International Student Ambassador Lucille shares how she uses digital tools to help her stay organised and find time to do everything she wants to do.
I recently made a Vlog about a Week in my Life, after which I received lots of questions asking: “How do you fit all that in?”.
While I am no lifestyle influencer or coach, I do still have some very useful tricks up my sleeve that can help you manage your time and do all the things you want to do while studying.
The main goal of these “systems” as I like to call them, is to make life easier. If that sounds like something that could be useful to you, keep reading!
Digital Study Space
I personally use something called Notion. It’s a personal digital space in which you can create your own “pages” and use all sorts of features, such as tables, pictures, timelines, toggles and more to organise your life in any way you need. It all goes up on a private Cloud so you can access it from anywhere and on anything!
My biggest life saver is definitely my digital study space that I have created on Notion. I actually set this up before I came to University.
I would recommend doing this as well. Whether that is before University or before a new term or year, as having it ready to go before University means you do not have to rush to figure it out during the busy term time! Then, by using it, you will quickly be able to see what works best for you, what to keep and what to scrap.
Doing it early also allows you to keep track of all your deadlines and set reminders for them from the get go. I also have all my lecture and study notes on there, within dedicated pages for each module.
If this sounds like something you want to try, I recommend looking at YouTube tutorials to get started as it can be intimidating to do it without any guidelines!
Finances
Additionally, I also use Notion to organise other things, like my finances. This can be a big topic at University but thanks to my digital space it is super easy for me to keep track of my spending and set realistic budgets.
Another way I do this is by having multiple bank accounts. Specifically, one for long term savings, one for my regular income and spending and one for short term savings and a space from which I can easily move money between the other two. This way I do not touch my savings and have a regular spending account that allows me to keep track better.
A non-tech thing I do but that is really practical for saving money is that I do not have an apple wallet. And I don’t carry my wallet with me when I do not plan on spending money to prevent spontaneous expenses.
To add, saving is also really easy here in Portsmouth, as there are so many student discount apps and loyalty schemes that shower you in free things, rewards and percentages.
Time Management
Lastly, I make use of Google. This is important because it allows me to dump everything from my brain onto a visual reminder, so my mental load is reduced. This leaves the space in my brain to think, have fun and relax. I have everything on my google calendar - and by that I mean everything! I schedule showers, meal prep, lunch times, when to do my laundry and my morning and evening routines.
While some may call that obsessive or unnecessary, this has a really important function, which is to remind myself to take breaks and to take care of myself!
Without the right amount of sleep, wind down time, wake up time and time for fulfilling all your other basic needs, like food, having clean clothes, a clean room and more, things can become stressful very quickly. If being overwhelmed holds you back from realising your goals, this might be worth a try!
I also colour code my google calendar and make use of the task function to remind myself of when things need to get done. Colour coding helps me to keep track of how balanced my life, week or day is.
I use colours to represent break times, exercise, social, work and University work. This way I always make sure I do something I can look forward to each week, make time for friends and myself but also that I do not work too much or too little.
If you have read this far, I would like to mention that this is what works for ME and it may not work for you.
The goal of these is not to put more on your plate but to take some of the load off it!
If you have a different way of doing that, that is absolutely fine. Also, please remember that everyone has different energy levels and capacity, so squeezing time for everything in a weekly schedule like I demonstrated here may not be ideal. Take what resonates with you and leave the rest.