Happiest of new years to you! I hope you had a restful festive period, and managed exam season okay. I know that the holidays can bring up some difficult subjects and it can be hard to rest, only to have to begin studying for a bunch of exams. Sometimes you may fall into the rhythm of things, and other times it may be more difficult. 

Now that the new term of teaching is beginning, my goal is to encourage you to recognise that this time isn’t to make any revolutionary changes that can lead to burnout down the line, but to reflect, re-energise and reset, and hopefully guide you into embracing the start of term 2 here at King’s. 

Wellbeing

We are in January, and you have a whole term ahead of you. This can be overwhelming, but also exciting, as it gives you a chance to approach things with a fresh and open mindset. There will be challenges along the way, but if you can maintain a work life balance with focus on the tasks at hand whilst doing the things that make you happy, you’ll end the term satisfied and not burnt out. 

Productivity 

When I started at King’s, I became excited by the novel idea of taking my laptop to lectures. This sounds funny to me now, but before then I had primarily studied through handwriting, and had no knowledge of the best way to store my digital notes. Of course, a pandemic at the end of my first year threw me into overdrive, and I developed more digital skills with all of my classes online, but this serves as a reminder to me that every so often I should review things to make sure I am doing what works best. For me, I am a diehard fan of Notion, and always will be. I use it to keep my notes, plan assignments, and organise budgeting, even Christmas planning! My recommendation is to have a look through your notes and work from last year, and review what worked and what didn’t, and go from there, trying to find solutions to make things better. I loved watching videos on YouTube for suggestions, there’s even a whole corner of the website called ‘StudyTube’! I do often need a reminder though that there is such thing as overplanning. Trying to schedule every minute of your day to make sure you are doing enough is completely unrealistic, and just leads to guilt. 

Extracurriculars 

This is usually the time of year that many students go into overdrive trying to build up their extracurriculars and applying for internships. I remember going to a subject talk one evening and hearing all of my fellow classmates talk about all of the things they had planned over the next year; the journals they were submitting articles to, the societies they had joined. Whilst I initiatlly felt that I had to do all of those things as well if I wanted to be successful, it’s important to know that everyone has their own pace. For me, I have always had part time jobs, which takes up a huge chunk of my time. Other people may not need to work alongside their studies, and therefore have more time to focus on these extracurriculars. It didn’t take me long to understand that my journey as a student would involve me refocusing on my existing extracurriculars, and prioritising which ones were worth my time. 

Practical Steps 

If you prefer less abstract approaches to improving your experience here at King’s, here are some practical things you can do to plan for the time ahead 

• Decluttering: have a clear out, who says that spring cleaning just happens in spring? This will make your space feel more comfortable and create space for new things 

• Make sure you have a proper schedule: you could by a physical planner, or use a calendar on outlook or your phone. Make sure you mark out time for your classes, study time, extracurriculars and also prioritising your wellbeing 

• Fix your sleep schedule: make sure you are going to sleep and waking up as close to the same time everyday as you can. This helps you feel more awake, and work better 

• Set yourself some goals: Be careful about this one as you don’t want to overload yourself, we have a whole guide to new years resolutions, make sure you read it! 

Don’t forget, things can change, expect plans to go awry or that things will take longer than expected. Even with this in mind, it’s a new term and a new chance to make some positive steps! 

We hope these tips are useful, and that you give yourself some time to refresh and reset. Want to find out more about how you can take care of your Wellbeing? Visit the KCLSU Wellbeing Hub for activities, events and resources to help boost your wellbeing. Make sure you also keep an eye out for the KCLSU News Page, for lots of Wellbeing-related tips and tricks.???