How to Cope with Uni Life

When starting university three years ago I remember feeling extremely overwhelmed, stressed, and uneasy about my new life. Three years later, I still feel overwhelmed, stressed and uneasy, but slightly less so thanks to the following tips. 

How to cope with studying & organizational tips

1. Prepare well in advance; read the syllabus for the course and understand what and how many topics need to be learned. Then, divide your workload into equal bits evenly throughout the period. For example, if you have to read through 15 chapters of a textbook throughout two month, allocate four days per week to finish  two chapters. Preferably use a planner or a calendar to plan study days.

2. If you have multiple final deadlines at once, plan on finishing the task that is easier or faster to finish ahead of time to keep yourself from losing sanity. If you procrastinated too much and there is not enough time to complete everything, focus only on the most important tasks, subjects, or topics (I am not speaking from experience!).  

3. Try to study on campus or any location where people study. Your mind associates your room with much comfort and doing any other thing than your extremely boring assignment becomes too tempting. Why force yourself to fight the temptations (and drain your willpower) if you make them physically impossible to achieve? If you live far from campus try to find local library or a cafe that allows laptops. 

4. Set a nice atmosphere before studying. I find that being in a good mood is motivating and makes me more productive. For example, tidy your work area, get or make yourself a nice drink, light candles (if you can), set a background music or ambient noise (something that won’t be too distracting).

How to cope with stress

1. Create a list of activities you find relaxing and enjoyable. When you feel overwhelmed, pick one of them to do, like choosing a dish from a menu. Here are suggestions: lighting a candle, listening to ambient nature noise, reading in bed, etc.

2. GET. ENOUGH. SLEEP. It makes a subtle but a huge difference. Don’t turn coffee into life support. 

3. I know it sounds cliché but incorporating physical activities really does help. Basic exercise is easily done in Amsterdam since you can bike to everywhere. 

How to cope with life

1. Learn to appreciate your own company. Especially after leaving for university, you will feel alone quite a bit as you separate from your previous friends and family and have yet to make new acquaintances. Learning to appreciate solitude will help mitigate the stress and tension you will feel being alone.  

2. … but also try to make friends. Joining events related to your interests is the best way to make new friends.  

3. Learn to acknowledge and appreciate nice little details that you might otherwise miss. It can be the most minute thing like how good it smells after it rains, how perfect the temperature of your coffee is, how cute your neighbor’s cat is, etc. If you want to take it a step further, record these moments (by taking photos or writing them down).

Conclusion

These are basic tips, so although they won’t help you with more serious problems that might make your days a tiny little better. No matter how tiring life is, I hope you end up looking back at your university years fondly. Do you have your own tips to survive university? Comment below!