C’mon brain, it’s time to study again!

I found it really hard to get back to studying this year. In fact, it was so hard that I didn’t actually study at all throughout October. In my defense, I did have a few health problems which made me feel exhausted and studying was the last think I wanted to do.

My previous module’s intensity level was very low. It allowed an extra week to write TMAs and there was no science as such in it. It was more of a journey though the world giving an overview of different environmental problems. The module was very enjoyable but it made me forget how intense and time consuming studying science actually is.
Back in June I’ve submitted my last TMA which was an examinable component and school was out for summer, for three and a half months to be exact.
This blissful study coma tricked me into thinking that I can just slowly get back into studying again and that catching up won’t be much of a problem. Well, it is a problem. SXF206 is intense and apparently I’m expected to already know AND remember certain things?? Errrrr well… maybe I do know something but not without refreshing my memory which obviously makes studying longer than anticipated.

Catching up really is not easy, it not only requires a lot more time put into the studies (the standard is already set high at 14 hours per week) but it has definitely also put extra stress and pressure on me.
Lesson to be learnt? It’s simple. I need to stay on top of things, make sure I am following the study planner and maybe even try to get ahead if possible. 

My first step towards Minimalism

There are no rules and regulations to minimalism. The concept is to own less stuff and it can be adapted accordingly to different lifestyles.

What drawn me to minimalism the most, is an idea that ‘less clutter means more focus on the things that matter’. The meaning of this is quite literal. The less unnecessary stuff there is around the house, the less we have to focus on them (less cleaning, less tidying, less distraction). It frees up the time to do the things that matter.
There are obviously a lot more benefits to minimalism. It’s a refreshing escape from the world revolving around consumerism; it’s an environmentally friendly concept based on ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’ values; it contributes to spending less money, and it helps us focus on the non-materialistic matters.

I have started my route to minimalism in July this year. My first step was to declutter my home. I was shocked when I realised how much unnecessary stuff I was hoarding in my one bedroom flat. The flat didn’t necessarily feel cluttered but all of the cupboards were full, there was not much space and there was ‘stuff’ everywhere.
‘Keep’ or ‘Toss’ process was not as easy as I hoped for. It actually took me several days to go through everything and by everything, I mean EVERYTHING! Kitchen cupboards, make up, clothing, ‘man’ draws, ‘random stuff’ draws, bed sheets etc etc.

My little Fiesta’s boot as well as the back seats were full of stuff!

Two Saturdays of getting up at 6am and £200 later, and I was free from all of the unneeded and unloved clutter.

I think minimalism is not a project to be completed but it’s a continuous journey. There is still so much that I want to learn and do, and hopefully sell this idea to other people. 

I am hoping to write a few more posts about my journey with minimalism, including the difficulties I am having with putting together a minimalistic capsule wardrobe. Stay tuned!

A moan… because sometimes you just need one

This is basically going to be a moan… A moan about time or lack thereof. 

I work full time because I have to support myself and I study part time because I want to change my career. I have no children and I live alone. In theory there should be no major problems with my time 

needs. In practice however things look completely different.

First of all for some unknown reason I think that I can do a lot more with my spare time than the reality allows. In my head I come home, cook dinner, clean up, study, read a book, scrapbook, blog, paint my nails and go to bed at 10pm to have a full night’s sleep. Obviously none of this happens. I make beans on toast, leave dirty dishes in the sink, stare at my computer for 2 hours feeling guilty that I am not studying, play candy crash saga, take a shower and crawl into bed absolutely exhausted.

Is it a problem with motivation? Or maybe bad planning? I’m not supposed to overwhelm myself with a load of tasks because that’s the reason nothing gets done. BUT if I do have 10 minutes of spare time I feel guilty of not doing anything productive! My brain is fucked up! It tells me I’ve got too much going on and yet it doesn’t allow me to chill out.

I am currently trying to stay on top of the studies and failing because module only just started and I am already behind. I am obviously not blogging although I come up with great topics to blog about while in the shower. Books to read (for pleasure) ale piled up gathering dust, travel albums are waiting to be worked on/finished off.

Don’t even get me started on December… I have a forever growing list of things to book/sort out! Holiday (mini break in Fuerteventura, my own bloody idea off course!), my 30th Birthday weekend away in Bath for 10 (my idea and everything has to be the way I like it to I’m sorting it out) and my brother is coming over from Poland with his wife and my nephew for Christmas so we’re going London for couple of days (guess who’s idea was that!?). Did I mention that it’s one of my friend’s birthday in December? And that there’s work’s xmas party? And that I have an assignment due on the 10th? Ohhhh…. And I am a bridesmaid to my best friend so now I’ve got bridesmaidy duties like dress shopping and hen-do organising.

Are you bored yet? No? Well, I decided I need to apply for some volunteer jobs to start gaining experience in the environmental field… Because you know, I have plenty of time to spare…

I might have to tell my boyfriend and friends that I am not available until October 2016 although a new module will start then so maybe I should re-schedule seeing anybody until 2019 when I graduate… Or maybe… you who is reading this… Are you rich? If yes, have you got spare £1500 a month so I could quit my day job, live comfortably and do whatever I need (study) and want (holidays) to do?

Anxiety and Depression

Wow! I can’t believe this is the first time I am looking at my blog since May! I have to admit that few post ideas popped into my head over the last few months (usually came to me in the shower… as they do) but I just never wrote anything down. I have an excuse reason for this.

I needed time off to come to terms with few things in my life. I am talking about anxiety and depression which I have been dealing with for about a year now. I thought that maybe I needed this summer to stop stressing/worrying about things and start realising everything is going to be ok in the end. However I had to call things by its names and come to terms with the fact that it simply won’t go away on its own.

I have found the below quote somewhere on the internet and I think it describes anxiety and depression very well:

‘It’s being scared and tired at the same time. It’s the fear of failure but no urge to be productive. It’s wanting friends but hate socialising. It’s wanting to be alone but not wanting to be lonely. It’s caring about everything then caring about nothing. It’s feeling everything at once and feeling paralysingly numb. ‘

The reason I decided to write about it on here is because I truly believe that start of my new module SXF206 this October will help me to get myself back on track. Having an important goal with deadlines forces a person to be productive. That’s not to say that doing a degree isn’t scary and that it sometimes has the opposite effect. However it definitely provides me with purpose and lets me focus on a subject that fascinates me and I care about. It helps me to take my mind off of worries, anxiety, bereavement and just everyday life that can be really hard sometimes.

It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to write this post. I hope that maybe people will read it and realise that we all deal with some serious shit in our lives. But doing something positive just for your own self like starting with the OU can actually be a big help in dealing with anxiety and depression. Doing a degree comes with its own worries and pressures like fear of not being smart enough or struggling to find the time. But the most important thing studying with The OU gives me, is a purpose and a feeling that I am learning about something that matters. 

How to survive S104 Exploring Science

Apparently S104 is said to be one of the hardest Open University level one modules. I can certainly see how this might be the case. However I believe that it is also extremely rewarding and surviving it will definitely motivate you for continuing your studies.

I am not a study expert and certainly not a brainiac but there are few bits of advice that I am hoping will help people studying S104. Some of the below are things that I should have done, but didn’t. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

1.       Get ahead and stay ahead.
Oh I am a master of procrastination. I plan and organise but never ever stay ahead of my schedule. What I have learnt about myself is that I work best under pressure and leave things until last minute. Now… you definitely don’t want to do that with this module. You won’t have time for procrastination because you will constantly be under pressure. The best thing to do is start studying as soon as you’ve got your materials, don’t wait until the actual module start date. Try to get yourself ahead and stay ahead. It will give you some time to breathe and if your life ‘happens’ then you will have that bit of extra time to do things other than studying without feeling too much guilt.

2.       Make study cards as you go along.
I made little study cards that I used when preparing for the exam. The mistake I made was that I left it till the end. The best thing to do is making cards after each block. It will seal your knowledge and you will be able to use them when preparing for the exam.

 

 

3.       Have a go at the iCMAs.
I know things often change and get updated at the Open University but when I did S104 the iCMAs were not part of the assessment. I kept having a go at them until I had over 80% on each. They are a great practicing tool, especially when preparing for the exam.

4.       Find most efficient way of taking notes.
I personally did not take any notes just because I wanted to save time. Instead I took four different colours of highlighter and corresponding post-it notes. I assigned a category to each of the colours and bookmarked the blocks with post-its.This off course might not work for you so try a few different ways of taking notes at the beginning of the course and see what method is best for you.

5.      Activities.
Make sure to do the practice questions and activities throughout the module and have a go at them again before the exam. This is essential because you will never truly know if you understand the scientific concepts until you have a go at solving the problems and doing the calculations yourself.

6.       Download advice from your student website.
Do a bit of research on your student website and you will be surprised how much help there is. I found some percentage practice questions that one of the tutors posted, no one from my group even knew this existed! I believe there was also a study calendar that had ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ activities written down.

7.       Don’t worry too much.
I know it’s easier said than done but think about the knowledge you will have after finishing this module, not about how hard it is.  S104 covers so many sciences that it is bound you won’t like some of it and you might struggle with some of it. Don’t beat yourself up too much about that, ask your tutor for help. I am sure you will get there in the end. And even if not, then … oh wells! You will be fine even if you don’t understand one subject. I hated geology (booooooring) and could not grasp any of the quantum physics (this stuff is super interesting but a bit mental).

 

Good luck! Remember, if I did it, so can you J

 

Everyday life planning – what planner will work for you?

This may seem like a simple choice but once you start researching, with a massive choice of planners out there you will get overwhelmed. It’s best to do some research first to see what planner will work for you. However you won’t really know what work best for you until you try it. Don’t get discouraged, we are all different and we have different lives with different priorities so what works for me might be simply rubbish for you.

I found few links to different planner videos and websites for you to have a look at:

Simplified planner vs Day designer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYo7BRt3VcU&index=2&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Kikki K planners (these are very girly) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1iYOpGXOHM&index=1&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Plum planner vs Erin Condren https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3ziZFHBDQ&index=3&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Uncalendar vs Planner Pad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnb-4tlyvnE&index=4&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Filofax http://www.filofax.co.uk/

Paperchase http://www.paperchase.co.uk/stationery/diaries-organisers/organisers

When choosing your planner, an important thing to consider is size because it does matter ;). Questions you need to ask yourself are:

·         Do you want to carry your planner around with you? If yes, choose a smaller personal size, if not then you can go A5 or bigger

·         What will you be using your planner for? If it’s only for one or two categories e.g uni and blogging then you probably won’t need much space. If you want to cram your whole life in there then you will probably need a bigger one

·         Are you a person that likes to jot details down, have your whole week planned out to every detail or are you happy with main appointments, assignment due dates, business trips or child play dates?

·         You might need both! Small one with main appointments and important dates to carry with you (small diary will probably be sufficient there) and a bigger planner to keep at home with all of the details, breakdowns, preparations etc.

Now onto inserts:

·         Will you be happy with generic planner insert or will you want to personalise your planner?

·         How much writing space will you need? There is loads of choices; month, week or day per page.

·         Are you a person that needs things categorised or happy to have everything randomly jotted around the page?

I realise that it may seem like these questions are a bit excessive for choosing a simple planner. But you will understand this once you watch the videos I posted. There is just so much choice out there and it’s all designed to motivate productivity and good organisation.

Overconsumption awareness

I have just finished studying Block 5 of U116 module at The Open University. The book is called ‘Changing China’ and my TMA for this was to write an essay explaining how migration enables economic growth and therefore leads to environmental issues. 

We all know that China is growing economically and the growth is still rapid. Whilst developed countries are looking into newer ways of protecting the environment, Chinese government seems to be still steering the country into even more development having little regard for the environmental damage this is causing. List of China’s environmental problems is long. It includes issues like threats from flooding, desertification, water shortages, disappearing forest reserves, air and water pollution and many more.

Studying this subject made me wonder what are we ‘the individuals’ are really doing to protect our environment. How many people actually lead their lives by putting the environment on top of their priority list? Well, that off course would be unrealistic but if anyone would take a small step towards decreasing consumption, it could have a massive impact. But we don’t. Why? Because it’s inconvenient and because often environmental problems don’t affect us directly. We are so used to the convenience of life that we can’t be bothered to even make a small effort. Everything is so easily replaceable and accessible that we just don’t bother to re-use things.

I don’t have children but many of my friends do and it is shocking how many toys and gadgets the littles ones have. I totally understand that parents want for their children to have everything they need and to have a happy childhood. But do they really need 100 toys when they’re five? Or do they need new mobile phone every 6 months when they’re sixteen? No, they don’t. But our society is powered by money, advertisement and sales. When you become a parent you’re being told you need to buy hundreds of gadgets for your baby and they’re all essential. Then you need to buy hundreds of toys which will stimulate baby’s development. And after that your kid wants hundreds of toys and gadgets because they are bombarded by the advertisements. If you do try to stop this and say ‘no’ then you’re facing a fear of your kid being an outsider because all other kids will have the toy, the phone etc. and you have to cave in because you don’t want them to be the odd one.  

So which way do you think this trend will go? Will we continue to overconsume and not think about what we’re doing to our planet? Or will we wake up, stop this madness and teach the future generations to re-use rather than bin and buy a new one.   

Click here to see ‘Overconsumption, overpopulation – in pictures’.