Doing Well Is Much Easier Said Than Done. The Best Tip I Have Is To Just Do The Work. It’s Going To

productivity can mean different things

summer productivity does not mean or have to mean that you are grinding everyday to get work done. being productive could simply mean self-care. productivity comes in all forms, from painting your nails to doing the dishes to reading a book. it could even be something along the lines of creating a new playlist or folding the laundry. it’s up to you.

first off, plan a little

write your lists down somewhere that you’ll check again (i’m using a google doc.) make three lists: daily checklist, short-term goals, & long-term goals. leave room for revision.

daily checklist

don’t pile on tasks on this. it is unrealistic to put like ten things on your list to do everyday, and it’s exhausting and can even be anti-productive trying to attempt to complete such a list everyday. pick two to three things to do everyday. for example, mine says, “1. do khan academy (for SAT prep) 2. check the DMV for available appointments (to renew my permit oops) 3. read a book or three articles.” the second one is subject to change because eventually i will get an appointment, so always leave room for revisions.

short-term goals list

this is the list where you put stuff that you want to accomplish by the end of the week, month, etc. for example, mine says, “finish ap government chapter one by friday.” these can be specific or general. like my short-term goals list also has my goal of reading three books every week.

long-term goals list

what do you hope to accomplish by the end of summer? do you want to re-invent yourself? be proficient in a language? have finished all your college apps? you define your goals here.

studyblr ways to be productive

read a book get ahead and look at your AP curriculums; make a study schedule watch TED talks watch documentaries listen to podcasts make study playlists visit museums

self care ways to be productive (these are nothing new, but just serves as a reminder that taking care of yourself is good and productive. it is in no way a waste of time, so don’t let anyone convince you otherwise)

take a bath or shower the simple hygiene stuff (brush your teeth, etc.) clean your living space delete apps you don’t use or need drink water journal, draw, make music do whatever makes you feel happy (if you don’t have anything, go a try a bunch of activities! do something that scares you, you might be surprised) exercise (it doesn’t have to be a whole lot, just walk around and stretch every once in a while) sleep, rest, take time for yourself

other ways to be productive

- practice a sport or instrument - learn/continue learning a language - spend time with friends or family - make an exercising schedule (start off with small workouts and gradually increase) - learn to eat healthier (begin replacing unhealthy food for better substitutes; i - - trust you know the healthier options) - volunteer (find a place or two and volunteer regularly.  reminder: it shouldn’t feel like a job; remember why you’re volunteering in the first place.) - look for summer jobs (it might be a little late now for stuff like summer camps, but you can still apply to places that have the signs like “help wanted” or “hiring now”)

Good Study Habits (8 Tips)

Start

Make some time to study. Write it down in your planner, bullet journal, hand, anywhere. just make sure you tell yourself to do it and then do it! Starting is always the hardest thing to do. But once you start you will likely get into it pretty fast.

2. Make time for breaks

Being able to schedule in time for breaks is important. You don’t have to study yourself into the ground. Give your brain a break but, don’t give yourself too long of a break. Give yourself a maximum of an hour of break. If your break lasts more than an hour, most likely you are never going to go back to studying.

3. Remember to eat

Do not starve yourself but also do not eat too much. Being satisfyingly full is good, it will help you focus and help you feel comfortable. If you overstuff yourself, then you might get sleepy or you will feel too uncomfortable to the point of not being able to focus. Eat some snacks in between chapters, eat a balanced lunch, and make time for dinner. Good snacks would be: nuts, banana, yogurt, dried fruits.

4. When Studying a new topic, make time to go back and review older topics

Remembering new topics are great, but over time your brain will only remember the new information and eventually forget the old information. Being able to go back to old information for a review will ensure that you remember everything you need to remember.

5. Don’t overwhelm yourself with colors

Being organized with your notes is good! But having too many different colored pens or highlighters in your notes can get stressful and confusing. Having to focus on changing pens every paragraph or getting out more highlighters during a lecture will distract you from actually learning even though you are taking notes. Being able to take fast organized notes while also listen to what the professor is saying is a good balance. Stick with one other pen and one highlighter.

-One black pen for standard note taking (general information)

-One red or blue pen (definitions)

-One yellow highlighter. (dates and names)

6. Notes Index

If your notes have pages and pages of topics, I would make a separate page for an index. This way, you will be able to find a certain topic faster. Wasting time on finding something in your notes will not be necessary with an index.

7. Flashcards

You should make new flashcards for every new topic. That way you will have flashcards to refer to in class, and you can study on the go. It will be easier to pull out your flashcards on the bus, waiting for class to start, and while you do homework.

8. Organize notes later

Being able to sit there and listen while taking notes is important. It is more important than having pretty notes or to worry about having very organized notes. Write down what you need to write down and rewrite it later on.

somehow I got 95/20 on an assignment

I hope they never fix it and leave it this way forever

things you can do at any stage in life:

love yourself

have a fresh start

go back to school

recover

make new friends

fall in love

go to therapy

learn a skill

discover your passion

repair relationships

change the world

find a new hobby

be happy

it isn’t too late for you. you’ll be okay. there’s no time limit on happiness.

Flexible Time Blocking: A More Breathable Way to Get Things Done

I’ve met a lot of people who struggle with sticking to a schedule - myself included - so here’s one way you can get things done without restricting your spontaneity.

Linked: The ABCDE Method: Accomplish Tasks More Efficiently

Hope this helps!

Do yourself a favor. Learn to code. Here's how.

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

Dash - by General Assembly

CodeAcademy

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

Khan Academy

CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy

TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book

Symfony 2 - Get Started

Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

so your last semester wasn’t great.

we’ve all been there fam. in fact my previous semester was not great either – i got kicked out of my university’s honor program. You need a 3.5 cumulative GPA to stay in, and because of a lot of different circumstances, I finished out with a 3.48 – which is, frankly, better than i deserved. But this semester I’m gonna get a 4.0 and reapply. So here’s how ya do it. 

1. have a good first day. 

a big mistake is to go balls-to-the-wall discipline on your first day. Fuckin… relax, dude. Wake up as early as you need to be ready, but don’t push yourself to be up at 5am or anything like that. Set our your stuff the night before so you can have an easy morning. Treat yourself to a good breakfast or just get that fast food you’ve been craving for lunch. It’s really important not to stress yourself out too much, especially after your last semester kinda sucked, and it’s VERY important not to let yourself automatically associate school with negative emotions like fear and stress, because that will paralyze you down the line when things get more difficult closer to exam season, etc. 

2. don’t be afraid to drop

when going to all your new classes, really seriously evaluate your ability to succeed in a class with that time slot/professor/etc. last semester I had a quantitative reasoning class that was part of our core curriculum – the professor was NOT good at their job, did not teach us the material, and frankly showing up to that class was a waste of my time. What i SHOULD have done was DROP THE DAMN CLASS the first week, and taken it the next semester with a better professor. 

3. limit other activities at first

your first couple weeks of the new semester, cut back on other activities. I’m really active in political stuff going on around my city, and i’m on a leadership team for an organization that does that kind of stuff. I’ve let the team know that I’m not going to be participating, going to meetings, or ANYTHING for the next two weeks while my semester gets started. The reasons for this are many – it helps you get used to the pace of all your classes without being stressed out by other things, it helps you reorganize your priorities and put school first, and it also helps you build credit with your professors, so down the line if you’re having problems (like ‘oh SHIT i forgot this homework’ or ‘FUCK i don’t understand this project i need an extension’) they’ll be more likely to help you out, because they know you’ve been putting the effort in. 

4. try out something new organizationally

if you’re like me, keeping track of assignments is really difficult. I lose papers all the damn time. So this semester I’ve bought one of those accordion file thingies – so I can keep all my papers in one place, while still having them separate and organized. Just remember, the strategy is only one part, but you’re responsible for sticking to it and making it work. 

so there ya have it, friends. you’re ready to start this ‘recovery semester’ off with a bang. you can do it, and so can I!

“I’m gonna let out all my anger in the form of kissing you.” 

“I… well, I guess that’s one way to vent.” They paused. “…That I’m really down for.” 

Just a quick reminder! Having a bullet journal/planner will NOT make you more organized! Only YOU can make yourself more disciplined!!!!

At 17, I was a depressed teenager who self harmed and wondered about just how painful it could possibly be to end my life.

Right now, I’m laying on the couch, and I can hear my husband reading our four year old a bedtime story using silly voices.

Life gets better. Make sure you’re there to see it.