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A Day In The Life At University

For today’s post, I thought I’d try doing something a bit different. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might already know what kind of topics I like writing about, mental health, personal development and student life being the three main themes I usually touch upon on the blog. I like telling stories from my life and sharing my experiences with you guys, and although I always tell you what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling, I don’t get very personal. In today’s post, I sort of thought I can try just that.


In this post, I want to share how a day in my life at university goes. The in’s and out’s, what I’m up to and how I go about the things I do every day. As some of you might already know, I’m a final year student in the United Kingdom and I’m studying towards a combined degree of Psychology and Criminology. Apart from studying, I also have a part-time job, I do volunteering and I write this blog – so, I have a lot of things on my plate this year. I am hoping that you will find this post insightful, in terms of learning how to organise your day yourself and how to keep going on days when you’re especially busy or not feeling it.


Note: this post contains affiliate marketing.


For the record, this will be a general ‘day in the life’ post rather than a description of how a particular day is like for me. With university, my timetable changes from a semester to another, and so do my shifts at work: I really don’t have a set routine for every day. I do have ways of working with the time that I have, though, and this is what I want to share with you today.


My day starts quite early in the morning, between five and seven AM, but I’ve recently tried waking up at five more. I don’t blame you if you’re thinking, ‘what the hell’s wrong with her, why is she waking up so early?!’, because I had pretty much the same mindset a couple of months ago. But in the last months of experimenting and trying to sort out my sleep schedule, I learned that I am, in fact, a morning person and I enjoy waking up and starting my day early, despite the discomfort that usually comes along with it. I would love to explore this topic a bit more in a future post, if it sounds interesting enough for you!



(source: personal archive)



After I wake up, I enjoy reading in bed for half an hour, therefore giving myself some time to adjust and wake up properly. This way, I don’t have to face the cold right away and I can gradually turn the lights on so my eyes have time to get used to it. Then, on rather busy days I don’t always find the time to read and I fall asleep quite quickly if I’m reading in bed, so reading in the morning is my way of making sure that I read a bit every day. Right now, I am reading You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, by Jen Sincero, and We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver (click here and here to get your own copies).


As part of my usual morning routine, I stretch, do yoga and meditate for another half an hour, before I go and have breakfast. My trick to building up energy early in the morning is having a substantial breakfast, and I’m one of the lucky folks who are able to eat as much as they wish right after waking up. My go-to breakfast choices are muesli, toasted bagels with butter or bacon and eggs. I also make myself a hot drink, like green tea with honey or hot chocolate with soy milk, to sip on after I finish eating.



(source: personal archive)



While having my hot drink, I like checking my schedule for the day and writing my to-do list in my bullet journal (which I already told you a bit about in a previous post). What I decide to do that day varies greatly according to any scheduled commitments I might have, like classes, work shifts, meetings or appointments. Say I do have classes to go to or work to do, everything else will have to fit around those – this is called time-blocking and it’s one of the most efficient organisation techniques I’ve ever used. By carefully time-blocking every day before it starts, I can use all the free time that I have to maximize my productivity and also keep myself accountable to take breaks and rest.


Once I know what I’m heading towards that day, I start getting ready. I shower, dress up, put make-up on, pack my lunch if necessary and check that my bag is ready. I try and have lunch and dinner at home so I can have these meals with my boyfriend, since we are living together and each is busy with their own stuff to do throughout the day. It also makes a truly terrific break to take from the stress of studying and work. The day I took the pictures for this post, I came back home for my two-hour lunch break so we can eat together.


I’m ready to get out of the house in around an hour. I use the time window remaining before I need to be in class to go to the library and do some early studying. I’ve only started doing this in my third year, but I found that it does wonders for my productivity: it allows me to start on my work before my first scheduled commitment for the day in a calm, stress-free environment because there is hardly anyone in the library at that time. While in the library, I usually tackle the most urgent tasks or the ones that don’t require much of a mental effort on my part. I sometimes send e-mails and catch up on stuff, but that morning I worked more on my final year project.



(source: personal archive)



This semester, I am taking five different subjects so that can build up to four classes a day, mostly two-hour sessions so by the time I come back home, I’m absolutely knackered. To stay as alert and productive as possible, I make sure I keep myself hydrated and I have plenty of snacks throughout the day. I also put my phone away for the entirety of the class, and write down all my notes to memorise the information better (I’m a visual-kinaesthetic learner). I never have coffee, but that can work for you, too! It is also essential that I move around as much as possible, so the walks from a class to another or going for a stroll around the library always helps with keeping the blood flowing.


If I have work that day, I take my uniform with me and change out of it for the classes I might also have in my schedule. If I don’t have any classes or work that day and I don’t feel like going to the library, I also enjoy working from home. I used to find studying in my own room very distracting, but since I’ve thoroughly organised my workspace and made it look the way I wanted, my productivity levels spiked! I would love to share how my workspace looks like in a future post.


My to-do list for a specific day usually includes studying and urgent tasks that need to be gotten out of the way as soon as possible. To organise my studying evenly throughout the week, I designed a daily timetable with time slots dedicated to specific subjects or tasks (obviously, around my uni timetable). Unless I have something more urgent to do first, I stick to that daily timetable and work for every subject for several hours at a time. Studying involves updating my notes, doing readings, working on seminar questions and preparing my assignments. No matter what I have in my schedule for the day, I try to finish studying before dinnertime.



(source: personal archive)



I also like to stop by at the gym on the way home from my classes or work. Despite any other commitments I might have that day, I like working out almost every day if possible, and it’s indeed a great way to wind down.


After dinner and catching up on one of my favourite TV shows, I take a shower, pamper myself a bit and relax. My evenings are rather flexible and I don’t do a whole lot, unless I have an upcoming deadline or something to urgent to do for the next day. I also talk to my family in the evenings and spend time with my boyfriend. The last two hours before bedtime are reserved for my personal projects: this blog, my creative writing, my bullet journal. I also try to do one self-care-related thing every day, so that usually happens right before going to bed.



(source: personal archive)



I start getting ready for bed at ten, by brushing my teeth, doing some yoga and meditating again. If I’m not too tired, I like reading in bed or watching a bit of YouTube before I drift off. Only in exceptional situations do I stay up to finish work: as I said, I found that this never works for me.


And that’s it, folks! This is how a day in the life at university looks like for me. I hope you found this post useful in trying to find your own way of going through a stressful and busy day.


In fact, I would love to hear about how a usual day is like for you! Feel free to share that in the comments section down below.




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Photo sources: personal archive.


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