Hi everyone. So, my mentor had us do this time-management activity where we have to take note of what I get up to every 15/ 30 minutes and I thought it’ll be interesting to share the findings? results? with you guys. I actually did the original assignment last week over two days (Thursday and Friday), but I wanted to share my schedule on Monday instead as a message that, ‘Hey, Monday’s not too bad after all even if it’s the start of another week of lectures…’ and also because Friday’s baking day (because what better way to celebrate the end of schooldays other than a fresh-out-of-the-oven baked goods). Anyway, enjoy 😉
Thankfully, my Monday lecture for this term is in the afternoon so I don’t have to worry much if I overslept or something hehehe. Although that also means that I have a tendency to stay up late on Sunday nights doing random (sometimes work-related and sometimes not) things.
Around 7:30 to 8:00 am-ish Wakes up, shower (+ getting ready takes me 30 minutes; is that bad?), breakfast (the usual). Also cooks food for lunch and dinner so I can just microwave it later.
9:30 am Checks emails and social media, typically checking that any plans I made don’t clash with lectures and/ or other plans. Makes note of it so I don’t forget (because I usually do, sadly)
10:00 am Reads material for my 2:00 pm afternoon lecture. Usually this involves reviewing last week’s lecture (Panopto + lecture notes + practical sheets) and (sometimes) looking over this week’s lecture notes. I like searching for definitions of terms I don’t get beforehand…
12:30 pm-ish Famished. Microwaves lunch + eats lunch = 30 minutes (don’t judge, I’m a slow eater)
1:05 pm Is bored. WhatsApp-ed random friends and family in Malaysia since it’s like 9:00 pm over there and everyone is off work/ school.
1:40 pm Heads out to lecture at RSM 1.51 (thankfully I live in Linstead so that’s only a 5 minute walk away). Before, this would be Paleontology 1 but starting this week, it’s Optical Mineralogy and Petrology instead. Takes notes, finds seat, sets up microscope (we use a petrological microscope which is different from the light microscope you’d use in biology since it uses polarised light- either plane polarised (PPL) or crossed polars (XP).)
2:00 pm Lecture starts. There’s a short break in the middle before we continue with the second part of the lecture. And another break before practicals. I usually just stay in the lecture theatre and maybe stretch/ chat around a bit.
Around 5:00 pm Lecture ends. I usually get hungry again at this point so I grab a quick snack and drink either on campus or back at halls. And proceeds to play with my phone for about half an hour or so.
6:00 pm Anime time. Anime club organises regular screenings on Mondays where we watch the first episode of three different series with the same theme and vote which one we want to watch the second episode of. They send out weekly newsletters with the theme and series they’ll be showing on Sundays so I can decide whether I want to attend or not. I usually go if I haven’t watched 2/3 of the series. If not, I’ll stay in and watch the current airing season instead (it’s almost like watching in real-time… BTW Gogoanime is a good site to watch subs online for free). I usually watch 3-4 episodes and one episode is around 25 minutes while shorts are max. 5 minutes so that’s about an hour and a half of anime.     (Yes, I take my anime seriously. I even consider different things like plot, drawing/ art styles, graphic style/ quality, sometimes even op and ending songs when choosing what to watch. Although I’m not so picky about genre because it’s good to see how different references attract to a variety of audiences)
7:30 pm Dinner (+ some socializing with my floormates).
8:15 pm Free time. Usually involves me reading random fiction/ young adult/ fantasy books. Or free-writing (a friend and I are ~sort of~ writing a story together). Or sketching (although I’m terrible at it :’) ). Or looking up recipes to cook/ bake.Or watching random videos on YouTube (because hey, everyone does this). Or a combination of those, could be all of those. While listening to music.
10:00 pm Starts prepping for tomorrow’s lecture and/ or tutorial. Involves doing the same thing I did for my afternoon lecture.
12:30 am Gets into bed. From this point on, it’s a definite no to all electronic devices (because it’s never a good idea to play with your phone when you’re trying to sleep). Although I mostly can’t go to sleep immediately, so I tend to roll on my bed, reflecting on the day’s work and everything I could/ should have done better (or sudden inspirations on how to solve practical problems) until I eventually fall asleep.
So, that’s how I spend my Mondays. I usually don’t stay up later than 1:00 am on weekdays because I have 9:00 am lectures every single day except Mondays. Did I spend my time wisely? IDK ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It works for me at least. But everyone has their own way of doing things so there’s no ‘right’ way to do it. As long as you’re keeping up with things, I think you’re good to go.
Moral of the story, don’t worry too much about what others are doing and focus on your way of managing your time. Because we’re all different.
That’s all for now. Peace out
 See you next time (lol I sound like Dora the Explorer or something). Bye!!!
