Patiencepea - Corn >:(

DO: Plan thoroughly. Use a project planner such as this one to map out exactly what you need and your partners need to do in order to complete your project, who’s going to do each task and how much time it’s all going to take. Planning is essential in order to stay on track, as well as avoiding any confusions like someone not completing something because they thought some else was going to do it.

DON’T: Have a bad attitude. I know it’s frustrating when you’re paired up with lazy people or people you don’t like, but approaching the project with a bad attitude won’t help. So suck it up and be positive and nice with your fellow members. It’ll make working together so much easier.

DO: Divide work according to strengths. I’m sure most if not all of your partners will have a special skill set that will be a great contribution to your project. If someone has great writing skills, let them proofread everything before you send it in. If someone else is good at graphic design, make sure that they design your slides (if applicable). Whatever it might be, find out about everyone’s strengths and let them shine.

DON’T: Use your teacher’s due date. By this, I mean that you should plan to finish a couple of days before your project’s due. Why? Because life happens. Some people might be busy with other classes, have an emergency or just slack off. By aiming to finish a couple of days before the due date, you can ensure the completion and quality of your projects.

DO: Check in with your group mates often. Communication is key! Talk to ensure often to ensure that everyone is on track and know the status of the individual parts of the project. You’ll also figure out if anyone’s struggling and will then be able to help them. Also, a few compliments here and there like: “This paragraph is really well written” and “I love the fonts and colors you used. Nice eye” will make your partners happy and improve their confidence. You’ll work better with happy partners and good partnership will improve the quality of your project.

DON’T: Be afraid to disagree with others. You don’t want to be insulting or over dominate your group, but if you disagree with how something is being done or know a better way to do it, speak up. Your grade shouldn’t suffer because of a simple mistake.

DO: Use online collaborative tools. As much as I love Word and Powerpoint, Google Docs and Google Slides are some of the best tools for group work. You can all work on something at the same time as well as see who did what and at what time.

Life Tip for Cleaning with Depression

If you struggle with depression, you can probably relate with the struggle of not having the motivation to clean the space you’re living in, while at the same time the untidiness of that space continues to make you feel worse the more you live in it.

Here’s what you do before you decide to clean: 

Go to your comfy space, whether that be in bed or the couch, wherever, and get a pen and a piece of paper and literally write out, in to-do list form, very simple and specific tasks that need to be done to tidy up your space.

Ex:

- take all dishes out of bedroom and put in sink

- throw away empty water bottles

- organize bookshelf

- clear off tv stand

- declutter beside table

Be sure to mark off each task as you complete it. Even though it may seem like small tasks individually, this will give you a sense of accomplishment that will grow as you mark off more and more items from the list. Every little task you can will yourself to complete will make your space cleaner, and in my experience having a cleaner space tends to lessen symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Remember! No matter how little the task may seem to someone else, you have the right to feel accomplished! Depression can be extremely hard to deal with, and if anyone who is reading this is struggling with it, I want you to know that I’m here for you! <3

Please let me know if you try this, and if it helped you at all!

I want to take cute pictures of my studying but my room is disgusting, my desk is broken, I am barely functioning and I am just now getting in gear with school because chronic sleeping.

Declutter Your Life

I’ve resolved that every Wednesday, I will write a masterpost about self care and living clean and happy lifestyles. Mainly because my blog is devoted to that too, besides being a studyblr, but I hardly ever post original content about it, so hereeee we go. :)

Plan first

Make a list of areas you want to tackle

Or items you want to go through

Set how long you’ll clean

And a little reward for yourself when you’ve reached that goal

Envision what you want your space to look like at the end

Set aside three baskets or areas: one for things to keep, one for things to trash, and one for things to donate/sell

House

There are just some ideas of things to get rid of or pare down. Feel free to add your own. :)

Bedroom

unnecessary pillows on your bed or extra blankets

monsters under your bed

chargers, wires, etc. that go to devices you don’t have anymore or that are broken

old devices, phones, ipods

books you felt kinda eh about while reading them

copies of books or CDs

old notebooks

sticky notes that have lost their stickiness

broken pencils

markers that have dried up

any art supply you don’t use

scrap paper that’s gotten too small

scrap yarn that’s gotten too small

old art projects

unfinished art projects

papers

candles w/o any smell

Scentsy-type stuff w/o any smell

Closet

clothes that don’t fit

all of those clothes you save for your “ugly days”

shoes that hurt that you don’t even like the looks of

underwear with holes (or blood stains - ya feel me, girls?)

socks without a matching pair

socks with holes

bras that are even looking tired

copies of clothes, like multiple white t-shirts

jewelry you don’t wear

childish jewelry

broken jewelry

Bathroom

hygiene products past their expiration date

faded towels

bottles with only a few drops of product left

worn out toothbrushes

hairbands that have lost their elasticity

congealed nail polish

makeup you regret buying

Digital Life

Social Media

Unfollow people, be merciless, make your social media a place of positivity

unfriend toxic people (see the next section)

go through your own posts and delete anything you regret posting

take social media breaks

Computer

upload all of your photos to Google photos or flickr or photobucket or onedrive or whatever, or even a CD, then delete them from your memory

also back up important documents or just things you want to keep to something else and delete them on your computer

go through and sort everything into files

delete any programs you don’t use

Phone

clean out your pictures, upload them to cloud or whatever

delete all of the apps you don’t use or need

go through your contacts and delete the people you don’t want to contact anymore

delete old text message conversations

give yourself a new background too, something clean and simple

Relationships

Get rid of those people who are toxic in your life, mute notifications from them, unfollow them on social media (you can unfollow someone one facebook without unfriending them), don’t answer them often

make an effort to interact with people face-to-face rather than through text or the internet

decide who you want to actively invest your energy in

School

make a study schedule

prioritize your schedule – study the hardest subjects the most

remember that grades are important

also remember that grades aren’t everything 

(pls don’t fire me from being a studyblr)

if you can’t get everything you need to do done in 24 hours without sacrificing 8 hours of sleep and a bit of time for yourself, then you’re doing too much

Best tip to stay decluttered: Learn to say no.

Procrastinating makes me feel really icky, but I can’t help myself. I always wait until the final moment to do something or study for something and then am always rushing, thus I’m always stressed out. This is the way I deal with procrastination. What works for me might or might not work for you, and that’s okay.

Make a list of every single thing you know you have to get done. This doesn’t have to be limited to a certain time, if you know your university applications are due in two months, put this down too! Also include the smaller tasks you may have ignored like changing your sheets or tidying up your room.

Put some sort of symbol next to tasks you want to accomplish first. These can be assignments due soon, or anything you want to get done quick. I usually use exclamation points and for ones with looming deadlines, I put multiple exclamation points.

Assign an estimated duration to each task, ranging from five minutes to two hours, see how much you can realistically get done today.

After making that list, you may have a rush of energy to start checking things off, so start with something that’s high priority and also has a longer time duration. Work on this for at least half an hour, or at most an hour and a half.

Try not to open Netflix or YouTube on this break. Use this time to get something to eat, you can also use this time to finish those small tasks you wrote out, or play with a pet! If you open any addictive apps, you’re probably going to have problems coming back to the tasks.

As soon as your alarm signifies the end of your break, come straight back and attempt a different task now. If you were to do the same task, you might get bored. Work on this task and follow the above mentioned techniques.

After feeling like you’ve accomplished a decent amount, you can reward yourself something. I usually reward myself an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine or a face mask!

While doing the tasks, keep checking them off, it’s extremely satisfying and once every single task is complete, you’ll feel so good about yourself.

When at least three things have been checked off, you can take a bigger break. This can last anywhere between fifteen minutes to half an hour. During this break, you can use any of the apps previously banned.

Try to remind yourself why you’re studying. Is it because you want to get into a specific university? Is it because you want to make your parents proud? Is it because you want to prove yourself to haters? Whatever the reason is, channel the emotion attached to it and get back to studying.

Just know that no matter what happens, your grades do not define you. You are not just a number or letter on a sheet of paper, you’re a beautiful human being and you can do anything you want to do.