six month check in with my planner from seeso

I've now used my planner for six months and considering it's been several years since I last used a bound planner, it has been quite an adjustment. Previously, I was used to rings getting in the way, the page size being too small and the ridiculous weight. Now? Well, you'll have to read on to see what my thoughts are.

The Basics: Weight, Paper, Size

The one thing I'm definitely liking is the weight of this planner. It is considerably lighter than a binder and is also thinner in terms of thickness. Furthermore, the A5 page size means that I'm no longer restricted with regards to what I write down. There is now ample space for daily planning, shopping lists and to-do lists.

The one gripe I have with the planner is the paper quality. Fountain pen doesn't suit it and neither does my Kuretake Zig Cocoiro.

You might notice that the elastic fastening that was originally present is no longer there - that's because it broke off. It would've been nice for it to still be fully functional but I'm not missing it that much either.

The Vertical Layout

The vertical layout is one I've not used full-time before but I'm really liking it. The time slots mean that planning my days is a simple process but the days tend to end a bit too short for my liking - 7pm, really?

Monthly Planner Pages

I never used the monthly pages much whenever I had them in my binder. However, I've found myself using them as a blog planner instead and that seems to work pretty well. I can plan out when each post goes live and also ensure that I'm never out of ideas. The boxes are more than big enough for each day and the space at the side for random notes are great for jotting down anything and everything.

Note Pages and their Different Layouts

The different layouts on offer in this planner are just ridiculous. Ruled, plain, grid, half ruled and half plain - it seems all possibilities are present at the back of it.

Overall

I've really enjoyed these six months with this bound planner and I think that's the sort of style I'll be heading for again in 2016. Although the flexibility (in terms of set-up) isn't present, everything else weighs in its favour.

my week #167

This week, I was flat-sitting for my sister and had some girl-friends over for dinner on Thursday evening. It was lovely to just have a laugh with some food and without any boys around (won't say good food as I'm not that great a chef!). Although I do have some close guy friends too, a girly chat just isn't the same with them (trust me, I've tried!) Nothing like some great company to cheer you up when times haven't been the greatest over the last few weeks! 

In terms of university stuff, I've just been getting on with my project which is essentially an audit and have also started studying some stuff in preparation for the next academic year. Next year is beastly - it's my penultimate year at medical school but we're expected to know what we should know by the time we finish medical school! However, I'm really enjoying everything I learn on this course so it doesn't feel like a chore.

How has your week been?

relaxing during the exam period

Exams are always stressful and the time just before them (a.k.a. revision time) is even more so. Although I am a bit of a workaholic, it was important to ensure that breaks were scheduled in from time to time. Here are ten things I did to keep sane during exams...

1) Have dedicated 'me time'.

Everyday, I ensure that there is at least half an hour in each half of the day where I can have some time to myself. What I mean by this is thirty minutes in the morning and thirty minutes in the afternoon where I just spend alone and try and clear my mind. On particularly busy days, this half an hour could just be the time I'm in the shower or even my journey home from uni. Plugging in my ear phones on the bus helps drown everyone else out!

2) Light a candle and close your eyes.

Pretty self-explanotory. Also, does anyone else like watching a candle flame flicker as much as I do?!

3) Netflix!

During revision time, House was my guilty pleasure. I like to think that it aided my revision a little but that's probably just wishful thinking. Netflix is a dangerous thing to have during exam time when procrastination rates are at its highest but I think I managed to restrain myself pretty well because I only got asked if I wanted to continue watching a handful of times.

4) Reading

As mentioned before on the blog, I do love to read and nothing better than reading something non-medicine related.

5) Exercise

When the weather allowed, I would take a twenty to thirty minute walk in my locality to clear my head and it probably helped top up my (possibly) exceedingly low levels of vitamin D.

6) Write in my journal.

I'll confess - I do get stressed quite easily because I've set myself pretty high academic goals for this year so my journal is pretty much essential for the maintenance of my mental health. It's somewhere where my darkest thoughts go but also my happiest and having read back my old ones, I can see which areas of my life have seen the most change.

7) Five minute yoga!

Youtube is amazing for yoga videos and five minute yoga is just about acceptable for someone (like me) who has a short attention span.

8) Discover some new music on Youtube.

But be careful with how much time you waste doing this - I once took a twenty minute break only to have spent an hour on Youtube 'by accident'!

9) Chores!

For some strange reason, I find doing the dishes/cleaning my room very therapeutic and I can't study in an environment that's messy. At least, that's what I've convinced myself to make my procrastination periods seem more productive...

10) Blogging!

I've been blogging for almost five years now (seriously?!) and I wouldn't still be doing it if I didn't enjoy it. Though I'm not as active on social media as I was in the past, I've still 'met' some amazing people through Twitter, Instagram and even through my short experience with Tumblr. I'm still amazed that so many of you read my ramblings!

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Do you do anything to relax during exam time? Is there anything you find particularly good to take away the exam stress?

my (first) study week #1

Back in March, I decided to start a Tumblr but it didn't last long. There were too many issues of people re-posting my photos without any credit and though they may have done it innocently (or not), this doesn't make me feel better. It's basic etiquette to credit others if you get an idea or use something that isn't your own and well, it seems the Tumblr staff don't agree with me on that. They were thoroughly unhelpful in removing a post that had one of my photos without any credit and were unbelievably rude in their emails.

Anyway, rant over!

This is the first instalment of 'my study week' and you'll find it under the 'studyblr' tag. Although I'd rather do away with any connection to Tumblr, I think that's the best tag to use.

These next two images are ones you may have seen before but I thought I'd post them here and with a bit more text explaining them.

Stationery: Martha Stewart x Avery x Staples post-it notes, Artbox A5 notebook, Iconic double ended pens and a Pilot Kakuno fountain pen.

In the picture above, you can see some notes I made for the twice-weekly group work sessions I had. This academic year, the term was split so that half was spent on group work and lectures and the other half on placement (so I had three sessions of group work and three placements in total). I like to write my notes using bullet points only with headings singled out in a coloured pen.

You can see more from this notebook here; where I also explain more about how I take notes from textual resources.

Stationery from L-R: Pantone squared A5 spiral bound notebook, Pilot Kakuno fountain pen, The Planner by Seeso Graphics, A5 Artbox notebook, Muji gel pens and Iconic double ended pens.

In the picture above, I was planning out my week in terms of my group work objectives. During group work, we devise our own learning objectives that we all do and then feed back in the second session of the week. As our learning centres around weekly cases where a simulated patient will have a condition or a certain presenting complaint, we have to work out how much and what we need to know to fully understand the case.

I did enjoy group work last year (when it was still new) but having had a taste of medicine placement (where there are real patients!), I did find this whole process a bit tedious. Patients can tell us so much more as no one presents with the typical symptoms and moreover, conditions affect everyone differently and this can only be gained through patient interaction (at least for me anyway).

Saying that, my first and last groups were really quite awesome and there was enough banter to make these sessions more bearable. Quite a few of my friendships were formed through these group allocations and this year was no exception.

I'm hoping to post the next instalment of this in a few weeks' or so (depending on how busy I am) so sit tight!

Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see more or less of - I won't be offended and will try and do my best to fulfil them. However, I won't be posting these more often because I just don't have the time for that :)