How to create an effective study schedule

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create, effective, planning, study schedule, time management

When i was 16 my classmates asked me, “How do you manage to do so many things in a day?” For context, I was a prefect, very much active in clubs and trying for sports teams, had additional after-school classes on certain days and had just recently scored highest in the class for 9 out of 11 of the subjects i took. I simply told them “we all have 24 hours in a day you just need to organize it well”. Thinking back it could come off as rude because i was essentially saying “it’s so obvious” but now that i’m older i realize that it is not obvious. It is not something that is naturally wired into everyone and the reality is we all (including myself) can benefit from learning how to improve our time management.

My 16 year old self was on to something but she had still had a lot of learning to do because just creating a study schedule does not mean that it will be effective for you. What do i mean by effective? Simply making a study schedule means that you have one, but will it work for you? How do you know it will work for you? Before we go into the actual planning we need to draw out a table. Here’s a picture of mine, it’s not the nicest one but it does the job. If you are more of a visual person i would suggest going on pintrest to search for FREE printables, just type in “Free Study Schedule”.

I decided to have the time start at 8 am because i did not want to create a separate schedule for the weekend

Now that we have that sorted out, let me take you through 8 things you need to consider in order to create an effective study schedule.

1. List out all your current commitments

If you were like the 16 year old me you would have tuition classes after school or wanted to try out for a sports team. These are all commitments and you should list them out first. What about school? Obviously school is a commitment of its own and you can put it on the study schedule. I wouldn’t though because i already know school is from 8am – 3pm (that was my school time) and i would rather leave it out of the schedule so that the after school schedule can be seen a lot more clearly. But that is just me, if you want to put school in the schedule it is absolutely fine. With all your commitments written down you can now get a clearer picture of the “free time” you have, free time means time that is not a commitment. Is sleeping a commitment? I guess it is, but i don’t have a fixed sleeping schedule so it is hard for me to write down sleep at 10pm because when i don’t sleep at 10pm then i feel guilty so instead i write 10pm onwards as “rest and relax” and keep that open ended. There is a disadvantage to this though because sometimes i get too caught up with the show i’m watching that i end up sleeping really late/early in the morning which can mess up the next day’s schedule if i’m not disciplined enough.

2. Set a study goal

Set one big study goal and then a few smaller or short term ones that lead up to the big study goal. Many times we want to achieve big things but we forget that it takes time to get there, Rome wasn’t built in a day so remember to take that into account. Smaller goals on the way also help to motivate you, you know that feeling when you accomplished something? It’s good isn’t it? It will also help push you towards the bigger goal so try incorporating that into you study goal(s). For example, a small goal might be to make study notes for the chapters you’re especially weak in, in the long run these notes will eventually help you study better for the subject and help you achieve the goal of improving in that subject. Another thing to note is that you should be clear with your goals, don’t just write down “improve in history”, how much do you want to improve? Do you want to go from a C grade to a B grade? or maybe score better for a specific paper like paper 2? Be clear and concise because then it will help you have a clearer picture of what you need to do.

3. Identify the subjects you are weak in and strong in

This step helps you identify the subjects you need more time to work on. One thing that i did when i was 16 was to allocate each subject the same time but did i really need to spend the same amount of time i did on English as i needed for math? I personally find it difficult to accept that too because it’s nice to have uniformity in a plan but to make it effective i need more time to work on my weaknesses.

4. Identify your study style/habits

How long can you sit down and really focus without getting distracted? We all get distracted and it is a form of procrastination, the number one culprit of distraction these days are phones, so HIDE YOUR PHONES. but what if i need to listed to music? I firmly believe that putting aside your phone is the best way to prevent distraction but if you need music then why not download the songs/playlist in advance (you can do this on spotify premium) and then turn off the wifi/data. So have your phone there but it’s not connected to the internet. That’s the compromise if you really need it. How long can you focus? Some people can focus for an hour no problem, other can only focus for 5 minutes. One way you can build you focus is to build it up slowly, start with 15 minutes then work your way up in 5 minute intervals. I would say that 45 minutes focus is the optimum for myself, more than that and it does not help. So find out what your optimum focus is. Also remember this is for the long run, this means that trying to study for 13 hours in one day is not a good idea. why? Because you’ll feel burned out the next day/feel you studied a lot in one day and reward yourself with a break for the next day. Rewarding yourself is alright but that also breaks you rhythm. I’ll talk more about missing a day in point 8 but this is a different situation, this is a situation where you made a conscious decision. But why is studying for 13 hours in one day bad? It’s not bad i just think it’s not a good idea. The reason for this is because i assume we don’t usually study 13 hours a day (if you do then kudos to you) so if you were to suddenly do this then it messes up your rhythm which you have built. Think of it in terms of exercise, if you were not used to running long distances and one day decided to join a full marathon you would be very tired/your legs might not even move after you’ve completed it. The same thing goes with you motivation and ability to study and focus. Doing a 13 hour study session is possible but the consequences are that you may not be able to study for the next few days in order to recover. To me that one day of super study is not worth the other days of study that you might forgo because you’re “rewarding” yourself.

5. Plan in advance what you are going to study

This is a plan for a plan. I know it sounds tedious or silly but think about it, you don’t want to use that precious study time figuring out what it is you want to study. Beforehand make a list of the topics that you want to study, which pages they’re on, which exercises you would like to work on. Again remember to be realistic, ask yourself “can i really finish all this in the time i have allotted?” Once you have this then all you have to do when the time comes is to sit down and get started! This also means that in your study schedule you should schedule time to plan for your plan.

6. Remember to schedule in breaks and fun

We are human so we need breaks, we need time to stretch our legs, exercise, play a game, scroll through the internet, etc. These are all fine as long as you have set aside a time for them and do not go over the allotted time. It is so easy to loose track of time when you’re scrolling so maybe put an alarm on your phone to remind you that time is up! It’s not the best feeling but it is better than accidentally going over your time and then feeling guilty for doing so.

7. Reassess your schedule from time to time

No plan is perfect and will need some tweaking and adjustment so take that into account and maybe do a review of your schedule every 3 months. Another way is to reassess it when your commitments change. Maybe you have more free time because sports season is over or maybe you have less time because you have more after school classes. Mark the changes in your study plan immediately when a commitment changes and then reassess whether everything else needs to be change to meet your small and big goals.

8. Missed a day? Messed up the schedule for that day? It’s okay

Unexpected things do happen from time to time and will cause you to not be able to follow your study schedule. If it is something you could not control or avoid don’t beat yourself up about it. Yes you might feel discouraged that you did not stick to your schedule but don’t let it get you down to a point that you give up on it. Deal with whatever it is that made you miss the day/days/week and if it is going to take a longer time then this is another reason to reassess your study schedule. The point is that things happen and we need to learn to adapt to them. A smaller but very real variable in a day are mealtimes and family time. These are unavoidable because there is no way to know for sure how long it will take, but they are important and they happen. What you could do is to adjust the schedule a little but only the items for that day, for example if mom is taking a little but longer than usual on dinner maybe work on your homework earlier for 15 minutes or so before dinner is ready, later make sure to take off 15 minutes from the schedules homework time. As long as you still spend the same amount of allotted time (ex. 1 hour for homework) for each item it is okay to adjust it from time to time.

These are the basic points to think about and I hope they help you to plan your study schedule. Remember we all have 24 hours and if you do want to do better in your studies you need to put in the work and to do that you need a plan/schedule.

2020 was difficult but God is good

Tags

2020, goodness of God, reflection, thankful, year end review

One song really sums up 2020 for me and it’s Goodness of God by Bethel music. To be honest i myself am surprised that this turned out to be the song that sums everything up. I thought it would be more of something that went along the lines of “thank you, next” by Ariana Grande. Our family plans to graduate and find a job in the UK went down the drain, we were isolated and stressed for half a year and i really struggled to finish my dissertation. On top of that COVID just changed the way everything worked, masks have become essential, many things are closed or will require long waits, no more travel unless absolutely necessary, the list goes on and i need not say much as we have all lived through it. ‘Uncertainty’, ‘difficult’ and ‘stressed’ were three words i thought i was going to use to sum up the year but now that it’s the last day of the year that has changed to “God is good”.

What caused the change? For every negative thing i listed above i am reminded that God was there supporting me through it. In March when much of the world went into lockdown zech and i were so blessed as i was able to work from home so that meant that we had a source of income to support our daily needs, we were isolated but i could attend small group/cell with my friends back in Malaysia, our prospects for finding a job in the UK were shattered but God gave us direction to move back to Malaysia to build something of our own, with moving home we were no longer isolated and were able to reunite with family and friends and finally i was really stressed and struggled to finish my dissertation but in the end i managed to submit something. Each and every point of the year God was there. So yes 2020 is uncertain, difficult and stressful but it also showed me that God has not forsaken me and that is why i say that 2020 is the year that i have seen the goodness of God.

Malaysian roads are not cyclist or scooter friendly

The fact that Malaysian roads are not cyclist or scooter friendly is not anything new but i am writing this in response to the news that the Kuala Lumpur police department has enforced a rule that e-scooter riders are not allowed to ride scooters on the main road starting Jan 1, 2021. I am writing this because i read some comments that it is a move to suppress the e-scooter company or it is a bad move because it makes Kuala Lumpur a car centric city. To those two remarks i say that is nonsense. These comments are directed at the surface level issues, the big issue that needs addressing is that cycling and scooters are not going to work in Malaysia because our roads are just not built that way. Think about it, where are they supposed to go if they can’t go on the main road? the limited pedestrian walkways we have? Then what about the safety of the pedestrians? There is nowhere safe that they can ride their bicycles and e-scooters on because there is nothing built for it. That’s the end of my argument, but that’s only a paragraph long and it’s a bit too boring. So let me entertain those who still insist that cyclists and e-scooters should be allowed on the main road with the current infrastructure that we have.

Let us look at two things first to build up the context to my argument. Firstly, let us talk about e-scooters as vehicles. When i was in the UK i cycled on the main road. I did not know there were a lot of rules that went into cycling on the main road. You were essentially considered a vehicle driver and your bicycle a vehicle, this meant that you bicycle needed to be equipped with lights on the front and back, you needed to follow all traffic rules and you were encouraged to wear bright clothing. I was once reprimanded by a police officer to get off the main road because i wasn’t wearing bright clothing and the light on my bike was broken (it was a rental bike). It didn’t feel good to be told off but i knew that it was for my safety and the safety of the other drivers. Back to Malaysia, the same thing applies to this situation as e-scooters are considered vehicles and this new ruling is to protect both e-scooter rider and vehicle drivers, but not everyone gets that. The moment an e-scooter touches the main road it is considered a vehicle in the eyes of the road laws. BUT…does everyone think this way? i don’t think so.

Secondly, let us think about what KL roads are like. Either one lane or if it’s two lanes sometimes one of the lanes is blocked off by cars that illegally park on the main road. Then think about KL drivers, they don’t give or use their signal, slams the accelerates for short distances, runs a red light, cuts in whenever they want. These are just the cars, there’s also the motorcyclists who do this too with the addition of snaking through the gaps between cars. Driving in KL is like going through an obstacle course each time, it’s not easy.

Now with this let us put in a third participant to the road and i am going to lump them together because they are almost the same, cyclist and e-scooter riders. Both are relatively slow compared to cars or motocycles, both are a one person type of vehicle (yes, as long as they are on the main road they are considered a vehicle) and i would dare say that both do not believe that they are vehicle or that vehicle rules apply to them.

1. Slow speeds. Have you ever driven behind a car that was super slow? Have you felt frustrated because you had to constantly step on your brake or end up hitting them? That is what it would be like if cyclists or e-scooter riders were allowed on the main road. It’s just a fact that there is a speed capacity to the e-scooter, and the bicycle is based on the person’s physique. Remember how KL drivers are? Do you not see how dangerous it is for both sides? Do i really have to spell out how dangerous this is?
2. Rules. Like i said earlier, i assume that cyclists and e-scooter riders don’t think that road rules apply to them. So if they are running red lights, not giving way when there is a “give way” sign, not using their hands to signal which direction they wish to go, etc. they are breaking the rules which means that it is more dangerous for themselves and others. Let us also remember that vehicle drivers in KL hardly follow road rules. So this is a situation where two negatives DO NOT make a positive, it just leads to a bigger negative. And because cyclist and e-scooter riders do not have the protection of a piece of metal around them like cars, van or lorry drivers do, they are in a bigger danger of getting seriously injured.

Those are my two main arguments as to why cyclists and e-scooter riders should not be allowed on the main road. I hope you found it entertaining, it’s not a mind blowing argument as i am just stating what the reality is. I do wish that more people would cycle/e-scooter on KL roads but the reality is that our roads are just not built for it.

Day 1 of IIC Congress 2020 – I get very emotional attending a conference

Tags

conservation, COVID-19 experience, IIC Congress 2020, preventive conservation

This is going to be short and to the point. COVID sucks. To elaborate. It’s been 8 months since i’ve stepped into a museum and 6 months since i’ve read anything conservation related or thought deeply about conservation matters and it really boils down to COVID. It was not until i participated in the IIC Congress that i really felt the effects of the isolation. It was as if COVID put me into this soundproof box and now after attending day 1 of the conference my ears feel relieved to hear sound again. It felt so good to be hearing talks about conservation, IPM, authenticity, interpretation and visitor engagement. Most importantly and also the reason why i say i got very emotional, i’ve been so isolated that i forgot what it was that i love so much about conservation. I love that we think about significance and think about how to use data to make decisions. I love how conservation can be so varied in discussion topics from climate change, storage space to what i term the sciency stuff like epoxy glue. Conservation is the cool stuff. Covid is not.

American Royals II: Majesty book review

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alternate history, America, American Royals, American Royals II: Majesty, Beatrice Washington, book review, fiction, Katherine McGee, spoilers, Washington

American Royals II: Majesty is the sequel to the novel American Royals written by Katharine McGee which the author describes as a mesh between Gossip girl and the Crown. It’s in a fictional world where George Washington became America’s first king instead of its president and it is set in what is now the current year, 2020. I know this because somebody’s gravestone was carved with that year (this is still considered the spoiler free zone). I should probably say that this review will be littered with spoilers for the first and second book so if you read from this point on you have been warned.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Before we start let’s recap the relationships and cliffhangers we got from the first book.

1. Beatrice and Connor – Beatrice wants to step down from the throne to marry her Revere Guard Connor, this shock causes her father to have a heart attack
2. Samantha and Teddy – Teddy is engaged to Beatrice but Samantha likes Teddy alot, Samantha tells Beatrice and Beatrice says that she’ll call off the engagement and marry the man she loves
3. Jeff and Nina – Dating for awhile but Daphne came between them, literally told Nina to break up with Jeff which is what Nina did especially when Nina started to tell Jeff about the true Daphne and he didn’t believe her
4. Daphne and Ethan – denying each other. Daphne only has eyes on the crown

We begin the book where we left off, it’s been 6 weeks since the king died and that is the time allocated for mourning. Beatrice has to come out of mourning and assume her duties as Queen, or so she thought. But Robert, the Lord Chamberlain instead tells her that she needs to be married, to give stability and comfort to the nation in this uncertain time. She is not allowed to close congress unless she is Queen, which she can’t be until a year or 6 months after her father’s death. And so the whole arch for Beatrice is set, she is engaged to Teddy whom she does not love and she is busy planning a wedding instead of actually governing. Samantha on the other hand gets very jealous and angry at Beatrice for not keeping to her word and calling off the engagement. In a plot to make Teddy jealous, she gets together with Marshall, the future baron of Orange (the west coast). They pretend to be dating to make each other’s ex jealous. And then we have Nina who is fresh from a breakup and wants to move on, unfortunately Daphne won’t leave her alone and sees her as a threat. To remove this thread Daphne struck a deal with Ethan to distract Nina by dating her or flirting with her in exchange for the title of Earl when Daphne gets what she wants. And finally Daphne, she’s still trying to get Jeff to marry her and will do whatever it takes.

There were two things that stood out to me in this book the first being that the storylines for each girl/point of view were very clear to the point where it could be said to be spelled out for the reader and secondly every girl also had a new love interest which we previously thought would be weird but suddenly feels like the most natural thing. Let me address this in order.

It was very obvious that Beatrice’s arch was about her becoming queen and what that entailed. Samantha was about figuring out who she was. Nina about moving on and being her own self outside of the royal family’s influence and Daphne starts to doubt if she really wants what she says she wants. This are all really good themes and progress in each character but i feel like it was quite a change from the characters they were in the first book. The book was only 300+ pages and at the end the author quickly tied up all these characters and they became very independent women who realized who they really were without needing a man (except for Daphne). Maybe to some the pace of change may be believable but i think it was a bit too quick and it tied up way too nicely to the point it felt rushed. Don’t get me wrong, i like that Beatrice didn’t get married and wanted to be a Queen on her own first before eventually marrying Teddy, i like that Samantha saw her worth in bringing people together and getting them to see who their potential and i like that Nina became a stronger person who didn’t have to depend on a guy no more, but it’s like they all achieved enlightenment in a snap (at the wedding) and then what’s next?

Talking about that wedding, it was very obvious the author was going to use it to stage the whole showdown though I thought it was going to be a lot more dramatic than it was. Sure there was the drama of Beatrice and Connor locked up together, Daphne and Nina part 2 and Sam/Teddy/Marshall but it was more showy rather than an actual good scene. I think this is because there was build up, it looked like things were going to go really bad for Daphne (especially with Mariko waking up and getting her memories back) and then it would all blow up at the wedding but in the end it was Daphne that got what she wanted and it felt like all this expectation was deflated by the quick way the other girls became independent women. I think it’s because the author wants to have a redemption thing for Daphne but there can’t be a redemption if there is nothing to redeem Daphne from. Maybe it’ll be in the third book there certainly is the potential for that but at the end i wasn’t really sure if this was the end for this story. I think the author wanted there to leave a potential for the third book but at the same time if she never got to it this would be a good enough end which i think is why there’s this unsatisfactory ending.

I know this review sounds like i didn’t like the book but honestly it was an enjoyable read. Which leads me to the second part the new love interests. I liked the budding romance scenes between Beatrice and Teddy, Samantha and Marshall and Nina and Ethan. It felt right, it felt nice and it felt natural. Previously you could only see them with whoever they were paired with in the first book but the author did a good job in presenting this new relationships to the reader that we are almost okay with them playing musical chairs with their partners. Connor is all but gone and only used as a device to give doubt to the Beatrice and Teddy relationship whereas Jeff is more like a mentioned character in this book. The guys are very supportive and sensitive which is a bit too good to be true but hey, it’s a love story.

To end this review i would say that this book is a fun read especially if you’re looking for something casual and a no brainer. This means that the story doesn’t have much depth as i believe the author wanted which is disappointing in that sense. I’ll give this book 6/10 stars.

I planned every minute of my life for a week..and followed the plan – lessons learnt

Tags

challenge, motivation, personal plan, planning, reflection, Schedule making

It started with the weirdest thing ever, i wanted to see how good Grammarly the text editing tool was because i’m currently writing my dissertation and thought maybe it’ll be good to have some writing help. Which then led to this video about using Notion to how i study for 4 hours without breaks to a video about procastination. That Youtube rabbit hole be real people. Also i’ve been watching this Youtuber who loves to post videos with the word ‘productive’ in them. I was also very discouraged by how i was procastinating alot and wasting my time, I thought my time management methods of creating a to-do list was good enough but apparently it wasn’t working.

Here are some of the things that i need to work on at the moment

1. my dissertation
2. finding a job
3. studying for my driving test
4. finding a new home
5. shedding off 1 year of body fat accumulation a.k.a exercise

Here is the schedule i made, yes they’re on receipt paper and yes there were changes made

• 

• 

• 

• 

So how much of the plan was i able to accomplish?

Day 1 – 100%

Day 2 – 85% -felt sick, distracted

Day 3 – 85% Insomnia the night before, feeling sick

Day 4 – 75% had a really bad back pain so i had a 2 hour nap

Day 5 – 60% I really didn’t want to do anything today, lack of motivation, only accomplished those things on my schedule that were ‘easy’

Day 6 – 60% still lack of motivation

Day 7 – 75% I had a really bad stomach ache but i did get in some unscheduled work done so that was a plus

Looking back on the days it looks like i had gotten ill or had some body ailment that did contribute to me not being able to fully follow my schedule which is an important point i want to make early on which is there can be a schedule but also give yourself grace if you don’t follow it to the dot. We are human and yes that can be an excuse but it’s also true, so be strict with yourself as much as you can but if you fall sick or are recovering from that illness whether it be physical or mental then don’t worry about achieving 100% of your schedule.

Did you get more done?

The first few days i did then this hyper productivity started taking a toil on me and i was getting tired and unmotivated. I didn’t plan enough breaks for myself and it felt a lot like it was all work work work. I guess the answer is yes and no? Anyway, here are a few things i learnt from this experience:

1. Bye bye phone – I made it a point to hide my phone when i was in ‘work’ time. This really helped me concentrate as i wasn’t getting tempted to mindlessly scroll through instagram or facebook (those two apps are mysterious time suckers). I also put it on silent mode to prevent those tempting notifications.
2. remember to plan breaks – human needs don’t count as breaks but breaks are so important to recharge and relax. Yes there is the need to work but we be human and need breaks too. Just try imagining yourself exercising for 8 hours straight, crazy right? Same thing here.
3. plan your rewards – I find this really important because if there is no rewards then it feels like you’re tormenting yourself and this would create negative emotions towards your schedule and your work. This in turn can lead to procastination.
4. It’s all in the details – yes i did put there that i will do my dissertation stuff from this time to this time but what am i doing exactly? Well this is what i mean by planning the details. Kudos to the Youtuber who can study for 8 hours each day, i got this idea from him (citing my sources) and it’s true, i don’t want to waste part of those hours figuring out what i need to do, i want to go in and get started immediately. This means that you’ll need a LOT of time to plan.
5. put in time to plan – related to the previous point and also will relate to point 11 but what i mean here is actually schedule time to plan your plan
6. I couldn’t get all 5 goals done in a day – and that’s because you have to decide how much time you’re going to spend for each of them. I put mine in priority order even though they are all important but my dissertation got the bulk of the time because that is literally my job right now, to write a dissertation.
7. mix it up a bit – routine is what it is…routine. So since you’re going to be planning in advance you can shake things up a bit within reason of course
8. relationships – This one was tough, i did feel like i was ignoring my husband for most of the time and there weren’t those random conversations we would have. When i took breaks i couldn’t expect him to take a break too especially when he was in the middle of work so this one is a tricky one. Still not sure how this will work because i believe you need to put in time for your relationships just like you put in time for everything else.
9. Corrections – i wanted to be strict with making corrections because once you do one you’ll be tempted to do another and then before you know it there goes your plan. But through my corrections i learned about my energy levels, what leads to distraction which i have made a mental note for the future.
10. give yourself extra time for those activities you can’t really limit time to – ex. devotion, eating, talking to people these are things you can’t put a time limit to and that’s okay.
11. Don’t plan it all in one go – this is a but controversial but since it was my first time doing it i wanted to try a few days out first before i went on to complete planning the week. Also i was too tired to plan the whole week.

Conclusions

Because i had so many ‘major’ things to do this scheduling every minute of my life thing took its toll on me. When you have so many things to juggle you get tired and slip up so i wouldn’t do this in the long term if i had so many things going on. We aren’t made to multitask, seriously. I think we humans do way much better when we concentrate our efforts at one thing at a time but alas this is life. I know that sounds self-contradictory but what i’m trying to say is don’t have so many big “to-do” things when you do this, maybe three might work? Overall, the concept of creating a schedule was good and i actually liked that i knew what i was going to be doing and see myself do it. I still have to work on making realistic to do lists and schedules, also need to create more breaks and better rewards for myself to motivate myself. At the end of the day don’t forget to show yourself some love too okay, only do this to help yourself be more organized, if it is causing you anxiety and stress then it defeats the purpose.

My visit to Jane Austen’s House museum

Tags

Chawton, Jane Austen, museums, review

I was initially surprised to find out about Jane Austen’s House Museum located in Chawton, Hampshire because I had thought that the house in Bath was the only Jane austen centre in the UK. Austen did spend some time in Bath after her father retired but Austen, her mother and her sister moved to this house in Chawton after her father died. If you’re wondering what the difference is between the two museums, Jane Austen’s House Museum seems to distinguish itself by stating that this is the place where Austin wrote all her books. Personally after visiting both, I much prefer Jane Austen’s House Museum compared to the one in Bath mainly because the interpretation of this place is more about Austen and her life in general rather than her life in Bath specifically. In this review I’ll take you through the museum and point out things that made me like this place over the one in Bath. 

As you enter through a small gate, you’ll first need to purchase tickets at the gift shop which also acts as the entrance to the museum. I would suggest going into the learning centre if it’s not occupied by school groups, there is a short video about Jane Austen’s life that provides a good introduction on what you’re about to see in the house itself. There is also the bakehouse which you can visit and see ongoing restoration works. This museum is run by trustees who are all Jane Austen enthusiasts and much of the restoration work has been funded by Austen enthusiasts all over the world, it’s remarkable how so many people are connected through Austen’s works. Since I made my visit in the winter there wasn’t much to see in the garden, but if you do visit during the other seasons it is a nice place to have a picnic and enjoy the outdoors.

Before you enter into the main house, don’t forget to visit the kitchen at the side. I love that you can practice writing with a quill and leave your notes and messages on the community board. Since it was Christmas there was a little clove pomander that you could make and take home, I love this little crafts as these are the little things that makes the experience memorable.

The fireplace and table in the kitchen

Take home crafts for visitors

In the house itself there are several rooms to explore. If you brought your kids along there is a little treasure hunt they can do to receive a sticker for if they complete and pass it to a room attendant (pass it to them before you exit the house itself). This and other kid friendly activities can be picked up in the little room that you enter as you exit the gift shop to go to the garden. The house contains several authentic pieces either from the time or belonging to Austen and her family. You’ll read about Austen’s time in the house living with her mother and sister on the provision of her wealthy brother who lived nearby in Chawton house, you’ll learn about her siblings, what family life would have looked like and also her writing.

Jane Austen’s writing table. A treasured object in the museum.

Ivory cup and ball to illustrate the types of games the Austen siblings used to play.

I enjoyed that the museum also displayed items donated by enthusiasts or items related to Jane Austen as it shows how much impact Austen had on the world.

Display case with objects given to the museum by Jane Austen enthusiasts

In my opinion there’s just enough on display to satisfy visitors who want to learn more about Austen and not overtire visitors with too much information. There isn’t much furniture but that’s alright with me especially since there isn’t much space to begin with and the museum can get crowded during peak seasons. I think there’s enough space for everyone to enjoy the house properly but still give you the sense of what it might have looked like when Austen lived in it.

Overall, my takeaway is that the Jane Austen House museum is a must go for Austen enthusiasts. The museum does an excellent job of telling the tale of Jane’s personal life in the context of the house and as a visitor I felt connected to this beloved author. I would budget at least 90 minutes if you really want to go through all the text and the entire house thoroughly. The museum doesn’t have a café but there is a pub right across the museum if you needed to get some lunch. The gift shop has many Jane Austen related merchandise and it was a great struggle to refrain myself from buying everything. If you plan to visit, the house is a bit out of the way as it’s not a touristy area but if you’re on the way to Bath this would be a priority stop over.

Museum website: https://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/

Note: I wrote this for mainlymuseums.com originally https://mainlymuseums.com/post/616/jane-austen-s-house-museum/. Visit their site for more reviews of museums. All pictures belong to me, please ask for permission before using them.

Volunteering at the National Museum Wales (Preventive conservation)

Tags

care of collections, conservation, experience, museums, national museum wales, preventive conservation, volunteer, volunteering

Hello! Before i begin talking about my time volunteering i should do a short introduction about myself. I’m a MSc Care of Collections student at Cardiff University. It’s a one year masters program where you learn about how to do preventive conservation. What is preventive conservation you may ask, don’t worry I only really understood what it was halfway through the course so we good. It’s the actions that we as conservators take to prevent museum objects from deteriorating quickly. We can’t stop deterioration but we can sure try to slow it down. We take actions so that (cross our fingers real tight) we don’t have to send them off to a conservator to work on….at least not in the near future, probably in a 100 years or so but not while i’m alive baby. I know there seems to be a lot of stuff added on to my description of what preventive conservation is but that’s because there’s a whole lot of debate about those issues so i’m trying to be as clear as i can but not go into too much detail ya know?

Anyways, so that’s what i learn and so this volunteering is specifically for preventive conservation because there are other volunteering opportunities available at the museum like conservation, interacting with visitors, cataloging, gardening, etc. I want to be as specific as i can to help whomever in the future who is interested in volunteering for this.

So let’s jump right into it. The main thing that i did as a volunteer was integrated pest management (IPM). Now don’t worry, it doesn’t involve catching any insects (although you may need to pick up pest monitors filled with insects) it’s really about monitoring pests by laying pest monitors and checking them in this case every 6 months to see what sort of pests we’ve caught. This will allow us to determine what sort of pests we’re dealing with and where so that we can take action. Pests are a problem because they (especially the larvae) find museum objects especially delicious. National Museum Wales has a natural history collection so dead animals and pests don’t go well together especially if we don’t want our collections to be eaten and destroyed. The part i found easy was the one where you looked at a floorplan with the pest monitors marked on it and located the pest monitor. The not so easy part was the identification of insects. We identify the insects caught in the trap and write down the type and approximate number on the back of the monitor. It took awhile and i made my own cheatsheet to help but really after awhile you’ll see that the same pests come up again and again so it’s a matter of learning how to identify them by certain distinct features. We would also change pest monitors once they were filled with insects.

Two interesting things i learned from this is that spiders are not considered pests because they don’t eat the collection, but they are a sign that there are insects that we should worry about because the spiders eat those insects. Secondly is that sometimes when the pest monitor is not too full we leave the monitor there again even if it has one or two dead insects. The next time we go and check it we can see what changes there are (since we mark what type of pests are caught on the monitors) and sometimes we find things have changed after some months. For example if there was a larvae and an adult insect, 6 months later we find only the larvae shell what do you think happened? Basically the larvae hatched and the sticky parts of the monitor wasn’t sticky no more from the dust trapped on it, so the larvae found some convenient food – another insect, ate it, grew and went away. Not everybody finds that fascinating but i thought that was cool when i learned about it. Other IPM related things we learned was to identify frass. Frass is insect droppings. Being able to identify them will enable you to learn if you have a pest infestation.

Moving on, another thing we did was dusting and interacting with visitors. Why do these go together? Usually we dust in the galleries and it’s a fantastic opportunity to talk to visitors about what we’re doing and why. As you can see from the picture here i’m wearing a backpack vacuum holding a brush and my fellow volunteer is holding a small vacuum too. We usually set up like this with the poster and sandwich board just so that if visitors are shy they can read about what we’re doing on their own. In the background you can see some pictures and the organ so we’re in the gallery with the organ and we had just finished dusting the frames. Dust comprises of dead human skin and some organic material from clothes and other objects that enter the galleries so they can accumulate on frames especially those around the height of the average person. We vacuum because dust can cause damage on the frames and it doesn’t make them look very nice and dust is also food for pests.

• 

  Me on the left and another volunteer

One of the most amazing experience i had whilst volunteering was being able to vacuum under Dippy the dinosaur! Dippy is a dinosaur from the Natural History Museum and now (2018-2020) he’s on tour around the UK. National Museum Wales Cardiff hosted dippy from November till end of January and he brought in a lot of people. Lots of people means lots of dust so i helped to vacuum all the accumulated dust and keep Dippy clean and happy. I think it’s really fun because how many people can say they cleaned up in a dinosaur enclosure? I had to be real careful of course and not bump into any of his bones especially the feet. As you can see i’m the perfect height as i’m short enough to not bump into the bones making up the body section.

Dusting a bronze sculpture

We were taught techniques for dusting objects and it’s really about the magic wand swish and putting the nozzle of the vacuum at an angle to catch the dust.

Lastly we did microclimate conditioning. We worked with the archaeology collection for this. They were kept in stewart boxes and we needed to change the silica gel so that the microclimate in each box was dry enough to prevent corrosion from happening on the metal archaeological objects. We also put a humidity indicator to see if the silica gel was doing its job. Metals need to be kept in conditions with low humidity to prevent corrosion from happening so the silica gel functions to absorb the moisture that is trapped in the box and the moisture that seeps into the box after awhile. It was fun seeing all the cool archaeological finds especially the helmet collection.

Another thing that i really loved was the diversity of the volunteer team. I’m from Malaysia and my fellow volunteers came from Ireland, Scotland and Senegal. It’s really good that we all had this chance to experience this, learn and get to know each other through volunteering. Background wise 3/4 of us were Care of collections and conservation students at Cardiff university while one was volunteering time doing media shoots. So you don’t need to be in conservation to do this you just need to have the interest and passion to learn.

I hope this has given some helpful insight to anyone who wants to learn more about volunteering at NMW or preventive conservation.

Please note that everything here is my own personal experience and opinions, everyone has a different volunteering experience. If you want to learn more check out the links below.

Here is the NMW preventive conservation twitter account if you want to check out some of the things i did and preventive conservation related topics. The official Amugueddfa volunteers twitter account is really useful to get more information too and of course the Amgueddfa Caerdydd/National Museum Cardiff twitter account.

Another volunteer has written about his experience doing the same volunteering program so you might want to check out his post. Also check out the ‘Volunteer’ tag in the blog for other posts and volunteering position experiences.

10 weeks of self-isolation: the story so far

Tags

COVID-19 experience, finding rest in God, rest

TLDR Highlights:

• Wo hen lei (I am very tired). Learned this new phrase from watching the chinese drama Ming dynasty and it is very appropriate
• Praise the Lord that in this time where it’s not been good financially for the world that my contract was extended till the end of July.
• The biggest flaw of this period and biggest lesson learnt : the false sense of rest and time
• Finding rest in God

I’ve got it down on my calendar that i started self-isolating on 17 March. Since then there’s so much that has happened and being 10 weeks in honestly it feels like i’ve been running a one person relay race. It is emotionally and mentally tiring and it’s only now that i’ve stopped to take a breather.

Background context: Before self-isolation my schedule looked like this –

Monday – Part time work (5 hours), Tuesday – catch up on reading/ work for class, Wed – Volunteering at the museum (6 hours), Thursday – Class (6 hours straight), Friday – Part time work (7 hours), Everyday – read at least 2 articles for class

And this is my schedule once self-isolation happened.

Monday – Part time work (4 hours), Tuesday – catch up on reading/work for class, Wed – Part time work (4 hours), Thursday – Class (2 hours – live session), Friday – part time work (4 hours), Everyday – read at least 2 articles for class

If you compare it there isn’t really a difference except that there is no more volunteering, some classes will be uploaded and i don’t have to go through a 6 hours marathon each week and i don’t have to make a journey to work or class, or dress up, pants? who needs them?. I would say that this really was the problem the first month in. With this ‘new’ situation i thought that i would finally get a rest and get to do a lot of things like getting ahead in my assignments and reading. I’ll actually get to work on figuring out what i want to write for my dissertation, i’ll catch up with friends because everyone has nothing else to do. There’s so much time now, I really was so ambitious. I’m not the only one who felt that way as i remember the sentiment/mood was about the same (at least online). Suddenly you saw all these virtual courses and virtual theatre popping up on social media. All in the good intention to help people stay indoors of course.

However my mistake was that i just jumped into it thinking that i was getting rest now but not actually resting. In fact i think i got busier or more pressured to do more because i ‘had all this time’. The false sense of freedom actually put pressure on me to do more whilst ignoring my emotional and mental health. I didn’t acknowledge the fact that things are different, sure everyone said that but what did it really mean? How did it apply to me specifically? I guess i didn’t really want to think about it too because i was so busy wanting to do all these things that i could finally do.

Pop quiz time – do you think i managed to accomplish that? Find out if you’re right after the next section. (Since i’m trying to do like a chronological order sorta recollection of events, i’ll talk more about this after the section about my part time work).

I also remember in march i was looking for a new part time job because my contract ended March 31. I had gone for an interview to be a student ambassador but that didn’t work out (so many nerves in that interview). When self-isolation started so did work from home because i do admin work so a lot of it can be done from home. It sounded and felt really cool to be honest, I set up my little workspace and it was nice that i could get up and snack/eat anytime because the kitchen is 2 steps away. Again at this time many people were also starting to work from home and you could see instagram stories about everyone’s different set ups and lots and lots of stories with coffee mugs and a laptop in the background. It was a little stressful at that time workload wise because the year was ending for the centre and a lot of things had to be tied up and completed before 31 March. I think the thought that this was all ending in 2 weeks gave me the sense that again, i would finally get to rest. I told a friend of mine that i was looking forward to having time to focus on my studies and resting and then a few days before 31 March i got an email from work saying that they would love if i would stay on for another 4 more months! OMG mixed feelings here. On one hand i had just said to my friend that i was looking forward to this break and on the other hand the economy is looking like it’s not going to be so great and this is a very good opportunity for income at this time. After a few days of back and forth internal debates with myself on whether or not to take the job i decided to take it. I still have mixed feelings about it now because 10 weeks later people are loosing jobs, furloughed (zech included) and getting pay cuts so i’m definitely grateful for God’s providence. At the same time it has added to the stress that i have experienced. Thinking about it, i know myself and either way i think i would be stressed because if i didn’t take the job i would just be stressing out about finances. I guess the moral of the story here for me is that it’s not really about the thing that is causing me stress rather it is how i handle stress that needs improvement. I’m a W.I.P needing a lot of God’s grace yah.

So back to the part where i thought i had all this time and could rest. Based on stuff i wrote on my calendar (i’m using it as reference so i get it right) this is all the work i was doing for the past 10 weeks. I had to read up for class weekly. Each week we had minimum 12 to 13 articles to read and they vary from 8 pages to 30+ pages for each article. Sometimes we get a podcast to listen to but it’s always at least an hour and half long. This was going on all the way up to the 7th of May so that’s about 6 weeks of that, it would take the entire week just to finish the reading for that week of class. Then i also had two assignments due so we’re talking about at least a week worth of solid work on it for each assignment, i also had to think about what i wanted to write for my dissertation (this really became optional after awhile) and do part time work (12 hours per week). Basically, once i got that weeks reading done i immediately had to start on the coming week’s reading. Along with that, once i got one assignment done i had to study for my exam (oh yeah that was not an announcement i appreciated especially when it was only 2 1/2 weeks notice, i was moaning for 5 minutes out loud, zech was not amused), once the exam was done i had to finish another assignment and now i still have to figure out my dissertation before the end of the month. There was no rest, there was no time TO rest.

I don’t know about you but just writing that all out made me exhausted. This picture really sums up what i feel about this schedule in the pre-COVID 19 time vs self-isolation. Nothing has changed. But also not really.

Why not really? Yes i nothing had changed work wise but mentally and emotionally it was actually different because of all those false expectations i had, the expectation of the ability to rest because i had ‘more time’ and that i had ‘more time’ to do things i always wanted to. So basically i was running on a ‘normal’ schedule but also struggling to reconcile that with my expectation that i had more time. This just led to a lot of disappointment in myself. I remember in week 2 and 3 it just went downhill and i was sad and full of anxiety. It didn’t help my relationship with zech which added even more stress. It was not pretty.

I remember at the end of week 3 i had realized that i needed to deal with my mental and emotional health because i had put it off for long enough. I also realized that i needed to be kinder to myself. All these expectations to do so much and accomplish things at this time had made me judge myself really harshly. I posted a list of things i learned in these 3 weeks on twitter and they were:

1. Be kind to yourself

2. Don’t rush whether it be about adjusting to the new normal or rush through your feelings

3. Boundaries

4. Don’t forget to breathe

5. Where you are right now is because something changed, you can survive change

7 weeks later i still think those lessons are important but i also have learned that circumstances may change but really the source of that stress is me. I make the decisions to worry about something or to do something about it, i make the decision of how i want to approach the challenge. In relation to that the biggest thing I learned and am still learning is about the idea of rest.

On Jan 1 2020 i woke up and felt God put a word in my heart and that was the word ‘rest’. I felt that God was saying that this was what He wanted me to learn for this year and i put it down as a 2020 goal. Almost 6 months later I have seen many facets of the concept of rest. At first it started off with taking the Sabbath off. Like really resting and doing nothing because i was really bad at doing nothing. So that was the thing at the beginning of the year. Then when classes started and i had assignments due the question became what attitude do you need to have about rest? This is a bit confusing but basically i was doing the ‘do nothing on Sunday’ part pretty well but i felt like i didn’t feel refreshed like i thought i would be on Monday. Yeah it was partly the monday blues but also there was something else. This was harder to adjust to because hey i was doing really well at part 1 so it took awhile to see that there were more parts to this concept of rest. And that was going back to God’s design of rest. Mentally i was still doing a lot of work worrying and that was not resting was it?

Matthew 11: 28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and i will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden light.”

So to reiterate (not for you but for myself really). I was doing the physical resting part well, but now it was time to learn about the mental and spiritual rest. Admittedly i’m not doing so well in Part 2 as the last month has been really stressful and i can say that i am worn out. But i’m a work in progress by God’s grace and writing this has really helped to get me to refocus on what is important, finding rest in God. My devotion these few days have been about the topic of rest. Mary and Martha, Mary choose what is important which is not the busyness and doing things but to sit at the feet of Jesus and receive. Then there’s Matthew 6 where worrying is not going to add an hour to your life and Father God loves you more than the flowers and sparrows which He gives lots of love and care to, so what more you? I think the message is pretty clear. Rest, refocus. It’s also spiritual and mental rest.

Finally, in writing this i got Part 3 (or is it Part 2.1?) of the concept of rest which is the reconciliation of the idea that i have time to rest vs actually resting. Note to self: They are not the same thing girl. It’s really about not telling myself i get rest when i’m not actually resting, being real with myself. Again a work in progress.

At the end of the day i think the wonderful part of life is that we keep on learning, evolving and hopefully become better people. These lessons have not always been an easy pill to swallow but with God’s grace i believe i can learn what rest is.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I tried putting in images to spice things up a little. But yeah, let’s take care of ourselves and lean in on God who wants us to find rest in Him.

Self-isolating grocery shopping tips

My husband and I run an instagram account documenting the food i cook or put together as a sort of fun activity we do together. However in light of the recent COVID-19 escalation in certain countries i have compiled a few tips from my experience of meal planning for the both of us. Hopefully this helps you get an idea of a strategy you can use for this period of self-isolation. I believe it’s very different from your everyday meal planning as you really have to stretch and plan further along rather than just a week. So here are my tips:

If you would like to follow the instagram account search @amanda.good.cook. We have some fun plans ahead and would love for you to be part of it.