Mindful Ink

In response to my post yesterday, Martin Hughes offered his take on the tougher times as a student. Martin is the writer of the University Blog, the best thing to come out of the UK since Hugh Laurie.

There’s no hiding from it. We all get bogged down with a pretty heavy load from time to time. Although it cannot always be avoided, you owe it to yourself to make sure you can keep the difficult moments to a minimum. So here’s a few tips that certainly helped me to stay balanced when faced with tougher times:

1. Keep your sense of humour / Keep your sense of fun: At times when I was stuck with my revision or couldn’t find the words to use in an essay, I would feel myself descending into unhappiness. Even the funniest situations would seem pointless and annoying. I realised pretty quickly that this was a bad move, because the more I felt the unhappiness, the less I felt I could achieve in my work. One time I noticed what I was doing, so I splashed my face with cold water and went for a run around my halls of residence. I finally spent 15 minutes chatting with my housemates just to get a more positive feeling inside. It worked so well that I managed to retrieve a lot of great info from my head and I did a good job in the end. I would always remember that moment at the more difficult points and it really helped to boost me.
2. Talk to friends and those on your course as part of some breaks: Contact with others is great to calm you down, think about more relaxing topics, and also to focus your mind back by discussing the way others may view what you’re writing/revising…it may give you some helpful points and new lines of direction.
3. Get your priorities straight: You might be stressing, but some things are more important than others. Strict deadlines need to be prioritised, as do matters that hold up other tasks until you’ve done them (it’s no use trying to climb the wall if you haven’t built it yet…). Other things, such as notes, everyday study, minor (i.e. less important & non-graded) tests, outings, and so on, can wait. However, do set aside time to eat, drink, speak to others and relax. No matter how bad the situation may seem, it’ll be a heck of a lot worse if you don’t take the rough with the smooth!
4. Don’t compare your own study regimes and writings with others: You don’t have to ignore them, just don’t start comparing…you’ll end up feeling unhappy with your own work and falsely believing that your methods suck, no matter how good they might be. If you need advice, ask the right people instead! And always listen to yourself…if a study technique seems to work brilliantly for you, who cares if it doesn’t seem to work for anyone else?
5. Be prepared to ask for help: Tutors and advisers won’t bite. They should be able to point you in the right direction so long as your questions are a bit more focused than, say, “How do I do the essay?”
6. Get daylight!: The number of people I knew who shut themselves off to the world in order to complete an essay or presentation is amazing. Even in the middle of the day, they would have their curtains closed, and work by their desk light alone. Why they did this, I’ll never know, but it doesn’t help. Get some natural light in…your body will thank you for it.
7. Study/Write in comfort & find an area where you won’t be disturbed: If you feel uncomfortable in your surroundings, you won’t be able to deal with your work properly. Make sure you have at least one special place (be it your room, a park, or a quiet corner of the library) that you can use to get your best mental focus. When you’ve found a place, maintain your calm by giving yourself everything you need to get comfortable. Some people have a mascot, others want a chair they can curl up into, I personally liked to listen to music in the background (so I stayed in my room to work most of the time).
8. Tidy: I learned that when all my stuff was thrown all over the place, I couldn’t find everything I needed. In turn, this made me lose track of what was going on and I would lose a lot of time in the process. When I started my second year at university, I vowed not to have those untidy moments any more. My tidy strategy was a great success and my study seemed to fit into place a lot more easily. My advice is:

• —Use different coloured folders for different subjects/courses/books/essays
• —Have a stationery drawer and keep it stocked up
• —Set aside a part of your room (even if it’s just a section under the bed, or on your highest bookshelf!) that is dedicated to keeping all your uni work together and in one place. Then you won’t need to tear the entire room apart if you lose something. Oh, and you’re less likely to lose it in the first place…

9. Use a diary for future planning: While some presentations and tests may be sprung upon you in surprise, a lot of work can be scheduled in advance. If you’re really organised, you could even speak to tutors to find out what plans they have in place…you never know, they might inform you! But even with the scheduled tasks, try to list the deadlines and exam dates in a diary, including reminders a week, a fortnight, a month, beforehand. Then you won’t be in danger of forgetting or losing track of your priorities. Even better, add all your big social events in the diary so you don’t end up planning too much enjoyment right in the middle of your busiest period.
10. Emergency Time: If all else fails and you know you’re going to miss a deadline for whatever reason, do ask for an extension and be sure not to winge and moan. Just apologise and explain you require a little extra time. I did this once and I was granted a week’s grace without having to explain very much. However, this is a last-ditch thing and should never be relied upon as extra time or used as an excuse to procrastinate. Especially as your request may be turned down…

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Special thanks to Martin for his great post! Read more of his work at the University Blog. As to this post in particular, I think he’s right on the money. In particular with 7 & 8.

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