As a student, you’re expected to try your best at all times. Your degree is the result of all your hard work throughout the three years you’re at University, but it can sometimes feel as if you don’t get any time to yourself to do the other things you enjoy doing.
Reading weeks are there for you to catch up on work, and read for your modules basically and don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent idea and does give some students some much needed extra time to complete work. God knows I’ve needed it from time to time!
But I’ve come to realise that it should be a time where students can catch up on their personal life too. Whether it be going home to see family, taking some time to read non-related Uni books, see new films that have been released recently, or just refuel with some all important sleep.
So here are my tips to hopefully help you during reading week:
Only do work during the weekdays
Treat the week as if you’re still at university, and if you’re going to do any work, just do it Monday to Friday. At least then you know you definitely have weekends free.
Plan your work days from 9am to 5pm
Much like the tip above, keep your work to uni hours, and remember to take regular breaks, including a lunch hour.
Treat yourself after you complete a piece of work
This can be anything from rewarding yourself with a frothy coffee (one of my favourites), to going out and choosing yourself something new to wear for the weekend. It’s good to have something in the back of your mind that will spur you on to complete your work.
I am currently on my reading week and have so far done 2 days of work for University. This may come back to bite me in the not too distant future, but for now I’m allowing myself a few days of rest and relaxation to be myself and keep my head balanced.
You should always take the time to make sure you feel well, physically and mentally. A lot of students can suffer from various degrees of stress and depression while at University. So my advice to you is do what you can, when you can. Pushing yourself when you’re not feeling up to it could only make you feel worse.
AND REMEMBER, there is nothing wrong with not spending all week doing Uni work.
Just take some time for yourself, you’ve earned it.
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