unboxing study wisdom: decoding Jules Acree's best tips so you don't have to

 

Hello, my study friends,

I am thrilled to embark on my very first blogging project.  For those of you who are unaware of this project, please refer to my previous post: https://firstdraftomi.blogspot.com/2023/08/introducing-new-project-idea.html

The focal point of our discussion today is an exploration of organization. Permit me to emphasize, my adoration for every facet of organization and planning ventures. From delving into the intricate settings of Google Calendar to crafting colour-coded schemes for my school subjects and arranging my books by genre and hue – my passion for organization is boundless. Thus, I couldn't have chosen a more fitting commencement than dissecting and delving into this first video!

Video: How I Organize My Calendar | Task Batching, Productivity, Stressing Less

YouTuber: Jules Acree

Part 1: Productivity for Self-care vs. Self-worth

When you approach productivity from a place of self-care, you automatically allow yourself to set boundaries between your personal and work life. This is important as neglecting your personal needs will inevitably lead to burnout and unproductivity. Therefore, ensuring that your calendar incorporates self-care and activities that make you feel good about yourself is essential! 

Part 2: Custom Colors

Here comes my favourite part of creating a Google Calendar: making it aesthetically pleasing! Upon creating a calendar you might notice that the default colours are very... vibrant. Luckily, there is an option to customize these colours and make them your own. So, by all means, take advantage of this setting! You don't want a calendar with colours that practically scream in your face and make your daily tasks seem overwhelming!

Here are my personal Hex codes that I use for my calendar:

#cce2cb - sage green

#fcb9aa - pink

#b39ddb - lavender

#ffe9b5 - yellow

#f8cac1 - pastel pink

#d4d479 - lime green

#d7efef - baby blue

#ffbf91 - light orange

#ecd5e3 - matte pink

#e67c73 - cardinal pink

Part 3: Color-Coded Labels

To make your calendar easy to read, it is a good idea you create multiple colour-coded calendars that are treated more like labels. Now, these labels are very subjective and personal to your lifestyle and career. Jules Acree is a content creator and a spouse while I am a student living at home with my parents. 

Here are my labels:

School

Errands

Cleaning

Commute (helps me keep track of when I need to leave for school and what train I should take)

Events 

Flute/Ensemble

Hobbies

Self-care

Study

Tasks

Gazette Club (helps me keep track of the articles I need to write for my school paper)

Here are Jules Acree's labels:

Meetings

Admin work

Andrew + Jules (a shared account with her partner)

Birthdays

Computer stuff

Content creation

Deadlines

Homebodies (her online shop)

Personal

Self-care

Task-list

Part 4: Time Blocking and Task Batching

This is perhaps the most confusing part of the video because it is quite unclear for the amateur calendar user what the difference between time blocking and task batching is. It takes a little trial and error to understand these two concepts. However, luckily for you, I did a little extra research so I could better explain this!

Time blocking - is the practice of dividing your day into bigger blocks of time dedicated to specific activities such as study, hobbies, and chores. These tasks usually require more focus, time, and energy. Therefore, time blocking is a good way to ask yourself: How much time should I spend on this and when?

Task batching - is the practice of grouping smaller, more reactive tasks into task batches. This could be replying to emails, face-timing your friend or leaving a voice message: all under one task batch. These task batches tend to have more generalized names such as "socialising" or "computer stuff".

To put it simply, time blocks are dedicated to one specific activity while task batches are dedicated to many different activities. I'll give you an example from my calendar:

As you can see, "library" is my version of a task batch. In this case, it keeps track of all the different tasks I need to get done: taking physics notes (which I put under the "study" label), working on my blog post (which I put under the "hobbies" label) and reading (which I put under the "self-care" label). Whereas "grocery shopping" is just a simple time block, it is one activity that I put all my focus on for a set amount of time. 

I hope my explanation and examples made it easier to understand the difference between time-blocking and task-batching. In fact, I didn't know any of this until now!

Part 4: Hotkeys

Hotkeys are shortcuts made to make using Google Calendar a lot easier and a lot quicker. Here is a list of hotkeys and their uses:

The 'D' key - Day view

The 'W' key - Week view

The 'M' key - Month view

The 'C' key - Create a new event

You can also add a new time zone in case you have any friends or colleagues who live abroad. Just click on 'Settings' and press 'Display secondary time zone'. 

Part 5: Shared Calendar

The final piece of advice is to share a calendar with your partner, roommate or colleague. This just makes it easier to keep track of tasks that you both need to do and be held accountable for. This would also be good for any group projects as you can assign tasks to different members, keep track of who is doing what, and even share links to documents or sources via the description box when you create an event or task. 

I hope you found these tips very helpful! Be sure to check out Jules Acree's YouTube channel, her words of wisdom are definitely worth listening to.

Happy studying,

Omi ヾ(•ω•`)o