Work With Me #3: Back To School Prep Edition

 Hi everyone!

Welcome back to my blog. I’m starting online school in the next couple of weeks so I’ve been trying to get into a routine and make all the notes I didn’t make last year. This week, though, I’ve been in a bit of a slump, so I thought that writing up another work with me would be a great way to force me into being productive. And, it automatically gives me a post to publish haha. I quite like reading these blog posts/watching these YouTube videos as it somehow motivates me to be more productive. I’m hoping it’ll do the same for you guys if you were also having a bit of a meh week. Enjoy!

7.45 - 8.25: Breakfast

I woke up this morning at around 7.45 which is a little bit later than I wanted to but it’s all good. I had some breakfast and watched an episode of Vampire Diaries: my new obsession. I’m like 2 episodes into the second season and it’s very addictive!

8.25 - 8.40: Get ready

After breakfast, I went and brushed my teeth, did my skin care routine and did my hair (a half-up half-down style). I always write my to-do lists on Notion the night before as it means that I don’t waste any time in the morning. It’s also almost like manifesting a productive day- if that makes sense.

8.40 - 10.15: Maths

Once I had finished getting ready, I did a maths past paper which I got from the website save my exams. It’s a great website for resources for maths and science at A-Level and GCSE level (I’m going into Year 11, so I’ll be sitting my GCSEs at the end of this year). It has a bunch of topic questions from past papers each topic, so I did some for Paper 4 General Algebra. Maths isn’t really my strong suit but I only lost around 5 marks, which I’m happy with.

Something I always do after I mark a past paper is make flashcards on the questions I got wrong and/or found difficult. I put the question on one side of the flashcard (as well as the number of marks available) and I put the answer from the mark scheme at the back. Closer to the exam, I should have a bunch of flashcards on each topic with more challenging questions so I can test myself and revise that way.

10.15 - 11.20: Workout

Then, I did some exercise. After hearing lots of great reviews about it, I’ve recently downloaded an app called ‘Workout for women’ and, so far, I’m loving it. I’ll be talking about it a little bit more in my monthly reflection post (coming next Saturday). It gives me a daily 7 minute workout every day based on the preferences I filled in when I had just downloaded it. It also has other workouts and stretches that are all between 7 and 15 minutes long. Again, I’ll be talking about it more next week.

Today, I did my daily 7 and an ab workout. There’s also a 7 minute workout I found on YouTube which everyone says gives great results so I tried that for the first time. It wasn’t too difficult but I definitely felt like I got a good workout in. After this, I did the leg day stretch from the app. I wasn’t technically working out my legs today but, after I exercise, my legs are sometimes super sore but nothing else aches. It was actually a really good stretch and stopped my legs from aching so much.

While I was working out, I listened to my workout playlist- which is honestly the only thing that motivates me. From the screenshot, you can see some of the songs on it, but not all of them. If you would like me to write up a post all about what is on my different playlists (I have all sorts: from monthly ones, to ‘in the feels’ to workouts) then let me know in the comments.

11.20 - 11.30: Wash the dishes

We don’t have a dishwasher in my house and one of my chores is to wash the dishes every day. I actually enjoy doing my chores- weirdly, I find cleaning very therapeutic.

11.30 - 12.00: Reading

After this, I relaxed and read a book while eating an oatmeal cookie that my mum made yesterday. The cookie itself doesn’t look that great on camera but, I promise, it tastes great!

I’ve just started reading a book called Truly Devious, which is a YA murder mystery/thriller that is set in a boarding school. Apparently, if you like One Of Us Is Lying (which I do) you would like this. I’ll let you know how I found it once I’ve finished reading it (and the rest of the series). I managed to find a free copy of the book online so I was reading it on my laptop.

12.00 - 13.30: French

Then, I started studying French. I did a listening past paper which I got 98% on so I’m really happy about that. After I marked it, I looked through the transcript and put any words I found difficult onto the Quizlet flashcards that I made. For those of you who don’t know what Quizlet is, it is a free app and website where you can essentially make online flashcards. It’s really useful for languages, vocab and definitions.

After this, I worked through the grammar workbook that my teacher gave me. There is a quick explanation of each grammar point, and then there are practice questions. Whenever I come across a completely new concept, I write it down on a sheet of paper and stick it into my French notebook (that I made for revision).

13.30 - 14.15: Lunch

I had a bit of a lunch break. We ordered in Lebanese food which was delicious: I absolutely love Middle Eastern food. 

14.15 - 16.00: Biology

After my break, I spent quite a bit of time studying biology. I wrote up notes on plant transport (transpiration and translocation) and this is quite a chunky topic. I managed to finish up all my notes on this topic, though, which is great. (PS: I’ve got a ‘How I Make My Notes) post scheduled but I’m planning on doing it way in the future. But, if you’d rather see it sooner, let me know and I’ll shuffle things around :).)

Once I finished the notes, I did a multiple choice past paper on this topic from save my exams and, like I did for maths, made flashcards on the questions I found more difficult.

16.00 - 16.50: Money Heist

In my previous work with me (which was quite a while ago!), the Spanish show I was watching was Cable Girls. But now, I’ve moved on to Money Heist and I’m loving it just as much- if not even more. My Spanish teacher recommended watching it to my class so that we don’t fall too far behind. I only have around three episodes left which makes me really sad.

17.00 - 17.30: Social media

I hadn’t spent any time on my phone up until then, so I spent around half an hour looking through my Instagram feed, messaging my friends and looking through TikTok. I’d like to think I’m quite disciplined when it comes to screen time if I force myself to be- but sometimes I let myself go. 

17.45 - 19.30: Write

My friend and I are currently working on a fanfiction story, and it was my turn to write the chapter. I take quite a while when I write creatively, but I’m happy that I got it all done in one sitting. I’m really happy with where the story is going, and I think we’re publishing it on Wattpad, so I’ll let you all know where to find it once it’s published and if you’re interested.

After that, I had some dinner, chilled, planned my next day and wrote up this post. I had a pretty productive day and I managed to tick off all the things on my to-do list. I did quite a bit of school work, which I don’t do every day, but I need to get things together before school starts in a couple of weeks. I’ll probably be talking a little bit more about how I’m prepping for back to school in my next post (my August reflection) as well as a bunch of other things so be sure to check back in next Saturday.

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe it gave you a little bit of motivation to be more productive. Please note that I really don’t do this much work every single day and I was probably more productive today because I knew I had to write a decent post haha. 

Please subscribe by pressing the button at the top of my page and, if you have a blog, leave it in the comments and I’ll be sure to check it out. See you next Saturday!

Stay safe,

Alisha xx