Expert

It has been brought to my attention that I should contact an expert around now. This matches my timeline because there are some tests coming up (and I feel like I’m procrastinating) so if I could get some expert advice, that would be great. Starting off, I’m going to type up my introduction on a google doc. This is because I plan to send it to many people.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a72zrvsZt_Iuh1oIRXOo3pChkSqTFQyCZCeIrO8NuYk/edit?usp=sharing

Now for the people I’m going to send it to… As of now, I plan to send it to a pre-crastinating friend and to this MIT graduate called Gohar Khan. He has a lot of helpful study videos so it’s worth a try.

I’ve sent out the posts! Now, I just have to wait until they answer. IF they answer.

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Yes.. You’re probably wondering why I changed my plan for the week. (Originally it was to time manage my Saturday.) This is because I forgot all about it until the day was almost over. Also because we ended up changing the schedule a bit and so it didn’t really work.

Another reason why I wanted to clean my room is because it’s so messy right now! I actually can’t take this anymore. It was mainly affected by the last week of school before spring break (aka. last week) because I was really messy with everything.

Before we begin, let’s recap…

Again, bold phrases are the things I am going to do this blog. Italic phrases are other things I hope to do sometime this week or next week.

• regulating screen time/efficient use of technology
  • regulating social media/time wasting apps
  • exploring apps that will help me benefit from
• daily schedule breakdown (how it is to be Rachel)
  • what I am doing on a daily basis
    • what I should be doing on a daily basis
  • include all the days (Sunday-Saturday)
• hobbies (because we all need some happiness)
  • journaling
  • spending time outdoors
• timing my life around my extracurriculars
  • being ready to change my schedule to be more fitting to the situation
• changing my lifestyle as extracurriculars stop for the summer
• efficient note-taking (aesthetic notes)
  • understanding what is more important
  • studying
    • schoolwork
    • extracurriculars
    • others (homework from home)
• clean workspace
• regular intake of downtime
• how to decrease stress levels and stay calm
  • different breathing methods

It seems that I am very ambitious this week (because I have a lot of things planned), so don’t expect me to get done with everything.

Now let’s get started with… What my room looks like right now…

Please don’t judge.

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I mainly need to clean the floor, bookshelf, and desk. I usually clean the desk every few weeks, but it’s in worse condition because I organized a lot of school stuff and now it’s cluttered. On the floor, you can see that there’s a lot of unused stuff, and also you may see the purple and dark blue backpack. The dark blue backpack is for school and the purple one is for outside of school stuff. If I have time, I can show you guys what I put in each of them. I need to organize the bookshelf because I never organize it.

Floor

Starting off, I’m going to put everything that has a place in my room where it belongs..

Much better… except for the two circled (in red) items, but I’ll get rid of that later.

Next up, I’ll unbox a vacuum I got at this Christmas thingy! It’s pink and it looks really cute!

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Now, the floor has been dealt with! I would rate this experience a 9/10 because I unboxed a cool vacuum.

Bookshelf

I don’t like cleaning my bookshelf mainly because it’s hard to access through the bunk bed I have. On the top shelf, there’s still some of my brother’s stuff from three years ago… so the first thing to do is to make him take his garbage out. Next up, I think I need to rearrange a lot of stuff and package things that I don’t need. While I’m doing that, I’ll also sanitize the shelves with some wipes.

Alright…

That’s all for this blog post, I procrastinated cleaning for the rest of the week, so yeah. But, to sneakily get out of the “I procrastinated” zone, I’d like for everyone to note that I was busy practicing for a recital on Sunday, so my time was not fully spent on nothing. See you next blog post!

This week, I’m going to focus on different parts of my genius hour. Mostly because I don’t want to do anything today and I’m very sad because this is a Wednesday and I don’t like Wednesdays.

Recap

I’m first going to see what I want to do by copy and pasting the previous plan onto here:

• regulating screen time/efficient use of technology
  • regulating social media/time wasting apps
  • exploring apps that will help me benefit from
• daily schedule breakdown (how it is to be Rachel)
  • what I am doing on a daily basis
    • what I should be doing on a daily basis
  • include all the days (Sunday-Saturday)
• hobbies (because we all need some happiness)
  • journaling
  • spending time outdoors
• timing my life around my extracurriculars
  • being ready to change my schedule to be more fitting to the situation
• changing my lifestyle as extracurriculars stop for the summer
• efficient note-taking (aesthetic notes)
  • understanding what is more important
  • studying
    • schoolwork
    • extracurriculars
    • others (homework from home)
• clean workspace
• regular intake of downtime
• how to decrease stress levels and stay calm
  • different breathing methods

I have decided to bold what I will be doing today/this hour, and to italic what I should do in the rest of the week.

Breathe…

As of right now, I’m going to research different ways you can calm down. Although this is a far stretch from my ultimate end goal, I believe that it is very important for me to know the best methods to calm down and which methods work for me.

I’ve been having some issues lately with panicking suddenly out of knowhere. When I say panicking, I don’t me externally panicking so that everyone can see, but I’ve been having a sinking feeling in my chest. I’m sure many of you experience it on a daily basis, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Currently, I know methods such as:

• Box Breathing
• The 5 4 3 2 1 sensory thing (I’m not sure what it’s called)
• Taking deep breaths through your “belly”

Yeah… not a lot. I often forget about the box breathing method, but breathing really slowly and deeply helps calm me a bit.

What I learned today

Here is the website Aasiyah and I used. We tried some of the methods:

https://www.healthline.com/health/breathing-exercise

Pursed Lip Breathing

This one felt very goofy and weird to do. It did take a lot of brainpower to do, just as described. Aasiyah rates it a 6/10 because it’s a little weird to purse your lips. I rate it a 4/10 with the same reasons.

Diaphragmatic Breathing (Belly Breathing)

People say that people should belly breathe everyday. Me, personally, I feel like it’s a valid point. Aasiyah rates it a 5/10 because it’s weird. I rate it a 9/10.

Breath Focus Technique

There’s a LOT of steps for the breath focus technique, but it’s actually a really good breathing focus. If I wasn’t interrupted by the people around me, I could’ve done this for a long time. I would rate it a 10/10. Aasiyah would give it a 7/10 because it’s weird.

Lion’s BreathI will try more methods later today or tomorrow. So that is all for now. Goodbye!

This one felt very, very weird, so I would rate this a 2/10. Aasiyah did not participate in this attempt.

Alternate Nose Breathing

Since I have a slightly stuffy nose, I will attempt this later.

Equal Breathing

This one was super straightforward, so it didn’t feel as awkward as the others. I would rate this a 7/10.

Resonant or coherent breathing

The steps seemed really simple and it made sense why I would do it. It was also very relaxing. I would rate it a 9/10.

Sitali Breath

This one wasn’t very good because it took a lot of energy to continuously open your mouth and turn it into an “O”. I would rate this a 6/10.

I got really bored after, so I didn’t want to finish.

Conclusion

Breathing really helps you calm down if you are stressed or something like that. I mostly enjoyed this exercise. Next week, I will be cleaning my room, I guess.

To start off, I’m going to show you what my weekly schedule is right now. Keep in mind that a lot of classes end in the April – May time, so this will change. It just so happens that part of this genius hour is transitioning out of many of these classes so I can manage my time with more time. Since I can’t work a computer, I will layout all of my classes and time blocks out on an open piece of my journal. I won’t label what class it specifically is (just because that’s a bit more personal) but, just as class, lesson, or rehearsal.

Legend

This is a legend for all the highlights:

• Bright Yellow: Free Time
• Pastel Yellow: What is required everyday during free time
• Green: Not every week
• Orange: This class’ end time differs week-to-week
• Blue: All of these highlights actually are only one lesson. Since every week this time changes, I added it to all the usual times. This means that if the lesson is not actually on that day, I have an extra hour of free time.

All of these times are approximate. The free time at the bottom of all the dates show how much overall free time I have throughout the day. The free time slot on the right bottom corner shows what I am expected to do every week/day. If I complete all of these, I may enjoy my hobbies.

Ultimate Breakdown

Here’s the part where I break down every day and give you my own opinion on which days I like a lot, and which days I really despise.

Monday

As humans, we generally dislike Monday because it’s the start of 5 continuous days of work. Personally, I don’t dislike Mondays that much, but it is surprising that there’s only 2hrs and 30 mins of free time. I always imagined there to be more.

Tuesday

I’m quite disappointed in myself when I see how much time I have on Tuesdays. I always imagined there to be less time so it’s depressing that I don’t use my time very well.

Wednesday

Definitely the peak of my week. Not only do I only have 1 hr and 40 mins of free time only, but it’s usually just a really sad day. Also, if I do have chinese dance after school, that will take away another 50 mins, leaving only 50 mins of free time on Wednesday.

Thursday

I love Thursdays. Not only is it early dismissal, but I also only have one 45 mins lesson! It’s great.

Friday

Fridays are great because I get to sleep later than usual, and also because all the classes and possibly lessons are very useful to me. Overall, Fridays might just be tied as my most favourite day of the week.

Saturday

Were you shocked when you saw my schedule on Saturday? Yeah. Me too. Not only does the 2-3pm class have homework every single week, but waking up early to practice for the morning lesson is also not very fun. You might note that there is an hour of Free Time that’s not at home. This is because we only own one car, and since everybody does extracurriculars and my class is right after my brother’s, I have to tag along with my brother to his class so I can be in-time for mine. If I ever get the chance to breakdown my day on Saturday, I will definitely show you what I do for that 1 hour.

Sunday

Sunday is tied with Friday. Mostly because I can’t sleep late on Sundays because the very next day is Monday. Other than that, Sunday would have been my most favourite day!

Conclusion

To sum it up, I am not-so-very busy. That means that if I do not complete everything I need to do every week, I am definitely procrastinating. See you next blog!

I’m back! I’m quite unsure what genius hour I should do, but I do have one, and only one, in mind. The genius hour topic that I think is great is…

Time Management!

Normally, people choose a very specific topic as their focus and then also incorporate time management into it, but looking back at my last genius hour, I realized I spent so much time on how to draw that I completely forgot about time management!

I also found out that I do not do well with only doing one certain thing for the whole genius hour, as I get bored really easily. So, to conquer that and not change the final end goal every 2 weeks, I think that to put the whole genius hour as Time Management is better.

Steps (Ideas)

Some steps, aka. some topics that I might look in to include:

• regulating screen time/efficient use of technology
  • regulating social media/time wasting apps
  • exploring apps that will help me benefit from
• daily schedule breakdown (how it is to be Rachel)
  • what I am doing on a daily basis
    • what I should be doing on a daily basis
  • include all the days (Sunday-Saturday)
• hobbies (because we all need some happiness)
  • journaling
  • spending time outdoors
• timing my life around my extracurriculars
  • being ready to change my schedule to be more fitting to the situation
• changing my lifestyle as extracurriculars stop for the summer
• efficient note-taking (aesthetic notes)
  • understanding what is more important
  • studying
    • schoolwork
    • extracurriculars
    • others (homework from home)
• clean workspace
• regular intake of downtime
• how to decrease stress levels and stay calm
  • different breathing methods

I will add more if needed. Keep in mind that I will definitely not be doing all of the ideas listed on here, so don’t be too excited…

Materials needed

Time is the most important material needed in this project. Not only is it literally in the name, “TIME Management”, but it is also something that we only lose, so we must use time very carefully. I haven’t used time very carefully, so that is a main reason why I want to do a project involving time management.

I also need anything that can help me study and be more efficient, such as my iPad, which I hope with help me, not harm me. I also need materials that will be needed in my hobbies (that hopefully won’t take up too much time).

What will I need help with?

I will need help with some topics that I don’t understand. A part of my project is studying for extracurricular and extra topics. This will include more challenging topics that I may not understand, such as complicated mathematics.

I believe I also need help with some different ways of studying. I know many successful people (and soon-to-be successful people) that I would like to get a view on how they, as an individual, study and succeed. So far, the study method I use can be better.

Expert(s)?

I have this awesome idea, which I sort of mentioned in the previous paragraph, on how I want to interview some experts on study methods. I already have two definite people in mind, but I also know that those people know more people who could potentially be on the list. As soon as I get this project started, I should contact one of them to see their response. That way, I can spread out the different viewpoints of the experts and also be able to try out some of their recommended study methods (if they provide any).

Finally…

I think that this idea is a good one for me, because not only will I benefit from it A LOT, but I hope it will also be engaging.

I think it already is, because I’m sitting here, at my desk, on a Wednesday night, writing a paragraph for genius hour, at 11:14 P.M.

Anyways, I hope that, because of all the different kinds of topics and ideas that I’m trying out, you will be engaged in my journey this genius hour. Because we are starting…

Genius Hour Number 2! Time Management!

Goodnight! (Or good morning, good noon, good afternoon, good dawn, good dusk, I really don’t know what time it will be when, or if, you read this)