In previous years, winter has always felt like my personal downfall. The cold wind and short days feel like they freeze my brain and trick it into becoming a lazy mess. I am the kind of girl who thrives during the fall and blooms even greater in the spring, but winter has always felt like such a burden— especially when commuting to UCR amidst the cold weather. At the beginning of January, I made it a personal goal of mine to stay productive throughout the winter quarter, knowing that this is around the time of year where I struggle with remaining academically driven.
One of the most important changes I made at the start of the winter quarter was to take handwritten notes. During my fall courses, I used my MacBook Air for everything imaginable when it came to school. However, I realized that typing all my notes was not helping me retain important information that I had to memorize for quizzes and tests. Primarily, the lack of learning had to do with the fact that I could easily copy and paste anything from my professor’s lecture slides onto my digital “notes.” Nonetheless, I was never actually understanding the information we were learning about in class. Now I use multiple subject notebooks with dividers to physically write out important takes from my lectures and discussions. Using different colored pens and highlighters, I also find it more satisfying to take notes that are visually attractive and make studying more enjoyable. In addition, now that I take time out of my day to handwrite all of my notes into notebooks (instead of laptop files), I am more inclined to go back and review materials more closely and revise them with further questions or corrections.
Along with handwritten notes, I have also purchased a physical planner and agenda that has helped me stay on top of all my assignments. Before I used to have a calendar on my phone, which is what most people rely on nowadays. However, it ended up being extremely distracting when every time I checked my assignments, I also managed to waste an extra hour scrolling on Tik Tok and Instagram.
In an attempt to execute my goal, I have also turned myself into a morning person. Despite how hard it is to break bad habits, I try less to procrastinate and leave all my homework for the night time, when I eventually get too tired and go to sleep instead. Now that I have earlier classes, I also dedicate more time to completing work while the sun is still out and I have more energy. This alteration to my daily routine has been a game changer for winter quarter, especially when the sun sets too early and it feels like there’s no time to do anything important.
Lastly, an important factor in my motivation involving school comes from the fact that I changed my career path. Going into my first quarter at UCR, I was so set on the idea of being a teacher. However, after talking to my advisor and meeting people with different majors, I quickly realized that teaching didn’t sound as appealing to me anymore, and I want a career that will be more fulfilling to my dream future and aspirations. That being said, in January I created a vision board and decided that I want to be a lawyer and chase that very different path instead. I used Pintrest and added different quotes and pictures that summed up what I wanted my time in college to lead up to. Making a vision board and hanging it above my desk has been an amazing motivator to wake up every icy morning, driving 40 minutes, and attending all my classes— it gives me more pressure to keep my gpa as high as possible, but also fills me with joy and excitement for what I am capable of achieving if I stay focused.