Smiggle – where a smile meets a giggle (how brilliant is that?) is a super cool Australian stationary brand that’s finally coming to the UK, very soon… The first of their stores will be opening tomorrow! It’s at Westfield, Stratford which is a little too far for me to travel,but you should definitely get yourself along to check it out! After this there will be stores in Reading, Brighton and Kingston, and who knows where else if people love it as much as I do. I don’t know about you but I’m a bit of a stationary geek so this is right up my street, is there anything better than a new pack of pans and a nice notepad? Originally I had big ideas for this post, there was going to be colours and creativity coming out of my ears, but inspiration just didn’t hit. I think the right side of my brain is shrinking with the overload of science it’s taken recently, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you how I keep myself organised and motivated with my student-bloggy lifestyle.
The first thing I’m going to say is plan, plan, plan. I don’t even want to think about what my life would be like if I didn’t sit down on a Sunday night and plan my week. I plan where I’m going to be, what I’m going to be doing, at what time I’ll be doing it, for every single day, and I even color code it! This really helps to see where you can have your free time, where you can get those little tasks done you’ve needed to do for a while, and if you’re as sad as me you’ll find it quite therapeutic.
As far as university work goes there are a few things that I do to help me along the way. Keeping your notes tidy is one of the main ones, they may not seem important now when you have textbooks to be reading, but around exam time you just don’t have the time to sit and read textbooks, so notes are a brilliant tool to use for revision. I think it will probably be the same for most universities, but a lot of my lecturers put the lecture notes or presentation slides on the internet before the lecture so you can print them off, this is such a good way of preparing yourself what is to come. Go over and read them, highlight important bits, write down questions you have about them, if you don’t know what a word means.. underline it! It can really help if you find yourself going into lectures and thinking ‘what on earth is going on’. The final two are pretty similar, don’t leave everything until the last minute and start assignments ASAP. The assignments one has a slightly different reason though, if you make a start on the day it is set it’s going to be fresh in your mind. If I do an experiment and have to write a lab report, there’s no point in trying to start it two weeks later or I will have forgot what I done! If you’re a bit of a silly sausage and leave everything until the last minute you’re going to be running around, stressing out, and not focusing on what you should be focusing on – studying. I’m getting a bit like this at the minute so I definitely need to tell myself this one more often!
As far as motivation goes, I think this one is slightly different for everyone, so the first thing I will say is make yourself a list and stick it to your desk or wherever you study. You can look at it every time you feel like you need a push and hopefully it will spur you on! The main one I think though, that I have pointed out with my new snazzy gold Smiggle pen, is that you need to want to learn. If you’re not interested in what you’re doing and you don’t enjoy it, you won’t be motivated. It’s as simple as that. Then there are things like wasting time and money, university is so hard and very expensive nowadays that if you aren’t motivated to do your work, it really is totally pointless. On those days where you feel a bit run down and like you don’t want to do work, imagine flushing £30,000 down the toilet and I guarantee it will make you grab that textbook! You may laugh at my second point on the list, moving out and getting a puppy, but this is one of the main things I think about! I’m so excited to move out, but I’m never going to if I don’t graduate with a decent degree. And finally… I want a 1st, who doesn’t? This is a bit of a big one to ask of myself, but I’m promising myself I’m going to work as hard as I can over the next two years to get it. Hopefully I will, but maybe I won’t. Let’s wait and see, ha!
Lastly, my motivation for blogging? I don’t need specific motivation, it’s just something I genuinely love doing. When I wake up on a Saturday and see the sun shining and I can get the camera out to take photos, or I’m sat surrounded my makeup and beauty products writing about things I love, it’s just heaven!
There’s one more thing I want to point out… can you see that lollipop shaped item above? IT’S AN ERASER! I seriously couldn’t believe it. I actually said, ‘oh I’m going to eat my lollipop now’, and someone had to point out to me it was an eraser, slightly embarrassing, but nice one Smiggle I am seriously impressed! After browsing the Australian Smiggle website I already have my eye on so many things I’m going to stock up on when the UK site opens, including these super cute notebooks that would be perfect for my lab notes, and this colour changing umbrella. Wow!
I’d love to hear your top tips for how you keep your life organised, whether you’re a student, have a full time job, or even just to do with your blog! :) Leave me a comment below, and let me know what motivates you! P.s, don’t forget to pop down to the new Smiggle store tomorrow if you’re in the Stratford area, and tweet me if you do so I can be super jealous!
P.p.s look out for my post coming up on Friday featuring a few more Smiggle products & it’s all about the GYM! dun-dun-duuunnn!
