Over the past year or so, many of us have slipped out of our usual routines thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Third year Archaeology student, Nikki, however, has managed to sort out a productive and manageable daily routine for both days when she has lots of work to do and also on days where she wants to have a bit of a rest! Below, she shares her new routines in the hope of inspiring others.

Getting work completed early

On days where I have a lot of work to do, I wake up at around 9am. This is particularly the case on Monday’s as all of my lectures are asynchronous and uploaded for 9am on Monday of each week. Therefore, I like to be very productive on Monday’s and work through all my lecture content for the week so that I will have more time during the rest of the week to do things such as assessments, extracurriculars and to hang out with my housemates.

The fact that all of my lectures are pre-recorded is probably my favourite thing about online learning as I can choose when to do them which is very convenient! If I have seminars on a particular day I will also then make sure that I have done any reading needed and join the zoom call (all of my seminars are live and over zoom).

Expanding my knowledge base

When I’m not doing course work I have found myself doing a variety of things. I have been recording and editing my own podcast as part of my society’s podcast series and taking online courses on an ‘Introduction to Humanitarian Law’ which is run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. This is something that I am really interested in outside of my course and is a field that I wish to go into in the future.

I have also been making time to work on my master’s applications as I am hoping to apply soon, so have been working on finishing my application around uni work and extracurriculars!

Having fun

I like to go for a run a few times a week and also take part in society activities for the CAHAE society such as a bake-off, games night and pub quiz over zoom! My housemates and I also try to make sure to relax and unwind at the end of every day by watching a few episodes of a TV show- we have managed to finish Hannibal and are now half-way through watching Lucifer.

I also like to make sure that I spend time making tasty and healthy meals and also make sure to treat myself once or twice a week with a takeaway. At the end of each day I try to unwind by doing a bit of reading for fun (no academic books!) and try to make sure that I go to sleep reasonably early as I really like my sleep!

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