balancing mountains of work with a
social life part-time job and oftentimes
living away from home where you've got
to learn how to do your own laundry and
cook more than beans on toast can be
difficult it can seem impossible and a
lot of students struggle with it so how
can you stay sane at university
what is up guys karma medic here and
welcome back to another dose uni is
tough you've got so much to do and so
much that can easily overwhelm you
especially when the work never seems to
slow down it seems impossible for us to
do everything and stay sane at the same
time whilst doing it here are five
things i've done to survive in
university and keep my mental health and
well-being in check whilst i'm there
probably the most important thing that
you can do is to take care of your
health whilst you're at university it's
easy to leave home and get out of sync
with your eating habits your exercise
and your sleep if you can try to eat
well and do some sort of exercise even
if it's just going outside for a short
walk to get your shopping and try to
make sure that you're getting enough
sleep now i know that saying these three
things is probably impossible and
there's that classic venn diagram where
it's like decide between sleep social
life and grades so i've been there and i
realize how hard this is to balance
we've all had those big nights out where
you don't get enough sleep and then you
don't eat well in the morning and before
you know it the whole kind of day is
ruined where you're just in this
sluggish mood and not feeling that well
and so if we can try to limit those
times to not as often in the month or in
the week or maybe only on the weekends
then we can make sure that it doesn't
affect the rest of our life too much
it's also worth checking in on how much
sleep and exercise you're getting
regularly if you can incorporate it into
your routine so that it just becomes
second nature like a habit it can have
honestly profound changes and
differences on your mental health and
even your academics and your grades find
out whatever works best for you and try
to have that in your routine as much as
possible whether that's a really short
walk early in the morning or a gym
session late in the evening literally
whatever it is incorporating some sort
of exercise into your day and into your
routine is immensely helpful and if
eight hours of sleep is something that's
important for you in order to stay
focused in your lectures and you're
studying then try and make that a
priority in your routine no matter what
of course a lot of what i'm saying right
now is easier said than done but i think
the more that you think about it and the
more that you try to do it the closer to
sort of that perfection you can get and
of course it's important for all of this
to be balanced because you have a social
life and keeping up your social life is
incredibly important at university as
well managing to go out and build
relationships with other people let off
steam relax and enjoy yourself is
honestly equally as important as all the
time that you spend studying and putting
in that work in the library and for
every person that balance is going to be
different but what i'm trying to
encourage is the thought pattern and the
reflection on that balance so that you
can do what's best for you and you make
sure that you're keeping your priorities
in check if you start to realize that
you're building any habits that aren't
helping you achieve your goals maybe
staying up too late or going out too
much etc you can identify those and you
can work on them to better prioritize
for yourself having a balance between
your studying and your social life is
incredibly important you can't focus
your whole life on studying and getting
the best grades all the time because
you're going to be completely miserable
and you'll miss out on some of the most
important things about the university
experience which is making good friends
networking exploring yourself and
exploring the city the campus etc
friends are an integral part of having
good mental health for so many reasons
you've got the mutual support you have
people looking out for you and you have
people to talk about about the stresses
of your life your exams and your
studying now that balance is gonna look
different for every single person but
what i encourage is for you to reflect
on and think about how it is that you're
balancing your social life with your
academic life if you're trying to eat
well exercise get enough sleep study
enough see your friends go to societies
and sports events all in the same week
it might just seem like a lot and it
probably is my advice is to prioritize
well to make sure that you're doing
enough of the things that you actually
want to do the things that make you most
excited things that you say yes about
without even thinking twice whilst at
the same time reflecting on and not
forgetting the priorities that you have
in your life probably going to be your
academics and you're studying because
you're at university but whatever they
are and whatever it is for you the way
that i see this is keeping your vitals
let's say sleep exercise and eating in
check is key so you have to do those as
much as you can but at the same time
studying is key to you staying at
university so that's fairly important
too but at the end of the day it's
completely up to you how hard you work
at university you can kill yourself and
study every single day in the library in
order to come first in the year or that
might just not matter to you at all so
you might choose to work less and just
pass all of your modules and exams which
is also absolutely okay it all depends
on you and what you want to get out of
university and how much effort you want
to put in for the value that you're
going to get out i guess what i'm trying
to say is that you need to know what's
most important for you so that you can
come up with your own list of priorities
and work towards them so that you're
doing exactly what you want to be doing
without being overwhelmed whilst at
university following on from my previous
point knowing your limits and setting
clear boundaries for yourself is also
absolutely key if you know for example
that you need a minimum of eight hours
of sleep in order to function well the
next day then that needs to be a clear
boundary for you it's obviously okay if
that doesn't happen every now and again
because life happens but if it's
becoming a regular thing where you're
not getting enough sleep you're not
getting your eight hours then you might
need to reevaluate i think it's valuable
to sit down and reflect or even to write
down exactly what it is that you need to
function at your best how you're
managing with achieving those things at
the moment and what could be improved if
anything if you could something i used
to do in the past is i would write down
this list on a sticky note and i would
just pin it up in my study area
somewhere on the wall or on my monitor
and it would be something that i could
refer back to every now and again and i
could check with myself and remind
myself are you doing all those things
that you want to do that are going to
make you function at your best you might
have a list that says something like
sleep eight hours a night between 11 pm
and 7 am eat nutritious food do one hour
of exercise speak to another human you
know or just clean up your desk be in a
tidy environment whatever it is and if
you're having a bad day or you just
can't seem to focus or motivate yourself
then you can always look at this list
and you can check off all the things
that you've done and think about oh hey
i actually didn't eat something
nutritious today i haven't tidied my
room and it can sort of help you to
reset and refocus it gives you the
opportunity to review where you're
currently at and to adjust things going
forward it's often the case that we stay
in these routines that aren't really
serving us well until something bad
happens like a low exam grade or we burn
out or something which can have a pretty
negative impact on us and this little
list of things that i just used to write
on a post-it note and stick on my wall i
feel like is a really good way to focus
and it's a good way to avoid us getting
to that point where we're not doing well
because hopefully somewhere along the
way we would have identified something
that's not going so well and adjusted it
or fixed it so it doesn't need something
worse down the road having these sort of
external cues or prompts in your life
that can help you remember things that
are important for you i find really
useful and it doesn't have to be a
written post-it note it can be a
reminder on your phone or on your
calendar it can be you calling up a
friend or them being your accountability
buddy calling you to check in on you it
can really be anything one thing which i
know can be really stressful is knowing
how much to study when to study and what
method you're going to use are you going
to make notes are you going to do past
paper questions how much content do you
have to get through and how do you
attend all of your lectures whilst
revising at the same time i've addressed
a lot of these questions in previous
videos but i think having a plan going
into the start of term is incredibly
useful it takes all of the extra
thinking out of the studying you've
already got a plan and a routine in
place and now all you have to do is
follow it if you start every day not
knowing what you're going to do then you
spend a lot of extra time choosing the
plan for that day and then probably
changing your plans throughout the day
which isn't ideal at all plus if you've
already made these decisions for
yourself in a time in the past then when
you wake up on the day you don't need to
think about what you need to do or what
you need to study you just need to tell
yourself what you're going to do when
you told yourself what you were going to
do when you made the plan to begin with
this eliminates a lot of the decision
fatigue and inertia of getting started
which is often the hardest part it's
just getting started with the studying
spending a little bit of time at the
beginning of term or the beginning of
the week or at the beginning of exam
season making these types of plans is
great because then those plans
themselves will just carry you
throughout the rest of the term now this
doesn't mean that you can't change and
re-evaluate your plans of course you
always can but it just helps you get
started i cannot stress how important
asking for help is and i'm not only
referring to when you're in a crisis and
you're in a time of desperate need by
the time you're in a crisis often a lot
of damage has been done and it's harder
to solve your problem once you're there
asking for help from others early on is
really really helpful and what i always
say is try not to worry about putting
other people off or stressing them out
about what they're going to think if you
ask for help which is a lot of the times
a barrier for people to reaching out to
others think about how you would feel if
your friend came to you in a time of
need and wanted some advice or just for
you to hear them out and provide them
with some support you'd want to help
them immediately right you wouldn't even
think twice and so it's likely that they
would do the exact same thing for you
and of course don't forget about your
family your personal tutors your
university counselors you know these are
all people that are available for help
if you need it besides the personal
struggles and the mental health aspect
of asking others for help from an
academic side asking people for help in
the sense that you should be using all
the resources that are available to you
for example asking students in the years
above you for their notes or their past
paper questions or speaking to tutors
about your course how to best study for
upcoming exams etc speaking to your
peers and your colleagues who are
actually on your course and asking them
how they're getting along with the
material what resources they're using to
study things that you might not be doing
which you might find helpful etc you
should try to use all of the contacts
that you have and reach out for help
even before you think that you need it
having an online community of
like-minded people can also be really
beneficial if you're interested in
joining a community of motivated people
who are also supportive and caring of
each other then you might want to
consider joining my patreon the karma
club we have live study with me sessions
and loads of channels on the discord
where you can discuss anything from
technology to random chats relaxing
venting apps movies tv shows books you
name it i think it's such an amazing
community and i'm more than proud to
have been able to make this and see it
grow and see everyone interact in the
way that they are i think it's really
fantastic i'll leave a link in the in
the bio in the description if you'd like
to join before i end this video i just
want to say that it's all right if you
struggle and if you don't always feel
calm happy and productive i want you
watching on my channel to know that
everyone goes through it even people on
youtube and instagram who appear to
always be super productive i went
through complete burnout after the us
emily step one you're not alone it might
be worth watching some of my burnout
videos for tips about how to prevent
burnout but also what to do if you're
already there but we've all been there
and we all need help sometimes then
reaching out to other people is a great
first step something that i think is
really really important so i just wanted
to make that note before the end of this
video alright guys and that is it those
are some of the best ways that i found
to stay sane whilst at university i hope
that you found this video helpful and
that it's at least a gentle reminder to
make sure you always take care of
yourself first and that's it i'll catch
you in the next one peace
barely
all right