The Christmas holidays are over and it’s back to the uni life. Whether or not your holiday workload was intense I’m sure the thought of being back to weekly deadlines is a little bit scary. Luckily I’ve thought about some ways to help make settling back in as easy and enjoyable as possible.
New term, new you! Being back at uni could be beneficial for those of us with resolutions to stick to. Maybe you’ve decided to be healthier, so why not try out the sports centre or join a sports team? Or maybe you want to improve your grades, so why not set up a study group with your course mates? The university is here to help with most aspects of life so take advantage of the services and facilities available – remember that you’re spending a lot of money to be here, so make it worthwhile.
A new term hopefully means a fresh start in terms of work. Whether you’ve got new modules or are carrying on with the same ones, there’s a chance to do things better. There’s always room for improvement, whether it’s changing when you work, how much you work, where you work etc. It’s hard to find the time to identify areas for improvement and even harder to make the right changes in the middle of term, so have a think about them now before the heavy workload kicks in. I guarantee you’ll not just feel better about your work but in yourself too, knowing that you’re going to do even better this term.
Don’t just think about the week ahead either, think about the whole term. Don’t worry, I’m not saying you should do the whole term’s reading in advance, just make sure know what to expect. If you do, at the very least you’ll have a rough idea of when will the best time to get different pieces of work done, and you shouldn’t face that nightmare moment where you realise you’ve got a huge deadline that you’d completely forgotten about: late night essay writing sessions will soon be thing of the past.
When it comes to work, preparation really is key. Uni life is chaotic at the best of times, so make lists and work plans because it’s so easy to forget things. I’ve made a list of the work I need to do for the couple of weeks of this term, and I feel a lot less scared and a lot more prepared, and I’ve got some good stuff planned for the weekend. As I said in my last article it’s important to get the balance between work and play so try and get some cool things planned for your social life to help motivate you to work hard when things are less fun. That’s not to say some of you don’t already have a super packed social calendar, more fun is never a bad thing though, right?
Tuesday of Week 2 sees the return of Refresher’s Fair (location: Great Hall; time: 4-7pm) where you have the opportunity to interact with the majority of the uni societies all in one place. Refresher’s Fair tends to be quieter than Fresher’s Fair back in October, so you might just see something you missed last time, or were nervous about trying, or maybe you’ve already signed up to so many societies, one more can’t hurt. Alternatively Refresher’s Fair is a good opportunity to stretch your legs, take a break from studying, so grab a friend and go along, you might be surprised at what you end up a part of.
We all adjust to first term at different rates meaning the experience of second term is very different for all of us but it’s also opportunity for a fresh start for us all. Make the best of this term, try new things, improve on the old things, and you’ll soon see that although Christmas is over, there’s still fun to be had.
