Hey subreddit, I’m not particularly to well versed in ice baths but I had this idea to do one for 24 hours tomorrow at 6pm CST where all money and donations on the channel ArithmeticNik will be given to charity, and every hour the water will get colder. So to prepare I just wanted to hang around the Reddit and see how you all deal with these things

I wouldn't workout if i watched brian rot content and videos , like skibidi toilet or any other instant gratifications beforehand that will lower my motivation

I wouldn't workout if i didn't have the optimal phone setup for minimising distractions

I wouldn't have workout if i didn't had the optimal method to track workouts i.e app ( strong, hevy, alpha progression etc) or paper, i just spent life on analysis paralysis

I wouldn't have workout if I had done a bad stuff or habit before and fearing i wouldn't push my best during the workout, if i don't push my best ( before I even workout it's all in my mind) I wouldn't even do it

I wouldn't workout if I was stressed, or researching for the perfect how to do , common mistakes etc

I hate perfectionism

Conclusion: put any effort you can no matter how small, you wouldn't regret it than not doing it at all, do what you can in the now and don't put it off and say later or tomorrow

Hey guys, I am a highly motivated person (23M) that has grown immensely in recent years. I have finally overcome my mental health issues, accepted who I am, gotten a girlfriend, gotten a social circle, a job that pays well enough and I am committed to getting better at martial arts. I feel fulfilled in many ways, except for one. I do not enjoy the job that I do, and I will probably not be allowed to work there for another year. I don't know what job I want to do next year. I am not good enough to be paid for martial arts, and I don't really have an education that gives me a lot of options. I am decent at drawing, photography and playing piano, but I don't see a lot of job opportunity in these skills. I want to commit my life to 1 thing, and be the best I can possibly be at that thing, but I don't know what to choose. Any advice?

I lost my mom 4 months ago and in kind of bad shape mentally and physically. I'm trying to start my journey of healing this year. I have worked out sporadically here and there but have never been consistent because I get overwhelmed by all the information online and get burnt out trying to dive head first into all that fitness mumbo jumbo.

I'm at a healthy weight (160 cm, 48kg, 24 yrs, F), just a bit flabby due to poor diet and lack of exercise. I want to get toned up, lose the flab and develop a bit of muscle definition. I don't have access to a gym at this time but do have dumbbells.

I'm looking for a workout (HIIT, calisthenics etc etc) that is the most effective. Something I can do without exerting too much mental energy because I'm still kind of f**ked up from my mom's passing. What is a sustainable and effective way in which I can get back into shape, without burning myself out when I'm already kind of low on energy and will power?

I am a 22M currently living in an apartment for studies. This is my second and last year before going back home.

Last year went okay. I went to the gym 2 to 4 times a week, meal prepped, focused on school and social interactions.

This year has been a whole other story for various reasons :

• My classes are online, so I am home sat on my chair for hours a day.

• The class I take is infinitely easier than the one I had last year. For example, a competence « should » be taking 50 hours to do, but I have a pass with flying colors with ~10 hours invested. Downside is I need to be logged in my class for how long it should take me, so I play video games continuously.

• I have went to the gym probably less than 10 times since September.

• I feel the laziest I have ever felt. Super nonchalant, and unintersted in studies.

• To picture the lazy part, sometimes I skip meals because I am simply not feeling like cooking, I just eat some snacks instead to kill the hunger.

All that to say, I am getting desperate to get back on track. My motivation has disappeared, I feel like doing absolutely nothing at all, even scrolling an endless feed of social media bores me to death. I feel like I am in an endless doom circle of boredom, laziness and absence of motivation.

Anything you could advise me to do ? Ways to get back on track ? I feel like a slob

I’d like to take this time to reflect and be grateful for the accomplishments so far in your journey of self improvement.

Often times I found myself not really appreciating the struggles that I had to go through in the beginning since I’ve been so caught up in what I need to improve on right now.

It’s nice to just look back at the trials and tribulations that my past had to experience to get what me where I am today, and for that I am extremely grateful for.

Really makes this journey all the more worthwhile once you take into account for all the wins that might seem small now, but helped you get to where you want to be in the present moment.

So tell me what is one accomplishment that your past self has achieved that you’re grateful for today, it can be big or small.

I’ll start with mine, I am grateful that my past self was willing to quit on his 7 year video game addiction and instead focused on bodybuilding which helped kickstart my path onto self improvement in the first place.

The desire for playing video games is so infrequent now so I don’t have to worry about falling back into again. Rather I am able to enjoy the fruits of my labor since fitness is so ingrained in my lifestyle today.

I have been struggling maintaining any of the healthy habits that I have built. I used to be so disciplined about waking up at 5am, going to pilates, getting in a run, averaging about 10-15k steps a day, working, knocking out my tasks, and reading in the evening.

I am currently working a pretty demanding research job and I am in law school in the evening. Lately I've been logging on around 7am and working until 4:30pm. Then I would quickly eat something for dinner while doing my readings for class in the evenings and then I would walk to school and be in class from 6pm-9:30pm. School started back up a few weeks ago and for a week I fit in 4 work-outs while staying on top of things. Last week, I worked out twice and maybe averaged like 2k steps per day.

I have been gaining weight, breaking out, getting pale, eating terribly, picking out my split ends until my hair gets so oily and damaged, and just being sedentary all day. When I'm not working or at school, I just scroll through my phone thinking about how I should be studying or getting extra work done. I'll think about working out but then get so exhausted thinking about it, I just lie here.

Is there any tips on how people manage a hectic schedule and are able to fit in a workout/other healthy habits? I love working out and reading, or I wouldn't do it at all, but in the back of my head recently, I think about it as just another thing I need to do when I just want to rest.

hi hi!

i hate HATE colour-coded planners and notion templates and all the other countless productivity tips and hacks that turn up on my feed everyday, i am truly a hater when it comes to conventional productivity but gamification is something that has actually worked for me in some ways, i did not go from being overwhelmed to being super productive but it has definitely helped me take control of my life in a lot of ways- i am currently writing a super simplified eBook for people who want to start gamifying their lives without feeling overwhelmed. i've included all the issues and hurdles i personally face with the system, but i’d love to hear from others too!

what are the biggest challenges, drawbacks, or frustrations you’ve experienced with gamifying your life/ any sort of reward system?

• what stops you from starting it/ sticking with it?
• what feels complicated or unnecessary?
• what would make it easier or more fun for you?

i want to make sure the eBook actually helps people get started without burning out or getting stuck, help a girl out, thank you sm in advance !!

For the longest time, I thought the key to success was motivation. I’d wait for the right mindset, the right burst of energy, or the perfect moment to start. I’d read books, watch inspiring videos, and feel fired up—but when that initial excitement faded, I’d fall right back into my old habits.

At some point, I had to admit the truth: I wasn’t making real progress because I was relying on motivation, and motivation isn’t reliable.

So I changed my approach. Instead of waiting to feel ready, I made it easier to take action. If I wanted to build a habit, I set up reminders or changed my environment to make the habit effortless. If I read something valuable in a book, I didn’t just highlight it—I wrote down one way to apply it immediately.

Over time, I realized that the less I relied on motivation, the more consistent I became. Now, I focus on creating systems that keep me on track, even when I don’t feel like it.

Curious—how do you stay disciplined when motivation fades?

this might sound counterintuitive, but i’ve realized that real progress isn’t about grinding harder—it’s about being so consistent that effort becomes second nature.

at first, everything takes work. waking up early, going to the gym, studying, building a skill—it all feels like a conscious effort. but if you just keep showing up, something shifts. discipline turns into routine. routine turns into mastery.

the problem? consistency takes you to perfection, but perfection kills consistency.

the moment you start chasing perfection, you hesitate. you overanalyze, second-guess, and eventually stop executing. you’re so focused on doing it “right” that you forget to just do it.

instead of aiming for perfection, aim for momentum. show up, even if it’s not perfect. over time, you’ll realize that success wasn’t about effort—it was about consistency.

im curious to hear, what’s one habit you’ve built that now feels effortless?

I started applying discipline to my daily workout and diet (while getting sober after almost two decades of substance abuse) and I’ve lost around 30 pounds in 6 months. A big part of it was getting comfortable with the pain and allowing it to drive my growth. I made a promise to myself in February that I would post a reel to Instagram every day, just to get comfortable sharing myself, my thoughts and my workouts. I am on day 3 and I just posted my latest reel. Not looking for self promotion or any validation. Just honest feedback. How does it make you feel?

Link here 🤙🏻

I do my best to share the importance of discipline daily with my kids, and I figured why not share it with all of you? Tell me what you think. Again, just looking for honest feedback, nothing more, nothing less. Thanks in advance for any kind words you share. We’re all in this together. Let’s get better each day. Onward and forward, internet friends.

I usually sleep for 11-12 hours almost everyday which I know is extremely unhealthy but I have this preconceived notion that I only survive on that many hours which is bullshit. I just can’t give myself 8-9 hours of sleep no matter how much I try. I want to sleep by 11-12 and wake up by 8-9 at most but that’s so hard for me to do. Rn I tried to do that by calling my trainer at 8 am for workout and woke up in the middle of my sleep to cancel and sleep extra. It’s not difficult to sleep early but it’s the waking up part that I find most difficult.

ERP (exposure therapy) is getting rough, I know I can do it; but nonetheless, it’s exhausting— physically, emotionally, mentally. Could use some words of encouragement or some advice from someone who has been where I’m at 🥺

This dates back to when I didn't have social media. I just played with toys and played mobile games, as well as one computer game about pets that I loved. These days were way simpler for me. I couldn't wait to get on and play with my virtual pets. Every day I looked forward to it.

I definitely did have hyper fixations from a very young age. I'd only play games related to animals, and when I lost that one pet simulator game after getting a new computer, I missed it for years. I felt like I would never get over the fact that I couldn't play it again. Even as a teenager, I still loved and missed it dearly.

Multiple years later (in 2022), I actually managed to get my hands on the game again. I was really excited, and felt the greatest dopamine rush I've had in years. Finally I had it back. But due to reasons I won't get into on this post because it's a long story, I ended up deleting it from my computer. The excitement quickly turned into anxiety the next day.

I didn't bother with it for another two years, but I was starting to miss it again a few months after removing it from my new computer, then I got over it and thought maybe I'd play The Sims instead. Then eventually, I decided to get the game again two months ago.

I did not feel very happy or excited at all this time. Just nothing? Emptiness? I mean, I could say I was happy about it, but my brain didn't release any of those feel good chemicals that I would always get when I played that game. Maybe it's because I had gotten so used to other games, such as Gacha's and some games on Steam? But no. I think this may have something to do with my doomscrolling addiction that I developed two years ago. Reddit is a huge addiction that got in the way of everything, and made my procrastination even worse, if that's possible.

When I actually would feel real excitement and happiness, I wasn't on the internet all the time. The reward system in my brain was probably not screwed up at that time.

I'm just questioning whether I really have ADHD or not, but the massive hyperfixations I had as a child is a good sign that I may have it.

Does ADHD get worse as you age? Is that why I can hardly feel anything these days? Not to mention I have absolutely zero motivation to do anything. I always procrastinate, daydream, and scroll.

Getting out of my comfort zone is not going to be easy at all. You'll know that if you've seen my last post about my homeschool problem.

This is a long story but I’ll do my best to keep it short. Growing up my parents provided financially for me but in terms of emotional support / love they were completely absent. My mother is a covert narcissist and growing up I never felt safe, secure but rather deeply insecure/massive people pleaser.

When I was 14 I was severely bullied in my class to the point I was fearful for my life and by the end of that year the stress became too much and my body literally shut down and I was diagnosed with severe “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”. I never told my family what was happening at the time because they were homophobic and that was part of the bullying and I felt shameful and scared about the situation.

For 3 years I was completely housebound but year by year I made slight improvements in my health and eventually after 10 long years I made a full recovery. I got to the point where I was able to work full time, go to the gym 5 days a week, got down to 10% body fat, ice baths every morning, eating whole foods, completely locked in, started a business, running 6km every week, no social media usage. Through living like this I found God and had a spiritual awakening. I experienced complete inner peace for 6 months.

Basically, my work environment became toxic and mirrored my high school situation. At the same time, I was guided by God to accept myself fully and come out as gay to my homophobic parents. I sat down to write a letter and this brought up a massive wave of emotion that is indescribable. I re-traumatized myself from when I was 14.

Basically, my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was actually Complex PTSD. It’s been 6 months since I re-traumatized myself and I can’t fully explain how messed up my life has become. I’m mentally fried, for a few months I was looking in the mirror and not knowing who was looking back, complete dissociating, isolating myself from my friends, I can’t work at all, I’m housebound but some days I’m able to go for a walk, I’ve put on 20 kg as I used food to cope. Excess social media. Can’t sleep.

Basically my nervous system is in severe shutdown. If you search up Complex PTSD I literally have every symptom of that. I feel like the biggest loser and I can’t have my life like this. I’m currently seeing a therapist and have read all the books on CPTSD and understand the techniques on how to get back

I have bad perfectionism and turns out, this fuels me to procrastinate tasks, even small things. Recently, I feel that it’s been getting worse, and although I’m aware of it, and tell myself it’s okay to make mistakes, I keep freezing up and delaying tasks.

I have a tendency to actually be very “productive” and compensate my negative feelings with other short term / low priority tasks.

How do I beat this? Who has beaten this?? Honestly feels so silly, but I think it is tied to anxiety and how I manage my emotions in some way. Still getting out of it.

Would like to hear if anyone has protocols or quick strategies that’s worked for them that I can do today.

I’m struggling to stick to my Google Calendar as a solo entrepreneur. I plan my schedule and fill it with tasks, but since I don’t have to report to anyone or face external pressure, I often end up ignoring it. Has anyone else in a similar situation found a way to consistently follow their calendar and get things done?

I am looking for women who need a disciplinarian ti help them improve their lives. We can do this with no sex. I travel around the southeast for my job. I’m not going to go into too much detail but pm me if you would like to learn more.

Hi, I was conditioned and abused for long and now that I have cut them off - I still can’t keep stop thinking. Every morning I wake up with their thoughts first and go to sleep with same. It’s consuming my life and the problem is that I can’t speak up about my abuse. It’s pains me that they can get away with what they did peacefully.

I masturbate nearly every day instead of having sex with my wife. I get really high then masturbate and then when i orgasm it is the most intense mind blowing experience. Doesn’t happen with sex.

Hello, I have been on my self improvment journey for 1 year! I have made progress but I have realized that even though on short bursts I have good days, on most days I revert back to old coping mechnisms and I am not going fast enough as I would like. I set a goal, then I try to make it my identity but I also never go fast enough to reach the goal! I would like to fix it. SHould I get an accountability buddy who is rude to help me? I don't know?

im about to enter my senior year of hs. meaning that my time will be limited now. i want to consistently go to the gym and maybe even start a new sport in order to lower my body fat percentage which is quite high rn. im also an ib student which means my school workload will now be even higher. another thing is that i live a bit far from my school, which means i wake up earlier that most and get home later. on previous occasions, i would get home tired from school, sleep all afternoon and then wake up to see it was to late for me to go to the gym bc i needed to do school stuff. i was always tired. this ended up turning into a horrible cycle of completely wasting my time, losing all ambition and not really doing anything to actually achieve my goals. what can i do in order to stop quiting and make a productive use of my time?

So I have gained like 15 pounds since I started college and I want to return to the weight where I feel best and look best. I want to have abs and I want to be strong and healthy. I have tried to use MyFitnessPal to track my calories but it doesn’t seem to help. Every time I come up with a plan to eat healthy whole foods, I end up eating too much. I’ll end up logging over 800 calories of my goal. I normally eat so much even when I’m no longer hungry because it tastes good. I don’t know how to stop eating and be satisfied with have just enough. Most of the time I eat until I’m extremely full. It’s not that I’m overweight but I want to feel good and look good for myself. I eat healthy foods like overnight oats, granola, cashews, white rice, chicken, fruits, etc. the issue is that it’s too much. Are there any tips to improve and begin to see weight loss?

Any advice?

Hello! I'm 30 years old and if i can pass all of my classes over the next year and a half, I will be able to graduate in the fall 2026 with a degree in Biology. The problem is that I have never actually studied for anything. Not even in high school, I'm surprised that I even had As and Bs. Due to self esteem issues I but getting a college education off until 2022 when I decided to go back. Now that I got most of the easy classes out of the way, I still have yet to be able to stick to studying. Every time I have tried, I almost instantly get distracted and lost in thought. I just don't have an urge to do it.

I want to get disciplined enough that studying is just another part of life. I want to get disciplined when it comes to learning and studying but I just don't know where to or how to start.

How can I get disciplined when it comes to learning and studying?

I want to get disciplined/motivated but feel like my ADHD makes it nearly impossible to do.

Like today, I had every intention to do all the work I needed to do at work today, but my brain said “nope” after I had a work problem I needed to solve and I felt too overwhelmed to do it. I took a break, but my brain kept telling me I’m done for the day. I kept working regardless, but with nothing to show for it. And this even happens when I am taking medication for the adhd.

I feel worthless and feel like I’m all alone here. For my fellow adhd people, what do you find works for you to get disciplined?

INTRO:

Look, just by clicking on this and searching for advice, you’ve already put in more effort than most other people. And that really says something. So, I have decided to put an end to your searching by condensing all of my knowledge, everything that has actually gotten me incredible grades, and turned it into this one post, this one gem made purely of effective value and information. And this is going to be a lot different than the generic and useless information floating around on the internet. This is going to be made up of purely very specific information on how to do well on every different type of assignment that you can start implementing instantly. I promise you, some of the tips in this post will be things you have never heard of or never even considered and they might just change everything. So, without further ado, allow me to present my full guide to absolutely breaking the school system.

CHAPTER 1: HOMEWORK AND ASSIGNMENTS

Let’s be honest, most of the time you get an assignment from school, it’s going to be some basic assignment that you have to get done for homework. I never hear people on the internet talking about these types of assignments because they tend to only make up a small percentage of your grade and are therefore overlooked. The problem is, this isn’t exactly true. These “basic” assignments actually add up to make a huge portion of your grade, and even if you’re making some slight errors every time, these mistakes may add up to take more than 5% off your grade.

So, what can we do? Well, there are two really big factors that allow me to consistently get high homework grades. First of all, identify your biggest cause of point loss. This could be turning homework in on time, misunderstanding the instructions, or just straight up getting questions wrong. Whatever it is, this one factor is most likely causing the majority of points lost on homework so if you purely focus on eliminating this thing, your grades will instantly go up. For example, if you said getting assignments in late is your main cause of point loss, use something like Google Calendar to keep track of all the assignments you get. Then, make it send you daily reminders to complete that assignment. See? With two short and simple steps, we were able to increase your grade by 10 percent… or more!

Another huge thing about homework that I don’t see anyone talking about is communicating with your teacher. I know some people think that’s like cringe or something but honestly, if you think about it, it’s free points. Are you confused about a question? Ask your teacher. Do you not understand the instructions? Ask your teacher. Do you need an extension? Ask your teacher. All you have to do is spend 30 seconds typing an email and most teachers reply pretty quickly. I’m serious, do not be afraid to ask your teacher questions. Trust me, it’s saved me many times.

CHAPTER 2: TESTS

For this, I’m going to give you specific tips for every different type of test. But, before we do that, let’s get some general study tips out of the way first. Now, I know you guys are probably very familiar with these overhyped “study techniques” circulating all over YouTube. It seems like every week, someone comes up with the “new best study technique that will instantly get you a 4.0 GPA!” No, those won’t work. But, there is actually a very well-known and well-researched form of studying that works for everyone. This is called active recall. You might have heard of it before, but in case you haven’t, here’s how it works. After learning a new topic, you need to test yourself on it in a way that requires you to actively recall the things you’ve learned.

For example, flashcards are so popular because they rely on this exact method, forcing you to recall and remember the things you’ve learned before checking your answers. If you like flashcards, then feel free to use those, but honestly, there is a way more powerful tool. And that is practice problems.

Trust me, doing practice problems will change everything. Here’s how you do it: First of all, you want to check if your teacher has provided you with any practice sheets. If they have, start by practicing with those since your teacher knows what will be on the test and so their practice problems will be the most accurate. Next, go to Chat GPT and use this prompt. Tell it what topic your quiz is about and be really specific to get the most accurate questions. Then, let Chat GPT generate the questions and try to answer them. If you get something wrong, you can ask it why. Keep telling it to generate questions again and again until you are totally confident in your ability to solve the questions. This is an incredibly powerful method for studying and using it will allow you to ace any test that could possibly come your way.

Now for the more specific tips. If you have a test on something geography-based, I highly recommend using this website called Seterra. It is extremely good for learning geography and trust me, just using this website for 15 minutes will be enough to ace your test. In fact, it’s so good that I’m confident that one tip is sufficient for the whole geography category.

Next up, we have tests for topics such as science and math. Once again, practice problems are your greatest friends. But, if you want to go one step deeper, I highly recommend the channel called “The Organic Chemistry Tutor.” I’m telling you, any math or science-related problem you have, this man has the solution to it. Not only that but he also provides you with multiple practice problems and walks you through how to solve them.

Finally, we have English or literature-related tests. Now, normally, you can’t really “study” for these tests since it would require you to basically reread the entire book. Or at least, that’s what most people think. This is where a website called Spark Notes comes in. And honestly, this website is like magic. Write in whatever book you need to study and boom! Themes, motifs, symbols, settings, genres, and anything you can think of! It’s all there, with the click of a button. You even use it to see summaries of specific chapters. For that reason, using Spark Notes for studying is a no-brainer.

CHAPTER 3: PROJECTS AND ESSAY

Okay, let’s start with essays. At first, you might think that there’s no real “tip” to getting amazing grades on your essays other than, well, being good at writing. This, however, is false. No matter how good or bad you are at writing, there is a way that you can outclass literally everyone. Here’s the plan: after you get assigned the essay, get straight to work. You do not want to procrastinate on this at all because our whole strategy relies on finishing early. Depending on this situation, this might be difficult but if you are provided class time to work on it, use it. Trust me, it makes a difference. After you’ve completed this draft of your essay, you’re going to send an email to your teacher asking if she could read through your essay and give some feedback. It might sound like this won’t work but people who use this strategy know it works. The only thing is that sometimes, the teacher will be unwilling to read through your entire essay in which case you can rephrase the question to be more about a specific part of the essay. This works incredibly because your teacher knows exactly what she wants from your essay (I mean she’s the one grading it) so their advice is literally like free points.

I recently used this technique and when I first sent it to her for review, she criticized my ending a lot. Seeing this, I went back and fixed everything she said. This not only led to me getting an amazing grade but she also couldn’t stop praising how good my ending now was. A full one-eighty! And honestly, this strategy feels like cheating because of how incredibly effective it always is.

Our method for projects is going to be pretty similar. Whenever you are assigned a project, you should be given some sort of rubric. This rubric is your key to getting an amazing grade and I’m surprised at how many people ignore it. Create your project and make sure that every single criteria on the rubric has undoubtedly been completed. This is where our previous strategy comes in. Go to your teacher and arrange a time for you two to could talk or, well, just talk to them in class. Tell them that you are confused about the rubric and ask them if they could check to see if the work you have done actually satisfies the provided criteria. Since you’re basically just asking them a clarifying question about the rubric, they can’t say no, but at the same time, you’re effectively getting them to check over everything you’ve done and give you feedback. Believe me, with this knowledge, you will never do poorly on a project again. I mean, how even could you?

CHAPTER 4: TEACHERS

Let’s face it, no matter how objective teachers may try to be, their opinions about you will always have a huge impact on your grade. In fact, I don’t know if you have this in your school, but an entire portion of our grade is something called a “participation grade” which is totally subjective and based on the teacher's opinions of you. On top of that, we’ve all had that teacher who seems like they just have something against you in particular and you do not want to be in that situation. So what can we do?

First of all, get on their good side early. First impressions will do you absolute wonders and is going to set the trajectory of your relationship with your teacher for the rest of the year. Here’s what you want to do: during your first week of school with this teacher, be that perfect, enthusiastic, always participating student. You should be constantly raising your hand in class and also having conversations with your teachers when you pass them in the hallway. Also, quick tip, asking good questions is a super powerful tool to get a teacher to like you. Once, I asked one of my teachers a really good question about the topic we were learning that even she had to think about. This one question had an amazing lasting impact on their view of me, and it even ended up on my report card (yes, I’m serious).

Now, for some of you, you already know all of your teachers so there’s no room for a new “first impression.” If this is the case, don’t worry. You can still make a huge difference in the span of one week. And if you implement these changes, your teacher will definitely take notice. And here’s the thing, once you’re on a teacher’s good side, everything is better. Suddenly, they’re more likely to agree with you, they’re more likely to help you out, and, well, more likely to give you a better grade. So, I see no reason that you shouldn’t be trying to improve your teacher’s perception of you all the time. Remember, they are the ones that decide your grade.

CHAPTER 5: EXTRA-CREDIT

The next tip might be single-handedly one of the most absolutely broken but also unknown tips I have. You’re basically just going to start getting tons and tons of points in places where it wasn’t even actually possible to get points. I’ve personally been abusing this strategy for the longest time now and it’s literally turned into an ongoing joke in my friend group because I will literally get scores like 110% on assignments where there wasn’t even an opportunity for extra credit. So, how do you do it?

Well, remember what I said about improving your relationship with teachers earlier? As it turns out, your teachers will usually be quite happy to give you extra credit assignments if only you just ask! The reason nobody ever talks about this is because nobody ever tries. Simply put, you’re gaining a totally unfair advantage over everyone else and it’s not even close. Now, there will always be teachers who say no, but that’s not the end of the things we can do. First of all, you can rephrase the question for extra-credit assignments as a way to make up for something you did badly in earlier. This makes teachers way more likely to say yes since they see you making an effort to actively improve on things that you messed up on before. And this is great because getting an extra-credit assignment for this purpose effectively does the same thing.

Test retakes are also something of a similar fashion in the sense allow you to drastically improve your original grade even after you’ve taken the initial test. This has the added benefit of being something that most teachers offer to all students anyway so it would be dumb not to use it. All things considered, this one tip could very realistically improve your grade by a whole ten percent. You just gotta be willing to put in the work.

CHAPTER 6: SECRETS

Now, while making this post, there were a lot of tips that either didn’t fall into any of the aforementioned categories or belonged in a whole different category of their own. So, here are some secret tricks you can use to improve your grade that you probably didn’t even know existed. I have a lot of things on here, and honestly, this might be the highest-value section of the post so stick around.

Let’s start off simple, the first thing I want to talk about is routine. Now, I know what you’re thinking, this sounds like the same generic advice that literally everyone seems to be giving on the internet. But that’s all there ever is to it. It’s just “Oh, get a routine and suddenly you’ll have straight A’s!” What the heck is someone supposed to do with that sort of advice? I, on the other hand, am here to offer something specific that you can instantly implement to actually see progress. And it’s as simple as this: do your homework as soon as you get home. If you are anything like younger me (which you probably are) you know that feeling of having homework but you decide that you want to play video games first when you get home. And then you keep procrastinating and procrastinating. And then when you do start it, it’s already late so your work is sloppy and you also end up getting less sleep. Why are you doing this to yourself? Do you know the incredible level of freedom and relief you get for the rest of the day when you finish your homework early? Just this alone is basically the key to never turning in homework or a project late ever again.

And for all the people who are going to say that this won’t work because maybe they have extra-curriculars or something, I’ll say this. I used to have soccer practice after school every day. Yet, on the bus to the field and back, I had over an hour of free time that I hadn’t even considered using for homework. Then, I’d get home late and have to finish all my work instead of going to bed. If only I did my homework on the bus, I would be totally free for the rest of the day. Identify what this homework time will be for you and stick to it.

This next one is absolutely crucial and that’s having good friends. Now when I say “have good friends,” I don’t mean having friends that are kind or nice. I mean having friends who you know get good grades and you can compete with. Even for me, I can’t describe how many times having these connections has totally saved me. There are two reasons for this: first of all, having these friends means that whenever you are stuck on an assignment or don’t understand a question, you can just phone them up and they’ll explain everything to you. This also works for just comparing answers with each other so that you know you didn’t get anything wrong. Another great benefit of having smart friends is group projects. We all know that feeling when your group members do literally nothing to contribute and your whole grade goes down just because someone else was not willing to do the work. Well, when you have friends who are actually both willing and able to make a lot of quality contributions, your grade will not only not be going down, it will be going up instead. So, just think about it, you know who the smartest kids in your school are. Befriend them, you won’t regret it.

Next, let’s talk about Chat GPT. Do you use it? If so, what for? I personally believe that Chat GPT is an incredibly powerful tool to boost your grades but only if used correctly. Let’s get one thing out of the way first: do not use Chat GPT to write your essays for you. I feel like this is the only thing people can talk about as if writing essays for you is the one thing Chat GPT is capable of. No, don’t use Chat GPT to do your work for you, but that doesn’t mean don’t use Chat GPT at all. I already mentioned using it to generate practice problems for your tests in an earlier part of this section so let’s talk about other use cases. Let’s say you have a list of requirements for your writing assignment but you’re not sure if you’ve met them. Plug both your writing and your rubric into Chat GPT and it can give you feedback on whether it thinks you’ve met the requirements. Or let’s say you’re preparing for a debate but you want to practice and see if your argument is strong. Tell Chat GPT to argue against you and see if you can defend your argument. If you’re ever stumped by something it says, just ask it to help you come up with a counterpoint for that argument. There are so many use cases similar to this that are so useful but I don’t see anybody using them because they’ve been fed the idea that using AI for school-related purposes is inherently bad. But it’s not, so use it.

I saved this final tip for last because I actually heard it from someone else and it’s a strategy that should only ever be used as a last resort. Let’s say you have a very major test tomorrow but you haven’t studied at all. You know that if you take the test now, you’ll probably fail. And failing this test is something you cannot afford to do. Well, you know, attendance at school isn’t exactly mandatory. Nothing will happen to your grade if you just so happened to get COVID the day before the test and have to miss school for a few days. As long as your parents call school and say you’re sick, you’re totally excused. And even whether you’re excused or not, absences don’t actually make a difference to your grade until you’ve had tons of them. So, although this isn’t something I necessarily recommend, keep in mind that if you really, really, this technically is always an option.

OUTRO:

If you’ve made it this far in this, well, I first want to thank you. I put an incredible amount of effort into writing this post to be stuffed to the brim with nothing but pure value. No stalling, no generic or useless information, none of that. Hope it helped!

hi, decided to share my problem. whenever i set a goal, a dream, to maybe learn something (webdev for example), i just gave up after like 1-2 days, no matter how bad i wanted it, im just not consistent.

im trying to be a self-taught web developer and the main problem is that im forgetting to do things on a regular basis, let's say i want to do 1 frontend mentor task a day. that same day i say this to myself, i do 1 task, the next day - "nah later" until its night, "ah ill do 2 tomorrow".

did anyone encounter this stuff with their tasks/goals in life (im sure someone 100% did)?
thanks.

when i sit and put a timer while studying i would go daydreaming sometimes or sometimes i would give 1 exercise like 30mins(bcz i probably don't pay attention to the time that's passing) which is not good and a waste of time

so if ur suffering from this do like me i got an interval timer that make a small sound every specific time (u chose ) i chose 4mins so now every 4mins a small sound is going to be released by the app remembering me with what im doing and helping me to avoid daydreaming

theres alot of apps that offer such a feature in general its called interval timer u can ask for interval timers' apps on ai tools for example also these apps usually work in the background so u dont have to open it while using it u can use other at the same time

goodluck

Hey everyone! 👋

I’ve been on a self-improvement journey for the past few years, and it’s been a rollercoaster - lots of ups, downs, and valuable lessons. Like many of you, I’ve struggled with fear of failure, perfectionism, and self-doubt, but through trial and error, I’ve found ways to push past them and grow.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that progress > perfection. Taking small, consistent steps, even when things aren’t perfect, has helped me build confidence and resilience. What’s one small habit that’s helped you improve your mindset?

I’m really excited to be here, exchange ideas, and learn from all of you! Looking forward to great discussions. 😊