hello and welcome back to the bliss bean it is august which means it's
back to school season but i don't have to go back to school so sucks for you i'm just kidding i'm
so sorry i do want to help you prepare for the new school year in any way that i can so
i'm doing this two-part back-to-school series i don't know if you can call it a series when
it's just two parts today we are going to talk about all things back to school
time management especially for those of you who are going to be doing online classes from home
but this also applies to just anyone who's going to be doing any kind of work from home
but also to people who are going to be going to an actual physical school building because
you still got to manage your time so hopefully this advice will help you with that so we are
going to talk about how to stay focused how to set up your study space how to not get burned out and
how to maintain your mental health so let's do this so the first thing i want to emphasize is
that it's important to get organized and prepared for the school year in advance because it's a lot
easier to do that before you're in the midst of all the school stress rather than to wait until
you're completely overwhelmed and stressed out and now you have to dig yourself out of the hole
that you created by not having proper systems and planning in place so i know you probably just want
to savor that last bit of summer break right now but think about your future self obviously you
can't avoid a hundred percent of stress but if you put in that work now it's gonna save you so
much time and so much stress in the future so by watching this video you are already well on your
way to doing that good job this video is sponsored by skillshare so i also wanted to direct you to
some helpful resources on there that can help you prepare for the new school year as well so pretty
much if you just go to the library of classes and you look at the productivity category you'll find
lots of very applicable information for students but because i'm so nice and so thoughtful i also
put together a list for you so first up all these classes the one on how to study for exams is
more than four hours long i mean it is jam-packed with information i think one of the things school
often kind of fails to teach us is how to actually study and so you kind of have to learn there for
yourself or you can let ollie teach you he also happens to be a youtuber podcaster and a doctor
so obviously he's doing something right in terms of time management so you can also check out his
productivity master class thomas frank who's the creator of the blog and youtube channel
college info geek which he started to share his experiments in trying to become a more effective
student also has a class on how to create a productivity system and a class on productivity
habits if you're struggling to motivate yourself to do your homework there's this class if you want
to learn about a specific tool that you might find handy for school there's classes on different apps
and systems like evernote things three bullet journaling notion etc i did a video a few weeks
back on essentialism so that can be really helpful in helping you prioritize your life as a student
because as you probably know it can get very overwhelming and you can have a lot of plates
spinning at once so that class can help you figure out which plates are the most important plates
so i linked all those classes in the description for your convenience you probably already know
that skillshare is a really great place to learn about business and freelancing and illustration
and photography and yada yada but learning is also a skill so skillshare is a great place to learn
how to learn basically and just get those study and organizational habits
in shape the first 1 000 of my subscribers to click the link in the description will
get two free months of a premium membership so that you can get ready for the school year
okay so now let's talk about distractions namely internet distractions dun dun dun
especially if you'll be doing online classes you'll be faced with a lot of temptations because
unfortunately the tool that you use to access all of your homework and school work is also the same
tool that can bring you to netflix and social media however you don't have to exercise that
much willpower to avoid these temptations if you just set up rules and restrictions for yourself
that make it hard to access those temptations so what i'm talking about here is downloading an
internet blocker i really like using this one called freedom i've talked about it in
a previous video but basically when it's running you can have it set up so that it only allows you
to access websites that aren't related to school so obviously you're going to want to block social
media apps that's a given but also try to avoid google and email and other things like that which
definitely can be used for work but very often they also end up becoming distractions so you
have to be really careful about how you use them from personal experience i can say that
working with an internet blocker can definitely be a learning curve at first i have locked myself out
of communication tools that i needed to contact someone about a meeting i've learned now so
it's fine but i do have two tips for you to help you still get your work done even when using an
internet blogger so first of all let's say when you do math homework you often have questions
that you need to google so instead of going to google where you can very easily be distracted
find a couple of specific websites that you can go to for those answers so for example for math
you might do something like khan academy or purple math it is much more difficult to get distracted
on khan academy than it is on google so for example when i study korean if i had a question
about how a vocab word was used or something i used to go to google and look that up but then
once i got the internet blocker i realized that most of the best answers were on highnative.com
so i just added that to my permitted sites list and now if i have a question i go directly there
this wooden floor is very tough on the joints and then number two for email and messaging and
all those distracting things try working with the pomodoro technique or any interval of time
that you want to use and set your internet blocker only for that 25 minute chunk of work time so if
you're working and you do need to check an email about something chances are that you don't need
it that very very second there's some way that you could continue to make progress on whatever
it is you're working on without that little bit of information that you need to retrieve like you can
keep working on writing your essay draft without going to find the email from your professor
to find out what the word count limit for the essay is you know so just make a note of whatever
it is that you need to check up on and then once your timer rings your internet blocker will also
end at that same time and then you can go check whatever it is that you so desperately needed to
know so not only will this keep you from getting distracted by all the other stuff in your inbox
but it'll also make you more efficient because you'll end up with a little list of things that
you need to check up on and you can get that done all at once another helpful tool by the
same people who make freedom is called pause now this one doesn't completely block your access
to distracting websites it just makes you wait a couple of seconds i think it's five seconds before
you're allowed to access them i know it doesn't sound like much but many a time i have clicked on
a link to an instagram account or a youtube video or some random article and then that green screen
pops up and just in that five seconds i realize you know what i don't really need to see that i
can just close that tab and move on with my life just the fact that it forces you to pause your
automatic web surfing and ever so briefly consider what you're doing is actually so so powerful and
it's really not going to impede your productivity because waiting five seconds to access a website
in the grand scope of the day is literally nothing it'll most likely be outweighed by the time that
you save every single time that you decide you don't actually need to visit that website
next up i want to talk about time blocking your day basically blocking out chunks of time for
specific tasks and projects that's the definition so this is really really helpful for structuring
your time outside of class especially if you're in high school if you're going to a physical school
building then much of your day from like eight to three is pretty much structured out for you
but time blocking is how you can structure your evening time to make the most of that
if you're doing online classes or you're in college where time isn't as structured this
is going to be even more important so each morning or at the start of each week from your to-do list
from your list of assignments estimate how long each of those things will take and then schedule
out time for that by setting yourself little time limits it helps you stay on track so maybe you get
stuck on a math problem you won't have time to ruminate on it and sing too much time into it
because you are working on a schedule so you're just going to move on come back to it later the
answer will probably come quicker to you once you can take a look at it with a fresh pair of eyes
you can also implement this if you have like study halls during the day so instead of being like
i'm gonna finish as much homework as i can during study hall which is a really big goal to have you
can set yourself specific targets instead so this is especially nice for classes where you can kind
of predict how long assignments will take you like if you have nightly reading to do or a weekly set
of math problems you can make a routine out of that so it more or less happens automatically
all right so in the last section i very briefly mentioned something called a shitty first draft
and i just want to briefly elaborate on that eloquent term so shitty first draft is just
the idea that when you start something your first draft is going to be really really bad probably
and that's okay because you can only get to an awesome final result if you have something to work
with so if you spend an hour writing a really bad repetitive essay with tons of cliches and
boring word choice and you just skip over entire sections of the essay because you don't know what
to write for them that's still way better than if you just stared at a blank computer screen
for an hour because you weren't sure how to write the perfect first sentence with a bad
essay at least you have a structure in place you have your basic ideas down on the page
now you just have to go through and fix it and pretty it up it's a lot better than starting with
nothing so this is really relevant when it comes to writing essays planning presentations or any
sort of creative work that you might do outside of school even start with a shitty first draft
now let's talk about creating your study space so a little spoiler about my room makeover one
of the things that i'm getting for my room is this adjustable motorized sitting standing desk
that i'm so excited about i wasn't gonna tell you about it but i am in love with it and when you're
in love you just have to let the world know so that's something that i know will be really really
helpful to me and my study space my workspace but you don't need to spend money on a motorized
adjustable desk you can work at a kitchen counter you can use a box like i did for a really long
time and there are also lots of other low-cost or free ways to optimize your study space so for one
keep it minimal i would say generally try not to have too much visual clutter on your desk
it can definitely get distracting i do like having some decorations on the wall it keeps me inspired
in a way but i find that the clearer my actual desktop is the clearer my mind is when i'm working
keep it organized so make sure that everything has its own place like having a pencil cup a tray
of papers that you need to do something about a place for your textbooks your notebooks etc
if possible try to find a place with minimal distractions so away from any
noise away from electronics if you have a busy view outside your window away from your window
having a dedicated place set aside for studying is also really helpful so for example when i'm
writing or planning videos lately i've been going down to the basement to work on that to change up
my environment but because it's always the same environment for the same type of work
it's kind of become programmed in my brain that anytime i'm in the basement is when i
have to be creative and focused and productive so if you sleep watch tv and do homework all
in the same place then all those activities will kind of start to blend together and you
won't really be as effective at studying or as effective at relaxing or sleeping
all right let's talk about multitasking multitasking not good no okay so just because
you are doing school from home and you might now have the opportunity to do homework while
you're watching tv doesn't necessarily mean that you should do that if you're doing homework you
should only be doing homework not only because if you're distracted it'll take you longer to
finish your homework but also because if you're trying to relax and do homework at the same time
that's just gonna be low quality relaxation and we don't want that either so power through that
homework get it done quick and then you can enjoy that pure distraction-free relaxation
and just bask in the accomplishment of having finished your work
so if you're doing online school try to stick to some of the same routines that you had when you
were going to school in real life now if you end up going to bed late and now you have an
opportunity to sleep in because you don't have a morning class that you need to make it to
i'm not gonna tell you to deprive yourself of sleep just to try and stick to your normal school
schedule and you may also find that without the structure of school you're able to figure
out a better schedule for yourself like maybe you're a night owl and you just function better
if you go to bed later and can wake up later but sticking to some sort of a routine as much
as possible can definitely keep you productive and mentally healthy so whatever wake up time
bedtime work time meal time etc works for you figure that out and just try to keep it
consistent also try to change out of your pajamas when you start working i completely get it because
i'm a huge stickler for comfort and pajamas are very comfortable so personally when i'm working
at home i do not dress up or anything i don't wear jeans i pretty much don't wear anything
that doesn't have a stretchy waistband but i do change into a different outfit after waking
up i just don't want to be working in the same clothes that i was sleeping in this concept of
trying to stick with your routines also applies to how you spend your free time so for example try to
limit the amount of work that you're doing on the weekend so that your weekends still somewhat feel
like the weekends so that you have some relaxation to look forward to and to motivate you rather than
all the days just kind of blurring together until you don't know what year it is anymore
other little things in your day like if you really enjoyed walking from class to class and
getting some fresh air try to take little walks during the day just around your neighborhood if
you were used to going to the gym after class try to incorporate some daily exercise into your day
take breaks so you can use the pomodoro technique which is 25 minutes of work time five minutes of
break time or literally any other length of time any structure that works for you it doesn't really
matter just be sure that you're taking consistent breaks especially when you're doing homework
which can be very difficult for the brain giving yourself those little periods of rest will make
it a lot easier to think and even though you will be investing time into taking those breaks you'll
probably get your homework done faster overall as a result so the investment pays dividends
and finally check in regularly so it can be easy to fall behind on reminders and deadlines when
you're not going into a physical classroom every single day so just try to check in regularly with
your online classes regularly such a hard work to say i've been recording this so many times
so maybe you can make it a habit if you check your emails in the morning maybe you can also check
your assignments along with that or maybe you can set a reminder on your phone to remind you to
check in on google classroom or something so those are all my time management tips for the new school
year i'll be back with a new unrelated video next week and then in two weeks i'll have part two of
this back to school series i also wanted to let you know that i am having a little sale on my 21
days to productive flow email course if you want to start the school year off right by picking up
some productive habits this offer ends on monday so if you are interested be sure to get it before
then you don't have to start it as soon as you buy it once you buy it you can choose when you
get the first email and then you'll always have access to it if you ever want to refer back to it
remember to also check out those skillshare classes that i linked in the description
try those two free months of skillshare premium thank you so much for watching this video please
give it a like if it helped you and subscribe to my channel and i will see you next week bye