"I can't, I have to go study" These are words I find myself saying a lot to my friends. It's hard to balance school, friends, sleep, and just general living all at once. It's even harder to find the motivation to be a responsible adult and study for your classes. In high school, schoolwork came easy to me and I never had to do too much studying. It hit me hard when I got to college and realized that isn't the case here. After a couple months here, I've developed a routine that will hopefully help some lost soul out there.

When it gets to a point where I have so much work I'm actually drowning, I gather up all my stuff (always remembering my charging cables) and go to a coffee shop. I go to a coffee shop because there are a ton of cute ones in the town I live and the library is so quiet it gives me The Quiet Place vibes. There are two places I frequent, Starbucks and Coffee Hound. I know, I know, Starbucks? I only go there when Coffee Hound is closed because let's be real Starbucks coffee is less than amazing. I order my coffee and then find a table, pretty self-explanatory. I take out my headphones and play some chill study music. I mostly do this because I'm an extreme introvert and I hate talking to people. :) Sometimes the music can be too distracting so I might just sit there with headphones in and not even listen to anything. It helps me focus in on the tasks at hand. Before I jump into work, I lay out all things I have to do and I make a list. Yes, I'm a list person. It helps me physically see all of the things I have to do. I go back through the list and color code (yes, color code) the tasks based on when they're due. This way if I run out of time it's okay because I did the things due the soonest first.

I wonder if you can guess what I do next. I study! Isn't that exciting. If I have a test, I make sure to read and highlight notes to help me remember the information. I'll continue to cross things off until I feel good about myself or until the coffee shop closes and kicks me out.

I know that wasn't the most interesting thing to read but believe it or not it took me a long time to figure out what I was doing. There was lots of trial and error before I found a workspace that easily fit my needs. It turns out that it wasn't too hard, all I need is coffee.