I love to take as few items with me as possible. Heavy weight backpacks all day long are not really enjoyable. Glad thing is, we live in the digital age and note-taking has never been as easy. For the most part I don’t even need to write down notes on paper (thanks to English teaching major), but even if I have to because of maths lectures, I do have a handy solution. I want to show you how I deal with university on a day to day basis without the clutter in my backpack.
I need glasses and am even more grateful about my sunglasses. I use a fairly tiny notebook. I used to have a bigger one, but my maths classes are pretty much done which is why I just write down random thoughts that pop up during the day. Because I need a pencil for drawings, I make sure it comes with a rubber and that I have a sharpener with me. If I need to draw perfect circles (for maths tasks) I can use my compass and set square hybrid. Sometimes you get stressed out. If so, I grab a gum strip and chew the stress right out of my system.
My iPad mini is my daily driver and, thanks to a clam-shell keyboard cover, it is literally a lightweight alternative to notebooks, which does all the important stuff I need. The battery life is about 10 hours if fully used. If a professor hands out a worksheet, I just scan it and give the paper copy back to the prof. I store most of my documents in the cloud. Collaboration projects are done within Dropbox (because apparently Germans don’t like Google Drive) and notes/other office work is done and stored within the Google Docs/Drive eco-system. And sometimes I want to illustrate things with my notes and am glad that Notability exists for iOS devices.
If I don’t eat at the canteen, I additionally carry a water bottle with me, but it’s technically not in my bag which is why I excluded it from the picture. If I don’t read a book at the moment (mostly on the Kindle app on my phone), I sometimes carry small earbuds with me as well. Speaking of bags, everything goes right into my fairly tiny messenger bag. It’s just big enough to fit in the iPad and everything else and forces me to not take unnecessary items with me. My phone and wallet would probably still fit in, but I just put these two into my jeans pockets. I really like the fabric, but sadly there are same white spots caused by chalk I occasionally use to explain maths to students. If somebody has any tips against chalk stains, feel free to help me out.
What do you take with you everyday to school/uni/work?
Writer's Funk 