If You Do Not Conquer Self, You Will Be Conquered By Self.

A Guide to Audio Journaling

This past month (or longer, I think) I switched from regular, written journaling to audio journaling, and I thought it’d be great to share my experience: the practice, what I actually do, why I do it, and some things to think about if you wanna try it out.

I keep all my audio journals on the voice memos app on my phone, but if any of you know an alternate platform to do so, feel free to share!

Anyway, hope this helps, and as usual, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send me a message or drop me an ask. Have an awesome week :)

If y’all wanna know the true power of hate, just remember that Alan Turing, the breaker of the enigma code in WWII, was driven to suicide by being forced to undergo chemical castration as a punishment for his homosexuality.

Historians say he saved 14 to 21 million lives.

I’d also like to say in the time we studied WWII in school, the history textbooks never mentioned him. I had never heard of the guy until I watched “The Imitation Game” which I 110% recommend you watch if you haven’t.Alan Turing was a blessing to humanity who saved (once again) 14 to 21 million lives, and he is left out of history because he was gay.

And this is just one example?? So many brilliant and heroic people are left out of history because of their race, their gender, their sexuality, their religion, and it’s just because some bigots in positions of influence get to decide what parts of history are remembered.

relatable

I once heard that being in IB is procrastinating homework by doing less important homework. If that isn’t true I don’t know what is. I literally was disappointed that I had finished an assignment earlier because now it means I have to work on a project that I really don’t want to do.

a list of my favorite study tips (and when to use them)

summer:

invest in a book of short stories for each language you’re studying, and keep the book(s) on your bedside table. take advantage of the free time while out of school to get in the habit of reading through the short stories whenever you can. just a few minutes of reading the short stories every day will immensely improve your foreign language skills and keep you from forgetting the vocab & grammar over summer break

acquire a list of the books you’ll be reading for school in the fall and start reading them. to get the list of books, try asking someone who’s already taken the class, your future teachers, or a school counselor. reading the books ahead of time will not only put you ahead of the rest of your class by giving you time to work through the material in advance; it will also significantly lessen your workload during the school year.

this applies to the school year as well, but especially when you’re reading books in advance, keep a journal and pen at hand every time you read. write down the major plot points of the section you’re reading, what you like/agree with, what you dislike/disagree with, and one or two quotes that summarize the main themes of the section (make sure you include page numbers!!!!). when school starts & you’re assigned an essay on that book, you’ll already have the main points of the book laid out, and lots of great quotes—with page references!—to use in your essay.

two weeks before school starts:

take a look at your syllabus and get started on your first assignments. if you start now, you can stay at least one week ahead on all of your assignments throughout the year. this is a HUGE lifesaver when something comes up unexpectedly during the school year—like getting sick or having to go out of town for a few days at the last minute—and you don’t have time to get homework done, because if you’ve done it in advance then you won’t have to worry about falling behind.

get a planner app for your phone. i like egenda, but you can use any app where you input homework assignments in advance and it alerts you at various intervals of time before they’re due. it’s impossible to get a good grade on an assignment if you forget to turn it in on time, so just alleviate that issue altogether.

throughout the school year:

take notes. have a notebook open in every class, and write down all important names, dates, quotes, formulas, and theorems. write the current date at the top of each page, and have a separate notebook for each subject. if a teacher repeats something more than once in a class, underline it, because those are the things that appear on midterms and finals.

help yourself memorize things by writing essays about them. even if you’re not assigned an essay about a topic, try to write/type two or three paragraphs every week to summarize what you’re learning in a class. writing things in your own words is one of the best ways to remember them, and it will also help you to improve your writing skills. additionally, this should be applied to all subjects, not just literature or history (because even if you’re studying a STEM field and writing isn’t a huge part of the curriculum, you should still have the ability to write about STEM concepts in a way that is understandable and engaging).

befriend the smartest person in the class. figure out who always has the right answers and make yourself their ally. be a good friend to them, and then when you’re struggling with a concept, they will either explain it to you or—if they don’t know what the explanation is yet—they’ll help you search for it.

take advantage of indexes. almost all books have one, and they can be lifesavers if you don’t know the answer to a question. especially in history class, when there are a bunch of names that are super difficult to memorize. i know this is a pretty basic tip (if you can even call it a tip), but i’ve had a lot of friends completely forget about indexes, so this is just a brief reminder. :)

participate in class. this might sound super obvious, but you cannot retain information without discussing it! if you’re like me and participating in class sucks because of social anxiety, try to force yourself out of your comfort zone & remember that you are your own worst critic, but it’s also okay just to discuss things with a close friend or family member instead. the important thing is that you’re repeating what you’ve learned out loud and practicing explaining it to someone else, which will really help you to grasp the concepts.

three weeks before midterms/finals:

now is when all of your notes come in handy. go back through the notes for each class and study them, particularly the parts you’ve underlined. you shouldn’t try to memorize the pages, but you should study them enough that—by finals week—you could summarize the contents if someone asked you pointed questions about them. this is also when it becomes extra helpful to be friends with the smartest person in the class, because they will be an excellent study buddy. just make sure that you reciprocate if you ask them to help you study.

fill in any gaps in your notes by talking to your teachers and attending all of the office hours that you can. many teachers will give you a study guide if you ask for one, and you can literally go through and fill it in with info from your notes. remember, most of your teachers really do want you to do well, and they’ll try their best to help you achieve the best scores possible.

if any of your quizzes are open book, ask your teacher if you can put completely blank sticky notes on pages. bookmark the pages that have important events, quotes, facts, etc., and then if you forget something on a test you can refer to the book & it will be much easier to find the information. personally, the only open book finals i’ve had are the kind where you just write three 1000 word essays in 3 hours, but we are required to have at least 5 quotes in each essay, so if that’s the case for any of you guys then this tip is super helpful for bookmarking those quotes as well.

while taking a final/midterm:

read through the whole test first. figure out how long it is, how much time you have, and how many points each question is worth. if you’re worried about running out of time, start by doing the problems that are worth more points, and then out of whatever’s left do the ones that look easiest first. this will guarantee that you make the best use of your time & get the highest grade possible

and that’s all i can think of right now! hope this can help at least a few people :)

these are so calming

Source.

time blocking method

Hi all, this is werelivingarts, a new post about time management method: TIME BLOCKING! Time blocking allows you to divide your day into big blocks and helps you to complete similar tasks in one-go without any interruptions! 

You can do your time blocking on:

Google Calendar (simple and easy to use)

Plan (drag your to-do list and organize them in blocks)

TickTick Premium (offer pomodoro timer)

Hope you find this helpful! ⭐️

Feb 21 ‘19 ~ my class schedule makes me so exhausted I have to do all my homework on the weekends cause I just. Can’t. After classes when I come home at like 5pm😶 here I’m reading through some physics notes

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

The other day a recruiter asked me about my R experience. I told him about the project I worked on in R (aka the only one) and how, since it has similarities to Python, I could probably pick up new functions and libraries if needed. I even mentioned a specific library I learned about in my course and how certain parts are different in R.

He told me it was refreshing that I was honest and self-aware about my skill level in R. Because he’s had dudes tell him they’re R superstars only to completely fail the supposedly simple test in R. I wasn’t worried telling him this because, let’s be honest, this is an entry-level position for a bachelor’s degree. The recruiter knows this. There’s no point in pretending to be an expert. Just make sure you can show that you’re competent.

He also REALLY loved my resume. He even said that my resume made him think, “damn, I need to step up my game” about his own resume. Because it’s easy to read and has everything laid out properly. It is something that recruiters definitely notice when they actually look at your resume rather than just shoving it through an ATS.