How do you use your summer time? Tips for postgrads…
…by Kirsten / from Italy / studying MSc Equine Science / 2nd year
Summer time! Sunshine, holidays, relax… or is it? As an online MSc student I’d say not exactly. However, with some careful planning and time management summer can be both a relaxing and a productive time of year for us students!
So how do we go about enjoying the warm season, socialising, travelling and getting on with our studies at the same time? Not to mention work to have some extra savings for next term! Here are my top tips.
Get a head start on next term
It may sound daunting, but dedicating the same amount of time to your studies as you would during term time allows you to get heaps of work done ahead of schedule and be better prepared for whatever life throws at you when it’s actually, urgently, time to read those papers and write that assignment. For most courses you can access the recommended reading list at any time. Pick the books that you feel are most interesting and relevant and read through them. Books usually contain summaries of journal article findings and are great for general knowledge, helping us to more easily understand and appreciate the actual research papers that will be required reading for each course week. Depending on the course, you may also wish to read through the essential papers for each week and highlight the main points, so when it’s actually time to take the course you can simply revise them and save time.
Take those optional self-study courses
There are many optional self-paced courses on offer that provide an invaluable addition to our studies and I highly recommend working through them. During term time it’s hard enough to keep up with lectures and assignments, let alone have the energy and motivation to take (and complete!) an optional course on the side. You might have a day of productive inspiration and get started on a couple of units, but working through the whole thing becomes an arduous task. Use summer time instead! I worked through the Academic Study Skills and the Research Methods and Statistics courses and I can definitely say they helped loads in improving my exam grades. There are lots of tips and tricks for better reading, writing and researching which you just don’t pick up by following the subject specific courses alone.
Become a Digital Nomad
You don’t need to have a huge travel budget and spend six months on a beach in Thailand to work or study as a digital nomad. The name implies that you are constantly moving around – being a nomad – and that you are able to stay connected to the world around you – digital, whilst you travel. If you have a regular or summer job you will probably go on holiday somewhere for about a week or two, if that, and it would be a waste to spend the whole holiday studying. Instead, look for local areas where you might spend a day, or an afternoon, studying peacefully throughout the summer months. This could be a park, a shady spot on a lakeside, a glade in the woods or even a noisier space like a cafe. Take your laptop or a book with you, a thermos of coffee (not to the cafe 🙂) and go exploring. You’ll be amazed how well you can study from a new location, and you can enjoy the long summer days whilst getting on with your coursework. Don’t forget to take regular breaks and go for a stroll, have a coffee or just gaze at the landscape around you! Pro tip: for some of us, getting out of the house can be a hard obstacle to overcome, but once you are out and about you’ll be wondering why you don’t do this more often – the change of location is great for concentration and productivity and there’s no overdue washing or cleaning staring at you from the other end of the room!
Plan to recharge
We’ve all been there. We know we should be studying but we really want to go on that hike/party/day at the beach with our friends so we do that instead. Problem is we end up feeling guilty and frustrated that we are not studying as we should and as a result we don’t enjoy the experience as much as we could have! The solution? Plan your “free” days ahead. It could be one, or two days a week, totally flexible over which ones, in which you actively decide you will not be studying, but you will be dedicating time to socialising, exploring, partying or whatever else you enjoy doing. This way, unless your “free” days end up exceeding your “study” days, you will be able to enjoy the activities you are doing without feeling bad about all the things you should have been doing and you will have an overall more memorable summer time.
And finally… a note on finances. For many students, summer is the time in which we work as much as we can so that we can keep studying next semester. Or if you are an online student like me, you will probably be in full-time employment all year round and not get much extra free time during summer. If you know you will be dedicating a large portion of your summer to work, you will need a little extra planning – and a little less expectation of what you will be able to study before term starts. Adjust your study time accordingly: perhaps you will pick just one or two books to read over the summer, or focus on one optional study skills course. Remember to plan for “free” days or evenings and use these to enjoy yourself and recharge, so that when you get back to uni you are not completely drained! Studying ahead is really helpful but recharging and taking care of ourselves is just as important!
In the end, it’s all about balance and each of us has to experiment with different things and find out what works for us. Try some of the tips in this post and see what you like and what does and doesn’t fit in with your life. Don’t be afraid to fail and remember to take good care of yourself, physically and mentally, above all else.
Have a great summer!
