Make a list of all the tasks you need to do, pick the ‘hardest’ one first (psychologically hardest for you), and force yourself to just make a start, even if you tell yourself you’ll just do 5 mins, it’s usually easier to keep going longer once you make that start. Pomodoro technique, 25 mins focus, 5 min break to move about, works well for me.

I would also say be targeted. It’s only first year at uni, depending on where you are studying it might not be that challenging or even important to you final degree. Make sure you know how you’re being assessed, what the learning outcomes are, and if there’s stuff that’s new to you, or you’re rusty on, spend time learning that. But for things you already know from school, it’s fine to just dip in and out, do a bit to reassure yourself you know it well enough, then go socialise, get some exercise, do a hobby, join a student society. All those things are good for you, some can even look good on a CV, and it’s likely you’ll have to de-prioritise them a bit in later years of your degree, so enjoy the chance while it’s there!

Doesn’t address OP’s question - still the most important comment.

I love how the top 4 comments in this pretty active post represent a substantially different approaches to the question.

I… actually liked the Da Vinci Code 😶‍🌫️. I think I even read the sequel/ the author’s next book. I mean, I was a teenager at the time it came out, looking for some light holiday reading… I think my mum had read it and thought I would enjoy it…

Lifeprotips: ADHD edition.

Psytrance is ideal. Designed for dancing yourself into a trance, perfect for energetic flow state concentration, like studying.

They’re lucky you didn’t fall over and get injured! I’m sure it’s not the first time the staff have had that happen though…

So this one time in my early 20s, I was at a hippie sort of festival- type thing (rainbow gathering, for anyone interested) up in the hills in Yorkshire. The toilet situation was just piss on the grass, anywhere outside of the main areas, use your common sense. For number twos, there were “shit-pits”, it’s a trench, you squat with one foot on each side, take a shit, then chuck in a handful of two of fire ash and soil to cover it, job done. There’s a beach windbreak for a bit of privacy, and the pits are a bit away from where other stuff is going on. So anyway, there I am, squatting, getting ready to answer a call of nature, when this young woman comes and squats down right in front of me, facing me. Beautiful woman, big long dreads, cute face, nose ring… I freeze up, most awkward I’ve ever been, while she maintains eye contact, squeezes one out, wipes up, and goes on her way without a word. Then I unfreeze and carry on with my day. Weird memory.

Hard to give much advice without knowing much about your lifestyle, but I try to prioritise sleep above all else. If I need to be up at 6am, I’ll make my herbal tea at 8pm and start winding down, be in bed by 9.30 so I can read a bit and be sure I’m asleep by 10. If I’m having trouble sleeping I’ll look at cutting caffeine completely, and/or no screens before bed. The other part (for me) is physical activity/ exercise. It’s hard to get started when you’re exhausted, but once it’s a habit, it gives you more reserves. And improves your sleep.

I think the material conditions in Iraq had a major impact on the ability of ISIS to recruit and spread their ideology.

My parent’s generation in the UK experienced things like the three day week ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week ), major disruptions to normal life due to strikes. In the end, the Conservatives in some ways ‘won’ and so this has gone down in the cultural memory as unions having ‘too much power’. Add to this that, largely due to unrelated geopolitical and macroeconomic reasons, the 70s (when unions had more power) were hard times, and in the 80s (when Thatcher and Reagan were doing their thing) things felt like they were getting better for lots of people (even though with hindsight inequality was starting to grow and the seeds of many of today’s problems were being planted).

I also haven’t looked at findacrew.net for years, but I remember seeing a few “M looking for F (>30) for crew/FWB” ads, which seemed kinda creepy. Especially, you know, because of the implication.

I think when you read that article it’s important to think critically about how it’s composed. I am as anti-trump as the next European “centrist dad”, but nothing I read there made me think he went out of his way to tell that story unprompted. I imagine he was interviewed, said a bunch of stuff, and then someone cherry-picked the quotes they needed to support the narrative of the article… You can’t just take it at face value!?

:`-( I miss voting in the European elections! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺💪

I came across effect/affect swapping in university level textbook the other day, couldn’t believe it.

*littoral

What do the spidery white lines joining the minimums represent?

It is interesting, but remember we need food to live anyway, and we need exercise to stay healthy. If we ask used ebikes on max pedal assist to get around, but then go to the gym and pound the treadmill for an hour, what does that do to the numbers? Or if we eat less and burn less energy, but then lose bone density and need more healthcare as we age (just one effect among many of not getting enough exercise)?

I mean that was possibly their intention, but nevertheless I think it is a reasonable question to ask, and I found it difficult to answer comprehensively.

If we dismiss everything like this as troll, and not worth thinking about, we miss an opportunity to develop point of view and add nuance to our arguments.

I think we should try to answer this rather than just down voting. I think the difference is that conservative thinking led to the policy that led to the person being targeted, and possibly also to a climate of intolerance that made the attacker/s feel like they had the support of the community to do that. We’re not really talking about who is too blame for this individual instance (obviously that’s the person/s who manslaughtered this child). We’re talking bigger picture.

When an immigrant commits a crime, I suppose you would argue that liberal thinking created the situation where that could happen, but I think it’s a false equivalence. Big picture immigrants don’t disproportionately commit crime, and there are major benefits that come with immigration. While trans people absolutely are disproportionately the victims of violence, and there are no real benefits to transphobic policies.

I guess I haven’t done great at this, please other people build on this reply, it just felt wrong to see a fair enough question just being downvoted with no reply.