The Study Game 👾

Lately, I've been listening to Youtuber Aileen Xu aka "Lavendaire" and I've been learning about this idea that time management isn't the same as attention management. In contrast, it describes how properly we spend our time. The things we place our attention can dictates how we will manage our time. A large majority of people own smart phones. An interesting feature now added to iOS devices is called "Screen Time" which lets you see how long you've been staring at your phone screen and what activities you've been engaging on in your apps such as productivity, social media, etc. When you look at these number it can easily strike a lot of fear because you wouldn't believe how much hours you actually could spend on your phone. Besides time, these hours describes our level of attention. Similar to easily switching between apps our attention level can receive a huge spike based on the information given but if we are given too much information th...

If you own a Mac, Windows, or just about any computer, you would probably agree that one thing that steals a lot of our time and atenttion are notifications. It can be notifications for emails, text messages, or system updates. The problem is that majority of the time these don't really need an immediate response. A method I learned from the book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" was the Eisenhower method. The way it worked is it allowed you to categorize your todo list based on your main priorities for the day through deciding whether you view the task as URGENT or IMPORTANT. It's especially important to get this straightened out the night before your day begins. The following day is when things get hard we get bombarded with emails, text messages, and all kinds of notifications that take time away from our work. It decreases your productivity, attention span, and will power. We only have a short amount of hours in a day and as the saying goes, "Time ...

Everyone has different methods for studying and different personalities so it's important to find the space that suits you the most and your interests. For me, my favorite study environment has been the library. I enjoy finding a nice secluded spot and spending hours working through school work and occasionally watching entertaining videos. I changed my style this year to a more green and outdoors view. I work in a more open area with a window view. I find sunlight, greens, and people nearby working helps to motivate me to keep working and be creative. A quality of my brain I never utilized before was creativity so thats the reason why I decided to make this change of scenery. Other study environments can include coffee shops, dorms/bedrooms, lounges, and even your own school campus. Optimize A great way to learn which space suits you the most is to try each one and analyze your mindset and workflow. An experience I had with this was trying to work/study outdoors either on...

There's an old saying, "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me." The sad truth to this statement is that names can actually hurt people and the way we perceive it can make the biggest difference in our lives. The worst type of name/title a person can be given is something negative that can bring down a person's pride which slowly reduces their confidence and self-esteem. Our brain is wired to experience joy and satisfaction from complements but when we are given mean or negative words; the mind in a sense "shudders," it shudders to the fear of being judged or not liked. It makes us feel insecure with our personality, outward appearance, and mindset. It can be detrimental to people who take words very seriously because it can have the potential to spark heated arguments of denial that no one wins in the end. In the book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" I read about the importance of creating Win/Win situations....

With the new school year approaching, I decided that its time to reframe my systems to maximize productivity and reduce my levels of stress. In this article, I will outline 5 steps that I have taken to reduce my stress levels to help you manage your daily workflow and studies. 1.) Create: I have found joy in just the idea of setting time out for myself to explore what makes me feel more fulfilled and I have noticed the idea of creating content to be a huge asset to this feeling. It's one thing to constantly consume media and it's another to put content out there that could possibly benefit someone. Playing an instrument can also reduce stress because you are honing a skill and creating sound. It may not sound good at first but the more you practice creating your music the happier and less stressed you will feel. 2.) Making Time for Priorities  One of the best feelings I have found in terms of managing a todo list is to tackle your biggest challenge in the beginning o...

Hey everyone, so this summer I wanted to channel a lot more of my right brain (the creative side). As a graduate student, I noticed I used my left brain for majority of the year including my tasks to mechanically memorize large volumes of information. I later realized that this was a bad idea because it limited the types of innovative solutions I could have came up with if I had just trusted my right brain too. I watched a couple youtube videos to search for ways to be creative that I didn't need to buy a lot of art supplies. It would be as simple as pick up and play, which is kind of how I enjoy my video games. I wanted my creative process to be simple though so that I wouldn't experience too much friction when I jumped into the process. I drew inspiration first by looking at my old youtube accounts where I expressed myself. I used to create Lego videos and act out voices. I also used to dance, kind of, still improving on this, but these are all still creative pursuits. I no...

Finally decided to read my second book: Atomic Habits. After finishing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” I realized I really love reading and today I embark on my own personal reading journey because I chose to read this book on my own decision based on Thomas Frank. Thomas has not let me down so far with just about any of his recommendations so far from Habitica to the Eisenhower method and listening to his podcasts all summer. I knew this book recommendation would be good! The book immediately caught my attention from the start. It starts off with James traumatic story of being hit by a baseball bat and his family freaking out. His slow recovery and even returning to baseball. Although he had a rough start, James turned this setback into his greatest achievement as he was determined to get back into playing baseball. He created his own website then created articles that people liked. He used the 1% rule which involved finding something you can improve by at least 1% ea...

After a long day of work or school, most people of course would either check their phones, watch TV to check out that new Netflix episode, or check whats trending on the news. It seems as though the problems of the world just fade away when we take part in these simple mindless activities. You would be surprised to know though that deep inside people can still struggle and are just using these as coping mechanisms for very personal issues, specifically anxiety problems. It's a feeling thats eats people up on the inside during important situations like when you were giving an impromptu speech, getting an interview, or doing something daring such as skydiving. For me personally, I have discovered an amazing form of therapy for controlling my anxiety and that has been through dance. Before I started dancing though, I'll be honest I danced as a hobby and was honestly frightened to the thought of being able to perform in public because performing on stage in front of your peers ...

A lot of people say that the words we keep telling ourselves everyday can shape who we are. Dreams especially can be the most mysterious. They can communicate our deepest wants and desires but what about the nightmares, I mean who wants those? You would be surprised to know that those blanket wetting dreams can also be interpreted to describe a current state. "Lately, I've been having weird dreams" sound familiar. The reality is that dreams are truly weird, they bend our reality until eventually we realize that some things are too good to be true. Sometimes a dream can feel so fulfilling that it makes you wish it were real. In other words, you envy your dream. A person who is dissatisfied with their life in the real world needs to wake up and realize that if you don't take action in real life you can never find out if your dream is even achievable. A dream that defines you can either make you or break you. In reality, conquering the toughest goal, winning a battle...