Hello, my name is Lily, and welcome to my whimsical life, also known as “Living Whimsy with Lily.” In this column, I will discuss whimsy tips, outfit ideas, movies, and crafts. I grew up trying to create activities and things to make life a little less stressful than it already is. I personally think that adding some fun into your life, even if it’s a gem-covered cup or a glitter sticky note, can make life more fun.
Studying for me can be a gloomy thing to do and can cause so much stress. If you ask me, I feel like I have to be the best at everything I do, so studying for exams can be a lot. Glitter, stickers, fun snacks, and just bringing whimsy into my life in general can relieve so much stress for me. Here are a couple of study tricks to make studying more fun.
- Decorate Your Notes Like a Journal
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When I was in middle school, I remember going school shopping for the plainest school supplies so that I could then force my mom to print out millions of celebrity photos on her work printer to decorate them.
The most treasured binder that actually gave me one of my best friends was a binder decorated in OurSecondLife (02L) photos, as well as my Troye Sivan, Zoella, and Dan and Phil era notebooks. Now that I’m older, I’m finding myself wanting to do the same so that I can have a little more joy in taking out a notebook to write notes about how to teach 4th grade math because those fractions are no joke. I’m left crying every time.
However, taking a weekend to decorate a notebook with colors, glitter, or photos is a fun craft-night idea you can do while watching a movie or with friends. What I love to do every time is decorate each page. I love to take time and come up with a theme or color scheme for notes. Choosing a fun highlighter and pen combo makes you feel like you’re decorating your notes like a scrapbook.
Covering pages in stickers and, my personal favorite, glitter sticky notes make everything better. It also makes me want to open my notebooks more, so then I’m forced to look at my material and then, in turn, study.
- Have Some Fun Snacks and Drinks
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When it comes to studying, I need to have a snack. I get distracted easily, and I notice that if I’m holding something or chewing something, it definitely helps. Also, studying on an empty stomach is just a hard task to do. So, before every study session, I make a fun snack and then proceed to battle. My main thing to gain inspiration is to scroll through Pinterest, and from there I have found some amazing ideas.
Some ideas that I’ve found are toast covered in peanut butter, blueberry, and banana to make it look like a bear. I also like cutting meat and cheese into stars. I personally love making pancakes and rice cakes covered in star sprinkles and fun-shaped fruit.
When it comes to drinks, I also noticed that adding glitter or covering your coffee cups in sticker gems just brings the whimsy needed to have a fun studying session.
- Make a Study Playlist to Give You Academic Validation
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One of my biggest things when studying is that I can’t study in silence. Although I do like to study to piano music when doing big study sessions. For example, the Hamilton instrumental soundtrack goes so hard while studying for exams. But while doing assignments or writing down notes from a textbook, something that I can focus on with music with lyrics, I prefer to have a curated playlist.
For my Whimsical playlist, I always start with a photo. I use Apple Music. I find a picture to match the vibe I want for that playlist, and then I just go ahead and put in all the different songs I really love.
For example, the songs I have on repeat are “A Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield, “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall, “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, “Island in the Sun” by Weezer, and “The Tide is High” by Atomic Kitten. Also, if it were on streaming platforms, “Charmed Life” by Leigh Nash from the movie Uptown Girls would probably be my number one on my Apple Music Wrapped.
I also love to add songs that are very motivational to keep me pushing. Personally, for me, I would love to move to New York, so there’s a lot of songs about New York in there, and also just songs that I feel give me academic validation.
- Have a Motivation
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Another thing that I love to do, and also gives you a little bit of whimsy in your dorm, is that around my desk I have put photos that give me motivation. I went into Canva and added a whimsical background to them just to match the vibe of my room.
For example, one of the posters I have in the middle is a quote saying that I have the same amount of hours in a day as Lin-Manuel Miranda, right next to a poster of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory staring straight into my soul. But I feel like this is something you can have a lot of fun with.
I also have some more serious quotes on there to give me motivation about why I’m doing what I’m doing in school. I feel like this can also be a fun craft night that hopefully will give you motivation throughout the whole semester.
I also feel like a desk is such a vital part of studying, so I think making it fun and having a little bit of whimsy, like fun pens or fun note cards, always adds a little bit more fun to my studying sessions.
I do definitely feel like having something that makes sitting at a desk for multiple hours fun is needed. Even if it’s like a small book likeI have Fancy Nancy on my desk and even though I tend to read more serious books, just glimpsing through the photos or just having something to distract myself for a couple of minutes is so fun for me, and I think it’s just enjoyable.
- Google Calendar
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My Google Calendar and I are best of friends. I have every single organization, assignment, class schedule, work schedule, and event in my Calendar. I have input every minute of my life into that calendar, so it is something I look at every single day.
The thing I love about this calendar is that I can change the colors of it to fit what vibe I’m feeling that week.
I have spent maybe too many hours scrolling through Pinterest to find the perfect hex codes to change my calendar. But I feel like this is something that I enjoy looking at because I know that if it’s in a cuter format, I am more than likely to look at it and then realize, “Oh, I need to carve out time to work on this assignment.” It’s something that keeps me organized, but something that I can also curate to fit my fun and whimsical life.
Studying can feel like the most overwhelming task there is. There are so many ways that you can add a little bit of fun to something that may cause stress. I feel like studying is very important. It’s also so important to take breaks and just have something that feels fun, even if it’s not something exciting, because these things can help you when you get a job and create a little bit more fun in something you’re going to be at for 8 hours or more.
So, if you like, take these tips with you into the corporate world.
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