About motivation and social media.

Today’s post is a bit different, I know. It is not directly related to learning Spanish, but it is related to online studying, motivation, and social media.

Nowadays, it’s easy to go online and find all kinds of webs and resources to learn not only languages but anything imaginable: from history and mathematics to lettering and crochet.

There is also a community dedicated to sharing their notes, journals, and recording «study with me» videos to motivate themselves and others. It can be useful, and I consumed that content in the past, but I try to be more careful now. Let me explain why.

Seeing amazing and colorful notes can be inspiring, no doubt… But the danger comes when we start comparing ours to the ones we see on screen. I used to follow tags like «studygram» on Instagram and «studyblr» on Tumblr to find inspiration and motivation to keep taking notes and studying. It was nice at the beginning, it worked, but after some time I found myself starting to hate my notes: I thought my handwriting could be better, my notebooks were not good enough and I definitely needed more stationery. It’s not a bad thing realizing that you can improve a few things and want to get better, but try not to get obsessed with it. 

If you can relate to this situation, even if it’s just a bit, remember this: your notes have to be useful to you. Their purpose is to help you memorize and learn, not to look pretty for the internet. Don’t get me wrong: I also try to take cute notes, I like using colors and diagrams, but that’s not my priority. What I want is to learn new things, not to become a professional note-taker. 

Not everyone’s the same. The kind of notes that I take might not be the best one for you. Don’t let a random person on the internet convince you of what’s best for you: they don’t know. Of course, it’s great to get advice and tips, but keep in mind that if those tips don’t work for you that doesn’t mean you have a problem: it just means that method is not what you need. 

That kind of content can be inspiring and very useful, that’s true, but from the moment it starts making us underestimate ourselves, we need to take a deep breath and remember what we’re here for: learning. We also don’t need the most expensive stationery. We don’t need 20 different highlighters or 50 different washi tapes. It’s nice to have them. By all means, buy them if it makes you happy and you can afford it, but don’t feel bad if you can’t. Don’t feel you’re «not a good student» because of that: you’re not. 

After years and years, I realized that the most important thing you need if you want to learn anything online is motivation. You don’t need three shelves full of notebooks and stationery, you don’t need an aesthetic setup. It’s nice to have it, but it’s not essential.

If you have the motivation, a pencil and a piece of paper, that’s enough. I assure you. 

That’s it for today. I hope this post, even if different, was useful.
See you on Saturday!

¡Hasta pronto!