Some Lessons I've Learned Lately
An-Almost-End-Of-The-Year-Report
Hello everyone! Welcome back to my newsletter. I have compiled some notes I’ve been writing down for the past few months, and decided to share them all with you! While I’m no Aristotle, I have learned some lessons that have enhanced my personal journey, and hopefully resonate with you as well.
Read Classic Literature
Classic books are terribly boring. But that’s only if you simply read the book. To understand the author’s complex take on various themes and messages about life, you have to read in between the lines. And that’s how a seemingly drab scene can become life changing: a lesson that deepens your understanding of a societal issue or the meaning of life itself. I try to do this with bad situations. How can I read between the lines to understand why something unfavorable is happening and how I can learn something from it? Yup, pick up that Jane Austen.
Stop Looking at the Answer Key
When we get to the real world, there often is no answer key. There’s no answer key when I research blockchain technology, or when I need to network. So lately, I’ve been trying to train my mind to believe that I know more than I think. For example ,when practicing a presentation, I need to believe that I know more of it than I think. When writing my college essays, I have to believe that I can answer the prompt in a meaningful way. Although I could get second-opinions on all of these (an answer key), my opinion should take precedence over fear or self-doubt.
Sleep Earlier
One of the major changes I’ve been able to make in the past few months is sleeping earlier. My sleep schedule used to entail a bedtime of one am and a wake-up of 5:30 am. Now I go to sleep at 11 pm latest (but stop working at 10 pm and only allow myself to read a book in bed after that point) and wake up at around 6:40 am. Although much of this change can be accredited to figuring out how to balance schoolwork better (which I will touch on later), I also needed to discipline myself in actually getting to bed earlier. Rather than spending those extra 30 minutes finishing up an assignment, I learned to put my foot down and force myself to sleep earlier than I want to. This can happen through accounting for the time it takes to actually fall asleep. For me, it might take up to 30 minutes to fall asleep, and so I need to account for that before making a judgement about when to put aside my work for the day. My sleep schedule isn’t perfect yet, but I think I’m on the right track.
Don’t Follow the Rules
Okay, this one might sound bad, but let me explain. Imagine you are in a class in which you find yourself always needing to self-study the material to grasp it. Instead of forcing yourself to waste time taking meaningless notes (that you’ll never read again because this style of learning isn’t working for you), use that time to complete other tasks! This might sound intuitive to some, but for me, it was hard to disobey the preset rules to accommodate my own needs. Now that I’ve learned to do what suits me and now what others think suits me, I have much more free time afterschool and I can sleep earlier, which makes me an overall less cranky person! :)
Get Noise-Cancelling Headphones
One of my biggest hurdles in getting work done when I wasn’t at home was the extreme noise level produced by my classmates at school. I would not only get frustrated by the volume, but also scroll aimlessly through my to-do list, not being able. to concentrate on any task. Although it might sound extreme to some, I am never happier than when I pop on my noise-cancelling headphones, play some jazz music and get to work. This has also been one of the major contributing factors to me sleeping earlier and having less work to do afterschool.
Don’t Stare at your To-Do List
I used to enjoy planners a little more than I should’ve. They made me feel productive without actually requiring me to engage in any productive task on the to-do list. Don’t fall into this trap. Do the work on the pretty list instead of admiring it. I realized I was scared of the work that I had to do. What if I didn’t understand it? What if it was mentally-taxing and draining? However, once you actually delve in, a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders, and it’s never as bad as you imagined.
Be Friendly to Staff
I’ve learned great people-speaking skills just from making small talk with teachers, faculty, lunch-ladies, etc. It also just makes you an overall more friendly-seeming and well-mannered student to just take a few minutes to be kind to the adults supporting you. When you get to the workplace, its crucial to have amiable relationships with your colleagues and your boss, so developing respectful and professional social skills at a younger age is only good!
Thank you for reading my newsletter <3