CANTA # 6: Balance – Knowing your limits and getting that study:work:life ratio right

There is no doubt that when university is session, it kicks into full force and can slap you in the face with lectures, long labs and tuts, even longer readings, and seemingly never-ending revolving door of exam, test, and assignment due dates – taking up a lot of our weekdays and seeps into the weekends. There’s also a proportion of us who work throughout our time at uni, and whether it be to cover the rent, pay for fuel and food, or to get a head start in paying off out oh-too-steep student loan; we’ll be cranking out some hours in our free evenings, or sacrificing our weekends. Combine these two with time spent sleeping, we aren’t left much, if any, time aside for ourselves – whether that be playing sport, keeping up a hobby, or having a good yarn and hang with friends. Needless to say, the #studentlife is anything far from healthy, we over-work ourselves with books and work, become sleep-deprived, sacrifice ease for nutrition in what we eat, and even lose contact with our friends and what used to make us happy.

It can be pretty hard for prioritising and balancing our lives when student life pushes us to do the opposite.

Fun fact: busting your gut and living day-in-day-out like a mad person will not get you anywhere. It may give you results in the short-term, but it catches up to you.

Don’t want to admit that the person I’ve described, is you? And that the blaring sign I’m waving in your face for change doesn’t apply to you? Here’s a simple quiz:

• Do you get at least 7.5-8 hours’ sleep a night?

• Are you still doing sports, and keeping up in your hobbies and interests that you had before university began?

• Do you get at least 5 serves of fresh fruit and vege each day?

• Are you resorting to less-ideal coping mechanisms to get you through your day (ie. alcohol, smoking, drugs…)?

• Are you feeling in a constant state of stress, anxiety, or a mix of the two?

If you found yourself nodding in agreement to at least one of these questions, let this be the large sign to smack you in the face and getting you to start thinking about making some much-needed changes in the way you are living your life, and begin to get that study:work:life ratio back in check.

Firstly, don’t go try making a full 180 on your current routine, because this will just blow up in your face and will put you in a worse position than where you started. So, let’s start simple.

1. Get a decent diary, or use your phone calendar, and book in every single commitment you have.

2. Don’t count on online lectures or be fooled by the idea that you’ll “catch-up” on them soon after they get posted. It doesn’t take too long until they start racking up in numbers, increasing your work load, then your stress, and ultimately making you less likely to look at them at all. Book them in, and make a decent effort to attend them in person – your future self will thank you for it.

3. Book in time for your hobbies, playing some sport or getting some exercise, and having a catchup with friends. Treat them like non-negotiable business meetings; they should be prioritised just as much as your work, doctor appointments, and uni classes.

4. Set up a cut-off time at night for stopping Uni work which allows enough time for your body to wind down and for a decent, long sleep to be had. A week of getting enough sleep will be revolutionary for how you feel, your energy, motivation, and concentration levels – try it an I can guarantee you will notice at least some positive change.

5. What you put into yourself is what you’ll get out. Whether its undereating or eating shit, downing the energy drinks, smoking a storm, taking some pills… not putting in thought or effort to what you are fuelling yourself with won’t give you the output and outcomes that you want. Make time to go to the supermarket, eat an apple, and swap the Friday booze binge for a casual beersie.

Get your head out of the books, out of the booze, and out of that Insta feed. A quick re-shuffle of your priorities and time management is easy and will give you such a radical change in your stress levels, your academic performance, and your overall enjoyment of life – just sayin’…

Your friend,

Rawing Meg

xx