Managing Manic Madness

Hello fellow interweb friends!

Well, this week is pretty much hell week for me. I've got tests hitting me left, right, and center this week. To start the week off, I had 2 tests, both were back to back, so I was already freaking out over the weekend and the day of. Then, later this week, I will have 2 more tests on the same day again. As you all may know from experience, when you have tests after tests, multiple ones on the same day, it is super duper stressful and manic and mad! So how do we survive weeks like this?!?!? What should we do?!?! Well, after four years of college, I still do not have a solution for this! If anything, my anxiety/response to these days have only gotten worse even though I've found a good coping mechanism to plan out my week so I can be a little less overwhelmed. 

So here are some of my personal tips that I think has helped me manage my mad weeks. I try my best to stick to these, but as we all know, as college students, procrastination is always the best way to deal with these kinds of hard weeks! 

Tip 1: ATTEMPT TO NOT PROCRASTINATE (Key word: attempt)!

• As crazy as that sounds, we all know it is not a good idea to procrastinate, yet we do not do it! The minute we started high school, we started to have more classes, and have multiple assignments due at one time, therefore, we start to "plan" out when we do our stuff to turn it in. At the end of the day, we always end up procrastinating, leaving things to the very last minute, where we would stress and be extremely anxious. As we go into college, since we become busier with school, work, and other wonderful things we take up as a way to relieve ourselves from school, our procrastination skills go to a whole new level! Not only do we leaving doing papers to the last minute, we leave studying to the last minute! Never have I ever seen a college student who truly, completely, fully read all their reading materials before a class unless it was on the day of a test or a quiz. I am my own culprit of the procrastination crime, except I'd like to think that I've mastered my procrastination skills, but still, it does not help me what so ever! However, it is still ok if you do procrastinate like me because my next tip makes it a little less tempting to procrastinate because the next tip will sort of entertain you and make studying feel a little easier on the eyes, literally.

Tip 2: USE COLORFUL PENS AND MARKERS!

• Just like the tip says, use loads and loads of colorful pens and markers! Now, if I have any male readers, you may say this is a girly thing to do, but it really isn't! The only part of this that would make it girly is the use of what you guys think are girly colors like pinks and purples. If that is the cases, well then I guess you guys better load up on pens and markers in various shades of blues, greens, reds, oranges, and what not! From my own personal experience, using colorful markers make studying a little less dull and it is a great way of organizing your notes and thoughts while studying. Whenever I have long articles to read and formulas to remember, I love using colorful pens and markers just because I can divide everything up into certain categories. Sometimes, when I am a little lazy, I may just assign specific class to a specific color and use the designated color(s) to take notes in. Because you take notes in different colors, your eyes will be more alert, making you automatically pay more attention to your notes compared to those who take black-inked notes on a white piece of paper. Colors really help bring life to your notes/readings while you're studying, which really helps you stay entertained and that is very important since a lot of us get bored of our studying materials and just set it aside and not really look back until we have to for a test.

Tip 3: USE A PLANNER AND COMBINE IT WITH TIP 2!

• I am quite the planner freak. I have one of those big At-A-Glance calendars on my wall in my room. I also carry around a book planner as well as a weekly paper-pad that is color-coded according to the days of the week. All three of these planners/organizers are very well used and there is not one bit of free space left on the pages. To me, planners really help me visualize what I need to do and if the events are all color-coordinated, I feel an urge to constantly look back at it cause I think it's all just so beautiful and wonderful - this here is the main reason why my blog is called "Colors Galore" because I just cannot get enough of colorful things! Just the fact that I constantly check back at my planner because it looks so gosh darn pretty makes it that much more easy for me to stay with my schedule and get shizz done!

Alrighty guys, well that was all of my tips for you just to help you guys manage your stress as well as keep your life events organized in a pretty, colorful way! We all want to get our lives organized and make sure we get things done in a timely manner, so why not do it in a fun way?!?! I know for me, I have so much fun going through my planner and calendars to put everything in and sort all the dates out, from social events, to work, to school, pretty much my whole life! Sometimes when we only use black or blue pens in a planner that already has blank ink printing on it just makes everything look so boring and gloomy, but the minute you add a little color in it, it's like your calendars/planners come to life and have a little more spunk to it, making you want to "interact" with it more, which totally helps you to stay on track and not procrastinate! 

Best of luck with all your planning,

Until next time,

With love,

Uyen