Staying Motivated For Uni This September

It’s strange times for everyone, but returning to Uni to find varying levels of face to face contact with lecturers, and increasing amounts of online lectures and remote working might be causing you a bit of worry we imagine! We spent a lot of time in lockdown learning to work from home, and have online team meetings and training, so we thought we’d share our top 5 tips for staying motivated at uni online!

1. Make a plan:
It’s a fact, if you plan out your to do list, or plan out your day so that you know what lectures and tasks you have to do each day, you’ll be far more productive. The best tip? Don’t make your to do list pages long, keep it short, sweet and most importantly, achievable! If you’re able to see at the end of the day that you’ve achieved most of if not all of your list, then you’ll feel more productive and know that you’re staying on track!

2. Take regular breaks:
Sitting in the same place all day long definitely doesn’t sound like something that’s likely to keep you awake and motivated whilst you’re working online. Make sure you take regular breaks whilst you’re studying – food and drink will keep you hydrated and keep your concentration levels up. You could try a bit of fresh air too, if you’re feeling particularly dazed or a bit sleepy!

3.Look after your physical and mental wellbeing:
This is the most important of all. This is a stressful time for everyone, so it’s important to look after number 1. If you’re feeling a bit despondent or fed up, take yourself for a walk, or to the gym for an hour, perhaps try meeting a friend for a socially distanced coffee or catch up? A change of scenery amongst the studying can do you the world of good! Physical and mental wellbeing is key to success, by making sure you eat and drink and sleep properly, you’ll be keeping your body in a routine and you’ll feel more focussed and able to stay on track with your plans.

4. Dedicate a space:
Create yourself a study space and stick to it. By keeping your books and study materials to one specific area, you’ll feel like you have a separate area in your room to chill out when you’re not studying, and the communal areas of your house will be kept free, for hanging out with your housemates, rather than being swamped with everyone’s uni work! At the end of the day, then you can close your laptop and leave everything as it is, ready to return to it the next day.

5.Stick to a routine:
Don’t use this as an opportunity to work from your bed, or loose your routine from a normal uni day – you won’t thank yourself for it! If you stick to getting up at a normal time, having some breakfast and maybe some fresh air before you get started, you’ll kickstart your day and wont be dreaming of a bacon sarnie by 10am! Try and keep to a similar schedule as a normal uni day, and you’ll find it much easier to motivate yourself to work for the time you need to each day, rather than procrastinating all day, and adding more and more to the to do list!