How I balance my studies and social life

Undergraduate student, Saloni Shah, shares her top tips for balancing social life and studying at university.

As part of your university experience, it's key to have a good work-life balance. Although this balance will fluctuate throughout the year, depending on tests, exams and deadlines, it is important to never neglect this harmony. I take extra care to ensure that not only am I on top of my academic work but I also fulfil my societal commitments, spend time with friends and look forward to meeting new people.

Top three tips on how to balance studying and your social life

• I usually plan my week, including extracurricular activities like society events and socials with my friends. This helps to keep me motivated and encourages me to complete my work as early as possible so that I can enjoy myself during these events without having academic stress looming over my head. In this way, I feel like I have a reward for the hard work I have completed and I feel more mentally refreshed for the following week.
• In addition to this, I make a to-do list at the start of every week prioritising urgent tasks depending on the upcoming deadlines, whilst keeping up with the week-to-week content for each of the modules. When making the list, I ensure that I break each task into smaller chunks so that each task is relatively simple and manageable to do in a short period. I also ensure that I take regular breaks between tasks like grabbing a cup of coffee with friends or going for a walk. This increases my productivity and helps me maintain good mental health, which in turn helps with academic work.
• When doing my work I keep all possible distractions out of sight. For instance, I tend to throw my phone under the duvet, so that I don’t end up scrolling on TikTok or watching reels mindlessly until a couple of hours have passed by without me realising. In this way, I am much more productive which means I can reduce the number of hours I spend working. I can then allocate my time more efficiently for socials, extracurriculars and even some time to reflect on myself.

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