Happy Sunday!

It's December, and we all know what that means: exam-taking, last-minute studying, and stress. And if you're like me, you'll want to alleviate some of that stress - for instance, by listening to music.

But I get so distracted by the type of music I typically listen to. You can bet I'll stop studying if a Hamilton song comes on in my playlist.

Today, I'm bringing to you six fantastic, mostly wordless albums for you to listen to while you're studying for that final. But honestly, they work well in any situation where you need to focus on your work: writing, cleaning, in the middle of your Zoom class, etc.

This has been my ultimate school soundtrack for the past two years. As most of you probably know, Big Hero 6 is about college students, so that automatically helps make the music even more relevant. However, its atmosphere also makes this album perfect for doing homework. 

No, I don't know why that text is centered. I tried to fix it and Blogger wouldn't cooperate. XD

Some tracks are very electronic (like Microbots), some are very chill (like Inflatable Friend), and some are mildly intense and motivational (like Big Hero 6, which is the actual name of a song in the album). There's a little bit of everything!

The video below plays Nerd School, which is equal parts motivational and chill:

Somehow, this soundtrack manages to combine the beauty of movie soundtracks and the feeling of lofi, and it's AMAZING. Granted, it can be sad at times, but it's so calming and peaceful that it's great for any study session or chill writing time.

My personal favorites from this soundtrack include:

- lvs: one of those songs that has the feeling of lofi, yet isn't lofi

- frc: one of the most intense songs in the album that'll really ignite your fear of homework deadlines XD

- lit(var), which you can listen to below. :)

Minecraft follows the trend of a lot of video game music in that it was created to be atmospheric, not distracting. Many of the tracks fade in and out, providing for seamless transitions between them. They're all very simple and relaxing - that is, except for the few songs that play whenever monsters approach, or the occasional jarring electronic piece. Beware of those. XD

Even if you've never played Minecraft before, you've definitely heard some of the most iconic songs, like Sweden, a calm piano track. I also really love Beginning, one song that fades in at the beginning and fades out at the end. My favorite, though, is the song Minecraft, which gives me A Silent Voice vibes:

All right, so this technically isn't a soundtrack. Cursedsnake is an electronic music composer that I found on Spotify. And while I haven't listened to ALL his songs - because he has a lot of them - they're great soundtracks for when you're writing or researching a paper.

My personal favorites, Calm and Sunrays, both have slow buildups, and their beats are simple yet perfect for background music.

yes, they're my favorites because they're used in Geometry Dash levels, why do you ask

Remember how I said that Cursedsnake was great for writing papers? The Death Note soundtrack is like that, but more intense. I listened to this soundtrack quite a bit while writing papers - the music made me feel like I was a genius detective doing important work that would change the world. It's very hard to explain. XD 

Also, I'd suggest you listen to piano versions of the soundtrack, because otherwise it's super intense. There's a great album called L's Theme (The Greatest Instrumental Themes from Death Note) by Anime Kei that I highly recommend.

My absolute favorite song out of this entire soundtrack is L's Theme. It's what I would classify as Serious Piano Music, and I'm listening to an hour-long loop of it now. XD Here's a much shorter clip of it:

I don't personally use these soundtracks too much because its nostalgia distracts me, but one of my friends SWEARS that the MarioKart soundtrack helped her write her essay quickly. *shrugs* I'm taking her word for it. XD

Also, if you need something repetitive to play in the background, I HIGHLY recommend the ten-hour Wii theme song video, which I've "helpfully" linked down below. I got through five hours of it in two days and then needed to stop because I thought I would go insane.

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So yeah! These are essentially the soundtracks that got me through my last semester. I'm curious to know what you listen to while studying or writing - there are so many epic soundtracks out there!

If you're still taking exams, best of luck - you've got this! <3 If you're not, then best of luck on whatever project you're working on! :D

-Nicole <3

What soundtracks do you listen to while studying or working? Do you like electronic music? Thoughts on lofi? Let's talk!

Happy Sunday!

So, as many of you know, I am a hardcore procrastinator. It's really hard for me to find the motivation to get tasks done.

Lately, I've been trying to discover ways that I can make myself feel productive with minimal effort. The idea is that if I feel productive, I will want to keep doing more things and therefore keep feeling productive. If that makes any sense. XD basically I'm just lazy

That’s what we’re discussing today: ways to trick your brain into thinking you’re productive, when in reality you’re just putting in the smallest amount of work possible.

None of this will be in any particular order, so . . . let’s just do this.

Make your bed.

Confession time: I never make my bed. *cue gasps* I just . . . don’t see the point? I rarely ever look at my bed during the day, and I’m going to sleep in it the next night and mess it all up again anyways.

But if I’m feeling really unproductive, I’ll straighten my blanket and maybe hide my pajamas under the covers so they’re out of sight. That way I can look at my bed and say, “See, I can make that look nice. I can do something else on my to-do list.”

BONUS POINTS if you go ahead and wash all your sheets for the sheer purpose of procrastinating on the other things you should be doing. XD

Clear off your desk/workspace.

I don’t know about you, but my desk is typically an absolute disaster: markers and pens everywhere, papers taking up half the workspace, sixteen different notebooks opened, et cetera. This mess makes it very hard for me to concentrate, especially if I’m trying to procrastinate. Because look, here are all these distractions!

So take my word for it: clean that mess up. Not only will it help you feel productive, but it will also give you a workspace that is actually usable, which is always a plus!

Listen to lofi music.

LOFI MUSIC IS THE BEST, OKAY. It’s meant to be in the background, which makes it perfect for studying or writing blog posts or . . . pretty much anything. When I listen to my playlist of current favorite songs, I always get distracted singing along. on a completely unrelated note, guess whose music is distracting them right now

Lofi is just a nice, calm thing to have playing while you get work done. It literally screams productivity to me. Plus, it makes you feel like you’re in one of those aesthetic productivity YouTube videos.

Speaking of which . . .

Watch an aesthetic YouTube video.

No, this technically isn’t being productive. However, seeing someone on YouTube be productive is somehow very motivating, especially if the YouTuber is your age! I particularly like “study with me” or “write with me” livestreams, because those are both fun and inspirational.

(Writing livestreams are literally saving my life right now.)

Something to keep in mind, however, is that if you’re going to head on YouTube, resolve to only watch one video. This way you won’t lose the motivation you get from the video, and you won’t get lost in YouTube’s Recommended feed. XD

Write your to-do list.

If you don’t write out your to-do lists the night before, I’d highly recommend doing so. That way, you can wake up with a set plan for the day.

But if you don’t want to do it, or you can’t, a great way to feel motivated is to actually sit down and write what you want to do. just make sure you don’t write so much that it stresses you out

If it helps, put “write to-do list” on your to-do list. That way, when you finish, you can cross something off immediately. And your brain will see that and go, “Well, look at that, with little effort we already did something. Let’s do some more!”

To-do list hacks for the WIN! ;)

Draw out your next week.

(This one only applies to bullet journal users.)

If it’s Thursday or Friday and you need a calm start to your day, go ahead and draw out your spread for the next week! It’s a relaxing way of being productive, and you can listen to fun music while you do it.

Don’t feel pressured to start writing to-do lists for that week: just draw the boxes and write the headers, and just leave it empty. Because THEN on Saturday or Sunday or whenever you do your planning for the week, you can see your nice empty spread, which might just motivate you to plan even MORE!

*sigh* I think I like journaling too much.


Don’t feel limited by these options: do whatever works for you! As long as it helps you feel more productive and leads you to get more things done, any little hack will work. Maybe sharpening pencils will do the trick for you, or washing a few dishes, or folding a blanket. Experiment!

I hope this post helped you find a way to Get Things Done - even if that means watching a YouTube video to do so. XD

-Nicole <3