How to Recover from Study Burnout

It happens; sometimes you can work too hard without realising it, other times it hits right before exam season. Burnout can happen to anyone and it’s important to address it as soon as possible so that you can get back on track. Today we’re discussing the top three things you can do to recover from study burnout and if you’re interested in study-break-related tips to help prevent it, you can click here. Otherwise, without any further ado, here are today’s tips!

The first anti-burnout strategy you can undertake is to set time for yourself to do what you enjoy. You could journal, go for a run, do some yoga, watch a TV show or read a book. All of these things can be really beneficial to your mental health and will assist you in rediscovering your passions. I think this step is really important as sometimes, studying makes it feel like there’s nothing more to life than school. Doing something you truly enjoy can definitely improve your mindset and mood – it’s a crucial part of my recovery strategy.

Next, do something to look after yourself (mentally, physically, emotionally and/or socially). Spending time to reset your daily routine and make yourself feel good can prepare you for the next chapter of your life. You can go to a spa session, cook one of your favourite meals or catch up with your friends. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy but it can make you feel physically better, subsequently improving your mental and emotional wellbeing.

Lastly, make sure you’re sleeping well. Physical fatigue is a huge contributor to study burnout and feeling tired can make it difficult to retain new information at school. Go to sleep at a decent time for an entire week and set an earlier alarm in the morning. By improving your sleep schedule, you can get into healthy habits for later in life as well as feeling super refreshed.

That’s it for my top three burnout-curing tips, I really hope you found them useful. I’m not trying to give medical advice here so make sure you consult your GP if excessive fatigue is plaguing you and take these tips as simple suggestions. Remember, support is always close at hand!

How to Memorise Quotes

Writing an English essay for an unseen prompt can be REALLY hard. Especially if you need to remember a bunch of different quotes for all the possible prompts! Today I’m sharing three ways that you can try to remember quotes more efficiently so that you can blitz your English exam or assessment…

1. Act (or draw) it out!
   Linking movement to words can be a great method for memorisation, and images can be really helpful too. Moving around while reading aloud your quotes is particularly helpful for plays or poems as the language can be really descriptive. Similarly, you can associate a certain finger (or other body part) to each word in a quote like this; thumb: TO, index: BE, middle: OR, ring: NOT, pinky: TO, hand: BE (and so on, do you get the gist?). However, if you’re less of a kinaesthetic learner and more visual, consider drawing out quotes or even just writing them out with nice fonts and different colours.
2. Stick it on the wall.
   If you’re a visual learner, writing your quotes on sticky notes with lots of different colours and images can be a great way to memorise quotes. What’s even better is to put these up where you’ll see them. You can put them in the bathroom (for when you’re brushing your teeth) or in the kitchen (for when you’re eating breakfast). The possibilities are endless!
3. Say them aloud in different accents or voices.
   I can’t confirm if this is just a mind trick or it actually works, but this is a funny idea for learners who like listening to information.

I hope you find all my tips helpful! I found some of them on this site which has heaps of tips for school. Enjoy!

The Mind Map. A True Hero.

I love mind maps. It’s true. I think they’re an amazing tool for understanding ideas in the humanities and the sciences. They make it really clear to see how different aspects of a concept relate and I use them all the time.

Today I wanted to share some resources for improving the way you mind map. I’m sure you know what one is and how to use it so instead of me repeating everything again, I thought I could help you to increase your efficiency in making a mind map.

1. Add colour!

If you’re a visual learner (like me), coordinating colours to mean different things is an effective way of remember particular key words. You can also use colour to create categories for different words (for in English, this could mean character, plot and themes in different colours).

2. Include more than just key words.

I know that the mind map concept was pretty much created as a tool for summarising, but it can be extremely useful as a page of interrelated concepts. I don’t think it matters if you need a few more words to get your point across, the map can help you to understand how things link and sometimes it’s necessary to add detail for something to make sense.

3. Experiment with different lines (in thickness and style).

Coordinating key words with zig-zag lines and numerical information with straight lines is a cool idea that can help visual learners. I’ve never done this before but I think it would help with classifying information very specifically, helping you to remember particular details in a test.

Here’s one of my mind map pages on characters in Macbeth. I decided to put all of my mini mind maps on one page to create a resource bank for exam revision. I think English is a topic where mind maps are lesser used but still incredibly helpful. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

music + study =

Ooooft. I feel like the music or no music while studying debate is really divided. There’s people who love listening to music while studying and others who hate it and I’m definitely of the latter kind.
I read a book a while back that explained that baroque music helped memory retention so I decided to do a bit more research for you guys. I also tried studying with different kinds of music and here’s what I found:

From my research:

1. Baroque music can make you less bored.
   It increases your interest in the surrounding environment, stimulating your brain and making you less bored. For me, this is true in some ways but I don’t think that it helps with studying as I’ll generally be more distracted, trying to listen to the music.
2. Baroque music changes your physiological and mental state.
   Research shows that music can not only change your breathing and heart rate but also your mental state in terms of brain waves. The amplitude and frequency of the brain state becomes ideal for retention of memory. I guess this is true but I think the distraction for me overrides the potential increased memory…

From my experiments 🔬:

Genre 1: Pop

I am astounded by how little pop music actually affected my concentration!
Guys, this is life-changing for me! I actually had some really catchy music on and didn’t lose focus while doing maths questions! Who would have thought? I was so impressed.
The only negative was that if something was really difficult, I did kind of need to cheat and turn the music off. Nevertheless, I only think that happened once or twice so I am so shocked! I think my data would have been different if I had been writing, though, as I probably would have wrote out the words to a song!
My conclusion: be careful with this one, don’t play it while typing or writing.

Genre 2: Classical

Hmmm… This was an interesting one…
I found that I was definitely blocking out the music when I had classical tunes on whilst studying and I’m not really sure why.
I don’t think it helped with concentration or boredom while doing maths problems but overall, I think that it would have been fine when writing as I wouldn’t have been as confused as with pop songs.
My conclusion: Listen to classical music while typing if you like but it doesn’t really make a difference; you might find that you’re blocking it out like I was.

Disclaimer: Facts taken from https://paperap.com/paper-on-the-effect-of-baroque-music-on-the-performance-of-elementary-students-on-problem-solving-task/ .

The Lotus Diagram

I’ve got another super useful study resource for you all today, The Lotus Diagram. I found out about this revision technique at school in my forensics class and I think the Lotus Diagram is an amazing way to revise for subjects with a lot of content.

I used it for science, biology in this case, and I think it’s a great way to define key concepts and summarise information. Since it doesn’t always provide enough space for writing, I used sticky notes to add detail but please leave me a comment if you have another idea for including more information! But for now, make the most of the Lotus Diagram…

Straight lines aren’t your thing? Check out the Lotus Diagram’s curvier relative, the Mind Map, here.

The Morning Routine – A holiday habit helper

The winter holidays are coming up here in Australia and I definitely want to use my spare time to relax and improve. I really want to create a morning routine that helps me have a clear mind for the day but is as productive as it is inspirational. The things that I want to focus on the most during the holidays are reading and exercise as these are two things I haven’t been doing much of lately so I’ve decided to incorporate them both in my morning routine.

The routine will be split into three sections; Rise, Shine and Focus, and the activities in each are going to help me reach a specific goal.

RISE

The aim of this is to start the day off on the right foot so I’ll be completing just two simple activities:
1. get up and get dressed
2. drink a glass of water

SHINE

In this section, I’m allocating time to exercise in order to feel active and awake.
1. exercise (jog, bike ride, home workout, etc.)
2. stretch

FOCUS

I want to finish my holiday homework as soon as possible and most of it involves reading books for school! In this part of my routine, I want to do the following:
1. read two pages of my class texts
2. plan my day in my bullet journal (more info on my bujo here)

This idea of a Rise, Shine and Focus routine is completely new (I created it myself not too long ago and can’t wait to implement it!) – I have no idea if it will work or not. I hope you enjoy your holidays and try to include lots of great habits in your day!

Is a study routine worth it?

Now, first of all, I promise this isn’t clickbait! 😄 I honestly believe that weekly timetables for homework and study should not be revered as much as they are. Not that there’s anything wrong with them – in fact, they can be really useful for people who like routines – but I honestly think that (for people like me, at least) they’re a little redundant.

Let’s be real; not many people look forward to studying at all and knowing that they NEED to do a particular subject on a particular day of the week doesn’t help. For me, routines get boring very quickly and there are WAY too many variables to even allow me to consider a study routine. It’s stressful to fall behind on a schedule and so revising for the end of year exam may begin to be prioritised over finishing the homework that’s due tomorrow.

Apart from not helping with prioritisation (is that a real word?), study routines can lead to procrastination. If you know that you’ll feel stressed if you don’t complete an hour of history revision on Wednesday night but really don’t want to, you might put off both your timetabled study and your homework (or other tasks) because you don’t want to do one without finishing the other!

Lastly, I actually don’t think it’s necessary to study every single day. Taking time off from the books and participating in physical activity or other interests is probably going to help you more in the long run…

I hope you enjoyed this little discussion on study routines and feel free to share your own opinion in the comments below. I’ve been planning a post on the way I timetable studying for a while so if you’d be interested to read it, leave a like on this post!

For more info on studying smart and not hard, check out these links:
https://chamomileandcolour.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/how-to-take-study-breaks/
https://chamomileandcolour.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/study-break-ideas/

How to get ALL your questions answered…

A New Discovery…

So, I don’t want to be dramatic today this but I honestly think this study technique is amazing and could help SO MANY people learn better. If you’re a person who learns best when someone else is explaining something, This. Is. For. You.

I found this study hack on the ATARNotes website, an awesome resource for students in Australia so I wanted to give them a quick shout-out. I love their site because it not only has really interesting articles but also includes heaps of study resources for pretty much every subject!

And so, without any further ado, the life-changing study technique I have discovered is …

make a shared document with your friends for all your homework-related questions

Ok, I get it. It’s not even that revolutionary. I just think it’s the smartest thing ever, though. I guarantee you that as soon as I finish writing this I’m going to create this doc for my class and share it with everyone. It’s an amazing way to get all of your school-related questions answered in a formal context. You could even include your teachers on the document and ask them to contribute too!

You may not be fangirling over this as hard as I am right now, but I highly recommend using this technique. If you do, let me know in the comments below! I’ll be sure to keep you updated with what I’ve learnt.

Want more study tips and tricks? Everything you need is right here.

‘Til next time!

How I only use one notebook for school

Happy World Environment Day everyone! 🌏 
Today I wanted to share a post all about my note-taking system that’s great for the environment as well as your back (imagine having only one notebook in your bag!).

I’ve been using the Rocketbook Everlast as my main notebook for over a year now and I’ve come to love its tree-free pages. It has a sleek finish and is incredibly lightweight. I think its the perfect notebook for tech-savvy students and Earth-lovers alike as it is entirely erasable with water, syncs effortlessly with online locations and can be used for years. If you don’t know how it works, feel free to check out the rocketbook website ( https://getrocketbook.com.au// ) or just head to youtube (you know the drill 😉).

Another amazing thing about it is that it pairs with the Frixion Pilot Erasable Pens (which just so happen to be refillable) meaning that even your pens are good for the planet! I highly recommend this notebook and it’s worth every penny spent. I had to get used to the plastic feel of the pages and of the erasable pens but it’s a great design and is made of a material that I believe is easy to write on.
WARNING: Heavy hands beware – this notebook doesn’t work well with hard lines as they mark the pages. Be sure to write softly on this notebook to make it last longer.

I’ve separated my notebook icons into my core subjects and I use it for my notes in almost every class – it works well with my style of learning that involves lots of practise questions that I don’t look over more than twice. Nevertheless, I have a separate notebook system (which includes the rocketbook) for LOTE that you can find out more about here.

Happy Environment Day and stay green! 🌲 

FTC: This post is not sponsored and links are not affiliate. All opinions are entirely my own and this post aims to encourage the purchase of sustainable school supplies.

How to: take study breaks

Have YOU been studying for so long that you’ve got pins and needles in your legs?
Have YOU been studying for so long that you’ve got a cramp in your hand?
Have YOU been studying for so long that you’re pretty sure your family thinks you’ve fallen asleep?

Well, I’ve got the perfect remedy for you… May I present … ?

🎇 A study break!🎇

I feel like study breaks are one of the most mind-boggling paradoxes for the modern student. Do I …
a) take a break now and therefore study for less total time (but come back refreshed?)
or
b) not take a break now, feel uber-tired of studying and therefore study for less total time?

I know, I know, it’s a difficult puzzle but I’ve got the solution right here for you.

Take. That. Break.

Now, I’m not saying you should start playing COD with your intensely competitive friend online (yep, definitely NOT saying that). I’m also not saying that your break needs to be perfectly measured with a timer and slotted in at regular intervals. It just needs to be a little thing that gets you moving.

My favourite way to plan out my breaks is like this:

1. Create a to-do list with my homework/study for the night.
2. Order the list from highest priority to lowest priority and start working through it.
3. Take a break at most every 50 mins (preferably 30) but don’t put on a timer. *

*Be flexible with break times; if you’re timing yourself and trying to get to thirty minutes or so before stopping, you’re only interrupting your work. That’s not taking smart breaks, that’s pretty much just procrastinating. Instead of using a timer, just have an alarm clock or watch nearby and when you’ve completed a few tasks give it a glance to check if it’s time to get up. In this way, you’ll be refreshed enough to get to work but your to-do list will keep getting smaller and smaller.

BONUS: You can find my list of the 10 BEST study break ideas right here.