All About Spiraldex

Finally, the long requested walk-through for how to set up a Spiraldex.

I love this method of time management. I've already spoken some about the purpose and setting it up in this post, but now I will go more in depth and walk you through how I set mine up for tomorrow, May 20, 2015.

Step 1

You're going to want to print out your template. I'm using the 24 hour template found here. But if you would like one that had the times set from 6 to 12 (for a total of 18 hours), you can find that one here.

As you can see I have already filled in the starting and ending times. I like to put the hours as if it were a clock. The one that is nearest the date is 3 a.m. The one in the middle is 3 p.m. and the one on the outer rim is 3 a.m. (technically of the following day but that's around the time my actual day ends). I also put in the date in the middle but you don't have to do it this way. You could place it on the top, the side, the bottom, wherever. It is totally and completely up to you.

Step 2

Fill in the rest of the quarters of the day.

Do you see how much it resembles a clock now? Now you can go ahead and fill in the rest of the hours. Remember that the times are moving ahead in a spiral. In mine, the inner most spiral is the morning, the middle spiral is the afternoon and the outermost spiral is the night/dawn.

Step 3

Gather your materials! 

I will be using my MUJI .38mm pens and a silver ruler from MUJI, as well.

Step 4

We are ready to begin filling out the Spiraldex. From 3 a.m. on Monday, the 20th of May, 2015, I will be sleeping (at least, that's the plan) and I will not be waking up until 7 in the morning. I will be using a light blue as the designated color for sleep time on my Spiraldex. From 7 to 9 in the morning, I will be getting myself and everything I need ready. I've decided that orange will be the designated color of getting ready on my Spiraldex. So, it'll all look something like this:

The next bit of my day is dedicated to travel. I commute from my casa (house) to my school. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour on a really good day but delays often happen on the MTA, so I plan for an hour and 15 minutes. This is where my ruler comes in handy. My commute should start from 9 in the morning until 10:15 in the morning. The first dot in the space that has the 10 hour, is 10:15. I line up the 10:15 on the outer spiral with the 10:15 of the inner spiral so that I make a straight line. It'll look like this:

And then I draw the line and it'll look something like this:

Now, I'm ready to fill in the space. I've chosen a teal/turquoise color as the color to designate travel.

I did the same for the 10:30 to 12:45 section for my class. I lined up the 12:45 of the outer spiral with the 12:45 of the inner spiral and drew the line in the section I wanted. Then, I was ready to finish filling that section of my class in.

The segment after class is travel. I will be traveling to work. An hour and 15 minutes is more than enough for me to get to work. In other words, I'll be getting to work at 2 p.m. The rest of the sections up until 9 p.m. will be work. I will use red to designate work time. It ends up looking like this:

Are you getting the hang of this? Great! If you notice, I've also been listing the different activities I'm designating on the bottom right corner of my Spiraldex. I use this as a key. Each activity is written in its respective color.

Let's keep it moving. The next section I need to allot time for is travel. From 9 p.m.to 10:15 p.m. (an hour and 15 minutes) I will be travelling home. From 10:15 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. I will be eating and relaxing. A nice cool blue should be good for designating that momentous occasion in my day. From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., I will be studying. The rest of the time (1 a.m. to 2 a.m.), I will sleeping until the following morning.

The end result:

Yay! We did it! See? It wasn't so bad. If yours is not perfect, it is more than alright. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. I would not want you to miss out on a perfectly amazing method of time management because you simply gave up. 

Feel accomplished! Bash in the glory of your accomplishment! If you need extra help, this post will be here for you whenever you need it. You can also contact me through any of the methods listed in the Contact Me section of my blog, or simply leave a comment.

Weekly Planning

Sundays are the day where I get ready for the rest of the week. Weekly planning sessions happen then and now, so does Spiraldex printing haha! I love using my colorful pens and highlighters and taking control once again, if I happened to have lost it by the end of the previous week.

I honestly believe that it is not beneficial for you to get stuck on what you didn't do. That's why the Bullet Journal is an amazing system to get you into the mindset. You just move the task forward to the next day. It's also a great way to teach you how to not overload your day. You get to see how much you are actually able to complete during your day. But this is not a post about my Bullet Journal. If you would like to know more, go to the Bullet Journal Series page on my blog or click here.

I want to talk about another organization method I have to get a quick scope at how my week will look like.

Thanks to the wonderful blog, iHeartOrganizing, I was introduced to the weekly spread. Is it very obvious that she puts a lot of effort and passion into her work. Her Weekly Routine Printable found on her "Free Printables" page is my best friend. For the most part, my weeks remain unchanged but if I feel I need to make adjustments at the start of the week, filling out my weekly routine planner works marvels.

I use my MUJI pens in .38mm width because the spaces are really tiny, so they allow me to be precise. I use highlighters of the same color of the day with the matching pen to outline every individual event I need to get done during that day.

This whole process is probably what I look forward to the most at the start of my week.

The only thing I would like to see more of on this weekly planning template is hours. But I guess, that's why I have the spiraldex system for day-to-day 24 hour coverage.

#30DayStudyChallenge: Day 04 - Make 10 flashcards for a subject of your choice

I chose Biology, because I do flashcards for them anyway (what's that about killing two birds with one stone?) And here was my end result:

I need to do the same with the concepts of each chapter. Now that I think about it, I should also do the for my U.S. Latino Literature course. I think I shall!

#30DayStudyChallenge: Day 03 - Add an extra half hour to your study time today

Saturdays aren't a day I normally use to study. That's because, for the better part of the day, I am in church. Being an active member means most of my day is compromised... AND I LOVE IT. But that's a story for another day. Putting my all into everything I do takes a huge toll on my energy supply by the time I get home. Homework is usually out of the question. But Saturday, May 9th, was a little different. I woke up way earlier than... well, pretty much ever on a Saturday. It was about 5:32 a.m. and I was not going back to sleep. I got up, got ready, grabbed a bowl of cereal and headed to the home computer. Why? Because I was tired.

"How could that possibly make sense, Keila?," you may be asking yourself. I had woken up that morning, grabbed my phone and began to scroll through Tumblr. Ya'know, the usual morning routine. For some bizarre and unknown reason, I was seeing Spiraldex EVERYWHERE. It was the invasion of the Spiraldex. I loved seeing them in planners, bullet journals, walls. I wanted some of my own. But it looked too complicated and I was not about to spend 3 hours trying to figure it out. But since, I had so much time, I decided to stop stalling and moping and just get to it. As soon as I sat at the computer, I began to dig through YouTube to find someone who could guide me to the light. But then,...

Not one person could explain the Spiraldex to my complete satisfaction. *sigh* For the most part, it was just people showing how they incorporated a Spiraldex into their planner. But I didn't know what the heck it was! Finally, I found the website of the original creator of the Spiraldex. But he seemed more into the math of the design at first, then he got into what it was about. I didn't really finish reading.

Instead, I set out to find a Spiraldex template. I couldn't find a template anywhere either. I was getting exasperated. I decided to just take a stab at myself once I found the template. Finally, I found it through a Google search. Here is one that has the times written in already starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 12 a.m. Here is one that does not have the times written in and can take 12 hours more than the last one.

After printing the template out (I used the second one), it took 5 minutes to figure out the whole thing. It works very similar to a clock.

Here is the end result:

Here is what it looks like in my Bullet Journal:

And there was my extra half hour of studying on Saturday :)

#30DayStudyChallenge: Day 02 - Clean up and organize your study area

My study area is a peculiar place. It's not as big as I would like it to be. Heaven knows I take up a lot of space when I study. But I like it still because it gives me a constant place I know will always be there when I need it. 

Since it isn't too big, It is often cluttered and messy. Almost like the rest of my room (whoops) most of the time. When it is actually organized, it looks something like this:

That still looks pretty messy, doesn't it. I which it were big enough to just keep all my thing in some sort of order and still be able to use it. I find my way around situations like these all the time. What I do is place those stack of books and whatnot on my bed, since it is directly adjacent to my desk.

It ends up looking something like this:

A lot better, right? If I need any of those books, they are no more than a reach of my hand away. My desk ends up free to do with as I please.

End result:

I know that top right corner still looks a little cluttered but (believe it or not) I actually use 85% of that stuff; never the same 85%, but 85% all the same.

#30DayStudyChallenge: Day 01 - Find something that inspires you to hit the books

This is only part of my collection of wonderful pens. I absolutely love the feeling of putting them to use on my next great batch of notes. The endless possibilities! The ones of the top left corner are from MUJI. They're the .38mm gel pens. I like the thinner lines because they allow me to fit more in a page. The highlighters on the bottom left and the ones in the pencil case on the top center are from MUJI, as well. The ones on the bottom left are amazing because their color is vivid but the it will never bleed through the page. I've tried it on pretty thin paper, and it is highly effective. The ones in the pencil box are double tipped. You know how it's always a problem that highlighters tend to be chisel tipped which makes it difficult to underline precisely. The main tip is a regular highlighter while the second look like a fine felt tip marker. Makes for super precise underlining, boxing, diagramming. The Staedtler Triplus Fineliners in the center are the showstoppers. I love these because they're bold (like markers), but precise (like pens). And last but not least, Pentel WOW! Pens in assorted colors. These are incredible. They're not super thin, which is what I usually go for; but they are super amazing. Another one of my favorites are the Pentel R.S.V.P. fine line pens. I have the pack of 5 and I absolutely love them. They make my handwriting looks fabulous! And this is part of my motivation to hit the books. Ah, the tools of wisdom come in many shades and hues.

#30DayStudyChallenge

I have decided to try something fun and different. On Tumblr, I found a wonderful blog that came up with a 30 Day Study Challenge. I decided to take up the challenge. Here is the run-through:

Day 01: Find something that inspires you to hit the books.
Day 02: Clean up and organize your study area.
Day 03: Add an extra half hour to your study time today.
Day 04: Make 10 flashcards for a subject of your choice.
Day 05: Write a page of notes that has at least one diagram or flowchart.
Day 06: Make yourself a nice cuppa of whatever.
Day 07: Prove the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2+b^2=c^2) in three minutes.
Day 08: Think of favorite celeb/OTP while studying and see how it goes.
Day 09: How long can you concentrate in one studying session?
Day 10: Eat with your non-dominant hand while writing/studying. No spills!
Day 11: Spend one full hour on your most-hated subject.
Day 12: Ask a question that you’ve previously thought was too stupid.
Day 13: Teach someone a concept you are learning right now.
Day 14: Preview tomorrow’s lessons or things you plan to learn.
Day 15: Compare the effects of rap and classical music while studying.
Day 16: What is your best subject and why are you good at it?
Day 17: Share your favorite inspirational quote.
Day 18: Try out the Cornell note-taking system if you haven’t already.
Day 19: Carefully record how you use your time and make a time log.
Day 20: Open up Tumblr or something else. Study in front of the screen. Do not touch or do anything. See if you can focus on your work.
Day 21: Watch an OCW video and take notes.
Day 22: Show us your favorite stationery for studying.
Day 23: Try speed-reading a news article and summarize it. 
Day 24: Organize your notes. 
Day 25: Plan your work beforehand and finish it before the day ends. 
Day 26: Don’t bring questions home… solve all questions before leaving school. 
Day 27: Put on a queue and stay off all social networking sites for 12 waking hours. 
Day 28: Healthy eating: no junk food today. 
Day 29: Set a large goal and reward yourself if you finish it. 
Day 30: Celebrate and see how far you’ve gone ;)