How to motivate yourself when things get tough

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Sometimes, life gets tough. In the past month, I had so much work to do that it felt like I was drowning. But then I try to motivate myself with these few things:

• Just remind yourself how privileged you are, to be able to study. Other people wish they could be in your shoes. So work hard and appreciate what you have.
• Only focus on the next project. One can only eat an elephant bite for bite, swallowing it whole, will kill you! Looking at all your work that needs to be done, will make you negative and will not help you with the next project!
• Make a cup of tea, take a deep breath and start.
• Go to 8tracks- choose a study and classical playlist and relax while working.
• Allow yourself some 'me' time, but not too much or you will fall behind.
• Cry it out, moan and complain, but then move on! You have to face your work...
• It might look like a mountain now, but once you start, things will look better!
• My best advice to myself is always: Anything is better than nothing... Even if you get bad grades, you could've gotten NO grades if you didn't do it!

I hope these few tips will help you, when things feel too much. 

My exams are starting in a week's time and here we are still busy scraping together participation marks so we can go and write exams! Yes, studying is tough! Suck it up and get a move on :) 

How to procrastinate

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Here at my university, we are busy writing semester tests. It's equivalent to a mini exam. It helps us to scrape together the little marks, we already have and helps to lift our participation mark for exams. But I am very good at procrastinating, so I decided to compile a list of things, which I and many other do, while procrastinating.

This is us, procrastinating....

My procrastinating list:

• Your room is always exceptionally clean. (The dishes get washed immediately and the floors are scrubbed.)
• You are up to date with all your series.  (Game of Thrones, Pretty Little Liars, Reign and Dexter are my faves.)
• ALL your social media profiles are up to date. (Regular posts are made on each profile)
• You have regular visits with all your friends. (This is easy for me, because I stay in a dormitory.)
• Your parents know you are alive. (You phone them everyday to procrastinate just a little more.)
• You are there when the dining hall opens. (You run for food and the 15min break away from work.)
• Having songs in your head and then ending up on Youtube to watch it. (Two hours later you are still on youtube.)
• A shower becomes an outing. (You get excited to go and shower and absolutely take your time.)
• When procrastinating, one takes at least 2 naps.... each hour... (When I should study, I get so tired and take at least 2 naps a day.)
• You count all the dots or groves on your ceiling. (Ours is not exciting, 'cause it only has 17 groves...)
• Taking out your trash also becomes fun. (When you were little you hated it, now you take out the trash even if there is only one paper in.)

While procrastinating, just remember that you are extremely privileged to study and only 3% of the population is able to study and never let it get out of hand like this:

"It's gotten to the point, where I can't even call it 'procrastination' anymore,

I should just call it 'jeoparadizing my future'"

2013 is on it's back!

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

What a year it was!

Me and my awesome roommate at RAG

I started my second year at university and it was so fun and time flew so fast that it feels like it almost didn't happen, but now it is over. Kind of sad when I think of it. Next year I get my degree and I also hope to get approved for a honours degree, hopefully in PR or Web Design.

Me and my study buddy

Everyone needs that study buddy who will motivate you through the year. Merieke has been the best study buddy anyone can ask for! But she is also one of my best friends and I value her friendship dearly! She also has an identical twin and she is also one of my best friends.

Every year has its ups and downs, but this year mostly had UPS!!!

Now, I have a three month vacation until February and it is summer here in South-Africa, so it's our summer holiday!

I would also like to thank everyone that started to read my blog, I have a 1000 views and I only started blogging in November! So it's not bad! 

For the few days that are left in 2013, ENJOY EVERY MOMENT and Carpe Diem!

We will rock 2014!