Staying on Top of University Life

Managing academic commitments, relationships, deadlines, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be challenging. This blog will provide you with some top tips to help you manage these aspects of university life!

Managing Relationships

Communication is Key

Open and honest communication is important in any relationship, whether it's with friends, roommates, or romantic partners. You should try to discuss expectations and boundaries early on to avoid misunderstandings.

Prioritise Self-Care

While investing in your relationships is important, remember to also take care of yourself. Try to allocate some time for yourself every day to recharge, practice mindfulness and maintain your mental/emotional wellbeing.

Balance your time appropriately

Finding the right balance between spending time with the people you care about and pursuing your own interests is super important. Remember that it's okay to have some "me time."

Handling Deadlines

Create a Planner

Try using a digital or physical planner to keep track of assignments, exams, and due dates. This will help you stay organised and prevent you from forgetting deadlines and last-minute rushes. You could also try using the planner to plan out your week so you can set yourself some goals, and keep yourself on track and accountable.

Break Tasks into Smaller Steps

You could try breaking larger assignments down into smaller, more manageable tasks. This approach makes larger projects/assignments feel more achievable and less overwhelming.

Set Realistic Goals

You need to be realistic about what you can accomplish in a given time frame. Try to avoid overcommitting, as it can lead to stress and burnout.

Mastering Time Management

Prioritise Tasks

You could try categorising tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important. Doing this will allow you to focus on the tasks that are the most important.

Time Blocking

Try allocating specific time blocks for studying, socialising, and leisure and stick to these blocks as closely as possible to establish a routine. I’ve heard a lot of people say, “treat university like a 9-5.” However, this isn't practical for everyone as people have different commitments and productivity levels throughout the day. Therefore, by using time blocking you can still block out enough time to study but you can choose to do it at the time that suits you as an individual the best!

Limit Distractions

Identify your most common distractions (e.g., social media, friends, music) and find strategies to minimise them during study sessions. For example, if social media is your most common distraction, then try switching off your phone when studying or if it's your friends then try studying or going to the library by yourself rather than with friends.

Achieving Work-Life Balance

Set Boundaries

Clearly define when your work or study time ends, and your personal time begins. You can do this using the time-blocking method. Also, try to avoid bringing university-related stress into your personal life.

Self-Care Routine

Try putting time for self-care into your daily or weekly routine. This can include things such as exercise, meditation, hobbies, etc.

Learn to Say No

It's also super important to figure out your own limits, as overcommitting can lead to stress and will negatively impact your work-life balance. Therefore, you need to learn when to say no.

Seek Support

If you're struggling in any way, please don't hesitate to reach out to the University's Wellbeing services by emailing wellbeing@rhul.ac.uk.

Alternatively, you can also get in touch with the SU's Advice Centre by emailing advice@su.rhul.ac.uk.

Just talking your problems through with someone else and coming up with an action plan can make you feel a lot better. Remember seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness!

As you can see there are many methods and coping mechanisms you can use to manage your time efficiently so make sure you try them out and see what suits you best!