The month of March is nearly over and I am still suffering from post-concert depression. I've been distracted though, what with studying taking up most of my free time outside of school. It has been a bit of a cooldown, without any major events or milestones but I thought I'd update you on the month anyways.
I started fasting, which is a Muslim practise to abstain from eating or drinking from dusk until dawn. It means I have to wake up much earlier to eat and then, I can not consume any food or drink until a specific time in the evening. Although it can be quite weary and drains a lot of energy from your body, I actually managed to find some silver lining. By waking up earlier, I decided to not go back to sleep again and instead study until I had to start getting ready for school. This actually helped me greatly and I managed to get on top of a lot of homework which freed up more time in the afternoons. It also helps me save a lot of money, as most of my weekly allowance won't go towards my school canteen. But it is not without its difficulties. I had to do some of my exams during this fasting period, which obviously had some impact on my brain and what I could achieve. But it has been a somewhat smoothful fasting and I hope that everyone who is currently participating in the month of Ramadan has a peaceful and easy time.
Speaking of studying, when I say the workload is crazy, it is crazy. I have work from every single class I have to complete, whether that is just catching up, doing some homework, getting ahead of classes just to lessen the load and starting to complete assessments. If I had to offer advice to anyone currently struggling is:
Always place your assessment information into one folder or one place. At the start, I set a time of when I would start my tasks but I always lost a good ten minutes trying to find the information. It is always helpful to know where your most important pieces of information is. My teachers reminded us countless times to not lose them so put them in a safe place right now!
Know your style of studying. I was never the kid who could start assessments the day before and get an A. I would always start a large chunk of it as soon as I got it and then finish it at least a day before it was due. It left a lot of time for procrastination but I always managed to hand in a good result.
Set boundaries. Everyone is distracted by the phone and I am too, a lot of the time. Teenagers are also lazy so I always placed my phone on the opposite side of the room because I knew I wouldn't want to get up to go get it. I also gave myself half an hour of uninterrupted time to just go on social media. Whether I was in the middle of a paragraph or a worksheet, that time would always be for my phone. It allowed my brain to rest for a bit before I could get back into it. This is extremely helpful but when its time to get off your phone, you need to get off! I wouldn't start playing any games or striking up a conversation. I would reply to some friends and even if I was scrolling on social media, I would allow myself one more post, or TikTok and then turn my phone completely off.
Get on top of flashcards right now! I was planning to write mine all term and I thought, its fine, I still have time. I do not have time. School holidays, I am doing my flashcards immediately. So if I could tell my younger self anything, start utilising flashcards before this year.
I hope some of the tips I gave you on studying help and that you enjoyed some insight into my March. I'll be back next month for another update.
Happy reading :)