Ask Becky: Avoiding burnout and managing time at university

Balancing university work, a social life, looking after yourself, and keeping up with hobbies is hard. I can't help but feel like I sometimes centre my personality and mood around my academic achievements and work, which is great as it acts as motivation, but it is often the cause of burnout and putting too much pressure on myself. How can I make sure I keep up with other aspects of my life and don't focus solely on my studies?

These submissions were very real.

I love writing this column because it keeps me in check. I need to have my life together (to an extent) so that I don’t feel like a massive hypocrite giving out advice, so thank you for encouraging me to re-evaluate my own organisation skills.

There is no routine in Uni, that has as many pros as it does cons. We are truly free here, with barely anyone telling us what to do or when to do it. Unfortunately, this means that we can go one of two ways; we can either try to do too much at once and end up burnt out and overwhelmed, or we can end up slugging it out barely being able to make it to lectures- forgetting to change our bedsheets for months.

I have over a year's worth of practice when it comes to staying relatively balanced at uni, and I still get overwhelmed, so don’t beat yourself up. It takes a lot of trial and error.

First of all:

• You’ll need paper and a pen.

• We need to brain dump our whole lives out so we can organise them.

Write out everything that’s on your mind, and all your responsibilities.

Laundry, food, work, lectures, social events, societies you want to get involved in.

Colour code and categorise them.

Life: Meals, shopping, chores

Uni: Work, lectures, study dates

Fun: Friends, activities.

If your list is looking like all work and no play, write down the kind of person you want to be. Both now and post-graduation.

What qualities do you wish to have?

Zen and spiritual? Active and interesting? Surprising? Confident? Charismatic?

From that you can take a gander down the list of all the societies on the SU page and pick out a few sessions to attend, just to try.

Societies are all about self-development. The activities you choose to take up, shape you as a person and plonk you into a different social world, where a new side of you will be coaxed out.

You don’t have to commit to anything or attend regularly, these sessions are just to get you to dip your toe into the world of balance. Societies are a really good way to build routine in uni life.

If your list is looking too much: slow down.

You can't be and do everything all at once. We have years and years ahead of us to do everything we want. There will be slow patches where you can pick up one of the hobbies or commitments you’ve had to put down for now; you’re doing fine.

Next:

Buy, print or draw up a monthly calendar for the next few months.

Write all your non-negotiable future commitments (such as lectures, seminars and shifts at work) on your calendar. Write down the time you need to be there. Highlight them in one colour.

Write up all your pre-booked events on the calendar, including the times you’re planning to be there- and highlight them in a different colour.

You now have a bit of structure and visual representation of how you’re spending some of your time.

Now we’re gonna need another visual to break it down further.

Write down weekly chores that are essential for life function.

• Laundry

• Food shop

• Budgeting

• Gym/ exercise

• Planning your week ahead

Create something visual, either a poster or a lock screen on your tablet/ laptop, reminding you of these tasks.

It’s easier to stick to something when there’s a reminder staring you in the face all the time.

Do a key at the bottom of your calendar and put a dot of a coloured pen on each of the days you work out, so you can keep track of your activity.

When it comes to planning your days:

Don’t be too rigid, and don’t plan your whole week in detail in advance. You will likely not stick to those plans, it's just the nature of uni.

It’s okay to pencil in that you want to have a study day on Wednesday, or do all your life admin chores on a Sunday- but that’s not gonna take all day.

Plan your day the night before. In a loose format.

• Breakfast: cereal or oats

• Go to lecture

• Gym

• Study in IC- 1 hour

• Dinner: Salmon and rice

• Catch up with a friend

It’s not so specific that it’s unattainable, but it’s designed to influence a dopamine rush and make you feel accomplished when you achieve those small manageable tasks.

Also, before you go to bed, something I like to do is write down what I call my ‘daily wins’.

I bullet point all the small stupid things I did to be proud of that day.

• Ticked off everything on my to-do list

• Wrote an article

• Made £30 at work

• Managed to prevent overwhelming emotions

• Made my friend smile.

• Did not beat myself up when …fell through.

Positive reinforcement is a subtle way to encourage productivity and optimism, you’ll find yourself walking through life actively looking for reasons to smile.

Finally, there is a lot to be said for energy accounting.

Make a table of things that give you energy, and things that take your energy.

For everything you do that takes your energy, do something that gives you energy.

Organisation skills definitely improve a person's quality of life at university. I hope that these tips will help you going forward.

Edited by Michelle Almeida