Lifestyle

Sleep prep is a choice. How far will you go to catch the best Zzzzzzzz?

You know the feeling. You wish sleep didn’t get in the way of your life, but you know how fab it feels when you are asleep.

Yes, there are never enough hours in the day. So what can you do?

Lifehack has published “19 Ways to Fall Asleep Fast“, with useful, solid, standard advice.

photo by Paparuchas

photo by Paparuchas

However, you may find some – perhaps most – of the tips hard to follow in a student lifestyle:

  • Limit alcohol?
  • Stop looking at your phone, TV and computer?
  • Go to sleep at the same time every night?
  • Adopt a regular bedtime routine?

Sounds a bit much, eh? No wonder advice on sleep is common, while following that advice is less so.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

If your bedtime routine is causing you problems, a good way to frame the situation is to view it with importance. That is, decide how much impact your sleep (or lack of it…) has on the rest of your life. The part of your life where you’re awake.

Well, where you *should* be awake…

What you decide is for nobody but yourself. View it as your choice. Any change you make is with you in mind. How far you take things is a personal matter.

When you’re tired and struggling to cope with the daily routine, something’s gotta give. You can’t be stubborn and have all the things you’re used to. There is no quick fix.

With care, you can make the most of your sleep and do more with your time. Listen to yourself.

Are you getting enough sleep? Are you getting too much sleep? Are you being disrupted and interrupted in the night? Is it quality sleep? How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? What is your mood like during the day?

Questions like these are crucial to understanding where things are going wrong and what you need to do to get back on track. Sleep accounts for around a third of your time on this planet. What happens in that time has knock-on consequences to what happens while you’re awake.

Do you go to bed when it suits your lifestyle or when it suits your body? If it’s more the former, you may not be doing yourself any favours.

For instance, it’s frustrating that some people seem to be able to sleep for four hours and wake up with a spring in their step every morning, but we’re all different. Some of us need double that just to cope with the basics!

Before you scream with rage, there’s hope yet. With a bit of change and a better routine, you may find that you don’t need as much sleep as you think. Change the quality of the sleep you get, rather than increase the number of hours.

To get you there, take the Lifehack advice seriously, and check out these posts from TheUniversityBlog’s archives to get you buzzing when you’re awake and to calm you down when it’s time to snuggle under the covers:

Goodnight. Sleep tight!

How many calories in that pint?

You may be drinking more units of alcohol than you think.

And you’re almost certainly drinking more calories than you think…

photo by jenny downing

photo by jenny downing

A study at the University of Sussex asked participants to pour measures of alcohol and asked how many units the measures contained. Nearly two-thirds of the participants underestimated the total number of units in the drinks they had poured.

If you think that’s worrying, wait until you read how many calories each drink contains.

Emily Clark says in Student Direct that her housemate, “drank 511 calories; 6 units – the equivalent of 1.7 burgers”. Clark says that would need a 51-minute run to burn those calories off.

I hope those 6 units of alcohol have been accurately counted, because the calorific content may be even higher, if the Sussex study is anything to go by.

One bottle of WKD or a single pint of lager contain roughly 250 calories. That one drink alone is 10% of the recommended intake of calories per day for an average man (12.5% for an average woman). Three drinks later and you’ve enjoyed a third of your daily intake.

It’s easy to forget that drink is part of your daily intake, just the same as food. When you’re trying to maintain a balanced diet, remember the impact on your body when you enjoy a few pints out.

You may have heard people say that a pint of Guinness is like a meal. Maybe all alcohol is like a meal. How many portions will you enjoy tonight…?

The day I broke strict library rules

A story from my past:

photo by Nrbelex

photo by Nrbelex

I bought a sandwich from the uni refectory.  Since the library was opposite, I thought I’d pop in and quickly check the new releases shelf.  The shelf was next to the issue desk.

As I walked past the issue desk, just 3 or 4 steps away from the shelf I wanted to look at, I was stopped by a member of staff on the issue desk.  She told me I must leave the library with food on my person.

“Ah yes,” I said.  “I wasn’t thinking about food.  Don’t worry, I’m not in here to eat.  I’m just scanning the new release shelf here.  I’ll be about 30 seconds.”

“I’m afraid you can’t,” she said.  “You’re not allowed food in the library and I can see you’ve got food.”

Silly me, my wrapped sandwich was in a see-through paper bag.  Why didn’t I put my sandwich in a rucksack or a large, unidentifiable box like other people? It avoids encounters like this.

I apologised.  “Sorry, I’ll know to pop in *before* I get a sandwich next time.  I’ll just check the shelf and go. Sorry about that!”

No luck. “If you want to check the shelf with that food, you’ll need to get a key from me and put the food in one of the lockers.  You can look at the shelf after that.”

I couldn’t help but be amused at the ridiculous process I’d have to go through just to walk three extra steps and browse a shelf for less than a minute.  The lockers were on the other side of the room too.  The sandwich would need to travel further around the library in order to stop it travelling around the library!

I put my sandwich on the issue desk and smiled at the librarian.  “Tell you what,” I suggested, “Why don’t I leave my food here for a moment and look at the books?  Back in a mo!”

I didn’t wait for a reply.  I bounced the extra few steps to the new releases shelf and was, as expected, less than a minute checking out the titles on offer.  At this point, I bounced right back to the issue desk.

“Thanks! I’m done now.  I’ll take the food and leave.  Promise!”

To my surprise, the librarian had moved the offending sandwich out of sight to another part of the staff space.  Even better, she called over to another member of staff.

She waved at the other person.  “Could you, er, bring me this gentleman’s…you know?  His…”

Not wanting to say it aloud, she mouthed the word “Food” and discretely pointed to where she’d hidden my sandwich.

Once handed back to me, the librarian whispered “There you go,” as if this highly irregular situation could have got her in to trouble more than it could me!

I know rules are in place for a reason, even though the issue of having food in libraries is controversial.  But I hadn’t really considered how much fuss my sandwich would cause.  Until I’d been stopped by the librarian, I didn’t even twig that I’d brought any food in.  My grub spent a good three or four times as long in the library because of that.

Does your library let you take in food and drink?  Do you smuggle stuff in?  Is any kind of food ‘fair game’?

20/20 – Day 16: 20 networking nuggets

You need other people.  Nobody succeeds alone.

Engagement is crucial in everything we do.  On your own, in a dark room, it wouldn’t take long before you came to a stop because you needed skills that you didn’t have.  From learning how to do it yourself, to finding someone who will do it for you, other people need you and you need other people.

How do you make contact with these people and begin a relationship?  It’s not that difficult.  Below, I list 20 top tips toward mastering networking.

  1. Don’t judge, remain open.  Opinions only seek to close off opportunities.
  2. You won’t know unless you try.  Don’t be afraid to make the first move.  Waiting for people to come to you doesn’t work.
  3. What have you got to lose? You won’t lose anything if you reach a dead end, yet you’ll gain so much if you find an in.  Your choice.
  4. Do it all year round.  Quiet moments can yield huge gains.  Busy times bring everyone out.  There is no specific networking season unless you count ‘always’ as a period of time.
  5. If networking with a specific purpose, prepare beforehand.  General networking is pretty open once you have a basic set of openers and ideas.  For more specialised pitches or a focus on targetted individuals, you need to have a plan.
  6. Don’t think of your contacts as useful, see them as people.
  7. Introduce other people to the conversation.  Have you ever heard that you should act like the host at events, even if you’re not the host?  I’ve used this trick a couple times before.  Not only will you be memorable (for the right reasons), but you network by bringing others together to network too.  When this technique works, it works incredibly well.
  8. Focus on the person, don’t let your attention slip.  I think of it as paying ‘Bill Clinton attention’.  When Clinton communicates with people, it seems as if his entire attention has turned to that one person.  It’s like he switches off the world around him, but not to the point where he’s just staring in an uncomfortable manner.  While I haven’t spoken to Clinton personally, I’m pretty sure if I did he would come across this way.
  9. Help others. Be useful.  Just take Twitter as an example. One of the best things about Twitter is when people help others by offering recommended links, answering people’s questions, and putting in a good word for others.
  10. Keep tabs and remain on track even when an association naturally ends.  Unless you don’t like the person and you’ve totally moved on from that line of work/life, there’s no point in burning bridges.
  11. Don’t expect from others without trying to make an impact yourself.
  12. By all means find as many people to network with as you want, but focus on the quality of the contacts rather than the number you’ve collected.
  13. Don’t expect the world. It’s not like you’re owed a favour. Asking isn’t ordering.  If you’re turned down, accept it.
  14. Don’t expect instant results. Networking takes time.  That person you’ve known since you were 6…who’d have thought they would be the perfect contact now you’re 34?
  15. Be kind.  People like to be complimented and like to know you care.  Don’t be false, but do be appreciative and thankful when you can.
  16. Talk about the weather. We’re human.  We don’t talk shop all day.  Smalltalk is not just reasonable, it’s required.
  17. Show an interest in others.  An interest…not an obsession.
  18. Go gently.  A pushy attitude won’t get you far.  You’re building a network, not recruiting soldiers.
  19. Change with the times.  It’s easier than ever to network.  You have access to millions of wonderful minds via an Internet connection.  You don’t need to leave the house. But wherever you are and whatever platform you use, be prepared to go where the people are.  They don’t come to you, you go to them!
  20. You are the key…Not your tools, not your business card, not the money spent, not the gifts you lavish upon them, not anything else.  YOU are the key.
Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: Lumaxart (cc)