14.08.20

Achievements of 2021 (both academic and non-academic)

I'm still very much on break (basically just eating, sleeping, reading and swimming, it's delightful), but I want to sum up this year. It's been a fucking rollercoaster of a year and I still can't believe like half of the things that happened, both good and bad. Nevertheless, I want to focus on the positive ones to kickstart the new year in the most uplifting manner I'm able to pull off. Which is not very optimistic nor uplifting, but I can be at least not full of doom, haha.

I want to do this chronologically, just because I tend to forget the good stuff that happened more than two months ago.

Let's wrap this up!

Academic Achievements of 2021

presented at my first international conference (February)

prepped two PhD dissertation projects (April) and successfully defended them during the PhD programs interview (June)

wrote my diploma thesis while cooperating with the best mentor ever (January till June)

got accepted to two PhD programs and currently doing both of them! (June)

co-written three papers over the summer - two already published, one under a promising peer review (June-September)

defended my thesis and passed my state exams with straight As, meaning I got my master's degree! (September)

wrote a book chapter that got accepted (November)

Non-Academic Achievements of 2021

quit the job I hated (January)

got rid off so much stuff I didn't need (mostly July, August)

read 130 books, yaaay

stopped saying yes to meetings with acquaintances just because I felt like I should see them (big one!)

found a functioning skincare routine (September)

started swimming again (and loving it) (September)

A lot of this year has been mostly about surviving, to be honest. I was battling a lot of anxiety and depression, I was extremely stressed at times and couldn't sleep. Swimming and taking proper days off helps, close friends help. I'm gonna do a post with some goals for 2022, so I won't spoil here that, haha.

It was a good year after all.

Take care!

M.

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Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them. 

Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said “Oh yeah sure that’s a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.” 

“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”

“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”

It’s just. 

50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job. 

Hey if u like the ocean look at this its rly cool I think

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My technique for Quick Literature Review

Literature Reviews were one of the most confusing things for me when I began my PhD. I would get lost in searching for papers, wallowing in tangential directions, sometimes looking at entirely unrelated stuff. Other times, I’d be trying so hard to read an article and stuck without moving forward.

From my fair share of struggle with literature reviews, I deviced a technique that helped me do quick literature surveys, especially when I needed to write a proposal or improve half-written manuscript or to understand a new method/theory. So, here you go…

1. Collecting literature: Research Rabbit App🐇

This is my go-to tool for literature discovery. In addition to quickly build a literature collection, it helps to see how all the papers in my collection are connected! This is very essential when you write your LitRev, as you will need to draw connections between different works.

Go to www.researchrabbit.ai and search the topic you need articles for, and add them to a collection.

The app will automatically suggest more papers based on your selections and will make connections between the articles in terms of authors, citations or references!

You can also look for other papers by a certain author or similar papers to the one you choose.

(Make sure to stop when you find yourself going down the Rabbit Hole ;) )

2. Extracting information: Skim & Annotate 📑

Once you finish collecting the literature,

quicky read the abstract and decide which ones are important, relevant or new.

Now and skim the chosen papers, and annotate the most important things you find. I usually go for paper and highlighters, sometimes use the annotator in Mendeley

Optional: categorize the articles and assign a colour for each.

(Don’t spend more than 10 minutes per paper. You can always go back and read the article thoroughly after completing this task)

3. Organizing thoughts: The Sticky Note Method 🗂

Here comes my favourite part. I developed this technique inspired by a lot of tools I found on the internet. The Sticky Note Method is to capture, rearrange and construct thoughts.

From the now annotated, categorized collection, write down the essence of each article in a separate sticky note.

(here is where the colour-coding might come in handy: you can use different coloured sticky notes for different categories.)

After doing this for all the papers, stick them in a board/notebook

Rearrange them till you get a coherent flow!

That’s it. Now start writing your review! ;)

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👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

Pass along and use the shit out of them

last minute orgo studying before my exam; i did a study guide of every single topic covering the most important reactions and their mechanisms; ಥ_ಥ  it was worth it! 

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School, Studying, and Learning Masterpost!!!

[id: an animated black and white gif of a person tapping a pencil on a blank sheet of notebook paper. /end id]

Dividers used are by @firefly-graphics and their IDs are in the alt text!

Tips for school in general

General school tips, dealing with online class, strategies for school in general, etc

Attention and Concentration

How to pay better attention in online classes | another

Strategies to improve concentration

How to stick to your plans

Schoolwork and Tasks

Review Tips and Presentation Advice

Dealing with executive dysfunction masterpost

How to use google search like a unicorn

How to annotate a text

General Tips

For the lazy night owl (masterpost)

University tips and advice

Avoiding burnout (tips + resources)

Dealing with impostor syndrome

Good emotional skills to know for college but also for life in general

Grad school advice

Studying

Study Strategies and other study advice things

Studying general

For neurodiverse students (masterpost)

Studying with ADHD (the actual post is a joke about but check the notes - they have actual advice there)

How to study for an exam in a really short time (masterpost)

Scheduling studying + other productivity tips (masterpost)

Studying effectively

Lazy Study Tips

Study tips from a Psychology Prof

Studying with a study buddy

Study Breaks

On productive breaks

Types of study breaks

How to deal with mental fatigue

Note taking

Hybrid note taking nethod

Note taking guide

Upgrade your notes resources masterpost

Using google docs to take notes

Resources

Resources that could be useful for school and academics

Self study

Self study resources (masterpost)

Learn things for free (masterpost)

Textbooks | more textbooks

Sites to download literature masterpost

Free online courses

Technology and Apps

Asmr ambiences (masterpost)

Productivity apps and extensions (masterpost)

Wallpapers screensavers and apps

Productivity apps masterpost

Specific Subjects

Resources and Tips on specific subjects

Language Related

Languages and linguistics of africa

75 free language learning resources

American Sign Language

Mandarin learning resources

Classical language learning

Arts

Course on reading poetry

Cultural quarantine masterpost

Sewing resources

Misc

Video essays | Essays/Food for thought

Computer science and engineering masterpost

IB Psychology Study Tips

How to study for mathematics

Study tips for accounting students

Black History Library

Other Studyblr and Academic Stuff

Not much school related but I included because they could be useful

Journaling/Bujo

Journal prompts

How to fill your empty notebooks (masterpost)

Studyblr

Dividers graphics for posts

How to start a studyblr | another post

Misc

Master the art of napping

Job interview tips + masterpost

Use firefox instead of chrome

Actual frugal recipes (lots of helpful websites and links)

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we received new board games and they are so beautiful!!! today we have already played murano and solved several combinations in the game with asteroids. i really enjoyed it. little by little, i’m starting to gather a collection of board games.

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(01.15.2021) || lit review and trying to prep for spring semester.

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