2019
(Side note- I run my bullet journal in these months as it covers a summer and an academic year, which gives me time to set a journal up over summer and record my experiences without having to switch journal right in the middle of an academic year)
So, the notebook that I was using this year in order to make my bullet journal was a blue, lined A5 softcover Moleskine notebook that someone gave to me as a present for the express purpose of making a bullet journal. I wasn’t super hot on the idea of using this notebook for this purpose initially, because I was more keen on the idea of buying a Leuchtturm dotted 1917 for this purpose, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. Besides, I quite liked the feel of the softcover notebook and this way I didn’t have to buy any more supplies to get myself started.
The notebook itself was nice, and the quality of paper was alright: there was a bit of ghosting as you can see in the picture above (the ink from other pages can be seen but it has not bled through). My main issue with this notebook, however, was the fact that over the course of the year, the actual structural integrity was damaged, and the cover came detached from the spine and the bookmark ribbon soon followed, as you can see above. This was mostly due to the fact that the book was softcover and therefore possibly more likely to get damaged, but on the whole the rest of the notebook stayed together quite well.
One thing I did really like about how I did the bullet journal this year, partially prompted by the fact that there were lines rather than dots in the notebook, was the space I left for reflecting and doing actual journally things in the notebook. I experimented a bit with art journal things as well on a couple of pages (but those pages have too many personal details and photos on to be worth sharing), and I really like the way that I could record my experience of my first year at uni in a space that also served a functional purpose for managing my expenses and my daily tasks and events. If you take a look at previous bullet journal posts I’ve made, you can see my weekly spreads, which are a very traditional calendar layout, and that system worked for me as I needed an easy setup that I could lay out quickly.
I messed around a lot with the front section of my months: here’s what my spread looked like in July (with my spending more or less blurred out). I like the inspirational quotes, although towards the end of this year I found it hard to keep coming up with new quotes. I quickly lost my “things to be excited about” and “things I am not looking forward to but will conquer nonetheless” boxes because although they were a nice thought, the content was sort of covered in the reflection at the start of each month, and they were taking up room where I needed to record my spending. I also stopped using the habit trackers that I laid out (which took me ages but oh well) because I found that they weren’t particularly useful for me personally. Going forward, I’m keeping the spending section, and I’m replacing the whole right hand page of this spread with a “line-a-day” section, which I introduced in November of 2018 and I found it to be a really good way of keeping track of the important things that I’ve been doing and experiences I’ve been having without taking up masses of my time.
With regards to the notebook, I left a lot of pages blank at the back, which was a shame, especially because I could have spent at least some time writing longer actual journal entries about particularly important events and travels and things, but there realistically weren’t that many pages that were left blank, so it might have been a bit odd. The book was also a bit too narrow for my liking, but that’s sort of by the by. As you can see in the bottom of the pages in the above pictures, I put page numbers in as I thought I should do that when I was first setting this up, but in reality this really did nothing and I’m not going to bother adding page numbers to bullet journals where the notebooks don’t already provide them).
In summary:
- The notebook was ok, but I didn’t like how narrow it was, and the fact that it was softcover meant that it was more susceptible to damage and did get damaged
- Having lines wasn’t hugely problematic, although for the art pages I’d rather have a dot grid. It did let me do some more proper journalling, which I realise I want to do more of in the coming year.
- The habit trackers were really just a waste of time for me in the end
- There are spreads that will stay, like the year at a glance spreads as well as the layout of the weekly spreads as being similar to those of a traditional planner
Bullet Journal- July 2019 to June 2020
I’ve opted this time around for a Leuchtturm 1917 hard cover journal with dotted pages, which is the typical bullet journal notebook, and I can see why. Hopefully the hard cover means it won’t get as beaten up, and the pages are just that bit wider, which allows me to make spreads that look more like planner pages rather than just decorated pages in a notebook. The dot grid has also meant that I’m more comfortable with going a bit further with the art side of things (partly aesthetic, partly stress relief) so get excited for some really funky spreads. I’ve kept the expenses and line-a-day format for the beginning of each month, as well as the full-page monthly reflection that I started in the Moleskine. Because the Leuchtturm has far more pages, I won’t have to compromise on space like I did in the moleskine (outside of term time I had one week to a page instead of across two for space reasons), and there will still be plenty more empty pages left over, which hopefully means I can fit in some proper journal entries. To make a long story short, this upcoming journal is equally as functional for me, but will also be more effective at recording memories as I go into my second year of university.
I’ll have some posts with my latest spreads ready for the start of July, but until I post those on the first, I hope this post was vaguely useful, and as always, you can support what I do below:
http://ko-fi.com/studylikeyoumeanit
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stdylikeumeanit?asc=u
(pls help a poor broke student out)
See you soon for some more content (I promise I’m back now guys)
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Hey guys! Just thought I’d update you on some things that are going on in my life right now :)
I finished my exams just over a week ago, but I still have a lot of small things to do between now and when I start my summer work, so I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit absent recently. I promise that will be changing soon!
In the meantime, I have a couple of things to direct you to. Firstly, my Redbubble page is still running, if you want to buy something as a reward for also finishing exams (the artist commission is minimal on Redbubble but I just wanna make cute things for people). (https://www.redbubble.com/people/stdylikeumeanit?asc=u)
Secondly,I’ve launched a ko-fi page! Basically, if you’d like to support the work that I do, you can buy me a coffee at http://ko-fi.com/studylikeyoumeanit! It’s like Patreon except it’s all a one-off thing and also they don’t take 8% commission off the money that people send me. So, if you’d like to support me, please click the link (as a poor broke student I will be eternally grateful).
More content coming soon!
Amanda x
New Year’s Resolutions for People who Already Have Too Much on their Plate
Something I’ve learned over the past few years, but particularly this year, is that I have a habit of taking on way too many projects when they don’t seem to be that time-consuming, and then getting pulled under completely when they ramp up. Knowing the motivation of the people who follow my posts (big hello to all my baby Oxbridge undergrads from someone who’s now out the other side and doing a Cambridge MPhil), I thought some resolutions for people who don’t have the time to take on any more habits or projects might be of use!
- Take time every day to be in the moment
It’s really easy to get stuck in a routine where you get up, power through the things you need to do, stick yourself into work, eat your lunch as quickly as possible, and then go back into work without giving yourself a time to just be. Find a moment during the day, and just take that moment to completely disconnect from everything and just focus on that one thing. Some people really enjoy doing this at mealtimes- I personally can’t do this because I really don’t like just focusing on eating for various reasons, so I choose instead to just make sure that every time I shower I just focus on the ritual of getting myself clean, and then moisturising and taking care of my hair. It’s not because I’m particularly bothered about my appearance, but because showering won’t go faster if I’m thinking about work or letting my thoughts wander. Sometimes (not always) I also just think about a handful of things I’m grateful for while I’m doing this, to remind myself that although I’m constantly chasing new goals, I’ve achieved a hell of a lot along the way. Have an experiment for when a good moment is to do this in your own routine (either when showering, eating, exercising, etc) - Stop adding things to your to do list!
I’m absolutely criminal about this- when something new crops up, I just go “oh I’ll add it to the list of things I need to get done today,” and I never end up getting everything on my list done. Either have a master to-do list and a separate daily to-do list (it’s important that it’s separate!) where you take things off the master list to do each day, or just put that thing to do on another day and keep yourself to a maximum number of things to do. If you finish your list, great! Enjoy the free time. You don’t have to be doing things nonstop to be worth something, and often setting boundaries like this will help you be more productive. - Set yourself working hours
It doesn’t matter if you have an actual job or not- I started doing this when I was 19 as a second year by giving myself a starting time that accounted for either getting back from training or having a small lie in, and it meant that I actually had time to do the things that I valued- now I’m just doing a master’s thesis, I can also give myself weekends off, which is massively helpful for my motivation during the week - Make that date with that friend
You know you’ve been putting off loads of coffees or drinks or whatever with individual friends because you’re too busy with work. Newsflash (which I think everyone has learned or will learn the hard way): if you say you’re always busy, people will stop asking. Likewise, if you spend your entire time waiting to be asked, you’ll find yourself disappointed- what is the person on the other end doing but reaching out instead of waiting? Don’t be passive- do it, even if it takes an hour of your time. If someone you’ve been meaning to see asks to hang out, make it a priority. Your life is just as important as your work, and you need to feed both soul and mind (not to be too cliché) - Sort your projects into tiers
Previously, I’ve been very guilty of assuming that everything I do is equally important, but that’s never been the case. Coursework submitted for a grade, for example, is more important than work that you’ve just submitted for a supervision that will be marked but not submitted for a grade. Things shift priority, but having a mental tier list is super useful in terms of thinking about where you’re going to be allocating your time and energy. For my thesis, I’ve broken it down into a group of things (literature review, experiments, stats, machine learning, writeup) that are shifting priority- experiments was super important for me to get finished before Christmas so the lit review took a backseat, but now I’ve finished them I can focus back on the lit review. I’ve also got my side-projects in a tier as well- my tutoring job rose a bit over the holidays because I needed a bit of cash, and so did one of the two books I’m editing because we needed to prepare to go to print; now both are done and any further work on those is back on the lowest tier. Not everything needs your whole heart and soul thrown into it at all times. - Find a non-competitivehobby
I think busy people are absolutely the most guilty of finding ways to spend their free time that involve pushing themselves to their absolute limits, just not for work. I’ve been rowing since 2018 now, and my focus for it has always been to push myself and compete, and that’s fine, but it can’t be the only thing I do with my free time. Choral singing is something I also do in my free time, and from 2011-2018 I was competitive as I was being prepped to potentially go to a conservatoire. The current choir I’m in gives me space to grow and improve, but I’m not pushing myself to my limit every week- I enjoy the new pieces, but ultimately I just like being musical. Same goes for the odd times I play the cello when my college orchestra or a student musical is looking for a spare cellist- it’s not something I’m looking necessarily to be the best at, it’s just something I enjoy. On top of that, there’s the things I do without the intention of ever trying to improve (with the assumption that the improvements will just come the more I do them)- this category includes cooking nice things, doing crosswords, and running. I’m not built as a runner- I have terrible knees and I’m built like someone who spends their spare time carrying around boats. I’m not looking to race anyone, and I’m not really even looking to get faster- I just enjoy getting out and running sometimes. Point is, you can have things outside of work that you compete in, but you need things that you enjoy doing and can improve in, as well as things you’re not good at but enjoy. Don’t let everything be ruled by perfectionism (sometimes it’s ok to be crap at things!)
My mantra for this year is going to be how you do anything is how you do everything - think about what this means for you, and what you’d like to achieve. Do everything deliberately, and make sure you leave space for yourself in there.
Happy New Year!
18.01.21 || Scenes of Academia
Obviously don’t aim for all of these, but these are some little productive habits that’ll help as we move into 2021 :)
- Make your bed every morning
- Drink water when you wake up
- Make sure you eat breakfast every day
- Eat a piece of fruit every day
- No working on your bed
- Read a couple pages of something for fun every day
- Stretch for 10mins daily
- Write a line a day about how things went
- Set a time to stop working every day
- Make sure you take breaks while working
- Never buy something online the first time you find it- give yourself a few days and see if you still want it
- Buy second hand where you can
- Plan your grocery shopping
- Tidy your desk when you stop working!
- Don’t leave your clothes on the floor
- Do your washing up as you go
- Make your to do list the night before
- Plan your outfit the night before
- Smile at yourself in the mirror when you see one
- If you don’t do sports normally, put some time aside to get outside (even for a walk) a couple of times a week
- Seek out local businesses and choose them over chains where you can
Here’s to a productive, happy, and healthy 2021!
14.3.2020 || Love in the time of Coronavirus
Spending more time avoiding going out hasn’t changed much, if I’m honest, bar giving myself more chance to work and to think about how if this virus hits Cambridge and I have to go home, I will have to say goodbye to a lot of people forever because they will be graduating or going on their years abroad. There will be a lot of difficult decisions to make soon about my relationships with certain people, I fear.
Even though there isn’t a confirmed case here, events are mostly cancelled, people are being sent home, and (most annoyingly) people are stockpiling food and medications and sanitary supplies, which makes it difficult for everyone else- I, for example, need ibuprofen due to a sports injury and can’t currently find any anywhere.
It’s a strange time to be living in, and it feels like things are about to come to an end, not in an apocalyptic way, but as if you’re standing on the edge of a cliff, watching the sun set, but not knowing exactly how long you have before it dips below the horizon.
07.01.2020 || I’ve started a new way of working this year, which involves saying “I’m going to do this many hours of work today,” and then setting off the stopwatch on my phone so that over the course of the day I hit that number of hours. It also means that I can easily pause it when I’m procrastinating, which also allows me to see what percentage of my time I’m wasting (currently I’ve spent 77% of the time I’ve set aside for work actually working today lol), as well as seeing how long it actually takes me to do a task I’ve put down on my to do list!
19.8.2019 || Scribbly reading notes
