Hello everyone. You're probably wondering, why did I not just hear it? Little school bell? Where's Kate, Where's Emma?
Well, sorry to break it to you.
They have graduated college, but we have just started and we are here to bring you along with us on our journey, along with all of our dilemmas. I'm Svetlana and I'm Lana, and we are both freshmen at cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Yeah, yep, I'm a communications major. I am from the Bay Area.
And I am from the LA Area, South Bay originally from Chicago, but ever since I moved to LA I feel like I've just been immersed with all of the Hollywood culture, yeah, entertainment, business, and industry, which is kind of why we decided to take this role as podcast hosts.
We actually met in one of our comms, one oh one classes.
Yes, we did, far far back in fall quarter.
Far far back, and we we met because we were working on a podcast together for our final project for the class. Oh. We are currently at Linea's Beautiful Cafe in San Luis Obispo downtown Slow. So today's episode we're going to be discussing the productivity paradox and What I mean by that is how one is able to stay productive with their school work. We're talking specifically about college
students university students. What toxic productivity looks like. Yeah, just kind of all of the struggles involved with productivity.
Yeah, and especially since it's spring quarter, I know, we only have a couple months left of the school year, but people may be experiencing burnout or the seniors have their senioritis. But just hold in there. We're only sixty days away from the end, and we're gonna share some tips and tricks on how to stay locked in and motivated.
Locked in in, all right, And it's definitely a lot to just be a full time student, and especially in the stage of like being a freshman, it's a lot to kind of like maintain your relationships at home, be a student, keep up with your academics, maintain a social life at your school, like, keep in contact with your family. Yeah, work on like whatever internships you may be working on. Like, it's just kind of a lot like to comprehend like
the stage of your life. Like I think I am someone who is a bit of like a chronic overthinker, So I tend to like overthink, like all of my responsibilities and me too. Yeah.
Yeah, I remember during orientation one of the guys said, like, don't settle for just one friend, like try to expand your friend group like throughout the year, like keep meeting people and such. But you realize it's actually a lot harder than it looks like once you've solidified, like you kind of meet more people. M h. I think that's one struggle.
I think, like in the beginning of the school year, like I feel like I was really overwhelmed because like the first week, it already seemed like everyone like there was literally friend groups already, and I was like, I don't know anyone. We've been here literally a week, Like how was how are you do you have a well established friend group?
Yeah?
Anyways, I think, yeah, overthinking in general has just been a struggle for me in regards to like procrastination of my assignments and and you know, doing things just for myself like going to the gym, my meals, like all of those things. I feel like I kind of struggle with keeping a schedule for myself. I think before coming to college, I honestly had like a weirdly sat schedule, like with high school because you have, like you're given a time to eat lunch.
Yeah, and like you have to wake up at eight am nine am every day.
You're done with school at a certain time every day, and then you can do whatever you normally do after your sports.
And now we come to college and we're like on the brick of adulthood and you make your own Like we're.
Telling you go eat your food. No one's telling you go to your class.
No, none of that exactly.
And it seems pretty self explanatory and like it would be kind of easy to navigate because it's so self explanatory. But then you get there and you're like.
Yeah, I know. That's especially. One of the things I struggle with is waking up on time. Like I've this quarter, I've deliberately signed up for classes that don't start until twelve in the afternoon because I know I can't count on myself to wake up at eight am or nine am.
I think, like a little life hack for waking up early is like waking a funny alarm sound, Like for a whole minute, I had an alarm that was like.
West up because it's time to smoll shit.
So like that was my alarm for like a.
You will not believe what my roommate's alarm is. I've only seen these in movies or like as a joke, but it's like death metal, like really hard rock every morning at six and in the morning. Ago.
Yeah no, because at this point, like I can't have my alarm as like the regular iPhone like ringer, because that sum literally gives me anxiety, Like it literally does, like if I'm just chilling, like if I hear like a phone call, Like I don't know, like at this I just it's a lot for me he having a phone call or hearing an alarm. It's quite a bit. I think. Another thing that is is a big struggle when you get to college is like not doom scrolling.
Because you're scrolling is dangerous.
I think we were talking about this earlier, Like if you have a busy day of classes, like if I have like like classes from eight am in the day to like six or eight pm in the day, Like what gets me through that is like looking forward to just chilling on my bed on my phone.
Yeah, it can be a reward, but it could also be very detrimental, like you get stuck on there for hours.
It's no and I think that's that's exactly why it's like one of those really big issues with productivity, because scrolling on your phone, it's so so easy to lose track of time.
Yes, all the brain rot my Instagram reels right now is full of Minecraft brain rot. Yeah, Minecraft movies. Have you seen the microft Chicken Jockie? I haven't yet. I should, I'm a big Minecraft fan.
Yeah.
Yeah. And then another big thing is distractions and temptations. I have a really funny story. So you know, you come into college and of course there's like a very big party scene, like you can choose that life or not. But a lot of girls on my floor will all collectively decide to go and like get ready, and I'll have an assignment due that night at midnight, and my friend will be like, no, it's fine, you can. We'll bring our computers to the frat and you can do it.
You can do your assignment at the frat. And it has been something. But I've I've been i've felt strong, I've refused, I've gone our our assignment's done right before we went out. But the fact that that was even an option was just Hi, Larry, you an option? Yeah, working just around like count Polly culture and like party culture, you really have to like evaluate your values.
Yeah, learn how to prioritize, prioritize yourself. And that's kind of what we're gonna be talking about next, is kind of what works for us. Fall quarter, I took four eight ams and then I had classed until six pm pretty much every day, and so yeah, over summer though, I was like, dude, I don't even care what everyone says. Like I got multiple people, I advice for multiple people telling me, don't take eight ams. You think you're going to be able to do it and be capable and
whatever because you did it in high school. But for some reason in college it's so hard to wake up before nine am, And I thought that was a myth. But it's definitely not. For some people though, that's it works, But for majority, I would say, does not.
Yeah no, so yeah, but the alarm alarm clock sound sounds like a good solution.
To that, Like maybe, but I mean, what are other I think? Switching my schedule like genuinely worked a lot for me.
Like me too, I'm way happier this year than I was waking up at eight am nine am. I had a public speaking class at eight am, and everyone would just drove up to the class like a zombie, like they weren't even awake and they weren't ready to speak in front of everyone. But now that I changed it, my life has been a lot more easier, for sure. But do you have any other solutions to being productive?
So what has also genuinely really helped me is like romanticizing, romanticizing all of the things I do. Like, this cafe is absolutely beautiful, and I see people here who probably go to Cap Holli or one of the local community colleges studying with their cute outfits on with their little macha or their little iced latte and their little carrot cakes. And honestly, that is exactly the way to do it.
Because if you're sitting in your dorm like the place you sleep and like just chill, like you want that environment to be your chill safe space, and then you're like, yes, I'm gonna work on this five page essay and get it done in my same dorm that I chill and doom scroll in. It's I mean again, sometimes that can work for some people, but like, if you really want to find ways to get yourself motivated, like explore your local community, change your.
Environment, shop, change your environment environment for sure. Definitely just romanticize your life a little thing you can if you can motivate yourself enough to simply, like when you start your day, put a cute outfit on, get ready, maybe do a little.
Something something little care to coffee, Yes, bro, get a little macha.
Will brighten up your day and make you just a bit happier. I think another thing for me, especially because I'm a musician, is just music, like setting the mood and waking up and listening to your favorite kind of music. I can really just change the way you see things. I think something that works for me if you get distracted by like songs with lyrics or like pop songs a lot, I listen to like low fi beats or
like classical music. It like doesn't like distract you from what you're reading, like especially if you're doing reading, but it like puts you in the.
Zone and it like yeah, in all honesty, I do listen to classical music at the gym.
At the gym interesting, I try it out. And then another thing is to do lists and calendars. Those are crucial to do lists in college. I think one that really works for me is the app notion. It's kind of like customizable to your own aesthetic, and you can put all of your assignments just like a calendar, but just check them off every time you finish. It's just it's very acazing to see I think you cross it off.
There's like, definitely I think there's a a range of tasks you can add on your to do list because I've like seen some girls in college or just like people in college, you have like they'll like wake up, drink one cup of water, go brush my teeth, shower, like and that's there. That's the to do list that works for them is like every single kind of their day, every hour is planned, and that's that's an effective motivational,
like I don't know process for them. But then there's also like you definitely don't have to be that like that that nitpicky about like all of your tasks. You can totally just add maybe your assignments for the day.
This is like personally what I do. I add all my assignments for the day, and then like things that I generally know I want to get done, Like I'll add gym, I'll add like read, I'll add I don't know if I'm like, if I have an event like a little I don't know, a little function a little I mean, it's it's so like something you can you know you're doing that day, like something you can put on your to do list and then whenever you do the Like, I think it's a good thing to have
a realistic to do list set so that you can check every box off of the day that you have that to do list, because like, if you have unchecked boxes at the end of the day, that kind of will leave you with the feeling of unproductive.
You'll get that guilt. Yeah, like, oh I could have done it earlier, but now I have to take other things out of my day to this.
So I think setting like realistic goals and building realistic habits for yourself overload yourself with things. I think it's totally important to show yourself a lot of grace in this period of your life, just because it's like, honestly one of the biggest transitional stages of your life probably and definitely Yeah, you're you're learning habits that you will hopefully be able to carry with you for the rest of your life, and habits that don't work for you,
like eight am toxic productivity. So do you feel guilts around not doing enough? And how do you handle this guilt?
Definitely? I mean every time the weekend comes around, I'll take like the time just to watch movies and relax, and I have things in the back of my mind that I need to do. When I do procrastinate and I don't do my reading, I feel just very guilty, like what if I had done that.
College. It's one of those times where you are like able to find yourself so much and like I don't know, just like learn what really really works for you.
We're still very young. We have like our whole lives ahead of us, especially since we're sitting here like as freshmen. Like we're not saying we know everything, but we are trying our best just to navigate navigate life.
I honestly felt a great deal of imposter syndrome coming here.
I was waitlisted and I got in like the last round, and so they put me in like a random housing situation, and all of my building are like singe like engineers, and yeah, they're all engineering students, and so I kind of felt like the imposter, Like no one else here is liberal arts major.
And I think it's really easy to like because when you're in high school as like as a freshman, you know, when you're in high school, like getting accepted into a university, like this kind of gives you like some confidence because you're like, yeah, like I did do good in high school. I got like whatever would it four point zero four point whatever I did. I took all these aps, I was in extracurriculars, I was a good student. And then you get here and you're like, okay, that was everyone here,
everyone here did that. Yeah, and then some it's just really hard to like not compare yourself exactly. It's very hard people who are that I don't know, so similar to you and have done more than you. And there's also like that kind of lesson teaches you about self confidence in general and how your academic achievements and all of that. Well, first of all, you're you're at the school, like we're here. We made it so weird you're here.
It was literally a miracle that I made here.
But yeah, but you're here because you deserve to be here. And and also like academic achievements are are literally just that academic achievements. They are not indicative of your worth as a person and should not be indicative of your confidence as a person. Like I think here in college it's really important to like be literally just be a good person, and like that's where you can find your self confidence and self worth and not tie it to your academic achievements because.
Like, yeah, definitely, it's.
Like there's no way you're not gonna fail a class. There's no way you're not gonna forget you have a quiz, there's no way you're not gonna do bad on an assignment or whatever it is. So if you tie your self worth to your academic achievement and like ability to be productive and all of that, like you're gonna you're gonna lose sight of of what really makes your makes you worthy as a person here.
Exactly, And those are like the experience and the memories you make along the way. Yeah, like your academics count. Definitely those are some of your memories. But mostly like for me, I'm big on like doing those side quests and stuff, and sometimes I get sidetracked.
I think, at the end of the day, being productive it varies between like per person, yeah whatever exactly subjective like me being productive in a day is gonna look different than you being productive in a day, and I think now is the time to find exactly what that looks like for you.
Yeah, especially for those of you that are like signing your first lease and about to live in your own house apartment for the first time.
That is big girl, big girl activity, big girl activity. Yes.
Yes, Well, on that note, I think that wraps up this podcast.
So this is our first podcast episode ever. So if you are don't like it, don't tell anyone that you didn't like it. Just keep that to yourself. But if you did like it, which I know you did, stream this episode on Apple Music, Spotify, anywhere else and tell your friends about it because they're gonna want to know. This is really good stuff, really juicy stuff, And stay tuned for the next episode.
Yeah, peace out, Girl Scout.