13/09/18 - 2/100 Days Of Productivity

01/02/2020 - 1/100 days of productivity

Happy February! New month, new me? I’m going to do the productivity challenge again.

My mum visited me at uni today so I spent the afternoon with her in Birmingham. I decided to condense 3 handouts from my lecture course on carbonyl chemistry onto one summary page this morning before I met her, and I finished it off after she left to get the train home.

I decided to write up the mechanism for Swern oxidation even though it’s beyond the scope of the first year course; it helps me remember the conditions if I actually know what each reagent does!

I got exam results back for the January exam season... above 80% in every module, with an average of 85%! Though I’m not so pleased with my performance on some individual questions, I am trying to be kind to myself. I thought I’d completely flunked all of my exams because I was in an unideal environment and so anxious about them, so to get a solid first class mark on every single one was such a surprise!

I’m well on my way to achieving my goal of a first in every module - let’s hope the summer exams go well!

03/10/19 I’m doing the uni thing!

Long time no see, guys! Now the academic year has properly started for me, I’m getting into the swing of making summaries comprising lecture notes and information from textbooks and further reading. It’s my day off from any lectures, workshops, tutorials or labs so I’m just reading and keeping it low key

Cambridge NatSci Admissions Test 2018

Oh dear Lord I’ve never felt so inadequate.

I didn’t realise the second paper was a calculator paper and was given a really crappy 50p one by school, which slowed me down.

I lost so many marks on being genuinely dumb. I just blanked.

I didn’t get break time today so I was sat on my own in a room (with an invigilator obvs) for two hours hungry, stressed and with a massive headache.

It was so much harder than the practice papers I did.

I’m sorry for the rant - I just need to get my feelings out so I can focus on thinking positively and put it behind me.

Anybody who sat it - good luck to you, fellow soldier. I wish you all the success in the world.

11/4/19

Mindmaps make everything look so much more manageable

Today has been really productive. I went to school for two hours for some biology revision and then went to meet a friend for lunch. It was such a lovely day that I chose to walk the hour back home rather than catch a bus so I could listen to the audiobook version of Nineteen Eighty Four. However, as punishment for being healthy, I now have blisters on the soles of both feet :(

6/11/18 - 57 days of productivity

So my chemistry teacher just gave me a whole chapter of questions to do for Thursday. So my life will just have to wait until the weekend haha 🙃

Anyway, one set is done. I’ve had German with my favourite teachers today and also French with another amazing teacher. I missed biology because it was extended form time for SMSC today, and there was a guest speaker (I actually hid in the toilets for an hour and binged examsolutions maths tutorials because I knew I’d get into trouble). I hate SMSC so much 😑

Overall though, it’s been a good day. Apart from Chemistry, when I felt myself boiling over for no reason whatsoever. But we have this French teacher who’s visiting and she actually thought I was French, which is compliment of the CENTURY!

Happy Tuesday, peeps!

Also, Imagine Dragons’ new song “Bad Liar” is INCREDIBLE and I thoroughly recommend you give it a listen. Best part of today, honestly.

no matter how good things seemed to be going, you will feel sad or even numb again. it doesn’t cancel out the good things. the good things and good days will always be real, and there are more days like that to come.

Being kinder to myself

Many of you will have noticed this blog has been very dormant for a while. I have really stepped back with the constant studying in order to recover from severe burnout, depression and anxiety. If there’s any good year to do this, it’s my first year of uni: my marks don’t count towards my final degree classification. I have indeed been going to lectures and labs and diligently doing all set work, I’ve just cut back the time I spend studying outside of contact hours a bit. Taking a break has helped me feel better, and I’m ready to jump into second year and read around and really engage with the chemistry I’ll be doing. There is no shame in this, and I’d really like you all to remember that it’s okay to cut yourself some slack when you need to x

Wow this is me and I’ve always been made to feel bad about it

The vermillion Mildliner is my favourite colour right now. Channelling those autumn vibes (despite the fact it’s still technically summer) 🍁

The Cambridge bottle reminds me of my ultimate goal at this point in my life. Let’s go get it!