Scheduling Your Way to Success

With November coming to an end, finals are rapidly approaching and it’s time for us to start preparing!   I’m going to be honest with you, the first thing I did after seeing the exam schedule for this semester was panic – I have 3 exams within 2 days. If I want to do my best on all my exams, cramming isn’t an option. Therefore, it’s time to start scheduling my time wisely.  
A picture of my arm with a blue watch
Time is ticking
A picture of 4 stacked textbooks next to a miniature Eiffel Tower model

Persevering In The Face Of Academic Setbacks

  Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way you planned.   For example, at the beginning of this school year, I promised myself that I would actively keep up with all the readings in all my courses. With midterm season come and gone, I realized that I fell behind in 3 of my courses while studying for midterms. I’m currently trying my best to mitigate the setback by doing my readings for at least 3 hours a day until I’m caught up with all my courses. Nevertheless, this setback was not planned!  
A picture of 4 stacked textbooks next to a miniature Eiffel Tower model
It feels like I have a tower of readings to complete before I catch up!
 

How To Complete A Large Task

Imagine you are a waiter/waitress. It’s currently rush hour at the restaurant you work at, and you have 24 plates of food to deliver to the customers in the eating area. Based on past experience at your job, you know that you can handle carrying 3 plates at a time. How would you deliver the plates to customers?

A) Take only 1 trip from the kitchen to the eating area – carrying 24 plates at a time. B) Take 2 trips from the kitchen to the eating area – carrying 12 plates at a time. C) Take 8 trips from the kitchen to the eating area – carrying 3 plates at a time.

Halloween, Harry Potter, and Me

Right off the bat, let me just say that I've never been a huge fan of Halloween. I'm not particularly fond of dressing up or anything of the spooky and scary variety, but I will tell you: I LOVE candy and all things magical/fantastical. That's why, for the past couple years, including this year I've been professing my love for Harry Potter on Halloween. I've been a fan of the Harry Potter series for a very long time and it doesn't hurt that U of T is basically an architectural twin of the magical universe. For Halloween, I recommend watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because it is one of the most classic, spooky films in the series (before the darker and scarier themes are set in the later films). In celebration of Halloween and all things spooky (including those remaining midterms), here's the rundown on the two most Hogwarts-like buildings on campus. Whether you choose to visit for studying or dreaming about Hogwarts is your choice, but personally, I usually choose the latter. Also, because I mentioned that I love candy (love it, I really do), these buildings are rated on a scale of being most like Hogwarts to least like Hogwarts:
Picture of chocolate frog, wizard trading card, and box
(Source: shop.wbstudiotour.co.uk)
1 Chocolate Frog=not like Hogwarts at all and just reminds you of doing school work (bleh) 5 Chocolate Frogs=just like being at Hogwarts so much so that you've wondered where your wand has gone (yay)        

In Which Sargam Seeks Help!

For Self-Care week, I want to share an experience that literally changed the course of my entire university career and perhaps, changed how I will live my life from now on. Okay, yeah, I’m overly dramatic usually but I’m not exaggerating here, promise. Brace yourselves.
a box of assorted cookies
PS. A lot of my self-care tips include food, in one way or another.

A Friendly Reminder To Be Kind To Yourself

Hey guys, this week is Self-Care Week at UofT. By definition, self-care involves the things you do to take care of your physical and mental health. This week is part of the University’s HealthyU Month, which is an entire month dedicated towards celebrating mental and physical health. Although it may not be obvious at first, self-care is directly linked to academic success because reaching your goals becomes easier when you are healthy, physically and mentally. In the spirit of self-care week, here are some common self-care practices that can boost your academic potential.

My Dates with Myself

I'm think I am an introvert, I probably always have been. I try not to shy away from it anymore because I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. Also, I think a lot of people misunderstand what introversion means. It can mean "a shy person" but I like to think that the psychological definition of introversion is much more relevant: 

"a person characterized by concern primarily with his or her own thoughts and feelings"

This makes a lot more sense to me; I'm not a quite person because I have nothing to say or I'm scared to say it but more so because I'm taking everyone's inputs in and assessing my own thoughts first. I'm the kind of person who doesn't need to have other people around in order to feel happy, energized or active. I'm perfectly content spending a weekend with myself, just going about daily life and reading a book or two (or 10). I like listening to my music and staring into space (or simply staring into space). 

View of Huron Street from Sid Smith Lounge
Chilling in the Sid Smith Lounge and "people-watching" (a fancy term for staring into space)

How To Stay Focused This Midterm Season

A maple leaf has turned mostly orange in colour and is on the pavement It’s the middle of October and you know what that means? Pumpkin spiced lattes, a chilly breeze, Halloween décor, and midterms. Around this time of year, students often find their schedules filled with due dates, exams, quizzes, labs, papers, and assignments. During times like these, time is of the essence. On that note, here is a life-hack to help save time: one of the most effective ways to maximize productivity is to minimize distractions. From personal experience, an hour of distraction-free studying is generally equivalent to 5-6 hours of distracted studying. Therefore, by staying focused, you can actually save a lot of time. So, how can you stay focused when studying?

(Unfortunate) Member of the Procrastination Nation

Hi, my name's Liana and...I'm a member of the Procrastination Nation. It's a magical nation where I go to avoid all of life's responsibilities and PROCRASTINATE. I discovered the Procrastination Nation fatefully in the 9th grade when I said to a friend, "There's a whole group of us that procrastinate. It's like we're in our own world," and thus, the Procrastination Nation was born.
Picture of Liana covering her face with her hand
Me when I see that I have too many things to do...
In all seriousness, it was just a silly term that I used to describe moments when I was procrastinating school work and was off to the "Procrastination Nation", meaning that I would do anything to avoid actually working. But the funny thing is...I'm a "planned" procrastinator. I know what you're thinking, "Liana, please stop throwing all these random, weird terms you've come up with at me." Okay, okay, I promise I'm done. But really, I'm a planned procrastinator which means I actually PLAN when and how I'm going to procrastinate, instead of doing what I actually need to do.