Minimalist Learning

As many of the people in my environment know, I have specialised on learning as much as I can in as few time as possible. That means while others revise frequently in order not to lose the connection to topics that have been dealt with a while ago, I prefer to start learning about a week ahead of the exams. Well, okay, let me be honest: I should start a week ahead, but I usually end up having only a few days left when I realise just how close the exams really are. So, let me explain to you how I try to get as many facts into my head as possible during just a few days.
Warning: this is not going to work for everyone. People are unique and the way they learn things best is as unique as they are themselves. These are just my tips that I can give you from my own experience.

Before we start: Do NOT make a tutorial while you should be learning. Yeah, I'm basically doing exactly that right now. Anyway, let's get started!

First of all, I personally find it quite helpful to use a binder for my learning purposes. I'm currently studying tax law and we have to be prepared to know everything we ever did at this course of studies for all of the exams in the future. That is why I think it is incredibly important to stay organised from the very beginning. So I have a binder for my summaries and I will divide it for each subject and keep adding my future summaries to it so that I will have everything in one place. Bonus tip: take photos of the summaries so you can learn anytime on the go as well.

Speaking about summaries, summarising what I have to learn is an essential step for me and it does make up most of my learning in the end. I need to get an overview of how much it is that I really have to learn and by going through my notes and thinking about what is important and what isn't, I already revise everything. That is why I actually prefer to do this close to the actual exam instead of frequently doing a little at a time. Well, procrastination probably tells me to do so anyway. 

So, now that you grabbed a binder and you've summarised your subject, what's next? Try to use as many senses as possible while learning! Don't only read it in your mind; get creative! When I find myself learning early enough, I sometimes draw a little picture besides some facts that I just can't seem to remember which has something to do with the words. Like some puns in drawn form. That way, when I try to remember these facts, I'll think about that picture and this will take me to the actual facts that I wanted to remember. Sarcastic comments are frequently found in my summaries as well. Those summaries are for you, no one will judge.
If you're short on time, make a voice record while reading it out. You can listen to it later while doing other stuff. 
If you happen to have the exam of last year, now is the time to check if you can answer all of the questions and if you can't, you'll know what you have to take a look at again. If you aren't as short on time, take your summaries, try to solve a problem without looking at it, check with your summaries and jot down what you've forgotten about. Repeat with a different problem until there are no points left.
Buy a scented candle that has a somewhat unique or unusual smell and put it on your desk while learning (don't light it though, just smell on it while reading through your summary). Each subject should have a different candle. It works like the well-known chewing gum method, except that it is usually not forbidden to place an unlit candle on the desk at school as long as there are no words written on it or something. The human memory largely developed from what was used for identifying scents in the past, so connecting memories with scents happens a lot. We can use that to our advantage! Just make sure your candle scent doesn't bring back other memories.

I hope some of these tips were helpful. If you aren't as prone to procrastination as I am, please do not start that..! It's always better to keep repeating so that the contents of your subjects get into your long term memory - my method is just trying to make the best out of my bad habit to only think about tests when they are imminent. 

The Absurdly Weird Concept of Home at College

As many of you know, I've started going to college this week. And like many others, I had to rent a room there because I simply live too far away to drive back home each day. So what I do is living here for the week and going back to my parents' place on the weekends.

That's what pretty much everyone at my college does, except for the lucky few who live closer to this town. 

During my first four days at college so far, I've had quite a significant number of times when I talked about where I'm currently living to my friends back at home. Not only did I tell them what I like and what bothers me, but I also just sometimes have to let others know that I'm available again. And those were the times when I texted something like "Okay, I'm 'home' now. What's up?"

You see what I did there? I always put that "home" in quotation marks. 

Today, I've asked a few other people at college about their opinion on the concept of home away from home. 

One girl from a higher year said that she thinks that there is no such thing as a definite home while she is at college. She has been here for about a year now in total and during that time she made a lot of friends here as well who make her feel more at home here.

Someone else said that it's pretty weird. He doesn't live with his parents anymore and he said that it had taken him a while to accept that his new home isn't in the same town as where he had grown up. And now he went to yet another town to stay during the week because of college. He said that he honestly can't imagine calling this place home at any point since he'll only be spending his time here for three years and then he's back at home again, maybe forever.

After hearing these answers, I began to wonder what home means to me. Is it really just my parents' house? Is it my family and friends that turn it into home? Or is it here now? Can I call a place home when I know that I won't stay here for longer than three years? These are so many unanswered questions! I don't feel at home here yet. I'm loving in a room of someone else's house and share the kitchen and bathroom with the actual owner who I don't really know yet. I don't really know anyone here yet. Well, except for the girl sitting next to me in class. I have to buy and make my own food now and I haven't really found anything worth doing in my free time here. But maybe this will change within the next few weeks. 

The reason why I'm writing all this is that I think the concept of "home" isn't bound to a place. I'd say it's rather bound to the people. It also really depends on your point of view whether you want to call the town you live in for college your home or not. But I personally think it's okay to find home in several completely different places at the same time. It may just get a little confusing for the friends in your hometown if they don't know which home you mean right now.

Excited and Terrified - How I feel about going to College

For many people, going to college marks the first big step into adulthood. Most have to move away from home into the dorms or an own apartment and have to get by without their parents for a longer period of time. 

Of course everyone has worries about this new phase of life, but there are probably just as many hopes as there are fears. So in order to demonstrate just how normal it is to feel like this, I'll be telling you about my hopes and fears one week before I'll be heading to college. 

First of all, I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed. I've been talking to quite a bunch of people who are attending this exact college lately and they all said that it's a lot of work and pretty hard. Well, except for a few who said that they really liked going there since it's the best opportunity to make friends! Looking at the books we had to buy, it seems like it won't be managable to ever get a broader knowledge about this subject matter and this really scares me. 

On the other side, I'm so excited to get to know new people. I think there's no better chance of making friends than when you are studying the same subject voluntarily. I mean, that indicates that you do have similar interests, doesn't it?

My college is a bit special; other colleges have more than one course to offer and (at least in Germany) you're widely left alone with digging into the matter. At my college, we'll be organised into classrooms and the lecturers will teach almost like at school. Questions will be asked and answered, tasks will be given and there will be homework. This makes everything a bit less new to us, but there are so many horrible stories about this place that we're actually all scared of how it will actually be in the end. 

I'm really afraid of living on my own, only seeing my parents on the weekends. I mean, what am I supposed to do when something goes wrong and my parents can't help me? Of course, I'm old enough to solve problems myself, but there probably are some problems that I have never had before and don't know how to deal with. 

Living away from my parents for the first time can also be an opportunity though. I will make a lot of new experiences and I won't have to listen to them complaining about my messy desk anymore.

I'm scared that I might not make friends with anyone in college. Like, how am I supposed to survive the stressful phases without anyone to get my thoughts away from the textbooks every once in a while? 

Looking at it a bit more realistic, I'll probably find a bunch of nice people to spend my time with. I mean, among 250 newbies, I'm pretty sure at least a few will like me just the way I am. 

The one thing that most terrifies me about going to college is the tests. I was so glad when school was over and I had three months off. In Germany, the longest holiday we ever get at school is six weeks, so three months were like kind of an eternal phase of freedom to me. Well, at least until it ended three weeks ago when I had to start working. I'm so worried about the tests because I'll have to sit there in front of my desk for hours every day after classes and learn everything we've done so far. I remember doing this for the Abitur exams and I think these were the most horrible weeks of my life so far. And the people going to this college keep telling us that the Abitur was fun compared to this. 

But I'm confident that I will make it. Maybe it's exactly what I've always wanted since I was quite bored at school usually. Maybe studying this will be kind of fun. At least I keep reminding myself of the fact that so many people have made it through this course before me. 

The key is to keep believing that you will make it. Believe it with all your heart any it will be true. Don't let others get you down and stay excited about the years ahead of you!

Quick Crafts #4: Smart Mousepad

Working on a laptop can be a pain if you don't have a separate mouse to work with. But sometimes, you just won't have a table available to put your mouse on. Operating the mouse on your lap won't really work either, you might drop it or it just doesn't respond that well.
So what else can you do? Well, there usually is a bit of space on your laptop right beside the touchpad. You could use that space for your mouse if it's a small one. And as we all don't want to scratch our laptops, why don't you simply make a little mousepad to fit that space? So, here's my newest invention.

You will need:

* Fabric (preferably non-fraying, like fleece or craft foam)
* Hot glue
* Pressing iron
* Baking paper

How it's done:

Cut your fabric to size so it fits into that corner of your laptop. You can use an old mousepad as well or craft foam. If so, you won't have to make it non-slip as it already is. Round off the edges and shake it well so all the leftover fuzz will fall off (and not into your laptop).
To stop it from slipping, there are several methods to do this. You can either fuse your fabric to craft foam or an anti-slip mat and cut it to size, but this might add more height to your mousepad. I didn't want the pad to be thicker because I want to leave it on that edge when storing my laptop away.
The method I used isn't particularly safe for children, but it's quick, easy and most people probably have it handy like I did.
Grab your hot glue gun and make dots of glue on the bottom side of your mousepad. I made lots of little rows of dots all over the pad. Then, take your pressing iron, heat it up and spread baking paper over the glue dots. Press it until you can see the molten dots through the paper. Let everything cool down a bit and take the baking paper off. Let it cool a few more minutes and you're good to go.

Depending on the speed settings of your mouse, that very little space can be more than enough to get your cursor all the way from one side to the other and all across the screen. It's pretty much the best solution if you don't have a table. And that is one reason why laptops were invented, right?

How to make a Bedside Caddy

Getting organised is an ongoing task in many people's lives. Some might have less trouble with it than others, but in the end we all need some place to put everything back to in order to keep a room, appartment or house tidy. 
This being said, just putting everything onto a table or night stand probably isn't a good approach to tidying up. It'll just look very crowded and not exactly pleasant. And that's where this tutorial kicks in. 
Just imagine creating a spot for all that clutter on (and maybe even around) your night stand. One that will not take up any precious floor space and comes in extremely handy if you have to reach something directly from your bed. 
This by the way also makes a great gift for people of any age and it's actually a pretty fast and easy to make - you won't even need a measuring tool!

So here's how it's done:

1. Gather everything you want to store inside your caddy and lay it out on your bed. Make two or three rows if you have items of varying sizes. Put the small items into the first row, bigger ones into the middle and the biggest in the back. 

2. Organize the items in an order that is useful. Bring the items you'll need during sleep somewhere near the head end of the bed, those you probably won't need closer to the foot end. 
3. Group your small items, you don't want to sew a pocket exclusively for your ear buds, so you could group them with your glasses or charger. 

Step 1-5

4. Put bigger items behind the smaller items in a way that you always have one or more pockets of the front items aligning with the middle pockets. This makes sewing a lot easier. Take a look at the picture to see what I mean, one pocket is always a group of items without any space between.
5. Space your items out. You can use the whole length (or width) or your bed if necessary, so don't be afraid of using more space than necessary. 

6. Now choose your fabric. Stiff cotton fabrics work great for this project while stretchy fabrics might be a little more tricky to sew. I chose to use some fabric from old tablecloths which I don't really like. This project can be an extreme fabric waster depending on how many things you want to store, so I would recommend using inexpensive fabric. The back piece of fabric will have to hold the whole caddy in place by shoving the excess under the mattress, so the length has to be as long as possible and at least twice the height of your caddy (or once if you don't want a huge pocket in the back) plus a few inches to tuck it under the mattress.
7. Cut your fabric to the width of your caddy (which is a bit more than the width of the items spread out, just imagine you would put another pocket on either side, leave enough space at the edges). 
8. If necessary, hem the top edge of your fabric. As I used old tablecloths, the edges were already neat. 

Step 6-10

9. Lay your front fabric on top of the middle fabric and mark the pockets for the small items. If you don't know how wide your pocket needs to be, take the item you want to put inside, push down the right edge of the pocket, slide the item inside and push down the other corner. Mark about an inch wider than the second corner so that you can slide your items inside more easily. Mark the seams that will only be needed for the front row differently than the ones that will go through two layers. I used an air erasable pen to mark my edges, but pins will also do.
10. Decide on the height of your front and middle pockets. I eyeballed it out and added about three inches because the pockets won't lay flat when they are filled. One inch more would have been sufficient though, but I didn't want to risk that my items might not fit in. Cut the fabric to size.

11. Sew the bottom edge of your front and middle pockets together with both good sides facing up, so you basically sew a good side to a wrong side. Sew it just the way it's pictured in the image for step 6-10. If you only have two layers of pockets, skip this step and the next and go straight to step 13.
12. Sew a straight line from the bottom edge to the mark of each pocket that only exists in the front and doesn't form a pocket in the middle row. In my case, this was for example between the key on the bottom left and the hand lotion.

Step 13

13. Decide on a height for the last row of pockets and sew the bottom of your two existing rows onto the third piece of fabric right side to right side, upside down, as far away from the top as you want the height of the last row to be. If you have enough fabric, I'd recommend making at least one large pocket in the back, you never know what items you'll find that don't have a space of their own yet. 

Step 14

14. Flip the first two rows up again and sew the lines that go through both layers onto the third layer. 

After step 14

15. Fold all the rows down so that the pockets are on the inside and sew along the two side edges. Turn it right side out and hem the side edges of the back piece if necessary. If your caddy isn't as wide as mine is, you might decide to be done now with one large pocket in the back. For mine, I needed to divide the back pocket at least once near the middle because the huge back pocket would have dropped all the way to the floor and I wouldn't be able to grab my items easily that way. To do this, choose a long seam that goes through the front and middle pocket layer and sew along this line through the back layer as well, making the new seam all the way to the upper corner of the back pocket as well.
16. Cut all the thread ends. At this point, I eyeballed how much excess fabric I want to be tucked under the mattress. I wanted it to "cover" about half of my mattress's width because I'd be filling lots of heavy objects inside (like my laptop and my 3DS consoles). That is about 20 inches (50 cm). If your caddy won't hold too many heavy objects you can shorten this part of course. I'd say that the excess should be about as long as your caddy's height. I made sure that my backing fabric would be more than sufficiently long before I started. As I'm a bit lazy, I didn't hem the raw edge at the very top after cutting the excess at the top of the caddy because that edge will never be seen anyway since it's hidden under the mattress (for a gift, I would hem that edge though).
17. Speaking about it, now is the perfect time to install your caddy. If your mattress is heavy, get someone to help you hold it up while you spread the excess of the caddy under the mattress. Lighter mattresses can often be flipped up against the wall so you could do this on your own. Lay your mattress down again, making sure your caddy doesn't slip too much while doing so. And that's it. Now you can put your pillow and blanket back onto the bed and fill your caddy.

My finished caddy

Quick Crafts #3: Lazy Susan

Do you ever have trouble reaching certain spices or dips on the table? Or grabbing the scissors at the far end of your desk? Good news for you: here comes the lazy Susan and you might already have everything at home to make it! 

All you need are two wooden plates with a ridge along the edge and a few marbles. Lay your first plate down with the ridge facing up, place some marbles on the ridge and sandwich them with the second plate with the ridge facing down. And that's it. 

Now you can put a few dips or art supplies on top and rotate the top plate to reach your desired item. Simple, eh?

Three Ingredient Chocolate & Banana Popsicles

The days are getting warmer and longer again on the Northern Hemisphere and we all know what that means: Summer is approaching! To celebrate this, I decided to make up a simple recipe for you to enjoy. This very simple recipe can be adjusted to all kinds of tastes and allergies and makes a healthy and child-friendly snack to cool down on a hot day.

So without further ado, let's get started!

You will need:

* Cocoa powder (any kind will do; if you use unsweetened cocoa powder, I'd suggest sweetening the mixture, e.g. with honey)
* a ripe banana
* approximately 300g yoghurt
* a popsicle mold

How it's done:

Put half of your yoghurt into a mixing bowl or cup.
Add a few teaspoons of cocoa powder and mix it, then taste it. I took about four teaspoons for 150g of yoghurt. You can sweeten it if you want.
Scoop the chocolate mix into the molds to fill them about halfway.
Now put the rest of the yoghurt and the banana into a blender and mix it (you can also use a hand-held blender). The consistency will be pretty liquid, so you can actually pour it into the molds. Since the chocolate mixture is thicker than the banana, they will not mix up, so you won't have to wait for the first layer to freeze.
Now close your mold and put it in the freezer for about 4 hours or overnight.

Enjoy!

Quick Crafts #2: Kneadable Soap

Hello everyone!

Today I have another quick craft for you that you can make from materials you probably already have at home. This time, we'll be making soap that you can knead to add a bit of fun to washing your hands (or those of the kids). These can be a fun gift for friends and family as well and they are fairly easy to make!

You will need:

One part shower gel

Two parts starch

Cookie cutters

Optional: glitter, food coloring, a jar with a lid

How it's done:

Put some shower gel into a bowl and add starch. Knead the mixture and add starch or shower gel to get a consistency that is neither sticky (too much shower gel - add starch!) nor crumbly (too much starch). This part is actually harder than it sounds; try pressing the crumbs together to see if they are sticking to each other before adding more shower gel. And yes, as this is starch, it will be a bit messy.
Now, you can add glitter or food coloring as you like, but be aware that some food colors might stain your hands when using the soap. I'd recommend leaving the soap plain and maybe using shower gel in bright colors if you want colorful soap. My pink soap is made from pink shower gel and I didn't want to add any color since I like the pastel colors, they remind me of marshmallows. 

Now, spread some starch on your working surface and roll out the mix as you would with cookie dough (if you're only using up some leftover shower gel like I did, it's easier to press it flat with your palm). I used a piece of baking paper to cover my surface because this stuff does stick quite a bit. You can cut squares out of it or use cookie cutters or a dull knife to make nice shapes. I tried to make two little marshmallow shapes out of two pink and two white strips, sticking them together with a few drops of water. The dough does crack though, but maybe it's just because my mixture contained just a bit too much starch and I had run out of shower gel.
If you want to give them as presents, let your shapes dry over night and put them into an airtight container such as a glass jar afterwards so they won't dry out and become crumbly. You can tie a ribbon around the jar and maybe add a little tag saying that these are kneadable soap bars. If you want to use them yourself and don't really care about the shapes sticking together in your container, you can put them away right after making them. They only stick to surfaces if they were pressed onto them, but you can also put a little but of starch or flour on top and bottom of each soap cookie if you want to make sure they don't stick to each other.
Be aware that the shapes will probably disappear after washing your hands with this soap a few times, because no one can resist this somewhat fluffy kneadable structure of these little soap pieces. It's just too tempting!

About the Importance of Priorities

Priorities. Everyone has them in some way. Some value a good meal, others strive for glory or power, then again there are people who can't live without their family. 
But what is it about priorities that makes them so important? 
Well, priorities have an immense impact on our decisions. On important decisions that will be life changing. 

Personally, I struggle with setting the right priorities. For many people this can be problematic, because we all have certain role models like our parents who we value highly and think of as perfect somehow. 
We meet a lot of different individuals every day and they all seem to be happy or at least content with their lives. And we often find ourselves thinking about what it might be that makes their lives happier than ours. The truth is, everyone struggles sometimes and you might as well appear like a happy person that has everything you ever wished for. 

But if that's true, what does make people happy then? How can you actually become the happy person you deserve to be? Well, I think this highly depends on your priorities and the decisions you make accordingly. 
Do you really need lots of money to be happy? It is true, money can't buy happiness. But what else could, if not money? That, my friend, depends solely on you.
We've all seen these images and movies of happy parents playing with their children and watching them grow up. We have all seen people who don't have much money at all and who are still happy. We all know of rich people who are deeply depressed. 
Different people have different things that make them happy. It can be anything really. A wonderful home filled with precious memories, a cheerful family, a friend's joyful smile when they receive a gift from you. And in order to find the happiness you are looking for, you have to make sure you find out what it is that makes you happy. Then the next step is to make it your priority in life. 
You like to make other people happy? Try volunteering or look for a job that involves helping others. You want to see the world? Go for it and visit other countries or learn a new language and get to know different cultures. You want to have more time for your family and don't care that much about earning less money? Downshifting could be exactly your thing. 

I know that it might take a lot of courage, but acting according to your own priorities in spite of what everyone else does is the first step into a wonderful future. It doesn't matter if your role model says you're supposed to work for the money you earn if this is not what makes you happy. It is your own life. And no one can tell you how you are supposed to live it. 

Quick Crafts #1: Stickers

In this new series, I want to show you quick crafts with items almost everyone already has at home. This first one is really fun and versatile, so be sure to check it out!

When I was a kid, I loved stickers, but I never seemed to be able to actually use them because I didn't want to waste them. I think this mostly had to do with stickers being "rare" - I couldn't just make them, they had to be bought and they were quite expensive. So what would you say if I told you you can actually make them on your own? 

You will need:

* Clear tape

* Water

* An image

How it's done:

Stick your clear tape over the image you want to turn into a sticker. This can be from old magazines, advertisements, something you printed out (with ink) or even a picture drawn with colored pencils (felt tips won't work and pencil smears a bit; if in doubt test it out!). The magazines may also have glossy paper, it'll work just fine. If you need more width, you can stick a second piece of tape beside the first one, but make sure they overlap at the edge. 

Rub the tape on firmly, you want all of the image to be transferred. 

Now cut the image out in the shape you want your sticker to be and put it into water (I used a plastic cup, but if nothing's available you can also put it in the sink) for at least one minute. I'd suggest longer soaking times for glossy paper.

After soaking, take the pieces out and rub the paper off the back completely. It might stay at some edges, if so hold it under running water and continue rubbing until no paper is left. Shake off the water and hold the stickers for a while to dry before sticking them wherever you want them to be. Mine stick nicely on paper and glass. 

Now, what could you do with those? You could stick them onto paper of course (preferably white or at least light, there's no white color on the stickers), but what else? You can mark jars and plastic containers with them, for example print out words like "Sugar" and "Flour" in a nice font and stick these onto the containers they belong to. You can also put pictures or names onto glasses for a party so they won't be mixed up. The possibilities are endless!

Tips and Tricks:

You can store the stickers more easily if you haven't soaked them already. If you have, you can stick them to thick plastic from packaging, stickers are fairly easy to remove from plastic without damaging them. 

Some kinds of tape tend to turn yellow after a certain period of time; you can avoid this by using self adhesive clear book covering instead of normal tape. It's also possible to do this with a complete sheet of images you want to turn into stickers if you stick it on very carefully.

I hope you have fun trying this out!