Month: September 2021

Between reviewing lecture notes after every class, making time to connect with your peers and instructors, getting your 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day and limiting your caffeine intake, the concept of fitting in the recommended 30 minutes of exercise every day can seem laughable. There’s just not enough hours in the day to fit it all in.

But what if we said it didn’t have to be as arduous as setting aside a chunk of time to go to the gym? What if you just had to find a few moments every day where you carved out 5, 10 minutes of your time to exercise?

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association “The key message based on the results presented is that total physical activity (ie, of any bout duration) provides important health benefits.” (Saint‐Maurice et al., 2018)

That means that working out in small chunks may be just as beneficial to your health as working out in one long segment.

Researchers compared data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2006 with available death records to determine if there was any correlation between all-cause mortality rate and how people worked out. They found that both working out for a longer period every day and working out in smaller chunks of time throughout the day were correlated with a lower mortality rate.

A separate study conducted with volunteers who had hypertension found that three 10 minute bouts of brisk walking throughout the day were associated with a greater decrease in blood pressure than one 30 minute session.

Working it into your day

We’ve already discussed the pomodoro method on the Nimbus blog, which recommends you set periodic break periods where you get away from your desk. Try fitting in a quick little workout during these breaks – there are plenty of apps or youTube videos that can walk you through a 5- 7- or 10- minute workout. If you don’t have much room to move around, there are even workouts that can be done right at your desk – we’re sure your cubicle mate won’t mind 😉

Using this method also has the added benefit of giving your mind and eyes a break from your computer – critical to protecting you from negative effects of stress and eye strain.

If you’ve used this method to get some more work outs in, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment below or send us a DM – we can’t wait to hear what you’re doing to keep yourselves healthy!

With so much changing in the educational world, there is one thing that is no doubt here to stay: note taking. Whether you print out each and every slide your professor sends you, write painstakingly beautiful notes in a pristine bullet journal, or rely on a transcription tool, there is no doubt that taking excellent notes is a key to academic success.

So with something so important, why not try out a new method that might also improve your memory of the lecture? Enter the Cornell note-taking method.

To start, divide up your page into three sections like this:

An example of the Cornell note-taking method. The heading is at the top, notes take up 2/3rds of the centre of the page. To the left, in the remaining 1/3 is the cues section. The bottom section is where the summary of the page goes.

The largest section on the right is where you take your normal notes throughout class. Bullet points, full sentences, doodles, it’s up to you.

The thin section to the left is for cues. You can write these down in class based on what your instructor seems to point out as important, but it’s also important to go back through your notes after class to write out prompts to help you remember what was discussed in class. These cues can be anything, as long as they help you remember what was discussed – for example rough notes on the image on the slide, ties to previous lectures, a joke a classmate made, a scene in Grey’s Anatomy where they talk about this very biology subject, the list goes on.

The very bottom is for a summary of the page in your own words; try to condense everything you’ve written on the page into a few lines or less. By re-phrasing your notes you are giving yourself another opportunity to digest the lecture material and are increasing the chances you’ll remember it.