Hello, it's been ages since I've written in this book and you'd be surprised by the number of times that I was thinking about writing but didn't because I didn't think that I had any advice to give. Today I just have this motivation flowing through my veins and I realized that you can always learn something from someone. I've literally written 2 poems today and now I'm updating in this book so I'm proud of myself.
Today I will be discussing how to balance everything in school from homework to sleeping and many other aspects. There are many elements of school that can make it difficult to find a way to manage everything. I find it crazy how teachers expect us to balance extracurricular activities homework and chores at home and still manage to get eight hours of sleep. It took me a while to figure out how to balance everything and get into the rhythm of everything.
The first thing that I'll be talking about is how to study. Many times people spend so much time studying but they aren't absorbing information. Without further ado, I will introduce you to Cornell notes which is a form of note taking that helps you memorize the important things and college students use this technique as well. Personally, I was introduced to this note taking in sixth grade in an avid class which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination and it's specifically supposed to help you develop useful traits and skills like communication skills that will help you be successful in college.
With Cornell notes, you write down only the important information and not the whole sentence. For example, "John is young and only five years old and he enjoys to throw brown pebbles," then you would write "John is five years old and enjoys throwing pebbles." You wouldn't need to write that he's young because the sentence already states that he's five and the color of the pebbles is not important. Another tip for studying is, instead of studying for hours, study for a few minutes and take a break, basically study frequently but not for hours. I also find that I absorb information when I say my Cornell notes out loud.
~Work smart, not hard
Below is a template of the Cornell notes format
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My next tip is how to manage all of your work and how to not procrastinate. As wonderful as it would be to just wake up one day and not feel the need to procrastinate, it's not going to happen but there are ways to get over it! This might sound crazy but you just have to force yourself to do your work because you're never going to feel like doing work if you don't push yourself. I actually had to learn this the hard way at the end of last marking period when I had loads of work to do because I procrastinated doing the work that I didn't finish in class.
If you're a newcomer to middle school then be aware that having work to do at home is normal and you will have certain classes that require more work and will cause you to work at home. It was frustrating and I felt overwhelmed and I wasn't doing my best work because I had a short frame of time and a lot of work. This is the last marking period but so far I'm doing better with managing procrastination. It's a bad habit of mine that I'm trying to break out of. If I can get out of procrastinating then you can too.
~Procrasination is like a credit card, it's a lot of fun until you get the bill- Christopher Parker
Next is sleeping habits, I don't have the best sleeping habits but I found out of tips and tricks along the way of how to get enough sleep to function during school. You know what they say, business in the front and party in the back! It's more like pretend to not be sleep deprived and acknowledge it when you get home.
It's no secret that us teens are on our phones and technology for a majority of the time, that's why my first tip is to turn your phone brightness down. The reason why you should is that by looking at a bright screen before you go to bed your eyes get tricked into thinking that you aren't about to go to sleep. Let's be honest here, most of us, including me, aren't going to ditch our phones before bed so compromising by using a dimmer light can lead to having an easier time falling asleep.
Another tip is to listen to any patterns like raindrops on your window or a fan to fall asleep. I always find myself doing that, I have no idea how it works but I think it's because your brain gets so tired that you fall asleep.
One of my favorite ways to fall asleep is by watching ASMR videos. ASMR stands for Autonomous sensory meridian response and it basically means the characteristics of your body becoming relaxed like a tingling sensation on your skin. I've been watching ASMR for about three years and my favorite ones to watch are the scalp massage videos. Some of my favorite ASMR YouTubers to watch is Asmr Darling and Fairy Char ASMR and WhispersRed ASMR and Jojo's ASMR. I watch ASMR videos the most around the end of the year testing when I just simply can't sleep no matter how tired I actually am or aren't.
Okay, so I'm not the most social person in the world and I'm very awkward but I think your social life categorizes in more than just physically interacting. You could have trouble balancing your social life on wattpad. My tips for how to balance your social life is to realize that there will come times where you will get to hang out with your friends or virtually chat with them later. You have to have your priorities set and know that you came to school to learn. While you may want to socialize just remember that you don't want to socialize and then have loads of work to do.
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I hope that my tips helped make your life easier and if you have any topics that you would like me to write about then you can pm me or write it in the comments. Also if you have any questions about what I've written or you want more tips specialized for you then feel free to ask me. If you want me to do a part 2 of this, than you can comment below. Thanks for reading, I hope to see you virtually soon! The school year is almost over, we can all make it through it!
