30 Days of Cornell Notes

Doing well in school is important, obviously. But how to do well in school is sometimes a little bit harder. I hear over and over again that notes are very important and that copying down the entire presentation is setting yourself up for failure, so for 30 days I tried taking Cornell notes to see if I could find a better way to take notes.

Cornell notes is a method of note taking developed by Walter Pauk. You basically divide your paper into 3 chunks. The biggest “chunk’ is on the right side where you write your main notes. Then on the left side you write questions and key points from the notes after class and in the bottom chunk you summarize the whole page of notes and what you learned in 2-3 sentences.

For me, Cornell notes didnt really seem to work. I found that I just had to much information, and taking out key points and summarizing was really difficult. I did think going back and looking at my notes helped me a little bit but I was surprised that this wasn’t as effective for me, since I have only heard good things but I’m glad I tired it.

I’m not sure what notes I will try next, let me know what you did as a student! Thanks for reading!

 

30 Days of “Trying” to be Healthy

Whenever I try to be “healthy” I end up doing quite the opposite of it. My 30 day challenge for this month was being more healthy, but looking back this was way to broad and not specific enough. My goal was to take my dog for a walk every day, but alas I probably only did so half of the month. Part of this was due to sickness, but overall I don’t feel that motivated to walk. Whenever I pay for a membership to exercise somewhere, I always go and I find that I sleep better and overall feel better. The problem is that I really can’t afford to pay $150 a month for workout classes, no matter how good they are. I’m kinda at this fork in the road, spend a lot of money and know I will actually work out or get my lazy butt out and walk or run at no cost.

I Gave Snapchat Up For 30 Days And Survived

Just two months ago I realized how much time I was spending every day on snapchat. Before school, during lunch, after school, during my homework, and just about every time I was on my phone. After spending about half of my Thanksgiving break on my phone, I decided that I needed to detox my brain from Snapchat for a while. What I expected to be extremely difficult and something that I was going to download back after 30 days of excruciating pain turned into a small slap in the face and a reality check.

My New Year Resolutions

It’s 2017! I’m ready for everything coming my way this year and can’t wait to see what happens. I have resolved to change up a few things this year, and I fully plan to stick to my resolutions.

First, every month I’m going to do a 30 day challenge. I did two last year and I was really glad that I did so I thought why not continue it on this year?! For January, I have decided to be active and make more healthy decisions for 30 days. I thought this would be a great way to start out a New Year and I’m not that active so why not?

Second, I’m going to be better to myself. I always stress out over the smallest trivial matters, and this year I just want to learn to let it go. In addition to my monthly challenge this month, I’m going to make better food choice and walk my dog a few times every week just to start making myself more active. I’m also going to start praying and journaling, a habit that takes time to form but once you have it you feel a whole lot better and relaxed. I think making small changes to my everyday life will help me deal with stress better and allow me to enjoy every day as it comes.

I hope everyone has a great 2017!

Mags

 

 

I Attempted To Go Cold Turkey on Procrastination and Failed Miserably

So 30 days ago I decided to stop procrastinating. HAHA. I mean 30 days ago I attempted to stop. The last 30 days where more a realization of how much I procrastinated and a big slap in the face because I am wasting so much time. I always get everything on my list done, but in between each task I somehow choose a new major and read through every new blog article and watch 50 videos. I read up a little (in between studying for my midterm exams of course) and it turns out that procrastination is actually an addiction. So when I say I tried to go cold turkey, I really was. I know some people can go cold turkey, but that doesn’t seem to be up my ally as I struggled a lot this month with staying on track. I have  a few ideas that I’m going to try out and see if it helps me.

First, I’m going to have a plan for what I’m going to do the day before. Instead of waking up and making my list for the day, I’m going to have my list done the night before so that I have less time to get distracted and get straight to work.

Second, I’m going to give my self small “rewards” or motivations. If I get 3 assignments done, I can take a 5 minute break with my dog or I can do my eyeshadow. If I stay on track this month with my project, I can go to Sephora and get the powder I’ve been really wanting to try.

Third, I’m going to make sure that I don’t get unmotivated because I know I’m going to mess up a long the way. Just because I spend an hour watching videos does not mean that the whole day has been wasted. I am going to quit procrastinating, and while it might take a while to get there, I’m not backing down.

I realized I needed to make an action plan and actually begin to take steps to stop procrastinating, especially before college. Part of my New Year’s resolution is to stop wasting my time, and after realizing just how much time I waste I think this is one resolution I will take strides to keep.

Mags