Hello all! For those who are new here, three months ago I moved halfway across the world in the middle of a Pandemic in order to start Grad School in Sweden. And while it has certainly been an adventure, one of the most interesting things that I had not even really expected was in how different the holiday celebrations would be here in Sweden versus in my home state of Florida.

So – what does Thanksgiving look like in Sweden?

… a Thursday. It looks like a thursday.

In case you were unaware, Thanksgiving is a specifically American Holiday. As in – no other countries celebrate it (with the exception of Canada, but that’s a different story). There are a variety of fall and harvest festival celebrations taking place all around the world this time of year, but Thanksgiving as a construct, involving Turkey, football and naive childhood plays involving pilgrims and native populations, was a holiday that was born in the USA.

To be honest, Thanksgiving has almost completely snuck up on me. It is now two days until turkey time before I even realized the holiday was right around the corner.

In a perfect world, I would invite my friends and family over to my dad’s house and host a full-blown traditional American Thanksgiving complete with 12 hours of cooking, a whole roast turkey, and enough carbs to sink the Titanic. And while I would love to go all out celebrating an American holiday in the middle of rural Sweden… your girls got homework and a research project underway and absolutely no time to be dealing with all that.

Also, Swedes don’t actually sell the whole turkey? At least not that I’ve been able to find. Or really turkey in almost any form other than sliced deli meat.

So if I’m skipping the epic feast, then what Thanksgiving traditions will I be keeping up?

Spending Time with Family

While studying in Sweden I’m living with my dad so he’s gonna see me whether he likes it or not. If I get done with my work early enough though we may stream a movie together later, usually Die Hard is a fairly standard holiday staple in my house, although I wouldn’t say no to a few episodes of Hanna, so just some warm and cozy over the top violence and explosions… that’s normal, right?

Cooking and Eating Together

Well… does microwave leftovers count as cooking? Normally by the time I get home from Linkoping after an hour-long bus ride and biking uphill, it’s pretty late, but we’ll usually sit together and chat, and often times he’ll have something kept warm on the stove for me.

I might try and make something this weekend if I can actually find a darn turkey. But more than likely it will end up being a low carb version of a chicken pot pie or shepherds pie (swap out the mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower) because my dad is currently on the LCHF diet and… as a consequence of living together, so am I. If you haven’t heard of LCHF, imagine the love child of Atkins and keto, but a little less restrictive.

Remembering What I’m Thankful For

This is one tradition I will definitely be keeping.

This time last year I had a new nephew in the world, was struggling to balance two jobs with publishing my kids’ books and going back to school for about the millionth time. I was just barely considering even applying for grad school. I never in a million years could have imagined any of the struggles that would be thrown our way in 2020, but then again I don’t think anyone could have. To have gotten through most of 2020 with my health, my sanity, and my family is a blessing that I can’t ever be grateful enough for. To be in Sweden, studying in a field I am truly passionate about, with an opportunity to make a lasting positive impact in the world… this is something that I will never not be thankful for.

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Wherever and however you celebrate, despite it’s less than gracious beginnings, the idea of Thanksgiving as a modern American holiday is something I can really get behind. It can be hard to slow down and recognize how far we’ve come and everything that we have in a world that is perpetually pushing us ever forward and constantly encouraging us to do more.

So take a moment, look to the people you are able to spend this holiday with, remember those you can’t, and appreciate everything that can… preferably while also enjoying some turkey-related foodstuffs and American football.

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Check out this and more original content available every week at TheNerdyNanny.com by subscribing to us on Facebook or Instagram.

You can also check out Eve Daniels, author of The Nerdy Nanny books, on YouTube where she gives writing and academic advice as well as updating you on all of her latest and upcoming projects.

As we dive further and further into the school year, and I dive further and further into my first year of grad school, it feels like a good time to review one of the best study methods in the known universe –

Outlining.

Yeah, I know, not super complicated, and yet somehow so many of us seem to have pushed this simple technique aside. I feel like, for many students, this is simply because schools no longer teach how to outline, they simply expect you to know how to do it.

But creating effective and easy to understand outlines that you can use as reference material and study sheets is not something that comes naturally to most people.

So how do you do it then?

Start with Notes

Going straight from text or a lecture to an outline is like trying to create an airplane from a fan – you are missing a couple of key components there. The landing wheels, the wings, and, just as importantly, the fuselage or ‘body’ or the plane that keeps you safe and connected to this contraption as it flies through the air. Trying to make an outline straight from your textbook will not help you to understand the material better. It can give you a skeleton to work off of, but it will not improve your comprehension of retention.

Start by taking notes on the subject that you need to study. These can be as rough or as neat as you need them to be. I use something called the ‘3 Pass’ method whenever I take notes, which I went over briefly in the video below but we’ll go into more detail another time.

In order to create an effective outline, you need to know what the important areas of focus are, which means you need to already be at least somewhat familiar with the material. So start with notes, then move on to creating your outline from there.

The Big Three

Whenever you are note taking and then subsequently creating an outline, there are three main areas that you need to focus on.

Concepts

I am starting with concepts not because it is simple, but because it is difficult. But many of the things worth doing are.

Concepts can be simple or abstract but they are common in almost every subject. In science it may be an important concept that cellular division is a cyclical process. In math the Order of Operations is undoubtedly an important concept. In history class, the ways in which economics impact voting patterns are important concepts to understand.

Sometimes these concepts will have clear cut names and be readily explained. Often times however they may be woven throughout a chapter or a lesson touching many different subjects and be more difficult to pull together into a concrete thought. This is where taking the notes before hand helps the most. It is easier to recognize patterns when you write something several times than it is to see them when you reread something several times.

Names / Dates

Perhaps the most simple of the big 3, names and dates, along with other information that requires route memorization, is still important. Especially if it is something that you personally tend to forget or glance over.

I, for example, have a terrible head for dates. Years tend to blur together for me. But names I can recall at the drop of the hat (of people in books, not people in real life… I still mix up my nephews sometimes). The general rule of thumb is that if a name or date is referenced three or more times, or if it used a section or even chapter title, it is probably worth remembering.

Vocabulary

These are usually the easiest to pick out from a text book but can be more difficult to remember during a lecture. Just like with the rest of your outline, you should be reviewing these terms first so that you know which ones are actually important or need to be reviewed. If one chapter has twenty three vocabulary terms, that isn’t an outline anymore – it is a dictionary.

Unlike the rest of this material, however, I don’t really recommend including vocabulary terms in your main notes. Use them, obviously, when needed, and even highlight them or write them in a different color. But vocab terms are just so much easier to go through as flashcards rather than on a reference sheet. As you make your notes make sure to create vocab flashcards to go along with them and as you review. When you get to your outlining stage include the terms that are critical, you still have trouble with or are just used multiple times. This saves you rewriting 23 vocab terms when you only needed to know 8.

Write in Code

This is something which, if you are sharing your notes or outlines in a group, will frustrate your classmates to no end. It is also ABSOLUTELY something that you should do.

Your notes or outlines or study ques do not need to make sense to anybody else but you. They don’t even necessarily have to make sense to you, as long as the association is there.

Let’s say you once looked at a picture of George Washinton and thought his hair looked like sheep’s wool and need to remember the name of Bunker Hill for a test. If the first thing that pops into your head is a cartoon sheep sitting on a bunk bed… draw a cartoon sheep sitting on a bunk bed.

No, I’m not kidding.

What triggers your memory and what helps you may or may not make sense, but that isn’t the point. The point is that it helps YOU create an association in your brain. So while your classmates may not appreciate your deeply artistic cartoon sheep, if it means you get that question right on a test then that is really all that matters.

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Creating an effective outline is one of the single best things you can do to help you prepare for material over the long run. And get this… it isn’t even so you have the sheet to review, that’s almost ancillary. The most imporant part of creating an outline is… creating the outline.

The act of reviewing, condensing, and re-framing all of that information is an active learning process that is so much more effective than simply flipping through pages and hoping you’ll remember it for the test.

Whatever works for your, as long as your outline helps you to digest and break down the subjects into manageable chunks that make sense to you, you’re doing well.

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Check out this and more original content available every week at TheNerdyNanny.com by subscribing to us on Facebook or Instagram.

You can also check out Eve Daniels, author of The Nerdy Nanny books, on YouTube where she gives writing and academic advice as well as updating you on all of her latest and upcoming projects.

If you have ever happened to google the terms ‘study’, ‘productivity’, or ‘efficient’ at all in the last several years you may have come across the term ‘Pomodoro Method’. Named after the Italian word for Tomato, this 25 minutes on five minutes off study and productivity technique derives from the use of a tomato-shaped timer and is hailed as the ultimate productivity and focusing technique. The darling of app developers, study groups, StudyTube icons, and more, the Pomodoro technique is supposed to improve focus, concentration, and efficiency and make studying and work so much easier…

Except for when it doesn’t.

While the Pomodoro technique and modified Pomodoro methods are favored by CEOs and Productivity gurus’, education professionals have long since warned that this system has some pretty serious flaws when it comes to developing long term study habits, particularly when pushed to the strictest interpretation of 25 minutes on / 5 minutes off intervals. Certain types of study simply require more immersive time spent in order to be truly productive. But before we look at all the things the Pomodoro technique got wrong, lets look at a few good starting points.

What Pomodoro got Right

Clear Your Work Space

While not necessarily included in the original iteration of the Pomodoro method, creating a clean and functional work space has been a key part of this system since it’s adoption by social media. But what does that actually mean?

Wherever you are going to do your work, whether that is at a desk or a family dining room table, a coffee shop, or a park, clear the immediate surface of everything that you don’t need immediately accessible to do your work. To avoid getting distracted by cleaning, just set everything aside in an empty bin or laundry basket and resolve to go through it later. (Just make sure that old coffee mug is ACTUALLY empty before you do so).

Remove Distractions

Beyond having a clean and functional work surface, it’s also important to remove anything and everything that you might possibly be tempted or distracted by. This could be as simple as putting your phone on vibrate. Or it could mean putting your phone on charge in the next room so that you have to actually walk past your spouse or roommates or family members to retrieve it.

Use headphones to play either lo-fi or ambient music soundtracks. There are entire playlists on YouTube dedicated to white noise, focus, and studying. The next time you’re bored flip through a few and save them for when you need them. Or use noise-canceling headphones so you hear nothing at all.

Talk with your family and let them know that you really need to focus now. Set up a signal for times when you’re working so that they can (hopefully) respect your privacy and let you get some work done undisturbed.

Create a Prioritized Focus List

The Pomodoro method starts by creating an itemized focus list, usually organized by priority. It is detailed, it is task-oriented, and it is meant to keep you on task by preventing you from flipping through your agenda or to-do list in between each session to consider what you should tackle next.

Each item should be a specific task. So if your main priority is studying for a History test, one task could be ‘Outline Chapter Nine’ or ‘Review Vocabulary Terms’. Simple, specific, and task-oriented. That is what we are aiming for with these lists.

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Other aspects of the Pomodoro technique can help psychologically, even if they aren’t actually that conducive to big changes in your ability to focus.

Reduce Decision Strain

Often times students, younger students in particular, will get stuck trying to figure out what they should be doing next. Going through your agenda and creating an organized list at the start not only prevents you from forgetting assignments (hopefully) but also limits the number of decisions you need to make in between assignments.

Decision strain is something that psychologists like to refer to when a person is just so mentally tapped they can’t make a decision one way or another. It’s also part of why mourning routines can be so helpful. Removing the number of decisions that need to be made at the moment can help improve flow, increase your momentum, and keep you going.

Time Blocking vs. Project Blocking

So often when we were kids we were told to start on an assignment and just keep going until it’s done. But, as it turns out, this is not the most efficient way to do things. Often times students can get stuck in a rut and develop mental blocks for a certain subject. They put in increasing effort for less and less reward. The recognized version of this in the working world is well known – it’s called Burnout.

Organizing your study time into time blocks rather than by project helps to prevent this. Especially with studying which, as we mentioned when talking about creating a focused project list, you are never really done with.

One of the key parts of this system is learning to trust the clock. What I mean by that is that you are able to eliminate all other factors, all other distractions, and you no longer have to worry about what else you have to do because the clock will tell you when it is time to move on. This may sound silly to some adults but it is a powerful focus technique when it comes to studying and has a definite positive impact on most students.

Removing Start Barriers

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just sitting down to get started. Having a regular study routine or habit can help with this over the long term. By having an itemized list of what you need to do and trusting the timer knowing that you won’t need to be working on this forever, this can help many students to jump that first and highest of hurdles and just get started.

So far it sounds like I’m agreeing with the Pomodoro technique overall. And there’s a reason for that.

It’s a good system.

Where Pomodoro Gets it Wrong

Where it falls apart for myself, educators, and many students, particularly younger students, is in the timings and the strict interpretation of the Pomodoro system.

Ideal Focus Times

Some tasks simply require more time than others. Sticking to a strict 25-minute time slot per task is a great way to jar students out of a reading assignment, or frustrated those who are stuck on a project and making no progress. By interpreting Pomodoro time slots in their strictest sense you are overlooking the original intentions of the system; to prioritize work, maximize focus, and reduce barriers.

Brain Training

One of the biggest advantages of using something like Pomodoro to train your brain to use time blocks instead of completed tasks. This is a huge resource because, as many students will note, you are never really done studying. So focusing on completing a task that can never be completed is a really great way to set yourself up for aggravation and burnout.

But if your tasks are inherently incompatible with 25 or 20-minute sessions, the repeated early finishing of tasks or the regular requirement for more time to make any real progress can actually have an adverse effect. Part of Pomodoro is learning to trust the clock, keeping your head down and focused because the timer will let you know when it is time to switch gears.

Neuroplasticity

Do you remember going to school and having a teacher assign a warm-up exercise or problem at the beginning of class? Something short but that needed your focus and attention? There was a reason for that.

Studies have repeatedly shown that short mental exercises can vastly improve your ability to focus and concentrate over longer periods of time. Likewise, as class drags on, teachers will often switch gears again for the last few minutes of class, usually to give homework assignments, but also to review other material.

This constant switching is a training technique for improving neuroplasticity. True neuroplasticity is a biological process which your 7th grade math teacher has absolutely no influence over. The the idea of neruoplasticity from an education standpoint relies on the idea of being able to switch from topic to topic very quickly without any loss in focus on processing speed and is often crucial in developing critical thinking skills.

1:2:1 The Magic Ratio

When I first started using this system, I called it 20/40. And that is because those are the timings that worked best for me. I would alternate twenty and forty-minute chunks of time dedicated to different subjects with only short breaks for bathroom, snacks, coffee and stretching in between. I would usually get through about three of these, a 20, a 40 and a 20 again, before I needed a longer break.

But with the girls I tutor, twenty minutes was just way too long when they were younger. The homework had begun piling up and anxiety was playing a serious roll in this as well, so we would pull out an assignment, sit down, and work for ten minutes to see how far we got. Spoiler alert – it was usually pretty far. We’d take a break for a quick snack and then start a longer one, this time twenty minutes. Then another break and a final ten.

Often times I would need to repeat this process, so we’d start a round of homework, 10/20/10, before dinner and follow up with another after dinner if needed. This is also the system I use when studying for advanced subjects like Organic Chemistry. I’ll do a round of 20/40/20 with short breaks earlier in the afternoon, and follow up with another round in the evening so I have plenty of time to relax in between.

Switching back and forth between subjects prevented them, and me, from getting burned out by diminishing returns. It also gave us the opportunity to both start and end on a high note by getting some out of the way early and wrapping up last minute things quickly. After a while, the anxiety that surrounded homework started to fade and switching subjects after a set amount of time just became the normal practice for both me and them.

Whatever timings work for you may be different depending on your age, subject matter, or even the type of assignment. I do warn against going over 40 minutes, as most people’s attention span can rarely be sustained over that period of time.

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Maybe 1:2:1 will solve any lingering problems you had with Pomodoro. Maybe you never had any problems with Pomodoro to begin with, which is great! If it works for you, keep going.

Finding a system that works for you can take a lifetime and will change as you grow and discover new interests. But the open conversation and growing number of resources available that are recognizing the power of systems and routines for focus are hugely helpful in finding one that works for you. So if you have a system that works, stick with it. If you are still struggling at all, I recommend checking out these guys below for some really great study and productivity routines;

Do Good.

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Check out this and more original content available every week at TheNerdyNanny.com by subscribing to us on Facebook or Instagram.

You can also check out Eve Daniels, author of The Nerdy Nanny books, on YouTube where she gives writing and academic advice as well as updating you on all of her latest and upcoming projects.