Tag Archives: uni

Organising your study

It’s currently the night before my pharmacology final exam, I only studied 3 hours today as I felt I had sufficiently studied up until now and felt no need to increase my stress levels by trying to cram in extra information. If you read my first post you’ll know that I work four jobs, have a girlfriend and study full time at uni and I often get asked by my friends, “how do you fit all that in” or “how do you have time to do that”. Hopefully, I’ll be able to shed some light on the techniques I use to make the most out of my days and study as little and as effectively as possible.

This is how a typical to do list looks for me

The first thing I do either the night before or in the morning is, write down the 3-5 things I need to get done that day. This can be on paper, but I like to use sticky notes on my desktop and have 3 sections, Today, Tomorrow and Later, making each point discrete and as specific as possible, ie. ‘study renal pharmacology lectures’ rather than ‘study’.  Not only does it save the time you spend figuring out what you need to study, but it also makes you more likely to actually do the task, whether it be studying or cleaning your room.

Furthermore, when doing this I find if I start with a smaller more specific task which is easy to achieve, I complete that quickly and after getting this achievement I feel empowered to complete more, maybe study another topic or clean another part of your room. The small dopamine release you get from completing a task is extremely beneficial and makes you enjoy whatever it is you’re doing. What most people do though is set vague, large tasks for themselves each day, for example, study. This is unhelpful because not only is it vague, causing you to waste time organising yourself on the day, you also do not get any satisfaction out of it because there is no discrete ‘finish’ to studying, leaving yourself unsatisfied and unfulfilled at the end of the day.

The final thing I do when designing this list is make it achievable each day. I have found that if you set yourself 3-4 tasks each day and are able to complete them all, it’s more likely that you will do the same the next day. This consistency is a key part to being successful, there is no point being sporadic in your studying, you’ll gain the most benefit out of studying consistently each day, rather than cramming it all into one where you fry your brain and feel unmotivated to work the next day. Overall, the most important steps towards reclaiming your days are to make a list, make it specific, discrete and achievable.

A bit about me & what I do

I’m Harrison, I’m 20, live with my parents in Inner Sydney, and I’m studying Exercise Physiology full time at the University of NSW. I cycle to uni or catch the bus in, and often look forward to going in uni, unlike a lot of people I know. I’m a very passionate person and will devote a lot of time to my passions, which also align in my jobs. I’m currently working four jobs, with varying degrees of relevance to my degree and how much time they consume but I love every minute of them all. This is all on top of also being in a committed relationship. This post will primarily talk about the jobs that I do and what I get out of them. My jobs all have different levels of priority to me, which is important in how much time I devote to them every week.

My highest priority is my job as a boundary umpire in the NEAFL, which is the reserve grade for the AFL. I began field umpiring when I was 14, just umpiring the under 10’s, earning $25 for an hour-long game, which felt like I was rolling in it compared to my friends earning $15/hr at Maccas. I got into it in search of a bit of cash and because a few of my mates in my AFL team also decided to join. From there it snowballed, after stopping playing footy in the U17’s I took my umpiring a bit more seriously, which paid off as I was consistently getting premier division games, which is the top amateur division in Sydney, earning $100 a game! Still great money as a 18-year-old, but it was about to get better, at the start of 2018 I was asked to trial for the NEAFL, which I did and luckily made it on the list. Since then, I’ve been selected to umpire in the AFLW, which in its 3rd season was elevated above state league footy in the ‘umpiring pathway,’ making the next step the AFL. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to perform at my best because of knee surgery I underwent at the end of the 2018 season, but this will be the topic of another blog post. I also now coach the AFL Sydney boundary umpires, which is one of my four jobs, but it only takes a few hours a week coaching after my own training and if I have time, observing a game on the weekend and giving feedback. I began coaching primarily because when I was going through the ranks in AFL Sydney I had little coaching and was just learning little bits here and there during games from other umpires. This frustrated me greatly and I always wished that we had a coach to help us with all the questions I had.

My ‘second’ job is an interesting one; when I describe it to people I tell them I’m ‘somewhat’ a physio for a quadriplegic lady, which is close to the truth. I’m part of a small team of just three, all students in exercise physiology and physiotherapy and we do 2 hour daily shifts shared around the three of us. Our sessions are early mornings before business hours typically, so it fits perfectly around uni and other jobs. We do massage and exercise training in order to reduce the effects which inactivity has on joint alignment, and increase the strength and endurance of the muscles. Stella’s story is remarkable, a full C5 quadriplegic, 15 years after her accident is walking with little assistance from us trainers, you can check out her progress and a bit of what we do at @march_on_aus on Instagram.

My final job is at Running Science, a specialist running shoe shop in Sydney, most people would think retail is a waste of time for a third-year uni student but what we do at Running Science is a little different. We don’t treat it as retail, but closer to a health service, with all the staff both runners and students of the health profession. We ask every customer their running and injury history, goals and previous footwear choices, as well as undertaking a brief gait analysis on a treadmill. This has been extremely helpful in enhancing my communication skills as well as further my ability in learning the typical injuries associated with runners and how something as perceptively simple as footwear, can and cant impact these injuries.

Overall, as you can probably assume, I’m pretty busy, I wouldn’t change it for the world but I do have to be careful about what I take on because without careful vetting of what is important to me I’d be working a lot more than I could sustain. I’m a workaholic and I love it, but I have to ensure I don’t overdo it and burn out. All my jobs roughly take up 20-25 hours per week, and full-time university, with 20 contact hours per week and another 15-20 hours spent studying. What may surprise you is I usually get 8 hours of sleep a night, and when you add all that up it leaves me with 7 hours a day of free time, which is remarkable considering how time poor most uni students consider themselves. Often I get asked how I fit everything in, and that will be a topic of another blog post. Finally, I just want to set up a few ground rules for this blog, I’m just starting it to have a somewhat creative outlet which is something I feel I lack and miss having, but I will be posting consistently every week, releasing new posts every week in the hope that someone will find them useful. If that is only one person, I’ll be stoked.