Managing your free time around the uni timetable

At first, the university timetable can seem quite overwhelming. It might seem impossible to juggle your studies and free time. With freshers week pushing your social life to an all time high, you might feel burnt out, anxious or stressed. This article will help prevent these feelings by sharing a few handy tips for how to manage your free time around uni.

Crafting Effective Time Management Strategies

To start off strong, decide on how you’re going to plan your time. Whether that’s on your laptop, writing it out in a diary or sticking it to your wall. Pick a method of planning your time that will work for you and start by copying in your uni timetable. Write down any other commitments like clubs, a job or appointments. This will allow you to see what time you have left and plan out your week according to your commitments to best avoid burnout.

Preventing Burnout and Maximising Productivity

It’s important to be realistic about what you can achieve each week. If you plan out too much, this could lead to underperforming in assignments. A tip to prevent burnout is to give yourself timeframes to complete assignments, or by giving yourself a treat after completing certain tasks. This can help get you through the boring tasks and prevent them from building up and causing you stress later on. It can also help to talk things out with friends if you feel unable to manage your time around university without feeling high levels of stress, as a fresh eye could help point out how to jumble your timetable to better suit you and your needs.

Prioritise Your Well-Being

Another way to manage your time is to prioritise the things you enjoy. Make sure to make time for your favourite sport, society or hobby as this can stop you from becoming trapped in an endless cycle of work, especially as the semester goes on and exams approach. However, if you do feel like you’re taking too much on and your free time seems too busy, it’s important to be okay with doing nothing in your free time, enjoying it and not feeling guilty for not always being productive. If this occurs, take a step back and try to change your schedule to make it more manageable. This could be by trying to start assignments earlier, saying no to a few nights out or cutting a few hours from your part time job if you can.

It’s important that your mental and physical health stays at the top of your priority list and managing your free time around university should revolve around that first!