Study in a brain-friendly way: Tips to enhance growth mindsets

1. Read about growth mindsets or watch an interview or film about what happens in your brain when you learn.
2. Remember that the aim of learning is to learn. It doesn’t always have to be fun. Being happy or enjoying what you are learning is certainly an advantage, but it’s not a dealbreaker. There is nothing wrong with a little discomfort while you learn. Don’t be put off if you don’t always enjoy learning; it’s really not important.
3. Note: making a mistake is a valuable lesson in itself. Most people don’t like making mistakes, but seen as a valuable lesson, mistakes take on a different meaning. You are, after all, learning. And if learning is important to you, mistakes become valuable.
4. Try to think of something that you are now better at than you were in the past. What was it that you found difficult, but which has now become easier? How did you achieve this? Thinking about this will put you into a growth mindset.
5. When you hear yourself saying ‘I can’t do this!’…….add ‘yet’

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happy friday everyone

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the to do list of the day has been written down and the goal of the day is to simply finish the thesis, nothing big right? | instagram: thomreads

— writing the thesis (ig: thomreads)

Hello, everybody! Today I didn’t have the first time in college, so I took a couple of classes in the day!

I studied constitutional law and criminal law. Then I went to constitutional law class and I just had to do a job and go.

I stayed in college until 7: 00 p. M. tonight when starts my criminal law class. It’s very tiring, but it’s worth it!

So, is your routine also exhausting?

9.8.2019 | Today I didn’t have a class. I don’t have classes on Fridays, so I took advantage of studying an online matter that I have. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to study online. This article only has a gamble to read and some exercise, so I feel like I don’t absorb anything from content, but it’s still a simple matter. I also studied criminal law, transcribed audio from class and tomorrow I’ll make a short summary of the content. Now it’s 8 p.m. and I’m transcribing the audio of constitutional law. It’s a lot, but I think it s gonna be time to finish up until 9 p.m.

29.07.2019 | Today I dated my boyfriend to a bookstore on my town blocks, we bought a lot of law books for preposterous prices and we were walking the rest of the day by the little pits, talking, taking pictures. It was a very relaxing and quiet day, to make up for the madness that’s gonna be my semester from Wednesday.

20.07.19 | Today I started my schedule for the next semester of college. I’m gonna start my August layout of my bujo (this picture is the July layout) but I’m really lazy, I don’t feel like doing anything today, except to watch Stranger Things.

MOTIVATION VS SELF-DISCIPLINE

When studying, most people try to find motivation thinking that this will get them through their study session, or they will see their failure as a result of a lack of motivation. But motivation isn’t always what we need - what do you do on the days you have no motivation? This is why we need self-discipline.

MOTIVATION VS SELF DISCIPLINE

Motivation - a willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. A goal or reward that you look forward to that will encourage you to study - while this is useful, what happens on a day when you just don’t feel like studying?

Self-Discipline - making yourself do things you know you should do when you don’t want to. Being trained to routinely study regardless of how unmotivated you are - this is what will get you out of bed on a day you don’t feel like studying.

So if motivation is ‘why we should do something’ - self-discipline is more ‘what to do next’.

HOW TO BE SELF-DISCIPLINED

• Make a commitment with yourself that you will make studying as your habit. This is super important. Commit yourself to make this as your new habit. Don’t half-ass any of these suggestions or any other suggestions that other people give. Don’t give yourself silly, illegitimate excuses in the process. For this, you can do it by remind yourself on what your long-term goals in life are. Or if they don’t sound rewarding enough, remind yourself what failure feels like/ could feel like.
  
• Set yourself a routine and stick to it
• Never have a zero day - 10 minutes is better than nothing!! Do flashcards from your bed or watch youtube ted talks if you can’t physically study. This will help help develop a routine and make it easier for you to cope. Also, by studying everyday your brain will know that the content you are learning should be stored as long-term information so this will benefit you in the long run! However I do want to stress not to force yourself if you don’t have the capacity / energy for it. Take care of yourself too.
• Avoid long breaks. Unless you know that taking an hour long break means only an hour, then you can ignore this. But fo the majority of us, once we’ve taken a while out of studying it can be hard to get back into it again. One minute you’re taking a 20 minute break for a snack and some phone time and the next thing you know you’re on Youtube and four hours have passed! To avoid this, try stick to shorter breaks - five or ten minutes for a snack break, toilet break and to check any phone messages. A good method to try for this is the Pomodoro Method!
  
• Build on your productivity, not your failures.
• If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once. Start things slow and in steps.
• Set yourself smaller deadlines for your goals like monthly and weekly deadlines - e.g. if you are doing a project, due 27th June, set personal deadlines, like have the introduction written by the 8th, have your literature review written by the 15th, have project complete by the 25th. 
• Break down the things that you must do into smaller, concrete activities and put those smaller activities in that to-do list; allocate specific time periods to do each smaller activities and put it the to-do list as well; set an alarm reminder for each smaller activities. Say you have to study for English on Tuesday, because for whatever reasons you just decided to dedicate your time this Tuesday to study English. However, I’d suggest that you break down that specific activity (or “daily goal”) before putting it in your to-do list. So, instead of just putting “study for Physics”, try putting “read and highlight Chapter 9″, because putting very general/broad activity like “study English” can actually make you too confused on where and how to start doing it, and make you very prone to distractions in the process. 
• Know your limits. Self-discipline isn’t doing as much as you can until you break - it’s about having control, knowing what you can realistically manage and getting that done.
• Give yourself rewards! I love to have something to look forward to as I get work done! This means mixing motivation and self-discipline. I tell myself after this lecture I can have an animal crossing break or check some messages etc. 
• Track your progress – don’t forget to put a checklist on your to-do list after accomplishing a task. It would relieve your stress a bit and motivate you to continue doing the remaining activities on your to-do list. 
  
• Remove distractions from your study space! Personally, if my phone is out and I notice a notification…I’m gonna check it. It’s human nature! So to combat this, I use apps like Forest that force me to stay within the app while I study. If I know I might get hungry during a study session I’ll keep a little snack by my desk so I don’t have to get up and somehow find something else to distract me.
• Just do it isn’t that easy. I find to get myself in a ‘work boss’ mood I need to feel good about myself so I put on a nice outfit and maybe some eyeliner and hype myself up so I know I can do my tasks and get stuff done! It feels so much better than lazing in my pyjamas trying to study.
• Be patient. It’s going to be a rough journey, it’s going to be hard but you’ve got this! Take it one step at a time. Start off by completing one task a day, then move to two, then three, and the next thing you know, you’ll have a regular routine where you will constantly be ticking off your to-do list everyday! But remember to be kind to yourself, know when your body is not in the right state of health to study and don’t force it. Only force yourself to a limit, you’ll know when to stop and that’s okay. Just try again when you feel better! Your health is much more important!
  

Everything is possible. ❣

21-01-20

Hello studybloggers! A lot of you are sliding through my inbox asking me questions related to my NMAT experiences and the like, so this post will be my answer :)

My NMAT journey was stressful and fun at the same time. I can say i give my best answering every questions but the time given to us is very limited so there are some items i haven’t really read and just answered right away (sad but true + it happened to most of us). I confidently answered part 1’s Verbal & Perceptual Acuity test, as well as the Biology & Social Science of part 2 exam. I’m the very first person to say that i’m not good at math and logic, that’s why i had a hard time answering Quantitative, Inductive Reasoning, Physics and Chemistry. Most of our mentors said that many examinees find those topics mentioned above hard to answer as well, meaning, having more knowledge on those topics will give you a greater percent of attaining higher score. So for my NMAT score, i didn’t reached my target score but i’m completely fine with it. Not that i’m not sad bec. i actually am, but because i know i gave my best. :)

Right now i’m planning on retaking the NMAT exam on October this year. If some of you are confused why i didn’t take the March-exam, it’s bec. i decided to enter medschool next year and have a year-off now. I wanted to experience things i know i might not be getting once i entered medschool. Which means, i wanted to experience having a work, to travel, go out, do my hobbies guilt-free, discover new things both in myself and the outside world. This decision is the boldest i have ever made & i’m anxious and proud of myself for taking this chance. :) Medschool will always be there but the experiences i can get right now will not stay— and who knows? Maybe these experiences will help me to become a better doctor i could be someday! :)

I’ll still be posting contents, school related ofcourse & try to update you all every now & then. So this is studyingain saying thank you for all the studybloggers who had stay tuned on my blog! We will be whatever we wanted to be someday! Just carry on and give it your all! ♡

- Ain ☻