Organising Your Time

Organising your time at university can be tricky, you’re living on your own for the first time and it can be really exciting, but you have to remember you have more responsibilities now and you don’t have your parents reminding you and telling you what you need to do.

You should split your time into the following sections:
Sleeping
Studying
Housekeeping
Cooking
Personal Time

Sleeping

Admittedly you probably won’t get a lot of sleep, especially during Freshers week because you’ll be out partying, but you should try to get at least 8 hours sleep each night whenever possible to keep you alert and fresh and to stop you nodding off in lectures (believe me it’s easier than you think, especially when the lecturer has a monotonous soothing voice).

Studying

Although you’ll have a really active social life, you have to remember that you are at university to study as well as having a good time. You won’t have a lot of classes but they will expect you to do a lot of studying in your own time. It can be tempting to put it off especially if you have an assignment and it’s difficult and you will find yourself doing anything but the assignment (even cleaning the bathroom or doing the ironing) but it’s best that you don’t put it off then you can do a little bit at a time and make sure it’s the best it can be.

Housekeeping

Housekeeping is another new thing you’ll need to add into your day. You’ll have chores to do such as washing and ironing and cleaning and if you’re sharing a communal kitchen then you’ll also need to pull your weight cleaning the kitchen, washing up and taking out the bin. Then there’s shopping as well for food which will become a regular weekly errand.

Cooking

Since you’ll be living alone you’ll have to also cook for yourself. It’s unrealistic to order takeaways every night as it’ll cost you a lot of money and you’ll get fat. Cooking will take up a lot more of your time than you realise so it’s important you factor in enough time to do your preparation and eating it as well as cleaning up as well.

Personal Time

Any other time is your personal time where you can do leisure activities, go to clubs and societies, hang out with your friends and go out at night.

The key to organising your time well is to strike a balance.

Time Saving Tips

Do your washing up while you’re waiting for the food to cook
Put the laundry on while you’re cooking
Make a shopping list so you don’t end up spending too long in the shop
Catch up on your favourite tv shows while doing the ironing