With only a few weeks left until finals, I’m starting to feel the weight of the long semester. Work is piling up, and it seems like no matter how much I do, there’s always an infinite number of tasks left. When I’m super motivated, I can get homework and studying done really well. But some days are harder than others when it comes to drive. The biggest things motivating me right now are Studygrams and ‘Study with Me’ videos on YouTube!
Studygrams are Instagram pages specifically dedicated to note-taking, studying, and university life! I love these accounts because not only is it super satisfying and cool to see how other people take notes, I also learn a lot about different note-taking methods I could try out, not to mention that they are incredibly aesthetically pleasing. I don’t think I could ever do as much as some of these studygrams do for their notes, but it’s still great to look at.
Here are some of my favorite studygrams.
@catchingthelight_ This account is run by a 19-year-old student attending the University of Basel in Switzerland. Along with including posts about what she is studying and taking notes on, she also includes great time lapses of her working. These are just really fun to watch and they definitely help my motivation.
This account is run by a medical school student, and their notes are essentially works of art. Their notes are taken on an iPad, which I really enjoy because I am intrigued by digital note-taking as I have seen it more and more in my classes. Their notes are incredibly neat and well organized, and seeing them makes me want to get creative with my notes!
I consider this studygram to be a little bit more realistic. Not everyone has the time, supplies, or energy to draw elaborate figures or be neat with their notes. This account shows the reality students go through and gives great helpful tips along the way! They also have lots of timelapses of them studying so that you can get motivation and see how they set up their desks for maximum productivity!
This account is run by Maddie, a fourth year university student in Sydney, Australia. What drew me to her feed was how bright it was! There is a lot of light in her pictures, and her notes are always so neat. I think her notes are somewhere between artistic and realistic. While she uses lots of color and fonts, everything is usually pretty uniform and organized.
Along with studygrams, I love watching “Study with Me” videos on YouTube! These are really awesome if you want some background noise, whether that’s piano music, someone taking you through their day, or even study ASMR (like the sounds of pencils on paper or typing on a keyboard).
My favorite study channel is suzlnne. She has a lot of great “Study with Me” videos, both with and without music. She also has a lot of vlogs about her daily life in Korea, which usually don’t have much dialogue and are just in a “follow me around” style. These are really great when you need to concentrate but you still want some kind of background noise or visual.
I also really enjoy TheStrive Studies, which is a channel that does a lot of “Study with Me” videos using the Pomodoro method, where you work for about 25 minutes and then take a break. These videos are great if you’re trying out a new method of studying and want someone else there to try it with you.
Finding the motivation to study can be hard, especially as the semester is winding down and we’re starting to feel burned out. But, sometimes taking some time to see how other people are studying or how they are setting up their notes is a great motivator! It’s weirdly satisfying to watch someone work on their notes in a timelapse, but I find that sometimes that is exactly what I need to start my work too!