Heya :)
I'm pretty chilled after a good sesh and a glass of Sailor Jerry's. Tonight I'm off to a trivia at a Tavern near my university. I'm not sure what I'm even supposed to know.
But, I wanted to blog while I had spare time. Steemit is always on my mind, and it's always nudging at my intelligence and yearning for more. That's why I'm here now I guess.
I finished my day at uni, I'm already ahead of my semesters which feel great. So I guess this post is about how to succeed in university, to ensure you be the most studious person you can be.
Time Management
Time management is of utmost importance. Not just at university, but in life. Learning to balance study, work, social life, relationships, family and more is a chore. But it can be made easy if you work for it, because it eventually becomes a habit. The ability to manage your time appropriately can help you excel in so many things. It gives you structure in your life, and it makes you a more organised person. This can relieve copious amounts of stress.
Managing your time at university is as simple as a routine or schedule. Delegating your time appropriately to the things that matter. This means that the higher importance the task, the more time you delegate to it. Personally, being a full time student, I like to be at uni from 8am to 5pm, whether I'm in class or not - as being in the study atmosphere helps get me motivated. And the benefit of having been at uni for 40 hours, means you're more or less likely to get more university work done and your weekends are freed up!
I make sure I work only certain days, when I know I have early starts the next. And I have scheduled days for my sports.
When it comes to socialising it can get a little harder. It's still easy to maintain routine though, and if people understand you and the workings of your life, they will understand your need for routine. This means for me, sparing my weekends for socialising, as I spend week days at university, some week nights at work, some at soccer and some to recoup. All the while I'm going about my life though, I realise I am still socialising with people everyday. So don't forget, whether you don't get time to see your friends, shoot them a text and know you may've made a stranger smile today.
Work
For some of us who are lucky, our parents help pay our way, for others, we pay our own. Now, when you're in university, if you're parents are still helping you out, I'm happy for you, because if I can do that for my kids when they're that age, than damnit all to hell, I'm going to. But by the age of university, you should at least have a casual job. This will help you build routine, character, give you time to socialise and open up your world to new views and opportunities.
In saying that, overworking can tire you out, mean a sacrifice to your studies or relationships and more. The best thing to do is to ensure you work enough to balance living comfortably, while maintaining your study, socialising and exercising. This can be done. I have done it, and it's because I time managed.
Sleep Enough
When you're using up as much energy as you are during the day, sleep is important. Staring at screens, writing down notes, reading books, working and more take energy out of you. Amongst eating healthy, exercising enough, sleeping is dire.
Learn your body. Know how much sleep your body needs to function well. If you haven't ever heard of sleep cycles, which I'm sure you have, they're a great way to work around functioning well off sleep.
I use a great android app, called SleepUnlock, It's the paid version of AndroidSleep but it's a godsend. It records your sleep cycles, noises, movements, and it wakes you up in your lightest sleep so you wake up fresh. It has multiple options for addons and it has an option that I use the most- the ability to make sure you wake up. Doing math equations, that wake your mind up more; getting you into gear for the day. It's wonderful.
Health
Make sure you stay healthy. Eating the right foods, sleeping enough, exercising and staying healthy will boost your ability to work well at studying. It will give you the energy you need to get up in the morning, study all day and work your ass off at your local fast food restaurant at night while you pay your way through uni. Staying healthy is as easy as walking around uni to classes rather than driving, going to the park playing Pokemon Go, visiting the doctor when you think you're getting ill, eating a good meal and refraining from having too many energy drinks. Your body is your home, and it's the only place you have to live. So treat it right.
Downtime
Being a university student requires a lot of attention focused on a lot of different things for a lot of the time. Having downtime is as important as studying. You don't want to wear yourself out before you get to the finish line. Downtime includes having a hobby, sitting and listening to music, drawing, even for an hour a week; playing an instrument, watching your favourite TV show, but something that you do alone and you enjoy doing. For me, that's Steemit. I love doing this, it's becoming a hobby.
The benefit to having a hobby also means you don't get bored with life. It means you've got somewhere to go when you're stressed, sad, lonely. It's something for you, that makes you feel whole again when you're run down and worn out. It's very important.
There's many more things, but that's it for now. I know there's a lot to being successful at uni, for some it's much easier than this. For other's it's much harder. But for me this works, and it's bringing me to where I need to be. You can't kick it 'til you try it. :)
Cheers for reading, Steemians.
Sienna. xx