Moving to university is a big change to your life. You’re away from home, living as an independent adult, perhaps for the first time and surrounded by lots of other people in the same situation. You have a great balance between (hopefully) stimulating studies and the free time to pursue interests and adventures with your new friends.
It’s not all plain sailing for students, however: whether you’re in Sheffield Hallam accommodation or the same rooms at Cambridge once shared by Stephen Fry or Emma Thompson, there are downsides that are going to affect your good time. You need to budget efficiently to make sure you’re not spending the last weeks of term living off beans on toast or rice, and there are times when deadlines will clash and leave mired in the library for weeks.
Today we’re taking a look at a few lifehacks that can lift the load for students and help bring in a few more pennies or cut the time on essay writing and leave you free for the good life!
Make it a Job
One of the advantages of the student life is that it doesn’t have regular office hours: unless you have an essay, you don’t need to be in the library for 9am and no one stops you leaving before 5pm if you want to.
The downside is that this leaves you open to enjoying long stretches of free time at the expense of a week of stressful all-nighters when deadlines fall due. You might be able to scrape by this way, but essays that are dashed off at the last minute can’t touch the heights of those that you have at least a day or two write, edit and proofread before you hand in.
Holding yourself to a professional time table is a great way to build your willpower as well as spreading your work out over a manageable period. It might feel bad to lock yourself away in the library on a summer day but it is worthwhile in the long run.
Plan Your Essays
Essay planning can be a trial, especially once you have a few completed essays under your belt. It’s easy to dismiss, feeling like you know what you’re doing now, so you don’t have to waste time on a plan.
This is the worst kind of false economy. At the university level, you are being assessed on your ability to make and support an argument. You are cutting yourself off at the knee if you don’t plan how your argument will progress over the course of your essay so you can impress your tutors.
It’s also quicker to write an essay when you know how it will end up. You’re filling up blank spaces in your plan, not forging into the unknown with every sentence!