Talk Nerdy to Me...

Y'all, I'm a nerd.

I'm not saying this because I'm smarter than everyone else I know (because I'm not) or because I work harder than everyone else I know (even though I do), but because I am genuinely a nerdy person. I like nerdy things. I always have and I probably always will.

For instance, I am obsessed with productivity. I am always trying to find the best way to be/stay organized and keep my life/papers/thoughts/computer organized too. 

Cal Newport's Study Hacks blog is my favorite. Just... period. It has given me a lot of great ideas that I've implemented in my academic life, including giving up Facebook, going on "autopilot", and how to avoid "deep procrastination".  His tips won't work for everyone, and some of them don't work for me, but they are all definitely worth reading about. He also does case studies about successful people and discusses ways to implement their habits into your life.

There's also my obsession with NPR. And my 50 book challenge. And (my favorite) The Washington Post Social Reader app on Facebook. It's okay to get on Facebook if it's to read the news, right?

Back to School!

My college started yesterday, but I don't have class on Mondays so today is my first day of class! I still get the jitters the night before my first day of school! I am taking some really exciting classes (including one with a writer/on-air personality for ESPN) and they are all very interesting to me! I can't wait to get startd!

This is a video I made at the beginning of fall semester of what I keep in my schoolbag. It really hasn't changed for this semester, except instead of one notebook for all of my classes I have one notebook for each class.

I hope everyone else had a fun winter break like I did and that you aren't all too upset that school is starting back up! Just think, you're one semester closer to graduation!

Desk Organization

Well, here is the desk I've been working on for the last few days. It is still pretty cluttered along the wall, but it's all things that I need and use often.

This first picture has my lamp (whoops!), external hard drive, some makeup in the clear case, two bins of school supplies, the mini milk carton of hair/makeup accessories, and some little figurines on my shelf in the corner.

This is the back middle part of my desk... two containers of pens/pencils, tape, stapler, one bin of shchool supplies, and some of my pictures in the background.

This picture has a lot of my body products... all of the lotions/sprays/shower gels are on top of that rubbermaid mini drawer set (which contains sticky notes and index cards).  The purple basket is an old Easter basket that I use to hold all of my nail products.  The pink case has a lot of medical things... band aids, medicated lotions, medicines, etc.

This is the open set of drawers.  The top has a makeup organizer and the bottom holds some extra paper, a clipboard, a folder, and an empty binder that I'm going to take with me to school this semester.

This is my makeup organizer! Most of my makeup will be going with me back to school so this just has some of the basics... and a little too much lip gloss =P. In the back I have my mascaras and eyeliners, the second to last container holds eyeshadow palettes. The third row from the back (from L to R) has eyeshadows, a mini eyeliner brush, lipsticks, and some sample size lip glosses. Then is the big container of lip gloss.  The bottom row has some extra hand sanitizers, a powder, blush, and bronzer, and then some makeup accessories like sponge-tip applicators and false lashes.

I got rid of a LOT of stuff from my desk, put a lot of stuff into new locations, and made my desk a lot easier to use overall. It still holds the same purposes it did before, just in a lot NEATER way. Hopefully if you needed some inspiration to get started (and let's face it, there is NOTHING bad about organizational inspiration) this helped you out!

Organizing my Desk

The big organization project I've been trying to get done for YEARS is my desk at home. I was at home studying for finals all weekend and it really got to me.  Warning: These pictures are TERRIBLE.

I'm not proud of this picture, but if I don't post it I'll have no motivation! There is so much clutter! I don't have many surfaces in my room so I use my desk for storage, makeup, studying, and everything else!

There is SO much stuff there! I really need to go through and get rid of most of it. I don't have time to even really start this until Winter Break, but once I'm home from finals I'm going in head first! I'll definitely post pictures or maybe a video tour of my reorganized desk!

Bonus Picture! Studying has CONSUMED MY LIFE. I have two finals, one exam, one in class paper, and two quizzes this week. Can it be Thanksgiving Break already???

Pinterest

I don't know a soul who uses Pinterest and doesn't like it.  Most people I know on there lust over clothes or hair tutorials. Not me.

My favorites (and the ones I repin the most) are the organization-inspired pins. Not only do I look through the Home Decor tag to find posts, but I also search for organization-related words.  I am a productivity/organization NUT and all of these pictures make me so happy. I want my office to have a corner that looks like the second picture! Binders, magazine holders, Lazy Susans... what more could a girl want??

Everybody's working for the weekend!

Most people I know spend their Saturdays lounging around their apartment watching America's Next Top Model reruns.  But if you're like me (a college senior in a really competitive program, driven, hyper-organized, nerdy, or all of the above), you probably spend your weekends doing homework. Or getting ahead on homework. Or on non-required academic pursuits (reading three books in one weekend--GUILTY!).

When I spend some time on the weekends getting everything organized, I am way less anxious during the week about what has to get done.  I do realize, however, that this system won't work for everyone.  I don't particularly enjoy going out, so while everyone else is doing that I can do something that gets me ready for class.  I spend a few really focused hours each weekend on organizing my projects for the upcoming week and getting started on a few of them.  Getting that out of the way allows me to spend time watching TV, writing blogs, or making YouTube videos during the week! 

This isn't a perfect system--I still get really anxious near deadlines and am always nervous I missed something when preparing for class--but I do think that it helps me get everything done.  Even though I always worry about it, I haven't missed an assignment yet with this system in place!

Do you start your work over the weekend, or do you stay up all night working during the week? I mix both--I work over the weekend but still end up going to bed late at night.  My late bedtimes are from staying up reading though, not from working on homework!