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i’m starting the second semester of my junior year soon, and recently i’ve been dealing with a feeling of burnout and lack of motivation. it’s hard to force myself to study and power through.

one thing that has really helped is taking good study breaks! it definitely also helps if you’re staying up late studying or having a marathon study session… like for finals ;)

when should i take a study break?

here are a couple of options—find what works for you, or try a bunch of different methods!

pomodoro method - this generally involves working for 25 minutes, then breaking for 5 minutes. after 4 work sessions, you can break for 15 minutes. good pomodoro timers are the marinara chrome extension and tomato timer for iphone!

between subjects

between different assignments (ex. after a paper, then after a worksheet)

whenever you feel tired or unmotivated!

study break DON’Ts:

watching 5-10 minutes of a longer tv show episode - my ULTIMATE don’t. you’ll just be tempted to watch the full episode…and 3 more afterwards! save the tv-watching for after you’re all done. tv is meant to be compelling and enjoyable - NOT something you just watch 5 minutes of at a time.

reading a chapter of a book - for the same reason why tv-watching is super ineffective! you’ll just want to know what happens next.

watching 5-10 minutes of a longer youtube video

playing a video game

sleeping/napping - super short naps are ineffective and you’ll just be groggy. HOWEVER if you’re staying up super late and set an alarm to wake you up, a 30-minute power nap can be good!

scrolling through instagram/twitter

doing stuff you do before bed like showering or skincare - this will make you sleepier since you associate it with going to bed!

basically, don’t spend your study break doing things that are meant to suck your attention! save that for when you’re done and you can actually enjoy it :)

study break DOs:

eat a small snack

clean up your study area

wash your face or brush your hair - super effective, especially when studying late at night. splash cold water on the back of your neck!

listen to your favorite song and sing/dance along

drink a glass of water

do something boring - give your brain a break and do something important but super boring. send an email, get some forms filled out, etc.

and my ultimate study break tip…

WORK OUT!

this may seem really counterintuitive. why spend a work break doing MORE WORK? however, working out is SUCH A GOOD STUDY BREAK. it gives you a sense of accomplishment, gets some endorphins flowing, and COMPLETELY takes your mind off of studying. 

my favorite study break workouts:

pretty much anything from blogilates:

really hard weightless arms workout

another really hard weightless arm workout

extreme abs

under 10 minute yoga practices

10-15 min yoga

i hope these help you! in 2020, let’s start conquering procrastination and lack of motivation together!! :-)

- amulya

Goals (March 8th;2021)

My goals tomorrow:

Take out the trash

Clean off the desk

Meet up with my teacher on time

Do assigned tasks

Plan my day with boyfriend!!

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my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Active Revision Techniques

afternoon planning with Notion and, well, a regular planner. a bit stressed but still looking forward to next week’s activities!

6 Small But Powerful Study Habits

Many students—including myself at one point—tend to think that making big strides towards their academic goals means also making drastic changes to how they’re used to approaching academics and studying; however, making big strides towards your goals oftentimes only requires that you make small changes in your day-to-day behavior. For instance, you can replace small unhelpful habits (like checking social media between classes) with small helpful habits (like reviewing notes or flashcards between classes). These little behaviors accumulate over time to lessen the burden of big tasks. They can also build a stronger sense of self-efficacy and mastery, both of which go a long way to motivating you when it comes to the bigger goals. Here are 6 small but powerful study habits that you can adopt: 

1. Do 5 minutes of revision everyday by reading through your class notes and creating questions for yourself to answer at a later time. 

Doing this will help you identify what you don’t understand early on so you have time to learn and ask questions. It also gives you a chance to practice and quiz yourself on material you may feel confident about. As a result, you might be able to narrow your focus on what you truly need to study come exam time and not waste time reviewing material you’ve already mastered.

2. Write down your homework and important due dates during or at the end of each lesson, ideally in a planner that you include other tasks and events. 

This is one of the simplest yet most important steps you can take towards better academic performance. It ensures you meet your deadlines and can help you realistically visualize the time you have available in comparison to all your other tasks and events. If you don’t have an accurate sense of the amount of time and energy you have to complete a certain task or meet a deadline, you won’t be engaging in other small, helpful habits to work towards that goal. 

3. Self-monitor your learning. 

During class, ask yourself if you’re understanding what the professor is saying. While taking notes, reading, watching an educational video, or doing any other study task, ask yourself what the key points were and try to identify areas that you can’t articulate or summarize well. If you identify these areas and come up with questions, be sure to write them down and fill in the answer at a later time to measure how well you addressed those lapses in comprehension. If you find that the answer still seems confusing, you can then ask your professor for additional guidance. 

4. File notes in the right place everyday. 

Make sure that your notes for each class are separate from other classes and grouped with other related notes. It would be even better if each subject was filed or organized in a way that you can easily distinguish between units and sub-units within each class/subject. Keeping your notes organized allows you to easily revise and review. It also creates a mental image of the information. For example,if you have a specific method to organizing your notes and use that method to review them, then you may be able to imagine going through your notebook or binder to find a particular piece of information during the exam. 

5. Read one online article or watch an educational video to supplement your classroom learning everyday.

Extra reading reinforces the ideas that you’ve learned in class and places them in a wider context. It also strengthens your critical thinking and comprehension skills. 

6. Reflect often. Each day, ask yourself: what went well? What didn’t go well? How could you improve?

The more specific you can be, the better you can identify solutions to improve. It’s also helpful to ask these kinds of questions after big events like the end of a project, essay, exams, and the end of the semester. 

Best Wishes, Bujo Paper Creations

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Tumblr: Bujopapercreations Instagram: bujo.papercreations YouTube: Bujo Paper Creations

Follow @productive-tips for more tips and content like this posted daily! Handpicked and curated with love :)

Bonus post: Thesis writing.

This post will be a combination of tips and tricks I have received from numerous sources, with the majority coming from Shinton Consulting and STREAM IDC staff. 

The big T

If you’re anything like me, just the word ‘thesis’ can instill a sense of dread in me. However, the best way to deal with a phobia is to face it head on, so let’s do just that, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. 

What a thesis is and what to expect…

Writing a thesis could take anywhere between four weeks to a whole year, and sometimes even longer! The worst thing you can do is compare your progress to that of others; setting a benchmark is one thing, but beating yourself into a panicked pulp because you haven’t written as many chapters as a fellow PhD/EngD won’t do you any good. The best thing you can do is have regular discussions with your supervisors on how long your thesis will take and plan accordingly. 🕖

Your thesis has to be fit for purpose (that is to pass), which means that it has to:

Satisfy the expectations of your institution and industry sponsor (if applicable).

How did you solve the problem that was proposed to you?

Contain material which presents a unified body of work that could reasonably be achieved on the basis of three years’ postgraduate study and research.

Show you have done the work and impress your examiners.

Allow your examiners to confirm that the thesis is an original work, which makes a significant contribution to the field, including material worthy of publication.

Research your examiners and quote them where possible, especially of they’re relevant to your field.

Show adequate knowledge of the field of study and relevant literature. 

Make sure you read all of the key papers in your field. 

What were the gaps in knowledge?

The ‘references’ section is very important as this sets the scene and examiners will read this. BUT, don’t have too many references. 

Demonstrate critical judgement with regard to both the candidate’s work and that of other scholars in the same general field.

Compare approaches and conclusions of others.

Note potential conflicts of interest.

Why did you use this method/approach?

Is your interpretation the only possible explanation?

Be presented in a clear, consistent, concise, and accessible format. 

Make your examiners lives easier. 

Make your viva as pleasant as can be!

Basically, you need to know why your project was important, be able to explain the key work that has already been done in the area and how it relates to your research aim. You should then be able to explain what you have done during your research and how this contributes to your field. 

Note: Keep checking university regulations! Each university should have their own code of practice for supervisors and research students, which will look something like this. 

Picture: A short summary of the above. Source: Tumblr.

Planning and writing

I’m not going to lie to you, it is not going to be easy. I have only just embarked on the journey myself and am already overwhelmed. However, with the right preparation, coping mechanisms in place, and a tremendous amount of self-discipline, we will get through. ☕

Getting started

You need to practice writing. That’s as simple as advice gets. 

You need to practice reading other PhD/EngD theses, mainly to understand what to expect, and to experience what being the audience for a thesis is like. 

Create a thesis plan… 

To start the mammoth task that is thesis writing, it needs to be fully understood and broken down into manageable chunks.

Make a plan (perhaps based on the table of contents of another thesis) of all the sections and chapters in the thesis.

Then break these into sections and keep breaking it down until you are almost at the paragraph level.

Now you can start writing!

Where to start the actual writing?

Start with the most comfortable chapter, such as a previously published paper, a set of results that are straightforward and can be easily explained, methodology/methods, etc. 

Create a storyboard for you thesis and write as if you are telling that story.

If you’re not sure what comes next, refer to previous theses and back to your plan and storyboard. 

Be ready to amend the plan for future chapters as each is completed and you become more aware of what the thesis must contain.

Remember: THINKING IS HARD, WRITING IS EASIER. 💭

Organisation

Develop and maintain a logical filing system.

Improve your back up technique; if it’s not saved in 3+ locations, it is not safely backed up.

Back up every day.

Never overwrite previous documents, just make many versions. It’s not worth the risk of losing a valuable piece of work from a copy and paste error.

Copy any key parts from your lab/note/field books as these can get lost/damaged.

Keep a file/folder of thoughts, references, etc. that you are not including in your thesis; these may be useful to refer back to for ideas and information.

Effective writing

Establish a routine, don’t be distracted, take breaks.

Set clear and realistic goals for each week/day. 

A GANTT chart is very good for this; use it to keep on track and measure progress.

You just gotta start. The hardest part is the beginning.

Don’t stall on details, walk away for a short break to clear your mind.

Get formatting correct from the start (check your code of practice/regulations).

Be consistent with references.

Seek help from the experts - supervisors, postdocs, online sources/training programmes etc.

Create SMART objectives for your writing process:

Specific - e.g. “I will complete chapter 3/collate all diagrams” rather than “I will make good progress”.

Measurable - e.g. “I will write 4 pages today” not “I will try to write as much as I can”.

Achievable - e.g. “I will complete the first draft for my supervisor” not “I will get it perfect before he/she sees it”.

Realistic - e.g. “I will complete the introduction today” not “I will complete a chapter a week”.

Time - it can be useful to set yourself deadlines e.g. tell your supervisor you will hand in a draft on a certain day - that way you are sure to have it done.

Finally, find a balance between being tough with yourself whilst protecting your well-being the best you can. I wrote a post a little while ago that covers managing your mental health during a PhD. Read it here. 

GIF: Anna Kendrick dishing out some top advice. Source: Tumblr.

A few more tips

Supervisor management

Establish what you want to cover in each meeting.

Keep a record of the outcomes and actions from those meetings.

Make your supervisors lives easy; they’re very busy humans.

They are unlikely to judge work unless it is presented completely (i.e. fully written with tables, figures, etc.).

Give them a neat, complete version of a chapter at a time (proof-read thoroughly and spell-checked).

It is in your supervisors interest for you to complete in good time; they are experts and will offer a lot of support.

To summarise, a good thesis:

Has an appreciation of what came before.

Focuses on the interesting and important.

Is well reasoned.

Will change the way people think.

Will teach your supervisors something. 

Has publishable results.

Is logical in presentation, analysis, and arguments.

Is well illustrated with tables, figures, graphs, summary flow charts etc.

It is worth spending a lot of time on these. 

Is written without grammatical and spelling errors.

Has an appreciation of what comes next.

I hope that the above was helpful! There are many resources out there, so get exploring if you need more advice!

I’ll soon be writing a post on how to survive your viva! So, watch this space. ✨

Photo: Make this your phone/desktop/laptop/everything background when you’re writing, I know I will! Source: Tumblr.

because the tumblr algorithm works essentially solely on tags, it’s important to make sure that you use the right ones. in the studyblr community, many blogs ‘track tags’, which means that they follow the tag and reblog the posts within it.

in this post, i have collated many studyblrs and their tracking tags that you can use!

if you would like to be added to the post, please send me an ask and let me know. if you are already included and you change your tag/url, also kindly let me know so that i can keep this post up to date. If there are any mistakes, also let me know!

[note: you need to make sure that your blog is discoverable in your settings to make sure that i can tag you. otherwise i cannot include you]

A

@apalsant —> #apalsant

@architecturals —> #tusermelissa

@arctic-anna —> #arcticanna

@asteristudy —> #asteristudy

@a-students-lifebuoy —> #astudentslifebuoy or #a students lifebuoy

@athenastudying —> #athenastudying

@audreys-notes —> #heyaudrey

B

@blueplaidstudies —> #blueplaidlook

@boldlystudy —> #boldlystudy

@bulletnotestudies —> #bulletnotestudies

C

@caffeine-study —> #caffeinestudy

@captainofstudies —> #captainofstudies

@chicanastudies —> #chicanastudies

@colorcodedchai —> #colorcodedchai

@contre-qui —> #lookmari

@coralstudiies —> #heycora

D

@divinity-study —> #heyrei

E

@einstetic —> #einstetic

@emily-studies —> #emily-studies

@endlesstudies —> #heyendless

G

@gloomstudy —> #gloomstudy

H

@hannistudies —> #hanniscup

I

@idlestudy —> #idlestudy

@indie-bitch —> #indie-bitch

J

@jaeyuyoo —> #jaeyuyoonotes

@jarofsharpies —> #jarofsharpies

@jeonchemstudy —> #jeonchemstudy

K

@katistudies —> #katistudies

@keshiology —> #keshiology

@kindastudyingstuff —> #akastudies

L

@lantern-academia —> #lanternacademia

@lattesandlearning —> #lattesforlaura

@lattestudies —> #lattestudies

@lifeofthegrind —> #lifeofthegrind

@lostlibrariangirl —> #lostlibrariangirl

M

@make-granger-proud —> #makegrangerproud

@maraskull —> #maraskull

@mathias-researches —> #lookmatthias

@medical-magpie —> #medical magpie or #medical-magpie

@medblrr —> #medblrr

@mediblr —> #mediblr

@medustudies —> #medustudies

@melaschnie —> #studywithmelli

@melody-of-moon —> #studybucky

@moon-thestars —> #moonthestars

@museeofmoon —> #heyzainab

@music-of-physics —> @heyalyss

@myhoneststudyblr —> #myhoneststudyblr

N

@nadjastudies —> #takealooksid

@ndemic —> #heylihi

@niastudies —> #niastudies

@noctis-studies —> #noctisstudies

P

@paperandcaffeine —> #paperandcaffeine

@pastelsandhazelnutcoffee —> #pastelsandhazelnutcoffee

@peachblossomstudy —> #heypeachblossom

@philology-studies —> #philologystudies

@phoenixstudies —> #phoenixstudies

@poweredbygreentea —> #poweredbygreentea

@problematicprocrastinator —> #problematicprocrastinator

@productivewitch —> #productivewitch

@projecthappinez —> #projecthappinez

R

@raebae-studies —> #heyreags

@randomstudyblr —> #randomstudyblr

@rivkahstudies —> #rivkahlook

@rylie-studies —> #lookrylie

S

@samanthropologist —> #samanthastudies

@selkie-studies —> #selkiestudies

@seltzerstudies —> #seltzerstudies

@serendistudy —> #serendistudy

@shimmer-studies —> #shimmer-studies

@smileystudies —> #smileystudies

@soaked-in-starlight —> #starlightstudy

@somuchtostudysolittletime —> #somuchtostudysolittletime

@sonderstudy —> #sonderstudy

@spoonieacademia —> #heytheo

@starryuniversitas —> #starryuniversitas

@studiesnstationary —> #studiesnstationary

@studyblr-so-i-dont-failblr —> #ameerstudies

@studycris —> #studycris

@study-diaries —> #study diaries

@study-it-sightless —> #blindacademia

@studyingfilms —> #studyingfilms

@studying-nando —> #studying nando or #studying-nando 

@study-van —> #studyvan

@studywithzorah —> #studywithzorah

@stuhde —> #stuhde

@stu-dna —> #heyharri and #heyharriet

T

@teapenguin —> #lookzuzia

U

@uglystudies —> #uglystudies

V

@venustudy —> #heyvenustudy

@vintage-lattes —> #vintage-lattes