The idea of fourth year can be very daunting, actually doing your fourth year can be even more daunting.
The weeks have never gone so fast during my time as a university student. Every day is a day closer to my dissertation deadline, and this comes with a lot of mixed emotions.
However, it is important to enjoy your last few months as a student before heading into the big, scary world.
First-things-first, breakfast. It is essential to start your day with some breakfast to get your brain started.
I always have a bowl of cereal for my breakfast so not the most nutritional, but it works, and it gives me fuel to start my day.
I try to start most of my days by going to the gym, I think that this puts my mind into a good place before starting my day.
I like to go to the gym first thing, to try and limit my stress before it begins. Personally I don’t feel much benefit of going to the gym when I am already stressed, as I feel like I can’t actually relieve most of the stress after it has already kicked in.
So, I will either go to the gym first thing in the morning or if I am working, which I always start at 9am, I will go straight after work before beginning my uni work.
Not every day looks the same, some days I will do uni work from home, sometimes I come to the university campus if I have a supervisor meeting or a Brig meeting, sometimes I work from a café in my small hometown.
Either way, you need to find somewhere that you feel comfortable working from.
Sometimes if the house is empty, I don’t like working from home, I personally find that a wee bit of background noise helps me to focus on my work, but that background noise can’t be the TV otherwise I would get no work done.
Setting goals is essential to stop yourself from becoming overwhelmed, so is writing lists.
Set reasonable goals that don’t stress you out too much, remember you have time!
Write to-do lists whether it’s on paper or on your phone. A website I have found useful for doing my dissertation is Milanote, a really handy way to keep track of everything on one ‘board’.
After a couple of hours, I quite like to take a break and go for a 30-minute walk, getting into the fresh air is so refreshing and helps you reflect on what you have achieved that day and what else you would like to achieve. It also helps you to get your mind off of the work for a bit before going back to it with a fresh mind.
Finally, it is not a bad thing to still do things you enjoy and not do uni work for a couple of evenings a week.
Make plans with your friends, your family, your partner or yourself.
I like to go out for food in the evenings or watch the football on the weekends, go for drinks with my friends or play badminton for fun, even go for weekends away.
It is not a crime to still have fun at such an important time in your uni career. And this stretches through all your years at university, not just for when you are doing your dissertation, but especially then too.
Featured Image Credit: Anya Diggines
