Day 1 ~ In Recovery ~

Middle of Day 2

I can't believe I actually did it. I actually started working on my thesis writing in the middle of the day!

Usually, I wait until it is dark, and I use guilt to motivate me to start writing until midnight. Then, I end up feeling exhausted and groggy the next day. But it seems like that's not today. And I am grateful for myself for this =)

Affirmation: Life is going to get better from here.

04/26/2025

Coming back to my studyblr after a few days of MIA =) Even though I haven't been logging my progress, I have actually been working hard! I think it's just that when I do work at school, I don't think about tracking, and it actually saves me time because I have Notion and an Excel sheet to track my progress anyway. I'm so ready to finish everything by 5/1 (next Wednesday) and wrap up the semester!!!

Today's mood:

Completed

✅ Yoga ✅ Walk my dog ✅ Breakfast ✅ Read To Love Your Enemy ✅ Thesis bullet points (3 hours!) ✅ Play A Little To The Left (?) ✅ Dinner ✅ Read more manga (hehe) ✅ Case study paper (1 hour)

To-Dos

⏹️ Video review paper ⏹️ Thesis revise paragraphs ⏹️ Shower

[End of study: 12:04am] Not too bad! I actually read my manhwa for 3 hours before I started anything lol. I feel like using a visual timer has been helpful to not rush myself to finish things at a certain time, but instead just know how long I need to do a task. Glad the day didn't turn out too bad. Good night 🩵

Introductions ~ take two ~

Hello stranger! Glad you found me and I hope you get what you need from here (encouragement, inspiration, rant, etc.). If you don't find my content interesting, I hope you picked up some good vibes and have a wonderful day =)

Original Idea:

My initial idea for this blr was to keep track of my master's thesis writing progress. Unfortunately, within a week, I got injured in a car accident over the holidays and things are no longer the same.

Updated Content:

I decided today that this blr will now be a mesh of things. I will continue to post about my thesis writing progress while adding other studying stuff here (i.e., a studyblr). I will also talk about things I do in a psychology PhD program in the US (i.e., a phdblr). The part that I am most excited about to start posting here is my reflections and inspirations! I pick up on a lot of meaning and wisdom from daily life so I hope to share this with y'all and maybe help others who are struggling like me 🩵 (maybe I can call it a growthblr?) A random idea that popped up is to use this as my 2025 vision board! I have been having a hard time creating an entire vision board at the beginning of the year, so maybe this would be a place where I can add pictures and quotes that inspire me and lead me toward a new direction and be in flow this year =) (so exciting!!)

A Little About Me:

Nice to meet you, lovely humans! I am a PhD student in psychology, in my 20s, a dog mom, an astrology/tarot lover (I'm a ♉ sun), a couch potato during breaks, in my healing/spiritual journey, and have ADHD/depression.

I'm usually a private person, but I love sharing my inspirations and wisdom with others =) I hope that this will be a safe and non-judgmental space for all of us, and to be authentic while respecting each other.

Given that I am in a psychology program and I see clients, I do not plan to post anything identifiable here, including my real name. That means that unless you know me irl, you will not know the people I mentioned in this blr. If you have concerns about identifiable information of your own or someone you know being posted here, I strongly encourage you to reach out using the "AMA" button on this blr so I can correct my mistake.

Disclaimer: There is a chance that I will not consistently write here. If I have not been active for over a month, I might take longer to respond to posts and AMAs. That is just the nature of my life rn.

✨Sending lots of love and light ✨

Does anyone else use Notion to take notes and stay organized?

I thought I'd list a few tips of making Notion more fun to use as you study/journal! And perhaps some of it is already SUPER obvious so I'm sorry if this list ends up being useless🥹💗.

I'll be using a mock-garden journal template to point out the tips!

1. Add emojis to your database titles—or to everything!

Add emojis to everything! It can honestly make it more fun to look at, even the calendar above looks cuter (double click to zoom in)!

But if that is a little overwhelming, but you still want to use emojis in a “quaint” way, you can make your database title a series of emojis. Like below!

I clicked the three dots, then clicked “edit database title.” I chose three tulips just to keep it on my garden-theme. So cute! 🌷🌷🌷

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2. Utilize the calculate button—in case you didn't know how to!

Maybe you already new this but I struggled to figure this out at some point lol! At the very bottom of a table right after the "+ New page" row, if you hover you'll see the "calculate" row.

When you want to add/average/whatever just click the "More options"! Yay, math!

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3. Solid colors as covers (from Unsplash) are very relaxing!

This one is super simple. I find that sometimes a solid cover for gallery pages is really nice to look at.

So I’m prone to typing specific shades I’m looking for into the Unsplash menu:

What I do is, I click a page, go to 'change cover' and choose Unspalsh. Then type in something like “pastel green” or “baby pink”. If the options aren’t enough, you can go directly to unsplash.com and find a free one! Example below of lovely solid colors!

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4. Easily change card sizes to adjust your galleries aesthetic

You can easily change card size to a just the aesthetic of your galleries ! Go to the little three dots at the top of your gallery (shown above), click layout, then card size! Now you can choose between S, M, L!

Bonus tip: if you go to ‘card preview,’' still under layout, you can choose what will be displayed on the front of your cards.

In the above example, I chose ‘page content’ 'cuz all the bullet points and todo lists looked so neat! Hehe! But you can choose 'page cover' if you have a fun image/color.

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Ands that’s all my loves! Let me know what you think in the comments! <3

If you like the look of these template snapshots and you coincidentally need to organize your garden project or any other project that fits the vibe (hehe), you can get it for free! I'll pop the link to it in the comments!

I hope this is helpful-ish!

HUGS!

Anastasia

Nothing better than having my dog next to me while I am working hard on my thesis 🩵

P.S. Technically I asked for a cat but got chosen by a dog. I call it fate.

04/06/2025

I just realized I reblogged my post yesterday to my own account lmao... Still nice to have tracked my study progress nonetheless!

I decided to not go to the workshop today. I just can't. Everyone was complaining about it and I just feel like I need to stay away from it for myself. Like, why stay here and complain all day when you can either accept it for what it is or leave entirely. Sorry, just my brain trying to problem solve for others. My family has always looked down on complaining, so I guess I don't do much of that unless I know I need to vent (probably like now lol).

Anyway, a good time to start getting some work done and taking it easy for the day =)

Completed

✅ Breakfast ✅ Watch Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! ✅ Wash dishes (been slacking off on this hehe) ✅ Shower!! ✅ Check and reply to emails ✅ Register for Fall classes ✌🏻 ✅ Discussion post ✅ Update report writing timeline and email my professor ✅ Create bullet points for thesis ✅ Dinner ✅ Watch cdrama shorts

To-Dos

⏹️ Revise thesis writing ⏹️ File taxes ⏹️ [maybe] Clinic document

Not the most productive day for me, but I think I have been building the consistency I have wanted since the beginning of the year. I am now telling myself that I can be proud of my achievements and hard work even when I do not finish 100% of the tasks. There are different interruptions in life, and we can't control them all. So I choose to be grateful and content when I have tried my best. Let's do this again tmr 🩵

04/14/2025

A new day, a new plan. Trying to stay optimistic and ground myself with inner peace today. I'm not sure what will happen in the future, so all I can do is to take one step at a time and focus on today =)

Completed

✅ Walk my dog ✅ Yoga ✅ Breakfast ✅ Inspirational videos (they're helpful to give me hope and motivation 💖) ✅ Pay bills ✅ Thesis: revise 1 section (took me 3 hours in total to add citations and draft an email to my advisor lol; but it's DONE!) ✅ Group project 2: find presentation slide template ✅ Therapy ✅ Dinner ✅ Play Xbox with partner ✅ Case presentation: background information ✅ Shower (gonna go shower now~)

To-Dos

⏹️ Clinic report results 3 ⏹️ Clinic report results 4

I have quite a bit to finish today, but I am hopeful. At least there are also some things to look forward to 😊

[End of day: 12:26am] Basically finished around 11:45 but I didn't want to stop watching drama trailers to find my new show lol. Then my internet decided to give me issues so now I will go shower and call it a night 🥱

04/04/2025

Had a full-day of workshop and I still have a few more to go... The day hasn't been that bad. Not until I realized how much I got charged for a recent imaging I had to do for my accident 🙃 They say US health insurance sucks, and I cannot agree more. I'm trying to stay positive and keep faith in the Universe, but it's hard when things like this happen. I don't know what more I can do. I don't know how I'm supposed to let go and surrender.

Completed

✅ Workshop ✅ Hangout with my friend ✅ Dinner ✅ Thesis work (30 minutes) ✅ Phone call with partner

To-Do

⏹️ Shower before bed

04/15/2025

Today, I think I tapped into hyperfocus mode because (1) I only slept for 4 hours, and this is what happens sometimes when I'm sleep-deprived, and (2) my period just started, so I'm getting some energy back? I still need more evidence to support this claim haha.

I am very grateful today because even though my follow-up appointment with my doctor was basically unnecessary (I think she Googled my diagnosis and gave me recommendations from online...), I had an overall good day. I was on time for my 9am class (after a few weeks of being late). I attended all my classes. I got food for this week. I tried to get my oil changed, but the shop was busy, and somehow the staff miraculously offered to change my oil for free because they overestimated their workflow (thank you, Universe!!!). I ended up going to do my car inspection today, which worked out. And I was on the phone with my partner for a couple hours while he shopped, and somehow I felt included and valued. It feels good to be loved and supported by the people around me and the Universe 🩵

Completed

✅ School ✅ Doctor's appointment ✅ Part-time job (didn't do my full shift today so I'll have to work more hours tmr...) ✅ Car inspection ✅ Renew car registration ✅ Phone call with partner ✅ Case presentation - part 2 (1.5 hours) ✅ Walk my dog ✅ Dinner ✅ Watch Everyone Loves Me ✅ Case presentation - final (0.5 hours) ✅ Clinic report - result 3 (0.5 hours) ✅ Clinic report - result 4 (0.25 hours) ✅ Clinic report - result 5 (0.25 hours) ✅ Sleep by 12:30am?

To-Dos

I switched out a task and finished 2 small ones instead! 🎉

[End of study: 12:25am] So ready for bed 😴 Can't wait to get my beauty sleep tonight because I so so deserve it 🩵