That means you’ve either finished, or you’re just about to hit campus for the last time before the holidays.
Today’s episode looks at 5 things you can do over the break, so you can hit campus in 2017 with confidence.
No matter how crazy or quiet the next few weeks are set to be, let’s get set for what’s coming next.
Here are the show notes for the 10-min episode:
01:50 – 1. Take Stock: Step back and think about where you are at the moment. (1st years 02:30, 2nd years 02:55, final years 03:25)
04:20 – 2. Plan: What do you want to do over the rest of the year?
05:10 – 3. Relax: University encapsulates everything. Instead of feeling the anti-climax of stepping away from everything, let now be a time to recharge. Get back in the New Year with a bang.
06:30 – 4. Revise: Short bursts of work will bring you up to speed and help you feel more confident for your return.
07:50 – 5. Tidy Up: You start university with loads of stuff. You collect more stuff. Now it’s time to work out what you *really* need.
09:20 – TUB-Thump returns on Monday, January 9 2017. You know, so long as my computer doesn’t blow up again…!
Have a fantastic break. I hope your New Year celebration is full of the winningest win.
The past week or so hasn’t been business as usual for me. Long story short, my computer went up in smoke and my schedule has looked rather different.
I recorded two episodes of TUB-Thump in catch-up mode (Episode 018 is coming up right after this one).
I had every intention of getting them published on Thursday, but fate had other plans for that too…
I have something called “two-step authentication” set up on some of my accounts, including my WordPress account. Yesterday, I just happened not to have my phone on me. As I logged in to WordPress to publish these, I wasn’t able to type in my extra code, which is texted to my phone!
Usually, you have some backup codes, but I didn’t have access to those either, because they were on the old, blown up computer.
Yes, I’ve backed up, but I didn’t have time to go through all the malarkey to find backup codes too.
So don’t mind me talking about the awesomeness of getting the show out on Thursday, when I’m another day late. These things happen. Bizarre events, but that’s how it played out.
The good news is, things are back up to speed now.
And because I was reminded of the need to back up and keep copies in case of disaster, that’s what this episode is all about.
But I saw lots of people checking maps and crowding around steps in the hope of finding an open station. Some people were more prepared than others, but you could see this wasn’t quite business as usual.
“But what was surprising is that when the strike was over, not everybody returned to their habitual commuting route. One in twenty of the commuters who had switched then stayed with the route that they had used during the strike; presumably, they had discovered that it was faster or cheaper or preferable in some other way to their old routine…[They needed] an unexpected shock to force them to seek out something better.”
What has this got to do with sleep?
Harford says that mixing up routine with surprise is a good method of discovering new solutions and improvements to your current setup.
As we saw in this week’s main post on TheUniversityBlog, student sleep isn’t best known for its routine. You rarely have to be up at the same time every morning, and it’s not unusual to have some crazy-late nights thrown in.
You’re living with all this randomness in your sleep. Maybe it’s time to inject a bit of routine to that random.
When you know what makes you tick, you’re more equipped to let surprises into your routine without suffering so much.
Here are a few ideas to get you on your way:
Wake yourself up on a non-lecture morning as if you DO have a lecture. Focus on how it feels to get up. What are the most difficult parts of getting up for you? How can you deal with these issues so they don’t cause so much of a bottleneck?
Commit to going to bed at the same time every night for a week. Do you notice any patterns to be aware of in your less structured weeks?
Commit to waking up at the same time every day for a week. Is this easier or more difficult than going to bed at the same time? Can you work out how many hours of sleep work for you?
Commit to one more week of getting a set number of hours sleep that you think works for you. Is it eight hours? Six hours? What is the optimum number of hours you need to feel refreshed every time you get out of bed?
Go to bed much earlier than you normally would. How easy is it to get to sleep? Do you sleep all night? Do you wake up on your own, or still need an alarm? Ask questions like this. If you’re sleeping the whole time, it could be a sign that you need more sleep than you realise. If you find it harder to get to sleep than usual, maybe you do better at night than in the mornings. If you sleep as long as usual and wake up early in the morning without an alarm, maybe you’re getting the right amount of sleep. Make sure you get about that much sleep every night, whatever time you do it!
Think of other ways of changing up. You may not want to adopt a routine, but testing out possible routines could help you understand your needs much better, even in the face of randomness.
The big takeaway from the Underground strike is that it’s no good having too much routine and no good having too much randomness. Whichever way you sway, try mixing things up a bit occasionally. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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