Hello.
So it is that time of year again.
My university term officially starts in two days, so I'm desperately
doing preparations and setting up my class notes and thinking a lot about
university. And I thought it could be cool to talk about this online
if any of you are also preparing to go back to uni. Honestly, do I
feel ready to go back to university?
No, just the flu of assignments
fill me with joy and motivation.
Genuinely, no.
I don't feel like the Christmas break was long enough.
I'm still feeling burnt out from the stress of last
term, but Hey ho, here we are.
Even with the heaviness of last year.
A new term begins.
My first tip, which kind of predictable for me is to use some kind of
productivity system and set it up.
This can be where you put your class notes, for example, in a ring binder
folder or a notebook, or like me, I use notion. I absolutely love it.
And it has transformed the way that I'm able to take notes
and easily categorize them.
This video is very kindly sponsored by Skillshare.
And if you're familiar with Skillshare, they are just one of the best
platforms for learning, learning for fun, learning to improve the
productivity systems of your life.
Learning how to be more creative, pick up new skills, Skillshare, have a
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The reason I think it's so relevant here is because
there are so many different productivity tools. Notion works for me, but it
might not be the best one for you.
And on Skillshare, they have videos about using Trello, using Todoist,
different systems of productivity.
For example, here's an amazing course
I took by Thomas Frank on his productivity systems.
About a year ago, I watched this amazing one on using Todoist
and I tried it out for a bit. Personally for me now notion works
better, but it just depends on you.
So, yeah, if you're looking for a productivity system, Skillshare
is an amazing place to just see what's on offer, to learn from
other people and get productive, I guess.
The first 1000 people to click the link in my description will get Skillshare
premium trial for free. Tip number two.
And this is really important not to skip is to reflect on the last term.
This is really important because especially when you're going
back to university, like
you've done it before you've experienced it,
you know what your course is like, you know what your professors
were like. If you had to adapt to the style of online learning,
you've now done it for a bit.
So take a moment to reflect what went well,
what was really rubbish,
what can you do better?
How can you manage your time better?
How can you implement better habits? Also, perhaps one of the biggest
questions is, did you look after yourself?
Because for me, especially towards the end of term,
No, I did not look after myself sufficiently. To me, that was a lot of
work towards the end of term, but I let a lot of my core habits slip. The habits,
which keep me happy and healthy and should be my priority no matter what.
And so knowing how stressful the end of semester got,
just thinking, how can I prepare for that worst case scenario in this
semester through having real robust routines, really robust habits.
And so post reflection, my biggest tip here is to list out
your priorities for this term.
My priorities are in line with my new year's resolutions,
my goals for this year.
And for me, it is a nice mixture of health, personal wellbeing, social life,
and the people I really care about.
And it also has academics element.
and side projects. At the end of the day,
you only have so much time. And being aware of how you want to prioritize
will make things less stressful.
Because, for example, say you hit a day where you've just.
you've just don't feel like you've done well in classes.
Maybe you've not done as much work as you would have liked to.
That might be absolutely okay.
Because if you return to your priority list, your top
priority might be mental health.
If you choose to go to sleep or do some mindfulness that day, does
it matter that the schoolwork
didn't perform as well that day as you taking care of yourself?
No, because you have told yourself that the priority for that term is your mind.
So yeah, just what are your priorities moving into this next term and how can you
implement that? I'm going to post a note, put them somewhere
you can see every day.
Put them into your habit tracker, your notion, or whatever you use.
Tip number three, naturally, we're going back into the academic world,
we're going back into learning.
So for me, I've just spent the last few days going over the last semester's
notes looking at concepts I struggled with.
I've gone over my flashcard sets for space repetition.
And then for me, I get up pre readings.
So I have been reading this book that I need to read.
I'm reading a bunch of articles.
I also have to answer some question prompts.
So, yeah, if you have a lot of university work to do, and you know that it's going
to take you more than a night of cramming the day before uni, I recommend just kind
of laying it all out, being like cool.
And to get this done, look at how much time you've got left and then section
it into the day so that it feels less overwhelming. I preferred little and
often when it comes to university work, it's nice to have this feeling
of learning consistently and without stress, because then it's just more fun.
I'm also kind of nervous
this semester because I am taking an elective course
in something I am intentionally weak in.
My university is based on the American liberal arts model, which is really
cool because it means you can take a few courses throughout your degree, which
aren't part of your major or minor, but you still get course credits for.
So you can kind of just take courses for fun. Just a few.
I am pretty bad at politics.
I never really grew up talking about politics.
I think I struggled to form really good opinions and good arguments about things.
I've never studied theories of governance or political science to any depth.
And it kind of scares me to do so, which is why I'm like, let's do it.
That's where I really get the most learning and growth from in a way that I think
will really broadened my perspective on the world and
how I interact with it and the institutions and systems around me.
So I recently read this hefty book called Political Order and Political Decay.
Very interesting.
But yeah, that's something fun that I'm preparing for this semester.
I'll keep you updated on that.
I think it's also an especially interesting course to take when I'm in South Korea.
This is such a politically
rich country to study in terms of relations with North Korea, which
actually leads me onto my fourth point in preparation for university.
And that is making personal goals beyond just getting the degree.
The kind of points that are going to keep you motivated when it gets hard.
A reminder of why you're studying what you're studying, the kind of
things you want to get out there.
Like, why did you find it interesting? What do you want to gain?
How do you want to interact with your professors? Are there any
things you want to ask them or bring up that might not be on the syllabus
that just for personal interests you want to discuss
and going along with that, I've been trying to
familiarize myself with the syllabus for this term, just to kind of have
like a roadmap in my head of where we're starting and where we're going.
And then finally, number five is routine.
Just thinking about what is the ideal routine I want to have.
I now know all my class times. I feel like I know myself well
enough to know that things like
yoga meditation exercise really contribute to me functioning as a good human.
I know that social life is important to me, exploration if
I can do that is also amazing.
So before you get bogged down with too much to do, how do I envision in an ideal
day in Jade's life in the next term. And then using systems like notion to track
how I'm able to put in that routine.
For example, if I know that I function best in the morning, how can I make
myself accountable to going to bed early, which is a set up of the morning routine.
If I know I want to feel really healthy and active,
how can I already put into my day time for good cooking, time
for meal prepping, planning in meals in advance.
I'm super obsessed with my blue light glasses as well. They're just so cute.
They made me want to do work even when it gets dark really early.
So yes, this time I'm preparing for my semester. As I said, I'm just
a little bit generally nervous.
There's a lot of work coming up as there always is in university, and I've got some
really exciting projects I've been working on, which are coming into fruition.
In the next six months or so but I feel like I'm here and I can see in six months
where I want to be with all these things and that there's this time in between.
And I'm like, how am I going to feel it?
How am I going to do it all?
But that's exciting.
Super grateful to be here, especially during such a tough time in the world.
It's an incredible privilege to even be able to plan half the things that I'd like
to do a semester. Whatever your university or school or work plans look like in the
next few months, I am sending you love.
You're doing amazing.
Please take care of your mental health. And have a good term.
Thank you so much for watching.
Tell me how you're preparing for university. And have a good day.
Bye!