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a random assortment of life tips
by me, 20 year old who is so clearly great at adulting. (not really, but i’ve been living on my own for a couple years so i sorta know how this thing works.)
- coconut oil is the solution to everything - dry skin, frizzy/dull hair, cooking, removing makeup…everything.
- be nice to people working service jobs.
- change your pillowcases every week if you have bad acne. hell, you should change your pillowcases every week even if you don’t have bad acne.
- don’t put regular dish soap in the dishwasher.
- carry your school ID with you when shopping and always ask stores if they give student discounts.
- sleep naked. trust me on this.
- put a damp paper towel over your pizza before you reheat it in a microwave so that the crust will still be soft, not chewy.
- you don’t need to color sort your laundry if you put the washing machine setting on “cold”.
- drink a glass of cold water after a long cry - it’ll make you feel better.
- despite what others might say, you can be friends with your exes.
- make sure “find my iphone” is set up and turned on.
- save your loose change and deposit it into your savings account at the end of every month. over time, a little change makes a big difference.
- it’s okay to call your parents and ask for help. they probably know how to get that stain out or remedy a sore throat better than you do.
- air drying (as opposed to tumble drying) your sweaters helps the fleece inside stay soft and fuzzy longer.
- always double knot your running shoes.
- emergency sewing kit. get one.
- flavored condoms are for oral sex, not penetrative sex.
- carry a small notebook and pen with you wherever you go. write when you feel inspired, even if no one will ever read it.
- never underestimate the healing power of cute animal videos on youtube.
- learn how to say “no”.
- be the kind of person you need in your life: support yourself. accept yourself. comfort yourself. love yourself.
- be open minded, question everything, challenge yourself, and learn to look at things from different angles.
- you are the most important person in your life - act like it. put yourself first.
- growing up isn’t about getting your shit together - it’s about learning to accept the fact that your life will never be as perfect and put together as you’d like it to be.
- screw the idea of “unconditional love” - it should always be conditional. your love is valuable as fuck; don’t give it to people that don’t deserve it.
- remember that you are under no obligation to remain the person you were yesterday. allow yourself to grow.
- challenge your limits, say yes to things that scare you, be open to new experiences, and live fully.
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december // [listen]
01. more more more - dagny / 02. nights with you - mø / 03. 18 - echosmith / 04. this was a home once - bad suns / 05. she said - sundara karma / 06. summer - the hunna / 07. daft pretty boys - bad suns / 08. stay the night - jukebox the ghost / 09. beautiful - betty who / 10. bad at love - halsey / 11. dancing in the daylight - scouting for girls / 12. love so soft - kelly clarkson / 13. way beyond - bastille / 14. love you like that - dagny
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Best advice I’ve received so far
- the time you take being jealous of other people’s success is the time you could be using to build your own
- you’re never going to “feel like it”
- doing and practicing now is better than waiting for the perfect moment
- eliminate people with toxic habits from your life
- you are in control. Everything you’ve done up to this moment led you here. Therefore, your future is determined by what you do now.
- everything is as it should be and only later in life you can connect the dots.
- self discipline will give you freedom. consistency will give you results
- everything is temporary. You should find freedom in this concept
- the rich stay rich acting poor and the poor stay poor acting rich
- being healthy means finding a balance between the good and the bad
- the people that outranked you have outworked you.
- you can’t be grateful and negative at the same time.
Meditate on these statements. They are so very powerful! Xxx
- the time you take being jealous of other people’s success is the time you could be using to build your own
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hi! i’m starting university next year and i’m really worried because i have to commute by train and bus more than an hour a day :’( my school is only like a 10 min walk from my house so i’m worried about getting tired or not having enough time to study, what should i do?
Hey there! There are like heaps of things that you can do on a long commute in order to be more productive, and they don’t even have to be things related to studying! I’m making this post a generalised one about what to do in different time blocks.
Short Sessions (<30 minutes)
- Read ahead on your lecture slides. It takes 20-30 minutes to read through the slides for a lecture, but this way you’re able to circle areas that you might find confusing ahead of time. When you get to the lecture, write down explanations in your own words so that when you revise this in two months’ time, you won’t have any missing info.
- Catch up on sleep! It doesn’t have to all be uni work. Sleep and taking care of yourself is important so that you can concentrate in class. Twenty minutes is all you need for a power nap to refresh your mind. Just remember to set an alarm so that you don’t miss your stop!
- For health science students, go through your clinic routine. Time management, flow, and better flow; trying to improve your clinical performance can be difficult if you don’t think about what order you’ll be tackling things like entrance testing. Short bus rides can be a great time for you to reflect on the order of testing; try and imagine yourself actually doing the testing
- Preview additional readings by reading the abstract. If you’re strapped for time, reading through the abstract of any journal articles in science usually summarises all the main points you need, particularly for those where original research has been done. Reviews or papers which create definitions for different conditions are often also summarised - not through the abstract, but through the tables spread throughout the paper. Usually all the text is devoted to explaining how they got to making those tables, so you can skip them if need be.
- Reply to emails and send any questions you might have. It actually can take around 10 minutes to send an email to your professor because of wording and introductions and explanations. So I find that short bus trips are a great time for doing any sort of communication.
- Along those lines, catch up with your friends as well! I’m often so busy that I can’t meet up with my high school friends in person, so we all have a group chat that we still keep in touch in.
- Make a study plan - you only need around 10-15 minutes to plan out your whole week. Having a plan written down and allocating a set time to do each task will make you a lot more productive than just saying that you’ll ‘study’ on Friday night.
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If you’re at home and have a short break you can also clean up your desk/house or do chores - at least have organised chaos so that you have a clear mind.
Medium Sessions (30 minutes to 2 hours)
- Type up your study notes. Granted, this takes a bit longer, but you’ll still be able to get a good chunk of it done, meaning that you’ll be able to relax a bit more when you get home. On that note, get your tutorial questions done as well!
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Complete additional readings. If you skim the abstract and have a bit more time on your hands, it’s also good to read the results and discussion as they talk about other authors’ findings as well as the benefits and limitations of the present study, which are important in your learning.
- Doing tutorial questions. Often math tutorial problem sets will take you around 2-3 hours to complete all the questions because of the difficulty, so if you do them on the trip to and from uni, you can usually get it done in one day.
Long Sessions (>2 hours)
Might as well talk about long study sessions too at your study place of choice!
- Get essays and assignment done! You can’t really get stuck into writing essays unless you have at least a good chunk of time. It’s a good idea to get the outline ready in one of the shorter breaks you have though!
- Study for exams! Long periods are the best time to cover the most difficult subjects or concepts, or just to churn through a lot of different topics.
MY STUDY TIPS
Please see my #optomstudies tag or my study tips directory (web only) for the full list of study tips + see my kpop vocab lists + stationery + bujo spreads! ^_^
WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE UNIVERSITY STUDY TIPS SERIES
0 Choosing a Degree , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10-1 , 10-2 , 11 Adapting to Uni Study , 12 Using Textbooks in Uni , 13 Dealing with Lazy Group Members , 14 Staying Productive (No Matter How Much Time You Have!) - Read ahead on your lecture slides. It takes 20-30 minutes to read through the slides for a lecture, but this way you’re able to circle areas that you might find confusing ahead of time. When you get to the lecture, write down explanations in your own words so that when you revise this in two months’ time, you won’t have any missing info.
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feel good things:
- watch sunrises. somehow, this makes me feel like the beginning of something new, the birth of my better, stronger self. watch the way the sun rises, because just like that, you will rise and shine, too.
- sing your heart out. dance until you’re exhausted. make art until you run out paint. write out your feelings. indulge in your passion and do it like you’re doing it to impress yourself.
- relive your favorite, happiest memory. it is one easy guaranteed effective way to make your heart, your soul, and even your lips smile. no bias.
- rewatch your favorite film. grab some chips or a bucket of popcorn and have a marathon of your most-watched flicks. don’t hesitate to replay your favorite scenes if you feel the need to.
- aspire and try to be kind, always. being kind on a daily basis is possibly one of the most exhausting and draining thing to ever do but i promise at the end of the day, before you go to sleep you will realize: it is worth it. always.
- take a shower. scrub off your creeping self-doubts, smell nice, and bask yourself with self-love. take your time to ponder about your life inside the tub. this is the best time to reevaluate and relax.
- be spontaneous even just for one day. drive away from the city. get a haircut. go on a coffee shop hopping. sketch random places. let your heart and your thoughts wander. let your soul soar and be free.
- treat yourself. it does not necessarily have to be something enormous or expensive. it could just be a new set of brushes or getting a thrifted second-hand book or buying yourself some bouquet of fresh flowers. it’s not about the tags, it’s about the thought.
- rekindle your love for a forgotten passion. nothing beats falling in love with something the second time around. touch your dusty piano keys, change your rusty violin strings, and once again (just like the old days), let your ardor dance in harmony.
- take a nap. because sometimes, the best way to temporarily solve something, is to do nothing. yes, it is only ethical to give yourself a break from the overwhelming society. and yes, taking a nap most of the time makes everything better.
- if you want to or feel the need to, cry. there is nothing wrong with doing something that is inherent. this does not prove that you are weak, it only proves that you are a human being capable of feeling things. so really, do not ever plan to hinder yourself from crying. it’s often times therapeutic.
- do something that you have never done before. no more excuses. just because there is nothing more empowering and satisfying than crossing something out of your bucketlist.
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100 Goals you can have as a language learner
A follower of mine asked me what are some realistic goals when you’re learning languages but before giving you 100 examples, i want to mention that you can have daily, weekly, monthly or/and yearly goals. If you get easily distracted and need motivation, set goals for each category; however, if you can focus and be motivated for a longer period of time, you might not need daily or/and weekly goals.
Also, the numbers/minutes/hours are an example, you can change them according to your time, resources, motivation etc.
Daily goals
- Read 1 article in your target language.
- Learn 10 words.
- Learn 1 poem in your target language.
- Learn a song in your target language.
- Watch a movie.
- Read 1 page from a book in your target language.
- Sing 1 song in your target language.
- Talk with a native for 10 minutes.
- Learn 2 idioms.
- Translate 1 song.
- Translate 1 poem.
- Write 1 short text about anything.
- Watch 1 episode from your favourite show dubbed/subbed.
- Get 50points on duolingo.
- Make a vocab list.
- Learn 1 new grammatical concept.
- Think in your target language for 10 minutes
- Read to a podcast for 15 minutes.
- Learn 1 tongue twister.
- Spend 15 minutes on WordBrewery.
- Play on Babadum for 15 minutes.
- Use Clozemaster for 15 minutes.
- Listen to an audio book for 10 minutes.
- Revise your notes for 20 minutes.
- Learn 1 vocab list.
Weekly
- Read 10 articles in your target language.
- Read 2 books for children.
- Learn 5 poems.
- Learn 3 songs.
- Watch 3 movies.
- Learn 10 grammatical concepts.
- Talk for 2 hours in your target language.
- Learn 5 vocab lists.
- Learn 100 new words.
- Finish 8 lessons on duolingo. (i mean the entire bullet/dot/set of mini-lessons)
- Watch 10 episodes from your favourite show in your target language subbed/dubbed.
- Learn 30 idioms.
- Write 3 A4 pages about anything.
- Translate 5 songs.
- Learn 3 vocab lists.
- Revise with the help of some tests online for 2 hours.
- Change your phone settings to be in your target language.
- Make a summary for the books you’ve read.
- Read 10 pages from a complex book in your target language.
- Make 5 vocab lists.
- Write a motivation text of 10 lines for your in your target language about why you enjoy learning languages.
- Think for 2 hours in your target language.
- Translate 3 pages from a book in your native language.
- Translate 3 pages from a book in your target language.
- Discover 10 new songs in your target language.
Monthly
- Learn 350 new words.
- Read 1 advanced book in your target language.
- Finish a grammar book.
- Finish 10 stories for kids.
- Learn 80 idioms.
- Learn 20 vocab lists.
- Finish 35 lessons on duolingo. (the bullets/dots/set of mini lessons)
- Make 20 vocab lists.
- Watch 10 movies in your target language subbed/dubbed.
- Translate 10 songs.
- Learn 10 poems.
- Learn 5 songs.
- Talk to natives for 10 hours.
- Write summaries for every chapter/article you’ve read.
- Watch 15 youtube videos in your target language .
- Make a story of 5 minutes while looking at a random picture on google.
- Understand a song (that you don’t know) without checking the lyrics too often.
- Read 20 articles.
- Make a dish while reading the recipe in your target language
- Revise for 20 hours.
- Keep a journal with your daily progress and at the end of the month, read how many things you achieved.
- Read to a podcast for 24 hours.
- Think in your target language for 24 hours.
- Play babadum/wordbrewery/clozemaster for 10 hours.
Yearly
- Be mistaken for a native.
- Know 50 poems.
- Be able to sing most Disney songs in your target language.
- Watch movies without subs.
- Learn 10.000 words.
- Read 10 advanced books.
- Finish duolingo/whatever course you use.
- Be able to think in your target language effortlessly.
- Master irregular verbs.
- Have at least 5 native friends that talk to you in your target language.
- Be proud you didn’t give up.
- Study a bit daily.
- Finish 3 grammar books/workbooks/books for advanced learners.
- Have a decent accent.
- Be able to read without translating anything.
- Watch more movies in your target language than your native one/English.
- Have favourite youtubers that are native of your target language.
- Keep a diary and read how your year has been.
- Be able to talk about advanced stuff.
- Have very detailed descriptions.
- Know the most popular songs in your target language.
- Read mostly in your target language.
- Know several new recipes that cooked only in the country where your target language is spoken.
- Being able to say that you’re bilingual/multilingual/a polyglot.
- Learn your next language through the one that you mastered already.
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100 Goals you can have as a language learner
A follower of mine asked me what are some realistic goals when you’re learning languages but before giving you 100 examples, i want to mention that you can have daily, weekly, monthly or/and yearly goals. If you get easily distracted and need motivation, set goals for each category; however, if you can focus and be motivated for a longer period of time, you might not need daily or/and weekly goals.
Also, the numbers/minutes/hours are an example, you can change them according to your time, resources, motivation etc.
Daily goals
- Read 1 article in your target language.
- Learn 10 words.
- Learn 1 poem in your target language.
- Learn a song in your target language.
- Watch a movie.
- Read 1 page from a book in your target language.
- Sing 1 song in your target language.
- Talk with a native for 10 minutes.
- Learn 2 idioms.
- Translate 1 song.
- Translate 1 poem.
- Write 1 short text about anything.
- Watch 1 episode from your favourite show dubbed/subbed.
- Get 50points on duolingo.
- Make a vocab list.
- Learn 1 new grammatical concept.
- Think in your target language for 10 minutes
- Read to a podcast for 15 minutes.
- Learn 1 tongue twister.
- Spend 15 minutes on WordBrewery.
- Play on Babadum for 15 minutes.
- Use Clozemaster for 15 minutes.
- Listen to an audio book for 10 minutes.
- Revise your notes for 20 minutes.
- Learn 1 vocab list.
Weekly
- Read 10 articles in your target language.
- Read 2 books for children.
- Learn 5 poems.
- Learn 3 songs.
- Watch 3 movies.
- Learn 10 grammatical concepts.
- Talk for 2 hours in your target language.
- Learn 5 vocab lists.
- Learn 100 new words.
- Finish 8 lessons on duolingo. (i mean the entire bullet/dot/set of mini-lessons)
- Watch 10 episodes from your favourite show in your target language subbed/dubbed.
- Learn 30 idioms.
- Write 3 A4 pages about anything.
- Translate 5 songs.
- Learn 3 vocab lists.
- Revise with the help of some tests online for 2 hours.
- Change your phone settings to be in your target language.
- Make a summary for the books you’ve read.
- Read 10 pages from a complex book in your target language.
- Make 5 vocab lists.
- Write a motivation text of 10 lines for your in your target language about why you enjoy learning languages.
- Think for 2 hours in your target language.
- Translate 3 pages from a book in your native language.
- Translate 3 pages from a book in your target language.
- Discover 10 new songs in your target language.
Monthly
- Learn 350 new words.
- Read 1 advanced book in your target language.
- Finish a grammar book.
- Finish 10 stories for kids.
- Learn 80 idioms.
- Learn 20 vocab lists.
- Finish 35 lessons on duolingo. (the bullets/dots/set of mini lessons)
- Make 20 vocab lists.
- Watch 10 movies in your target language subbed/dubbed.
- Translate 10 songs.
- Learn 10 poems.
- Learn 5 songs.
- Talk to natives for 10 hours.
- Write summaries for every chapter/article you’ve read.
- Watch 15 youtube videos in your target language .
- Make a story of 5 minutes while looking at a random picture on google.
- Understand a song (that you don’t know) without checking the lyrics too often.
- Read 20 articles.
- Make a dish while reading the recipe in your target language
- Revise for 20 hours.
- Keep a journal with your daily progress and at the end of the month, read how many things you achieved.
- Read to a podcast for 24 hours.
- Think in your target language for 24 hours.
- Play babadum/wordbrewery/clozemaster for 10 hours.
Yearly
- Be mistaken for a native.
- Know 50 poems.
- Be able to sing most Disney songs in your target language.
- Watch movies without subs.
- Learn 10.000 words.
- Read 10 advanced books.
- Finish duolingo/whatever course you use.
- Be able to think in your target language effortlessly.
- Master irregular verbs.
- Have at least 5 native friends that talk to you in your target language.
- Be proud you didn’t give up.
- Study a bit daily.
- Finish 3 grammar books/workbooks/books for advanced learners.
- Have a decent accent.
- Be able to read without translating anything.
- Watch more movies in your target language than your native one/English.
- Have favourite youtubers that are native of your target language.
- Keep a diary and read how your year has been.
- Be able to talk about advanced stuff.
- Have very detailed descriptions.
- Know the most popular songs in your target language.
- Read mostly in your target language.
- Know several new recipes that cooked only in the country where your target language is spoken.
- Being able to say that you’re bilingual/multilingual/a polyglot.
- Learn your next language through the one that you mastered already.
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itty bitty follower milestone giveaway
i recently hit a (relatively small but still important!) follower milestone recently, so I’ve decided to do a little stationery giveaway to celebrate!
PRIZES:
- typo disney pencil case
- memo me circular sticky notes
- zebra mildliner cool & refined set
- muji 0.5 gel ink pen (black)
RULES:
- follow this blog
- reblog this post
- one entry per person - multiple reblogs don’t count for multiple entries
- I need to be able to contact you somehow if you win - so please have your messages / ask box open!
- Country of origin doesn’t matter - I’m happy to ship the prize anywhere worldwide!
- the winner will be announced on October 30th!
good luck to everyone entering, and thank you to so much to all my followers! your support means more than you know <3
- typo disney pencil case
