Now the settling into uni is done, you will have a good idea of your workload for the year. Whether you’re in 1st or 3rd year the balance between enjoying yourself and meeting deadlines is always a tad tricky.
Here are some tips on how to balance the uni life
1.Plan ahead
If you know a heavy weekend is planned and you’re likely to spend all of Sunday in bed eating a maccies, rather than doing uni work, then the key is to plan for it. You shouldn’t feel guilty for enjoying a weekend after a long week of lectures, but you will if you didn’t plan your time right. Get a diary and plan for your lectures and assignments for each day of the week so you can keep up to date. A cheap diary from amazon will be perfect, head to www.amazon.co.uk for plenty of options.
2. Go to the library to tune out distractions
The library will help you to keep distractions to a minimum. Rather than working at home in your bedroom with Netflix on, try changing your study space to the library. Go with a few friends or even on your own and you will see a difference in how productive you are
3. Enjoy the nights out
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. As much as uni is about the assignments, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so try to enjoy the nights out and let off some steam. It is about having fun and making memories, and this shouldn’t be forgotten about too!
4. Say no to plans
As much as this one hurts to say, sometimes you have to turn down plans. I know the FOMO will be real, but you can’t always say yes to everything. Often your friends will have different deadlines. They could plan a night out, which happens to fall the night before your big assignment is due. Don’t get me wrong, if you get it done, then go! But sometimes you will have to miss out on plans to finish your work, you can always rearrange a night out, unfortunately, you can’t rearrange a deadline. It is best to give the night a miss and plan another one to celebrate finishing the assignment.
5. Set priorities
When managing multiple assignments it is important to write down your priorities for the day. Which task is the most important and break it up as you go. A great way to do this is to set yourself a time limit depending on how important the task is. This can just be written in your notepad or on notes on your phone.
See our previous blogs for more tips on studying Become better at Studying.
Uni is a great way to get your time management skills down to a T. But don’t panic if you feel like you haven’t got the right balance yet, it may just take a few weeks of trying things out. The main thing is you do what’s best for you. You still want to have fun, but also want to finish uni with a good grade to reflect your hard work. Ask your friends for tips too, they are all in the same situation as you are, and they might have some useful advice.
Most importantly, have fun! Time flies at uni, so don’t waste a minute.
