My Therapist Asked Me To Create Something “motivating” So I Made These.

don’t run without knowing where you’re going anymore.

How to deal with procrastination

One of the biggest problems for students is procrastination! It takes different forms for everyone but ultimately it stops us all at some point. Since there are several reasons for procrastinating, I’ve put together the five main types and a few ideas on how to deal with it. 

You’ve got poor work/productivity habits. You leave things until the last minute since you “work better under pressure”. You probably think you’ll do something after you’ve finished something else, and then never do. You get distracted whenever you’re trying to study and will sit waiting to feel motivated but it never comes. For this I’d suggest:

create a productivity inspiring workspace - find somewhere that you can set up a study space, whether it is an actual office or just a desk. Organise everything that you will need. I have a selection of pens and my few notebooks on the top so I can easily access them. Remove anything that might cause you to be distracted and doesn’t need to be in your immediate reach. If you’re got space, put up some motivational pictures. This could be my motivational printables, some quotes or your own pictures. Plants are also proven to boost productivity, so might be worth putting a small one nearby!

create an action list rather than to-dos - write down a few manageable tasks that you need to do and be specific on the steps you should take. Writing the actions they require will help you see what you should be doing to complete something, instead of just the overall task. If you’re able to break it down, you can take actionable steps rather than mentally having to think of each point.

focus on 20-30 minute periods - generally, we lose focus after a while so taking regular breaks can help give you chance to relax and refocus. Apps like Forest allow you to set a timer and will give you off your phone at the same time. Obviously, if you’re being productive, don’t suddenly cut that off because it is “time for a break”. Here are some other free alternatives.

remove distractions as best you can - I’m always distracted by social media so I will use Forest on my phone or time-lapse myself so I can’t use my phone. With my MacBook, I have two accounts. One for university and one for everything else. I am not logged into any social media on my uni account so I can’t just check it for a minute then end up wasting 20 minutes :’-)

find an accountability partner - pick someone who you can rely on to check on you regularly and see how your tasks are coming along. You can send them your to-do list and then every few hours you can update them with your progress. You won’t want to let them down. Alternatively, you can study with a friend! Tumblr/Instagram is basically my partner!

use the two-minute rule - if something takes less than two minutes, do it. Don’t make an excuse, just do it. Tasks that are longer you can either delegate or defer. Here is a simple visualisation of what I mean.

record your progress - doing a simple “don’t break the chain” in your planner is a great way to see how productive you’re being and therefore get you more motivated to keep it up! The ‘100 days of productivity’ challenge might be worth doing!

You’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Everything seems to be mounting up and nothing seems doable. You don’t know where or how to start. For this I’d suggest:

ask for help - if you’re feeling like this, it is likely you need some help in some form or another. See if a family member, friend, classmate or teacher (or Google) can help or give you a starting point. Emailing your teacher is a great option if you’re a little nervous about speaking to them in person. Plus you won’t forget what they told you because you’ll have a response.

remind yourself that getting started is the first step - you don’t need to finish a task in a matter of minutes. Start doing something small. Maybe organise what you need, highlight the important bits of your assessment, or draft an essay plan. The secret to getting ahead is getting started!

divide and conquer - figure out what is the overall task that you need to do and split it into manageable parts. For instance, with an essay, the aim is to write it! Divide it into planning out what you want to write, any references you need, summarising a final draft and then writing each paragraph. By dividing bigger tasks into actionable parts you can reduce the obstacles and get through each part in a more timely manner.

reward yourself - create a system to celebrate completing a selection of tasks. By rewarding your progress you’ll build an incentive to work and reinforce productivity (great for your self-discipline!).

learn to forgive yourself - if you have an off day, that is okay! When the stress of your education is getting too much, it is necessary to have time out.  Remember to come back to it later and try again.

don’t over schedule - if you’re feeling pressure from the amount of work and then the added pressure of trying to stick to a time limit, you’re just going to go crazy. Set yourself flexible times to get something done instead of being heavily structured. Give yourself time for a break and the ability to change tasks.

stick with one task - it can be so tempting to multitask but try not to. Try to keep the focus on the what you’re doing until it is done. If you struggle with that, you could write down anything useful that you randomly think about for another task, use a break-time to think about that other task or alternate between subjects/tasks every few hours.

You’re a perfectionist. You either don’t want to start something out of fear you won’t get it right or you can get stuck on the small details. There is a pressure to achieve the unachievable. For this I’d suggest:

focus on getting started, instead of finishing - it is easy to get overwhelmed thinking about what something is supposed to be like finished if you’re a perfectionist. Take things one step at a time. It’s also useful to remember the sooner you start, the more time you’ll have to perfect it at the end!

make drafts - if you’re overwhelmed, take half an hour to map out your plan of attack. Drafts can take many forms: summaries, scaffolds/outlines, essay plans, post-it notes, etc. I find it much easier to get on with work if I have a bit of a plan.

remember that your perfectionist tendencies aren’t actually improving your work or productivity but hindering you - you’re continually setting yourself unrealistic objects and (like me) probably feel let down by yourself if you don’t reach them. Be realistic and focus on getting it done!

accept mistakes - you’ve written something wrong, don’t panic! Cross it out with a single line and move on. Things happen and you have to accept it. You can’t rip up the page every time you do something wrong, even if it is so tempting.

put things in perspective - is what you’re beating yourself up about right now going to mean anything in a week, a month, a year? Be honest if it isn’t, is it really worth putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.

praise yourself through the process - try not to criticise yourself but recognise your progress.

don’t compare yourself - this is very hard not to do but remember we are all different. Just because “you’re not as good” or don’t understand something as easily as others, it doesn’t mean you’re any less! Everyone was a beginner once and we all learn at different paces. Work to your strengths!

You want to do something else. You find whatever you’re doing boring. You want it to be over with but don’t want to get started. The ultimate catch 22, right? For this I’d suggest:

remember that putting it off isn’t going to make it go away - if you leave it too long you’ll end up getting more stressed about it. Best to get it over with.

make a plan from the get-go - once you know something is coming up (e.g. a test, an assessment, etc) make notes on it! That could be questions, annotations, potential topics, citations, etc. By making the effort to spend time reading through, you’ll save your future self some stress. Especially if it’s a topic you have forgotten. That way your notes act as a reminder so you can get started.

set a finish time with a reward - tell yourself that if you finish something by a certain time and then you can do something else. Use your self-discipline to not go back on this. Set a realistic time and try to get it complete before. If you can think that you’re doing something fun once it is completed, you’ll be more motivated to get it done.

make a structure - for note-taking, it can be overwhelming looking at a textbook and thinking what you’re going to write out. Make a note-taking layout/colour code that works for you and that subject. Mine is here - it just gives me an idea of how I’d lay everything instead of going in with no action plan.

try to make it fun - this could be using YouTube to learn or starting a study group. Use different methods for memorising information such as flashcards, mindmaps or study guides (like question/answer).

make the effort to refocus - if you’re finding something boring and you’re unfocused, walk away for 5 minutes, get a drink and come back. If you’re really struggling, change topics for a while. Find a point where you can finish and start doing something else that is productive.

listen to some music - generally, music without lyrics are best for focusing. Spotify has a great playlist for studying called ‘focus’. However, I find my regular music good for getting me a little more motivated and awake. I also like writing essays to music because I weirdly sort of type in the same rhythm. Funny study hack I’ve found that works for me haha!

write your thoughts down - Another thing I’ve been trying is externalising my thoughts. If I get distracted by something or have a “gosh, I need to remember that” moment, I will write it down. By getting it out my brain and onto a bit of paper, I no longer have to think about it and can continue. 

You have no motivation. Often we feel that motivation is the only thing you need to get on with something, but this isn’t totally true. You need a mix of motivation and discipline. As the saying goes: “motivation may get you started, but discipline keeps you going”. To build your motivation, I’d suggest:

have a mass organise - usually when I’m feeling unmotivated, I’ll clear out my desk and sort out my computer. This involves throwing out stationery that doesn’t work or scrap paper. I usually make piles of spare stationery and will re-organise my desk drawers. For my computer, I will pull out all my files to my desktop then start working through them. I’ll delete duplicates, rename files properly, and put them in the right place.

find some new stationery - weirdly buying stationery is one of those things that instantly makes you want to be productive. Head to the shops and spend a little something on a new pen, highlighter or notebook!

film yourself - studying generally doesn’t give us any instant gratification which can make it feel like a drag. By filming yourself working you can get a little video at the end which shows your progress. I love watching time-lapses of myself because you see all the work you did super quickly. It also means I’m not touching my phone!

set yourself some goals - write down a few things you want to achieve, in the short or long term. Put it somewhere that you’ll be reminded about it! By externalising your goals, you’re more likely to make the effort to achieve it.

check/make a studygram and studyblr - this is one of most motivating this I’ve done. Having social media dedicated to studying has helped not only improve my work ethic but my whole attitude towards education. Getting involved in the community is a great motivator. Here is a post on how to set up a studyblr.

I hope this post gives you just a few ideas on how to tackle procrastination! If you’ve got any tips you’d like to share, please message me! x

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Stop moping around. Put on a face mask, make yourself some tea and get the fuck to work.

“A thought occurred to me today – so obvious, so always obvious! It was absurd to suddenly comprehend it for the first time – I felt rather giddy, a little hysterical: – There is nothing, nothing that stops me from doing anything except myself… What is to prevent me from just picking up and taking off?”

— Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

15 steps on making a sweet sweet powerpoint presentation*

*for class presentations and seminars, like at conferences or meetings. Lecture notes for teaching are different, though some of these may still apply:

Tell a story. A story always has 3 parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Create a compelling narrative so the audience feels invested in knowing what’s next. 

Know your audience, and adjust accordingly. Presenting to people with our same background (like students in our program) will differ from presenting to a broader audience like the general public, who may not care (or understand) nitty gritty detail. 

Use large readable font. Especially on graphs and figures, and..

Limit text. A busy intimidating slide = a distracted/zoned out audience

Refrain from using pastel colors with a white background, or dark colors with a dark background. Projectors =/= your computer screen, and these colors may not have the same contrast during a presentation. 

Also related, be considerate of the color-blind/visually impaired. Make figures accessible to them by not just relying on color but also patterns, shading, symbols, etc.

Show only what’s necessary. Try not to overwhelm an audience who’s seeing all this for the first time. Always remember: presentations are not data dumps; they’re stories. Simplify figures by remaking them if possible, or block out unimportant areas. 

And walk the audience through complicated slides. We should never assume everyone in the audience knows exactly what we’re talking about. Use animations to show only one point or figure at a time if necessary.

Speaking of figures, use high-quality ones! None of the deep fried-jpegs please. 

Also refrain from putting things that have no meaning. Examples include gratuitous eye candy (which are only acceptable in title and closing slides) or points that won’t be talked about. They’re just distracting.

Show interest when speaking. If the speaker sounds bored talking about their work, then I assume it’s boring and not worth my attention.

Refrain from going wild with that laser pointer. It’s there to bring attention to certain key points, not to continuously circle around the entire slide like we’re playing with cats. (If your hand holding the pointer is shaking, it helps to grab your wrist with your other free hand, or rest that arm on something (like the podium) to “root” it.)

Refrain from going wild with the animations/transitions also. Super cool in 4th grade; slightly nauseating at a national meeting. A simple “appear” animation will do just fine. 

Rehearse rehearse rehearse. Being well-prepared can combat stage-fright, as it takes away the anxiety of “not knowing what to do next” or “mental freezes”. You may also find yourself editing a few things as you rehearse, because something that seemed ok while making the ppt may not flow so well when you actually get to talking about it. Also, pay attention to the usage of filler words (like “um”, “sorta”), and body language: are you leaning on the podium too much? pacing a lot? looking at the screen and not the audience? 

Adopt a “power pose” to instantly feel more confident and relaxed. Stand up straight, chest out, shoulders back, uncross those arms, and smile. Hold yourself up like royalty, baby! Here’s a TedTalk on power poses. 

if you are seeing this, you are going to prosper. you are experiencing a new part of your life where you will bloom into a better version of yourself and flourish. abundance is coming your way; love is coming your way; peace and clarity are coming your way. you have nothing to fear and even less to worry about. the darkness around you has been the soil and you are now getting ready to sprout. you are going to prosper

I’m not girlfriend material. I’m not even sure I can feel those kinds of emotions towards one person. I’ve never been in love before. Sometimes I’m like ‘Why can’t I develop feelings for someone? Is there something wrong with me?’ I love being by myself, I’m confident and independent so in my opinion you don’t need a boyfriend to be happy: I like being single. But, you know, sometimes I think about my future, about love and I don’t know… I don’t see myself with someone. I’m complicated. It seems like I’m not able to find that one person who can understand me. Maybe I’m too deep and our generation doesn’t wanna be deep. Girls wanna have fun and lots of them are shallow, boys wanna be young and wild… I’m not like that. Yes, I have friends that truly love their partners but I can’t see myself in their shoes. I would suffocate. I know this girl who is in love with her boyfriend but when she starts to explain their typical days or things like his hobby (football) and her likings (clubbing) to me, I start to feel anxious. Am I weird because of this? It’s like I want something more, I can’t be happy with someone who loves me but at the same time isn’t a creative person or doesn’t wonder about life, death, dreams… I hate small talks. They just seem tiring and pointless. I wanna meet someone who loves talking about everything out there, in this world. Or in the universe. I wanna meet someone who is not afraid to be himself, who can be odd and doesn’t give a fuck about that. Someone who would gladly show me how his brain works. A person with a curious mind and a deep heart. People come and go and the one commonality they always leave behind is the comment that I have a cold heart. They can’t understand me because I don’t give them the chance to see my true colors. They can’t find what they are looking for and they run away from me. Because I’m too complicated. Too difficult. So I lock my heart from the rest of the world. Because I’m so fucking scared. Because when I care, I care a lot. I’m too deep, I think too much, I’m scared of getting hurt… this is my Achilles’ heel.

(via irisviel9)

having self-discipline while studying can be immensely helpful, and it’ll help you get over procrastination and motivation slumps. here are some tips for developing more self-discipline! ahhh this post was kinda hard to write because i’m still trying to build up my own self-discipline! hopefully, some of this will help you guys out!

remove all temptations

yes, it’s so so tempting to check tumblr and youtube and twitter and instagram and whatnot while studying. a simple way to fix that is to log off all of your social media accounts, put your phone away and out of your sight while studying, and setting up a website blocker if you need to. chrome has quite a lot of extensions regarding website blockers, so try searching for one that you like.

be ready to study

get all of your materials out, fill up a bottle of water, make yourself a study snack if you want to, make sure your work space is clean and ready to go, etc. it can be disruptive to your own work flow if you suddenly find that you desperately need something halfway across your house during your study session.

don’t wait for “the perfect moment”

waiting for “the right time” and “the perfect moment” can be incredibly detrimental to your own discipline. it’s nice to spend a lot of time digging through a motivation tag and you feel very light and happy to start working. however, that’s not helpful if you’ve spent too much time in that and not enough time to get your own work done. get a start on your own work and try to finish it efficiently so you can get back to whatever you were doing before :-)

don’t make excuses

this is kinda like the one before it, but stop making excuses to yourself unless they’re genuine. i know that other things in your life may come first, and that’s completely fine! just remember to be honest with yourself and stop making up flimsy excuses to push off something that you don’t want to do.

schedule things.

good time management = good self-discipline :) keep track of all the tasks that you need to do that day, and try to finish all of them in the same day as well. don’t overload your schedule though; be realistic in your planning. you don’t have to cover 15 chapters in one day!!

start whatever you need to do at that time

by pushing it off, you’re inviting yourself into the dreaded loop of procrastination. if you’ve already fallen into procrastination, force yourself to start the task for at least 10 minutes. after 10 minutes, check to see if you’ve gotten into a nice and steady work flow or if you’re still just worn-out and tired and don’t want to do it at all. if it’s the first one, smile and continue on! you’ve succeeded! if it’s the second one, maybe it’s because you’re too tired and worn out. take a 5 minute break and then try again.

finish what you start

it’s fairly simple: try to finish whatever you start that day. don’t push it off or wait til the next day to finish it.

make up your own deadline

by establishing your own deadline, you set yourself a time frame to finish something in. this pushes you to actually do the work in that amount of time. also, it’s really helpful especially when working on projects. you can split up the task into separate chunks and make deadlines for each “chunk.” it makes it a lot easier to handle too!

take advantage of mornings

i absolutely detest mornings, but waking up early can be a huge advantage. by waking up early, you’re strengthening your own self-discipline as well as gaining a large amount of time to study and work! besides, it feels great to have a whole night to yourself if you finish all of your tasks in the morning!!

remember to forgive yourself and remember to take breaks!

not everyone can be hyper productive forever. people have their ups and downs, and you’re no exception. don’t beat yourself up over not finishing x amount of tasks that day or for having too many long breaks or whatever. it’s good to shake yourself back into shape, but please please don’t go overboard and despair about your failures. it’s so easy to guilt yourself and spiral away from your built-up discipline ;; the longer you’re off, the harder it is to get back up and keep going. the key thing is: you are trying and your efforts are validated and you have made some progress with your self-discipline and studying. forgive yourself and move on.

remember: don’t get discouraged the longest journey starts with a single step (◕ᴗ◕✿)

hope this helped and good luck! if you’d like to request a post, go here and if you’d like to see more helpful posts, go here!! thanks :)

Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I’ll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it’s funny and impossible so good fucking luck

rare feelings

being completely immersed into a book as if you’re watching a movie

being able to study for a long time without being distracted

wandering upon a scent that reminds you of a distant memory from your childhood that you haven’t smelled for years and years

the freedom of letting yourself do something badly (like art or learning) and knowing you’re progressing every day

being completely happy despite the bad things because you remember every little good thing and kind person in your life

stargazing in a remote landscape and feeling existentially precious and insignificant at the same time

waking up early enough to see the darkness turn to sunrise 

finding someone who is radiant in every way

being consistent with a goal you’ve been working on for the longest time and seeing the finished result

knowing that one chapter of your life has ended and a better one is beginning