Speaker 1: Welcome to this video. My name is Arielle and I'm the founder of Grad Life Grind. I'm also a PhD student in clinical psychology and I make content that helps students get into grad school and thrive once they are in grad school. And if you're watching this video I'm about to show you three books that I think every student, whether they're in undergrad, high school, or even graduate school, should be reading. So let's start with the first one which is called How to Write a Lot. And this is a book that I wish I would have discovered so much earlier. It's by Dr. Paul J. Silvia. The title says it all. It teaches you how to write a lot. As a graduate student I spend pretty much all of my time thinking about writing that I should be doing, whether it's my dissertation or other writing, and it's really hard to get into a writing routine to make sure that I don't fall behind on deadlines for my writing. And this book talks about everything. It's like a practical guide for not only how to get yourself on track with the writing schedule, how to keep track of your writing so that you're chipping away at bigger writing projects like a dissertation. It talks about certain phrases that you should or shouldn't use to keep your writing simple and concise and not too jargony, which is an issue in academia. And it's a book that I heard about because other student supervisors in my program were recommending it to them, and I decided to check it out once I was preparing my dissertation. And it's made a huge difference to me. It helps you get over some of the mental hurdles that keep us in procrastination with writing, which is something I definitely struggle with as a student with ADHD. So definitely recommend How to Write a Lot. This is the second edition. I haven't read the first edition, but either way I'm gonna link to this in the description for this video. And I hope that you get a chance to read it. It's something I wish I would have discovered probably in high school or college because I've struggled so much with just sitting down and focusing on my writing. The next book that I really recommend is called Set Boundaries, Find Peace. It is a practical guide to setting boundaries. It's by an amazing therapist who I discovered on Instagram, Nedra Glover-Tawwab, and I'm gonna link to her Instagram page, which is amazing, and to the book in the description for this video. But this is a book that I think changed my life as a student, as a person, and as someone who is training to be a clinical psychologist in the future. I work with a lot of folks who are struggling with setting boundaries, saying no, and some folks who struggle with codependency. Either way, regardless of what your personal history is and relationships with people, regardless of what you do for a living, even if you're not a student, this is a book that I think everybody on earth should read, especially if you identify with people-pleasing tendencies or just difficulty with trying to prioritize your commitments. So this book is really cool because it is very simple to read. It has these really cool journal prompts. I wonder if I can show that. Really cool journal prompts that force you to reflect on where you might need boundaries in your life. It has a lot of bulleted lists of signs that you might need boundaries, phrases that you could use to set boundaries with people. So it's actually a really easy read, and it helps you handle things like being guilt-tripped when you try to set boundaries with people. It helps you how to deal with the pushback that you may get when you start setting boundaries, and it's also divided. Each chapter is divided into different categories in your life. So boundaries are different depending on who you're setting them with, and it has how to handle boundaries in your family, how to handle boundaries at work, how to have self-boundaries, like limits that you're going to intentionally put with yourself so that you can get closer to your goals and live according to your values. And I can appreciate how straightforward it is. What I will say is that some of the boundaries and some of the advice about giving boundaries seems so direct that I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I could actually say that to somebody. But I still recommend it to all of my clients. I still think that it helped me so much in my own journey, how to set more boundaries professionally and personally. And it also has tons of questions to ask yourself about how you can use boundaries to create more peace in your life. The subheading is A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, which is dope. I think it's exactly that. It gives you the ins and outs to what are boundaries, how to set them, what if people don't respect them, how do I know that I need to set boundaries, like all of those things. I think this is like a one-stop shop for boundaries and I think that the reason why it's essential for students is because we struggle, at least I struggle as a graduate student, knowing when to say no, when I have too many commitments, how to say no in the right way that's still professional and respectful, worrying about what people think of me. These are all things that I'm working on healing from and I think a lot of students, especially if they identify as first-generation, also have these difficulties. So again, 10 out of 10. Love that book. The next one that I think is really great for students is Limitless by Jim Quick. So this is a book that I think is also a really practical how-to read. I guess that's the theme for all three of these books. Helps you learn how to do important things that you need to do as a student. So Limitless is cool because it's all about quote-unquote upgrading your brain and learning faster. So it covers things like speed reading and all sorts of exercises to almost train your brain to learn more quickly. One of the most essential things that I got out of it is speed reading, learning how to read more quickly. The reason why I picked up this book is because I realized in graduate school that I have to do hundreds and hundreds of pages of reading. I realized that it's kind of impossible and you actually have to prioritize which reading you're gonna do and which reading is important to do. Nevertheless, I have to cover a lot of ground reading-wise and this book helped me with practical exercises that I could practice on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, to learn how to read faster. Like even timing myself to train myself to read faster. And it has all other types of like note-taking strategies and other science-based ways to enhance your learning and I think this is really great for anyone who's trying to pursue higher education or really learn anything at a faster rate. And I think that the title is cool because the title is Limitless and I think it definitely helped me realize how much we can actually do with our brains. Like we kind of set our own limits thinking like no I can't read that fast, no I can't possibly learn that in two days, no there's no way that I'll be able to cover all of that in such a short period of time, or there's no way I'll be able to remember that. And I think with the tips and tricks in this book you can actually realize that your brain is limitless in a lot of ways which is cool. So these are the three books that I recommend. I'm actually excited to do a video like this in the future about other books that I think are great for students and for different things. As a student therapist I'm always recommending books to my clients who are working on healing in different areas of their life so if you're interested in a book and several books that I recommend in your healing journey then comment below and let me know if that's something that I should cover. And I will be linking like I said to all of these books in the description for this video. I hope that you will check them out. I hope that you'll also subscribe to this channel and like this video if it was useful to you. I appreciate you spending time with me today and checking out this video and I hope that you'll also check out some others.