Student blogs

New Years Resolutions..

Lots of people say that they’re a bunch of rubbish, and that if you want to change, you can do it anytime. I’m a big proponent for them, though. For sure, New Years resolutions come with problems. I’ve been unrealistic with mine sometimes, with crazy past resolutions being hitting 100% in tests, getting 8 hours of sleep every night (never gonna happen, haha), going from a cheese obsessed vegetarian to vegan (I want to, but not overnight!).

New Years resolutions are great because with the start of a new year, the changes you make can be traced back to January 1st, and it feels more significant. Also, leading my lifestyle of junk food eating and being lazy, it allows me more time to enjoy this hedonism before I reform.

I also think New Years resolutions can be a great thing for university. If you’re anything like me, you may have found achieving a balancing act hard. At Imperial, there’s a lot of work to be done. However, it’s also healthy to sometimes just sit back, put on some Netflix, grab some snacks, and relax after a day of study. In my first term, I found I was definitely overworking at times, and overindulging in nothingness at other points. With a new year, I want to change some things. Maybe you do too.

Here are some New Year’s resolutions I’m going to apply to my life at Imperial. I think a lot of prospective students may benefit from reading these before they start here, don’t make the same mistakes I did in first term!

1. Cook my own meals. I didn’t think I would become a cliche, but my god is it easy to just get a 50p pack of ramen, put on the kettle, and voila dinner is made?! It saves money and reduces the risk of developing heart disease significantly to cook from scratch. This term I want to make some healthy meals for dinner. I’m thinking lots of lentil curry, vegetable pasta, bean burritos and the like. I shouldn’t have fallen down the ramen rabbit hole…
2. Study better. It’s not untrue that Imperial sets a heck of a lot of work. However, it’s been easy for me to get disorganised, work too much on things which shouldn’t have taken as long, and cut around corners in other areas. Too many times I’ve spent hours pondering tutorials when I should have just cut my losses and asked in person, it’s so inefficient and frustrating! It’s something which is difficult to get used to. A lesson I need to learn, and others may need to as well, is that it’s okay to ask for help.
3. Get more sleep. 5 hours really isn’t enough. This is such an easy habit to fall into as well, under sleeping at uni. A lot of the time I’ve done it to juggle my work and social life, with sleep going into the gutter. This year I want to not do that, and instead work more on weekends and aim for a decent 6.5-7 hours a night at least. I think for lots of new students it’s common at first to struggle with getting a decent schedule in order, and it’s something which takes time. Term two, work your magic!
4. Connect with people more. I can be a bit of an overworker, and it’s made me miserable at times as I’ve just become distant from people. Again this is such an easy mistake to make as a student. I’ve found losing connections to hurt mental health, and reconnecting with people has had the opposite effect of instantly improving the mood. I want to keep in touch with people, particularly my friends who are farther away. I want to allocate more time to replying to my friends and reminding them I love them.
5. Exercise. Exercise is so great for focus and maintaining good mental health, and I’ve always felt at my peak happiness when exercising somewhat regularly. At Imperial, the exercise facilities are actually affordable as well. iGym is £40 for a year, it really doesn’t get better than that. I think the university wants us to get those endorphins going! A weird thing I’ve discovered is just after a workout, my focus amplifies for a couple of hours, so this is extra incentive.

So happy New Years! I hope readers are feeling refreshed and happy to be back. If you’re not, everything will be okay 🙂 It’s certainly bizarre being back at university after having adjusted to being at home again. Here is to a 2020 full of productivity, love, and good times.

 

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