You may use Tumblr, or have at least heard of it. It’s the confusing social network home to fans, artists, photographers, and memes. Whatever you’re into, it’s a great website to waste your time. And it used to be my #1 biggest time waster until I figured out how to use it for good.
To put it bluntly, my grades first year of college sucked. I was one of those people who never had to study in high school, so when I got to UAB I didn’t know how to study. I nearly failed my Calculus class first semester, had to drop Chemistry second semester, and ended up on probation for my academic scholarship. I realized something had to change. I needed to figure out how to get organized and how to force myself to sit down and study.
In comes Tumblr. The good thing about a website with so many diverse groups of people is there’s a group for whatever you’re looking for. If you’re into black and white pictures of trains, Tumblr’s got blogs for that. Into debating people online about 13 Reasons Why theories? There are blogs for that. Do you like recipes for sparkly silly putty? There are blogs for that. You like laughing at pictures of goats? There are blogs for that. And weirdly enough, there are blogs for people whose goal is to get off Tumblr and study.
Like I said, I’d been a Tumblr geek for a while, so I’d seen these “studyblrs” floating around, but it took me a while to realize I could use these as motivation and to help learn how to study. So at the beginning of Fall 2016, I decided to get my crap together by logging out of my precious personal blog and making a new account: one dedicated entirely to the studyblr concept.
And surprisingly, it worked. Looking at people’s pretty pictures of their notes, study spaces, and bullet journals (a self-made planner that can be both beautiful and super useful for every aspect of your life) helped encourage me to make my own. I wanted to post original content to my blog, and to have original content, I had to make it. So I had to make my own neat study guides, mind maps, and bullet journal spreads.
A bullet journal spread I did for the first week of February
My favorite bullet journal spread I’ve done so far!
Many people I’ve talked to have argued that making your notes and schedules pretty doesn’t really do anything to further your education, but I’d argue the opposite. For one thing, I spend way longer on them if I make them look nice, which means I spend more time absorbing the material. It also encourages me to actually make the study guides and such because I have fun doing them. Sure, I could just scribble some vocabulary words in pencil on a piece of notebook paper, but I won’t enjoy doing it, I will be extremely unlikely to look back at it later, and there’s a high possibility (knowing my short attention span) that I will never finish it.
A studyguide I made for my HY 101 final last semester. It took me a week and a half to finish, but it was worth it becuase I aced the test!
My very organized and color-coded notebook for AC 201
Mind maps I made for my Healthcare Systems class
Another thing studyblr does is give you tips for studying, college life, and being an adult. There are tons of instructional posts and videos on how to study more efficiently, how to learn a new note-taking method, how to juggle a job and your classes, and even which stores give student discounts. As someone who didn’t know how to study and really didn’t know how to be an adult, all of these tips have been so helpful in my adjustment to college life.
And the last important thing the studyblr community does is give you a support system. Everyone in the community that I have chatted with has been super friendly and ready to hear my complaints about finals at a moments notice. Everyone’s always there to offer tips and advice, and if they can’t give that, they can just be a shoulder to lean on. It has been super cool to get to message people from around the world and learn how their education system and schooling works!
Of course, Tumblr isn’t really the reason I’ve improved my grades. But it gave me the extra push I needed to do it. I went from being on scholarship probation to having a 4.0 GPA for last semester, and I’m not worried at all about my grades for this semester, even with finals coming up. I know we’re at the end of the semester, but I would encourage anyone who struggles to try making a studyblr and see if it helps you like it did me! My blog can be the first you follow! Feel free to shoot me a message on Tumblr if you need help getting started!