Being back on campus is exhausting. From 8am lectures to walking up and down the Jammie steps, both the physical and emotional pressure is already building up. We’ve put together a few ideas that might help with preventing burnout and just giving you that extra bit of motivation to get those brain juices flowing.
Library Time
Whether or not you’re someone who likes to study alone, being in the library for even an hour can achieve so much. If you’re lucky enough to avoid the queues, take some water, some nice pens or your laptop, and before you know it, you’ll have completed some tasks on your to-do list.
Organisation Tips
Organisation tips could be a whole article by itself, but we wanted to go through a few of our favourites to help give you some study-inspo.
• Notion: Notion is a note taking/calendar/grade tracker/list maker that is the key to organisation. Using your UCT email address you can get a premium account which gives you access to some pretty sweet features on it. It’s free to use on either the internet or you can download it as an app! You can make folders for all your subjects and colour code them to your heart’s desires.
• Microsoft To-Do: One of my personal favourites, To-Do is an app that is purely for lists. What I love about this app is that you can colour code and create tabs and then folders within the tabs! As an example, I can have an English Lit tab and then have different folders for readings, lectures, and assignments. As I do each task, I tick it off and it marks it as complete. It’s just a fun way of having a checklist and honestly motivates me to get tasks done just so that I can hear the little “ping!” when I check a task as completed ☺
• Google Calendar: Have I mentioned I love colour coordinating? Well, GC takes this to the next level. You can plan out your day, week, month, or year, all by colour. What I love about GC is that it sends you notifications before an event, so you’re always getting reminded about thw places you have to be or tasks that are due. You can also invite people to your events and the block will appear on their calendar as well!
• Focus Timer/Pomodoro Tracker: This is a super easy way of studying but somehow fools you into learning for hours. Using a simple method of 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off, the little breaks really help to increase focus as you refresh your brain by standing up, walking around, or drinking some water while not looking at your screen. I personally swear by this method of studying/working- it truly helps you focus and by sectioning it off, you give yourself some motivation to get a few hours in.
Water
Such a simple idea, I know, but as students we sometimes forget (or don’t have the resources) to give our brains and body the fuel it needs to study. If you can, try investing in a nice one litre water bottle that you can carry around campus. This will help you avoid the chronic headaches that I know you’re getting at least three times a week. Headaches hinder productivity, and without headaches you’ll be motivated to go sit in the library and study.
Gratefulness
I know, I sound like a cliché right now but bear with me. When I’m at my worst and have zero motivation to even close my YouTube tab, I think about how lucky I am to be studying in a tertiary institution, and then I think about how even more lucky I am to be studying at UCT. This is a special place, and by thinking about my position here, I get an immediate boost of inspiration and want to put my brain to use instantly.
So, we hope that at least one of these ideas is going to be useful for you and that you can avoid burnout for at least a few more weeks. Enjoy learning!