Settling into college life and the academic workload after living at home for 18 years can be one of the hardest things to do. Once you hit saturation point, the excitement of all the new independence of university dies out and the pangs of homesickness begins to hit, the time comes when you go back home for vacation. Most people just wanted to get back home to their bed and their comfort zone. Here’s the catch though, King’s College London like most United Kingdom universities has exams in January.
My biggest worry was that once I got home I would not have the time or the motivation to read and study.
However, if you’re even slightly disciplined about it you might be able to get your to do list ticked off while you spend time with family and friends you haven’t seen I months.
- You’re only home for 3 weeks – don’t overbook yourself.
The easiest and the worst thing you could do is to overbook yourself and spend all your time doing things you don’t particularly enjoy just because you’re home. In the process, you end up sidelining work and cramming it all into last minute study which can do no good for you.
So remember that this isn’t free time. Spend time with the people that mean a lot. Maybe meet more than one friend at a time so you won’t be required to spend numerous hours of the day meeting different people and can use the time you gain to maybe get some work done.
At the same time, don’t overbook work as well. You will only upset yourself if you plan to do more work than possible. Not getting all of it done will only stress you out more. So plan. Use a calendar or a planner to chalk out all the work you plan to get done at least for the next couple days.
- Slot out time for family.
It’s easy to spend all your time outside the house meeting friends and forget the ride or dies using the excuse that you live with them. So purposely, slot out days that you are simply going to spend with family even if you’re don’t nothing and just sitting at home. Be around them. Enjoy each other’s company. You’ll miss it more than you know.
- Work around your meetings
It’s really easy to find yourself with no time to spare to actually do work because in university social gatherings and outings or planned around how much work you had to do. However I found that that routine switches when you go back home you begin to work around your meetings with people. Be productive during the few hours you have between breakfast with A and lunch with B. Even if it’s just reading 3 or 4 pages. It’ll will cumulatively account to something. Each page counts.
- Say no (it’s ok!)
You’re not a bad person for saying no. No matter how much advice when can give a no matter how much planning and organisation when does, you can still feel extremely overwhelmed during exam period. And as much as you’re extremely excited to meet friends and family back home and they are to meet you sometimes you don’t have an option but to say no and that’s OK. The people that love and care about you are going to understand that this is a busy time for you. Easy to feel compelled to meet everybody but prioritise what you need to and only make time for the ones that you truly need to meet. Time is hard to get so spend to with the ones that matter the most. You will be back home before you know it with way more time to spare.
- Get enough sleep
The holidays are meant to relax and rejuvenate. As stressful as they are it is the only time you get to rest and recuperate before the next three months of constant stress and lack of sleep the best way to recover from the previous term and prepare for the next one is by catching up on all the lost sleep and preparing yourself for the overnighters heading in your direction.