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No matter who you are, there are some days that just don't click. You just waste time throughout the day and just don't seem to get back on track. And then you just go to bed that day and wake up the next day. But you still have some regret because you wasted a day and your productivity in the next day also gets a hit.

But what if you do something, before going to bed on a wasted day? The guilty feeling of wasting a whole day is now gone and you may feel really motivated to carry on tomorrow. That because anything we do in the last few hours of a wasted day is the best thing we did for the whole day.

The thing you do doesn't need to be a very big or complex task. Even a simple meaningful task that takes only 15 minutes would be enough to end your day on a high. And ending your day on a high note encourages you to do the same the next day.  

 

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Oh…Just kill me already. I don’t want to go through this anymore.” My mind kept begging me to put my head on the pillow, my torso resisted rolling out of the bed and my brain was too sleepy to control them. I agreed.

This was me in the first few days of my ‘glorious’ early morning resolution. I never considered myself as an early morning bird. I was coming to senses why I thought that way in the first place.

Don’t think this was my first effort to wake up early. I’m a 4th-year medical student and I used to force myself out of the bed just in time to go to lecturers or to attend clinical work. So I tried to change it so many times and I have lost count of it a long time ago. My nights usually ended very late, that too after watching YouTube marathon or rarely studying. You see, sleep was never a priority for me, rather a daily job just like for many of us.

And then everything changed. I’ve had enough. I experimented heavily on my sleeping schedule when I started my quarantine life way back in March. And finally came to a permanent resolution about 3 weeks after. From then on, I woke up at 5 am every day. And yes, weekends included.

So this is my complete guide to wake up early. I’ve backed it up with science wherever needed and I’ll keep it short and sweet as much as possible so you would not fall asleep while reading it.

Let’s go…

Take baby steps and don’t change too much at once

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This is where we all get it wrong. Whenever trying to adapt to a new habit we jump right into the deep end and get fed up in 2–3 days. Don’t do that even if you feel like you can manage it. It will fail most of the time.

Progress is progress no matter how small. So take it slow. Take baby steps. In the first week try to wake up 30 minutes earlier. Then remove another 30 minutes in the next week and so on until up reach your goal.

I used this technique in my experimental 3 weeks and I was feeling a whole lot better when woke up just a little bit earlier compared to all the way up at 5 am. And you don’t have to do it in 3 weeks. Take your time. You will always be better than last week and that’s what matters.

Identify your sweet spot for sleep duration

So even without sensing it, we wake up a few times during our sleep at night, without opening our eyes. If you go through a few uninterrupted sleep cycles it will make your brain fresh and raring to go. Simply there are 3 stages. In the first stage, your eyes are closed, but easy to wake up. In the second stage, you go to a light sleep which prepares you for the deep sleep that follows in the third stage.

So, when we set up an alarm we don’t what stage of sleep we’ll be in by the time it goes off. If it goes off in the first stage, then Yay! you are good. But if it rings when we are in deep sleep, we feel exhausted waking up even after sleeping for 8 hours.

So this leads us to the next tip.

Try no alarm challenge

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Contrary to the popular advice I will encourage you to experiment on the above theory for a few weeks. Try to identify the number of hours you want to freshen up. But when you wake up don’t take that ‘5 more minutes nap’. You know what happens if you do, right?

And set an alarm just in case. You don’t want to sleep well past your office starting time by mistake.

If you aren’t getting that and really want an alarm, don’t try your traditional phone alarm. Seeing how many times we can hit the snooze button in the morning is a game most of us like to play. So to avoid that, I use an alarm that requires taking a specific photo to turn the alarm off. (there are many in the App Store or Play store)

Guess what? That specific photo for me is my bathroom sink. So I have no choice but to go there and take that photo. I usually wash my face then and there so most of my laziness goes away. You will want to smash your phone in the first few days because that snoozing thing can’t be done here. But after a few days, you’ll come around.

Understand what you’ll loose

This is something we often realize after we start something. Before starting on your journey, think about things that you would miss out on and make peace with them. If you realize this a few days into the new sleep routine, you’ll begin to wonder about what you missed and your motivation will wane. So get those loose ends out of your system at first. If you accept what you lose upfront, you won’t keep trying to hold onto it when it’s gone

It’s not that you can’t have fun once in a while. You can take one-off outs when you at least pass 3 weeks to 4 weeks. But the time taken to develop a habit change from person to person. So it is better to commit to the early days and take one-offs later.

But giving up things in our normal life is not fun, right? There should be things to compensate for your losses. Something to add to your life.

Focus on benefits

Waking up early allows me to start my day in a very relaxed and intentional way. Think about having two hours of the day for yourself and yourself only. Surrounding is calm, no one is disturbing you and you are proud of yourself for starting the day before anybody else. Believe me, It’s amazing.

Also, early risers are more proactive and anticipate problems and try to minimize them. And your prefrontal cortex is most active right after waking up, making it optimal for creativity.  A 2012 study found that waking up early could be the distinguishing habit that makes older adults happier than younger adults.

When trying to wake up early, we usually adapt to good healthy sleep as well. So you benefit from good sleep as well. A night of good sleep is beneficial to your memory, cardiovascular system, fat loss, overall mental health, and much more.

So happier, healthier, more productive, and better at dealing with problems? I’ll take it in a heartbeat!

Clarify your purpose for waking up early and prepare the night before

In non of my previous attempts, I didn’t have this component. I was just focusing on only waking up. So I wake up and think about the long list of things I have to complete on the day. I get so stressed and I go back to sleep or mess around online, and when finally get to my first task I have already wasted a precious one hour.

So lay down the structure for your morning in the previous night. This will take less than 10 minutes. So when you go to sleep at night, you know exactly what you are going to do for the first hour of every morning. It provides that extra push to get out of the bed.

You can meditate, exercise, write a journal, or anything else you would like. I usually exercise 30 minutes after I wake up. I keep my exercise clothes just outside the bathroom at the night. So it is the first thing I see when I’m going to take ‘that photo’.I take the photo, put on the clothes and I’m good to go.

“It feels exciting to adopt everything you wanted at once, but you’ll be overwhelmed by 2 days and wouldn’t do even one thing then on”

And I use one other trick to maintain my motivation every day. I watch a YouTube video of the workout I’m going to do the next day at night. That makes me really want to have a body just like the one in the video. So I go to bed thinking about it and when I wake up the next morning, I jump out of bed to follow that dream.

The trick is to have 5–6 videos for different body regions. You know, watching one video over and over again will be super boring after a few days.

But don’t forget the baby steps. In the beginning, keep it simple. You don’t want to adopt meditation, exercising, writing, and god knows what else, all at once. Don’t let your morning routine to stress you.

The goal is to get a healthy routine that puts your mind in optimal shape for the rest of the day. And then to have this routine become a habit that is burned into your subconscious so that it’s just like brushing your teeth in the morning. (now, don’t tell me that is also a struggle for you)

Don’t Start Your Morning With Junk

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Please don’t do this to yourself.

I’m not talking about junk food. I’m talking about YouTube, Facebook, or any other social media you check as soon as you awake. I did this for years and I thought it was great to start the day off by doing something fun. Yeah…that little fun ruins your day.

YouTube and Facebook give us instant satisfaction by watching a video or going through that feed. Then our mind is resistant to do anything that ‘less fun’ than that. Ever heard of Dopamine and addiction?

This will mess up your routine and make you fed up with your morning again. Off you go to bed again…I know it is HARD to give up on this habit. So, to make it easy, you should give yourself treats.

Give yourself treats

It is a great feeling because this a break or a treat I have earned. It motivates me every day to go through my routine because I know there is a reward for me at the end of the tunnel.

But what if you could not meet your desired result? Simple, the treat is out of the table. You have to do your part to deserve that treat.

What About Weekends?

Finally, a ‘Mega’ question we all have.

I will encourage you to do this every day in the first month. By then it becomes a part of your life. Now I don’t feel like I have to wake up early, I do it because it is part of my life now. It is like brushing teeth and washing face. After you do it long enough you don’t think about it. You do it.

So when it is a part of you, an off day will not affect your routine. But in the first month, give your best. That is one month of investment for the rest of your life.

Conclusion

Don’t ever think 2 weeks of experimenting on your sleep is a waste. I felt it several times and I thought of just trying to wake up at 5 am straight away. But I thank myself now for believing in the process and not jumping to the deep end at once.

It.Really.Helps. So don’t skip on that.

And don’t be harsh on yourself if you had an off day. We are all humans and we mess up. Try again the next day and you’ll be good. There are fascinating parts to waking up early. You get to be productive. You get the feeling of accomplishing something before anybody else does. You get to focus on yourself. And much more. A few miserable days can give you a lifetime of VIP entry to the most glamorous hours of the day.

I love it. And you’ll love it too!

 

You, I and basically everyone I know needed an afternoon nap at least one in their life due to that drowsiness comes to us every afternoon after lunch. And you can get rid of it just in 20 minutes if you use 'the power nap" correctly.

When you feel like you’re dragging, go ahead a take a short nap. But this nap should not take more than 20 minutes. It's 20 minutes max, and no more. You might feel it's impossible to even fall asleep in 20 minutes. In the first few days, you might not fall asleep right away, but once you try this for about a week, you will be able to fall asleep quickly and get up at the right time.

But you always have to keep an alarm on your phone, just to make sure you wake up at right time. This little nap doesn’t just recharge your batteries, it can improve your memory, alertness, and creativity.

But you have to sleep only for 20 minutes, since if you sleep more than 30 minutes it may bring bad health outcomes in long term.

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Who doesn't want to make the most out of your day? We always feel like it would be like heaven if we can lay in bed all day, watching YouTube as much as we want. Try it for one day and you will see how much of an agony it is. Doing that kind of thing doesn't give us any fulfillment. But being productive do.

Everyone wants to live a more productive existence as it provides you with a more enjoyable, fulfilled life. However, most people don’t realize th
at one of the most effective ways of achieving these ambitions is through their calendar rather than buying expensive productivity apps to help you.

The calendar is something some of us even not bother to look at these days. What is the use of a calendar when I can just know the day when I see the lock screen? Do you remember the last day you used the calendar app on your phone? Almost every smartphone comes with a calendar app. Heck, some Android phones from non-Google companies come with 2 calendar apps, including Google calendar and their own app.

And in the Playstore or in the Appstore there are hundreds of apps. There must be a reason why these companies are bundling calendar app with your phone, right? It is because the calendar is one of the most powerful time management tools if we use it well.

You might be already using a calendar to plan your day, but is it going according to the plan? Since you are here reading this article, I think it might be not going smoothly as you hoped. Well, don't lose hope. Here are some of the most important fundamentals on how to start using the calendar and make it your most powerful productivity tool.

Know how to manage your time

Just think about time as money. But this is much valuable than dollars or any other currency because once you use it you can never have it back. Not a second you waste now will not come back to you no matter how rich or powerful you are. So when thinking about time management, just act like you are preparing a financial budget. We all have prepared budgets from our school days, so it not a thing you want to take lessons for.

Write down the things you want to accomplish during a given day and give a realistic time frame that you can 'PAY' for each task. Each task is not equally important as well as not equally urgent. So you have to give dividends according to that.

Think that your house has been robbed and only you have left is $1000, but nothing else. What are the things that first come to your mind to buy? Do you think about buying that PS5 you always wanted or the Apple iPhone 12? No, those things even don't come to your mind, because there are rather important aspects to fill than thinking about expensive toys. First, you surely have to call the police but let's keep that aside. You want to buy some food, clothes, or maybe a cheap phone so you can contact your relatives or someone. See, there are priorities.

So when you sit down to plan your day, just don't write down all the things that come to your mind and make yourself promise that you will go through each and every one of them. That is never going to happen as we know by experience. Think about what are the things you can do tomorrow to make your long-term and short-term dreams to come closer. Take them the priority, and give the rest of the tasks less importance. Because at the end of the if you could at least fulfill your priorities, that is a big win.

Find a calendar that works for you

In this digitalized world, finding a person without a smartphone is a really tough ask. And having one makes our lives much easier because we can allow some duties to our little friends like reminding us when to pay the credit card bill, when is the meeting or even when is your dinner reservation. But not having one is not an issue at all because using the traditional paper calendar is still a very much viable option. Even if you have a phone, you can still choose to go with a paper calendar because it is much more fulfilling for some people to cross off the finished tasks from paper rather than putting a tick in the phone.

If you like to use a phone app, the first option you have is to use the default calendar app of the phone. Most Android phones come with Google Calendar and it is a great option because it syncs with all your Google system apps. But it doesn't matter what app you use, just choose a one you feel like using. Regardless if you go paper, digital, or use a combination of both, the only way you’ll get the most out of a calendar is to find one that fits your needs and style.

After you’ve found your preferred calendar, spend the time getting to know what it can do, as well as its limitations. The action you take might be to learn keyboard shortcuts to the latest hacks. And if you use a paper calendar, get to know how other people use their calendars by using Pinterest or any other similar service. Knowing your calendar like the back of your hand will save you a ton of time.

Schedule time for planning as well

Assess your calendar every morning

And if you can, finish the most significant and most challenging task of the day as the first thing. You will most likely procrastinate more on the most challenging task because in your mind, it causes the largest mental resistance. So you need to place your most likely-not-to-succeed-job into your calendar as one of the first things that you do for the day. This is the best time to engage in such activity because you have the most energy and focus within the first couple of hours after waking up.

Once it is out of the way, you will be filled with motivation to carry on the day. 

Use time blocking method

You may have heard this as timeboxing as well. What is meant by it is to simply allocate specific chunks of time for particular tasks. During this block, the allocated task is the only thing that you pay attention to.

Let's take a small example. Think that you have allocated time from 8 am to 10 am for your daily highlight. And after a break by 10.15 am, you have to go through another task. So no matter how much you have finished off, you have to switch to the other task by 10.15 am.

And you can block a time space for any unexpected responsibilities that arise during the day. So you don't have to completely messup the daily plan in order to attend that.

Have a daily highlight

Simply put, you have to choose a task from your list for the day, and then no matter what happens, you have to get it done during the day. You are excused if you couldn't run through some things at the end of the daily tasks, but you are failed if you can't complete your daily highlight. It's your top priority. It's your 'Star task' for the day. You have to get it done.

The daily highlight necessarily doesn't need to be the most time-consuming activity of the day. It is better to have a task that helps to reach your short-term or long-term goals. So invariably you take one definite step at a day towards your goal.

With time you can even have 'Session Highlights' like I do now. It a simple extension of the daily highlight. You have to choose a highlighted task for morning, afternoon, evening, and night. This is not at all recommended to start right away without trying the 'Daily highlight' as it may fed you up.

Try the daily highlight first and take daily step towards your goal. And if you mastered that, then you can raise your bar.

Launch reminders

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If you choose to use an app, then having the ability to set reminders is a lifesaver. You can set the app to remind you about the important tasks during the day so you don't have to keep your head full all the time. Not only do they help you remember important tasks or dates, but they can also keep you focused and on track. The key is to use reminders strategically.

Some people set reminders to all of their tasks during the day, and I would advise against it. Because, first of all, you don't want to feel like your life is being controlled by an app that says everything you want to during the day. And with this method, you know every task is not urgent and you might feel like ignoring some. Then in few days will completely ignore even the important reminders because you are not pushing yourself to respond to reminders. If you only set reminders for your important tasks, then you have to put up the work and get them done.

And also remember to set a separate reminder 24 hours in advance, for your most important meetings, reports because if you have forgotten it altogether then you still have 24 hours to get ready.

Don't get disheartened if you choose to use the Paper calendar, because still, you can somewhat simulate this by using a color code in your calendar. Use a red color to ark your important tasks and they will pop out of the rest, so you will not miss them. Then you can add other color codes according to the categories of tasks you have to make it more visually appealing.

Schedule Breaks as well

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But when having pre-planned intervals you know you have to start again after your break. There is a push. To beat procrastination you need those little pushes from doing little things through the day. And there is one more great thing about pre-planned breaks. When taking them you don't feel guilty irrespective of how much work left in the day. It is a part of your day. If you take breaks here and there, no matter how long they are you will always have small guilt in the corner of your mind about wasting time. You know what I mean.

So plan the breaks and feel the freedom.

"Measure twice, cut once" is a Russian proverb originally meant for carpenters and builders but is applicable to anything we do, isn't it? Try to do anything right in the first attempt by double-checking your work.

It might take a bit more time, but it is much better than coming back and correct your mistakes, which is not an enjoyable thing at all.

Still, you might make mistakes, but it is better to prevent the ones we can.

Instead of composing just a to-do list, create an already-done list where you write down everything you've already accomplished during the day. It’s a powerful way to keep you motivated when you need a boost.

The idea of the Anti-to-do List is that it is the account of progress for that day. Basically, t
his is a 'Done" list. This is really powerful because you can always look back at your Anti to-do List and see how much you’ve got done. And the items in the Anti to-do list don't necessarily come from the your to-do list. 

And if you want, even add a few of your previous accomplishments in your life that you are proud of, on the top of list with a RED PEN. This will give you an extraordinary feeling that you have already gone through the rough and can do it again.

 

The daily highlight is a productivity concept in the book 'Make Time' by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.

Each day you have to pick a daily highlight, which is the most important task on your to-do list. You have to complete that task during the day no matter what, and you can excuse yourself even though you couldn't go through all the other tasks on the to-do list.

The daily highlight doesn't have to be the most time-consuming task on your tasks list, it just has to be an important task that helps you to achieve your short or long-term dreams. The power of this method is it gives you satisfaction and motivation about your work during the day because you have completed your most important task for the day. It is much better than having a packed to-do list and not completing anything at all.

But take a task you can complete within the given time because if you choose a complex task that takes few days to complete, it might ultimately demotivate you because you couldn't even complete your daily highlight. But you can always divide that task into few pieces and do them on separate days. The important thing is to choose a task that is realistic to do within the given time.

 

This is a strategy inspired by the author David Allen.

There are 2 parts to this strategy. The first one is "If a task takes under two minutes to complete, do it now so that it’s out of the way". Simple things such as washing a dish, taking out the garbage, sending a reply to an email, and even clearing up the mess on your table don't take more than 2 minutes, right? So do it now and get it out of the way.

The second part is "any new habit should not take more than 2 minutes to start". You can't train to run a marathon or study to pass an exam in 2 minutes. But taking the first step such as putting in shoes to run, opening up your notes to study, doesn't take two minutes. Take that step every day and you will see the results even though this seems like a very easy thing to do.

Just because it seems so simple, most of us don't believe that they actually work. Believe me, they do!!! So take that simple first step every day, and great things will come to you.

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The system of note-taking is different from person to person. Some love to take detailed, colorful notes while some prefer to have low-key short notes. And on the other hand, some like to have their notes handwritten than typed. No matter what kind of note-taker you are, you all will agree on the fact that the simple method of note-taking, which is pen and paper is going away now. The traditional way of note-taking is taken over by countless apps, most of which are absolutely amazing for note-taking. There are several benefits as well as disadvantages when going in the way of e-ink, but you had better join with the trend sooner rather than later.

The best thing about these apps is that you necessarily don't need a laptop or tablet to write. Even an entry-level smartphone can be used for these and the ability to take notes on your mobile device regardless of where you are can be a real benefit to most of us. While there are basic software apps for taking notes, sometimes bundled for free with mobile devices, these can be quite limited to simply allowing typed-in text to be used. These days much more feature-packed note-taking apps are available.

Considering a note-takin app, they should have at least good writing experience, good interface, and organization. We went through all this and more to find the best apps available at the moment. So in this list, we are going to look for apps that are specially designed for note-taking and compatible with any operating system you use. There are some great note-taking apps that are exclusive to iOS, Windows, etc, but we will keep them away just for now so you can go through this list and can start using it right away.

Notion

Compatibility: Mac, iOS, Android, Windows, Browser

Some Notion users might find it an insult to call Notion a 'note-taking' application because Notion is so much more. Notion is a great place to plan your all things and you can use a sea of templates provided by Notion to get started. Notion templates are made to meet the needs of...well, whoever you are. You really have to see it to believe. And if the templates are not in your taste, you can create your own using all the tools given in Notion. And the tables in Notion are super powerful and they act as databases. You won't find this type of table integration to any other note-taking app and they are kind of equivalent to Google Docs + Google Sheets.

Notion is super-easy to get started and now offers Personal plans for free with unlimited blocks which is pretty much what you will need if you use this only for personal use. If you want more features, the paid plans start from $4/month.

But unfortunately, Notion is not all good. There is no offline mode and the importance of having an offline mode was shown by the few outings that occurred in the last 2 months. Also Notion apps, regardless of the operating system, take some time to load. This can be a bit frustrating especially in Android and Windows apps. But they have improved it so much over the last year, we can be hopeful that things will be good in the near future.

And one final thing about the block system used in Notion; Every paragraph is a block, and each block can be moved around, changed into different elements, labeled, and colored. Unfortunately, once you select beyond one block, you’re now selecting blocks, not text. This becomes a headache sometimes when you want to select text from 2 different blocks.

But overall, Notion is one hell of a note-taking app that anyone can use for free. And hey, did I say students can get a free Personal Pro plan if they have an email provided by a verified educational institute.

Evernote

Compatibility: Browser, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Evernote is one of the most popular note-taking apps and it is evident why that is if you have at least used Evernote for few days. This app can process most of the file types we usually use during our work. Be it PDFs, PowerPoints, Evernote can handle them. And there is a built-in scanner for the app to take photos of the handwritten notes. Neat, right? That's not all, this app also has a great web clipper that allows you to pick how much of the page you want to capture: everything, just the article text, or a highlighted selection of text.

Evernote is a cross-platform note-taking app, so no issues regarding what's your preferred OS, but Evernote can feel expensive, especially for students.

If you use Evernote to scan documents and save research papers like I do, the 60 MB included in the free plan won’t cut it. And if you want to use it with more than 2 devices or use optical character recognition, you have to go Premium. At least, students get 50% off Premium for a year. It would be nice if they can offer a free version just like Notion does for students, but at least some discount is better than nothing.

Microsoft 365

Compatibility: Browser, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

This is free, this is cross-platform and Microsoft 365 gives Evernote a run for its money not only as a note-taking app but also as a complete office software platform. Let me phrase it again, this software is totally free so you get the full features right out of the box. Most of us think about the OneNote or Sticky notes whenever we think about Microsoft 365, but you can use Word, PowerPoint, Notepad also can be used as note-takers. This is a powerful tool you can even use on a mobile device, not necessarily on a laptop or a desktop.

And just like Notion, you can use it with unlimited devices, which is paid option in Evernote. But the interface of Microsoft 365 apps leaves something to be desired compared to the other note-taking apps we use. Its'messy interface with limited tagging capabilities might turn off some people but this platform is something that goes beyond as a note-taking system and will be ideal for someone who used to the Office system.

Roam Research

Compatibility: Browser-only

Roam research takes a different approach to note-taking. With this, you can instantly link one note to another to create a web of notes. And then Roam features a “Graph Overview” that shows the connections between your notes as a web. It’s an interesting alternative to the hierarchical view that most note-taking apps use. This program offers you a very good writing experience and when you first open the Roam it is all set up and you can start writing right away.

And just like with Notion, there is no offline capability with Roam. This currently a browser only and requires you to have an internet connection to work with it. However, an offline mode is in the works and we will receive it hopefully in near future. And also to get the best out of Roam's features you will need to learn about the app a bit more because if you don't use what Roam is capable of, it is a shame. And finally, this is more expensive than any other on this list, with a cost of $15/month.

Google Keep

Compatibility: iOS, Android, Browser

Google Keep makes the list for the people who need a simple note-taker with basic features. This is a completely free, cross-platform app which is pretty simple to get used to and work with. This might not be the ideal setup to take your class notes compared to other options, but if you are familiar with other Google productivity tools then using this program id s breeze. Although it is simple, this app comes with a robust set of tools for taking and sharing notes. Like Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets, Keep notes can easily be shared with other users via email. And top of all, this is almost free. Free users get 15GB of free storage, and this is significantly higher than similar platforms like OneDrive and iCloud, which offer just 5 GB each, and that would fulfill the needs of the most. But if you really need it, additional storage is available through the Google Workspace subscription, along with a wide range of other perks.

But don't expect organizations like in Notion from this app and it doesn't want to be like that to serve the purpose it's here. Even though Google Keep isn’t the most fully-featured note-taking program currently available, but it’s still incredibly easy to use and convenient for anyone who uses other Google platforms.

Standard Notes

Compatibility: Browser, Mac, Windows, Linux (!!!), iOS, Android

This is one of the most security-focused apps and everything you write here is encrypted by default and only you will be able to access them. Its' free version is more than enough to use as a note-taker but also offers a paid version with a better text editor, code editor, and Markdown editor. And top of all that, this program can run even in Linux-based machines.

There are a sea of note-taking apps to choose from and if you are a beginner, it could be overwhelming at the start. Since nothing is perfect, you have to make compromises in some departments to find the best note-taking app for you. Here, we have given you the choices we believe to be the best and this list will get updated whenever a new product or existing product comes to the threshold of our testing. Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments and if you got something out of it, please consider subscribing to our blog and you will be the first to know about articles like this.

 

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It’s a boring afternoon. 

You’re tired after a plethora of lectures, and all you want to do is watch YouTube while having a great ice cream. But your brain keeps loading up you with the things you have to do. That half-completed project, the test in the next week. Or even just the fact that you have to study a bit daily. But still, you can’t get your mind to it, even though you know you’ll be cursing yourself for not doing it at this moment.

We’ll have been there. After all, it’s not that easy to find motivation for something boring as studying, isn’t it?

Rather than studying itself, finding the motivation to study is a real challenge for most of us. Our minds like instant rewards. That is why we are always inclined towards watching that new YouTube video or Netflix series or even just going up and down in the Facebook feed. That will give us a false sense of instant satisfaction that studying rarely able to produce.

So how can we get out of this deep dark hole? After all, motivation is something really important for our success in education.

Luckily for us, there are several techniques that can help you with that. You may have read or heard about most of them from various places. But have you ever consistently applied them to your study sessions?

Pomodoro technique

First, you decide on the task you want to do and set a timer for 25 minutes. After the end of 25 minutes of work, you earn yourself a 5-minute break. After about 3–4 sessions you can have a longer break of about 30 minutes.

I find this method great to get your engine running as we know only we have to work 25 minutes continuously. It’s not that long, right?. No matter how lazy you were before, after starting work some of that resistance will definitely go away and you will end up in doing more than few sessions. After I get in the zone I usually do not turn on the timer again since by then you can keep your concentration more than 25 minutes. But don’t go overboard where you could end up being fed up.

Giving well-deserved breaks

Dopamine is part of the wanting system. It propels you to take action. The liking system makes you feel satisfied and therefore pause your seeking. But the dopamine wanting system is stronger than the liking system. You tend to seek more than you are satisfied with. You can get into a dopamine loop. If your seeking isn’t turned off at least for a little while, then you start to run in an endless loop.

Just think that we watch a YouTube video just before a study session. Since it is a very pleasurable activity large amounts of dopamine are released and then when we sit to study our brain has no joy whatsoever to engage in that boring activity. So that’s why I usually never start my day by watching YouTube or going through Facebook feed which will kill the day even though we don’t feel like that when doing it.

Instead of that I usually give myself the chance to do those pleasurable things in the intervals I take during Pomodoro sessions. It gives me extra motivation to do my work as there is a gift for me at the end of the line. If I did that before studying or anything I have to get done, I definitely would not get that kind of motivation.

Another benefit of this is that you can enjoy your breaks as you earned those by studying for some time. If I were doing having breaks before doing my tasks, I feel pressured and guilty as there is so much work left to do and subconsciously I know that I am doing this just to delay starting my work. So why don’t you just finish that task and have a big fat break, which is well deserved.

Exercise and drink more water

Drinking more water keeps you well hydrated and refreshed. It has many benefits for your health as well. Keep a little water bottle on your side and have a sip whenever you feel thirsty. It helps to concentrate more.

Keep away distractions

And one more important point. If you love listening to music while studying, listen to instrumental music rather than music with lyrics on it. So listening to the latest pop hits while studying will actually harm your study session than helping you out.

Don’t study a subject for too long

And most importantly don’t overdo anything..even studying

We have to do everything in moderation. Even in studying there are no exceptions. What is important is that we devote that 8 hours only to studying but nothing else. If we could pull that off, we would have done more than enough work for the day, and believe me when I say it. So with that, I have about 6–7 hours to do whatever I want other than studying which is the reward I earned by my work time. So I can have peaceful meals, baths and have time to read a book, gardening, going for a walk or anything else I like.

Your mileage may vary and you might able to get more hours of work from a day. If you could and if you need that, by all means, keep your routine the way feel most comfortable.

Relax

So these are few methods I use to boost up my motivation and maintaining it for a longer time during studying. You may have really good methods of your own so adding some of these methods will level up your game. Starting over is always the most difficult thing to do. So if you can master these techniques, then you can jump over the toughest hurdle. But don’t try to accommodate everything on this list at once. Take baby steps to make consistent changes over a few weeks. The results will definitely surprise you!

Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

 

Self-doubt… Ah, the dreadful killer of all the motivation, enthusiasm, and happiness in our lives. For most of us, it lingers around anything we do, no matter how small or easy the task is. “What if I fail?”,  “ What others would think about me if I even can’t get this done?”

Everybody has doubted themselves at least once in their lifetime. No matter how successful a person is, he/she still might have self-doubt when engaging in certain activities. Sometimes it can be useful, helping us to see our current limitations or simply pointing out a half-baked or a bad idea. But most of the time, it is not the case. That troubling pessimistic voice makes us fear about unnecessary things and holds us back in life. So how can we get around or get rid of that fear and move forward in life with more confidence?

These are 9 ways to deliver the knockout punch to those pessimistic voices in the back of your head once and for all. let’s dive in!

Say “stop” to your negative thoughts

So whenever something negative comes to mind, talk to them. Tell them you are better than that and you can complete this task without a hiccup. Tell them you are not going to go down that negative road once again. If you want, take a card and write a small inspirational speech to say to yourself whenever those doubt starts bubbling up, and keep it in your wallet. It will help you to disrupt the negative thought pattern and prevent that destructive inner voice from taking over.

And don’t let those feelings come back to you when somethings go wrong. You are a human, not a god. So you are allowed to mess up things once a while, as we all do.

Use memories to strengthen you

That is why keeping a journal can be a great idea. If you are not into that, there are several great apps that are designed to write about your day. No need to write several pages, write just one thing that you are proud of yourself on that day. It can be a small thing, but when you read it several months after, it feels like a much greater deed and can wash away the doubts about yourself.

And ask yourself, how many times when you doubted yourself or feared something would happen, and did that negative thing come into reality after you still took action? The answer is probably not very often at all. Remember that. Most of the fears we have are pointless and if we think rationally and act correctly, those things will vanish into thin air.

Get help from your friend

This is very much the case when it comes to self-doubting thoughts. Exposing your fears to someone and saying them out loud can often help you to hear how exaggerated these thoughts have become. And always, you can take help from your friend to get out of those dreadful thoughts haunting you.

Never compare yourself to others

Just think about your Medium journey. It’s not remotely fair to compare your first-month earnings to earnings of a well-established writer in the Medium. You both do the same thing, but they have got more experience in writing, how Medium works, and most importantly they have a relatively large pool of followers expecting to read his writing whenever he put an article out.

So the best thing to do is to compare yourself to past yourself. Try to be better than yesterday. See how far you have come to this point. There were countless obstacles, setbacks, and doubts, but still, you made it and you are here today as a better human being. You can do anything you want. You just have to believe in yourself.

Never worry about what others think

One of the biggest roots for our self-doubts is the thought that ‘what will others think about me if I screw up?’ Well, simply put, people don’t really care that much about what you do or say. Everybody has their hands full with problems of their own — about their jobs, families, financial issues, or even the next sports match — just like you.

The people who matter, such as family members or best friends will not think low of you just because you screw up something and they will actually help you to come out of failure. So don’t waste your precious time worrying about what others would think of you.

Don’t take criticism personally

If someone criticizes you on a personal level, think about whether you actually have those weaknesses. If you do, work on them, and if you don’t just forget them. Anyone doesn’t have the right to take control of your mind without your consent.

But the problem is our minds are too weak now. Even if we give time to strengthen our physic, we rarely give time to make our minds strong. So whenever we are facing criticism, we take them personally and let our mentality and self-confidence take a serious hit. But what if what he or she said or did isn’t really about you at all? Perhaps your co-worker that verbally lashed out at you is having a bad day. That can happen to anybody. You don’t know everything that’s going on in another person’s life. Remember that the world doesn’t revolve around you. So be careful not to misinterpret and build blame and doubt within yourself without any reason. Just let it go, rather than hanging on to it.

Read a book, listen to a podcast that encourages you

I used to read books by Norman Vincent Peale every day for years. Those books brought me some serious motivation with some amazing storytelling. They didn’t give me lists of ways to get motivated or get things done. They immersed me in stories of personal experiences of the author on people who made it to the top after hitting rock bottom.

You might have your own favorite. You can take that or find a new one. Anyhow, give 30 minutes from your daily routine for this and see how you shift your self-doubts into optimism and into thinking constructively about your challenge.

Develop your weak areas

For instance, imagine that you have to do a presentation at school or work in a week. Going in front of a group of people and talking is not that easy if you not prepared and mentally ready. So whenever you are given a presentation, start with ‘I can do this’ rather than ‘I might blow this’. Then start practicing for it every day. Practice at home in front of a mirror or in front of a friend. It doesn’t matter how, as long as you work on it. Weaknesses are just barriers in our minds that put there by ourselves. When we work on them, they disappear leaving no trace.

And don’t forget to thank yourself whenever you improve on anything. It will motivate your subconscious mind to drive you to improve more. Most of the time we do not give ourselves enough credit for the things we have done. We are too harsh on ourselves. Why is that? After all, we want to be happy more than anything else. So start rewarding yourself on your achievements, no matter how small it is.

Remember that not everything goes according to the plan

Trying to plan every move you will make on a journey towards a goal or dream can become draining and lead to quite a bit of self-doubt. So do a bit of rough planning and then start your journey. And remember that you can always course-correct along the way towards what you want.

You can always get on top of any set back with the new knowledge, experience, and feedback you gather along the way. So no need to doubt yourself and give up on your dreams whenever something doesn’t go according to plan. It was going to happen all along. We just have to be ready to tolerate it.

Self-doubt is one of the top enemies we have. As the saying goes “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will”. So learning to cast aside self-doubt is something really important when moving forward in life. We need it almost everything we do and it will help to take out a little of stress, fear, and insecurity from us. So it’s definitely worth a try.