Sunday Scribblings - "Instructions"

This week's Sunday Scribblings prompt was "instructions". Since I'm such a study fanatic, I thought I would clue every one in on how to get it done.. If you're not the studying type, you can easily substitute "study" with a work project or task.

Dorinny's Study Survival Guide

1. Start by compiling all the necessary study material onto your desk, such as books, notes, paper and stationary.

2. Make sure your study area is clean. If your study area is not clean, put your material in another area while you clean your desk from clutter and mess.

3. Make a cup of coffee or tea. You'll need the caffeine to keep you awake and alert, and it's always nice to sip on coffee or tea between writing down notes.

4. Once you have your clean desk and your study materials with you, and your cup of hot caffeinated drink, go to the kitchen and get yourself some biscuits. They're good for dipping into your hot drink and in case you get peckish, you won't have to go to the kitchen to make a snack, which will just be time consuming and distracting.

5. Open the window to let in some fresh air and light. Natural light is good for your eyes while you study, and fresh air will help you concentrate better.

6. If there is noise coming from outside, put on some soft music to drown out the sound from outside, which is probably going to distract you from your studying. The best music to listen to is something soft and easy on your ears, like some slow jazz or meditation music.

7. While you're at your stereo, check around the room to see if anything needs to be cleaned, such as vacuuming the carpet, sweeping the floor, or making the bed, if you're studying in your bedroom. You should do this because studying in a clean room is good for your concentration and memory retention.

8. After you've finished cleaning the room, check your phone for messages. If someone has called, return the call and inform them that you don't want to be disturbed for the rest of the day because you have some serious studying to do. If you don't have any phone messages, make sure you send text SMS's to all your friends, just to make sure that if they do plan to call you later, they don't. There's nothing worse than a friend calling you out of the blue because they're bored and couldn't get in touch with any of their other friends, and are now wasting your precious study time.

9. Now that you're back at your desk, and are almost ready to start your studying, check your email. You never know if one of your friends has sent your some important study notes. You also may as well check your course website to see if there have been any last minute exam changes, such as time or location or content. While you're online, you may as well read your friend's blogs, making sure to comment on their most recent blog entries, and mentioning that you miss chatting to them on MSN, but you have to get back to studying.

10. Check that you're hot drink is still hot. If it isn't, go to the kitchen and make another drink. You might also want to make a snack. It might even be lunchtime by now, so cook up some fish with salad. If you don't have fish, go to the supermarket or fish shop, and buy some. Fish is important to strengthen your brain muscles which are used for studying.

11. Check the time. If there's a good show on TV around about now, stop what you're doing and watch it. There might even be a few good shows. If it's a Sunday evening already, don't miss Australian Idol.

12. After 'Idol' you might be tired, so go to sleep for 8 hours or so, and in the morning you can resume your studying, unless of course, you have to go to work, in which case, repeat steps 1 - 11 on Saturday.