With only 2 months left of my degree I am on the home straight and it’s only 6 weeks until I go to Australia for my elective placement!!! My excitement is somewhat inhibited by the vast amount of work that I have to complete. I have been trying to organise myself on a day to day basis with the use of my time planner but with stress starting to take over and procrastination becoming more prevalent something had to change. It started pretty simply a couple of weekends ago with the Oxford, Cambridge boat race on the Thames. This is an event I have attended pretty regularly over the past 3 years but I had originally said I couldn’t make it as I had so much uni work to do. With the sun shining I decided that I didn’t want to be stuck inside and my housemate made the very good point that I would probably spend most of the day sitting on the sofa thinking about what I had to do! So I went and spent the afternoon in the sun with friends, chilled, forgot about assignments, and had a cracking day! My sister is very much into essential oils, meditation, and generally being a bit of an earth mother so she ordered me to use some oils to help me focus and also instructed me to start using mantras or affirmations which I kind of thought was a bit silly. However, I started slowly with a plan of what to complete by the end of the week and a daily plan of how to get there which has actually evolved into daily affirmations. I have never been the fittest of individuals but I know that exercise helps with my general mental wellbeing so I dusted off the running shoes and started getting out early in the mornings and jogging round the park and I have even found myself doing some yoga which is really helping.

I suppose the message I want to get across guys is that balance is so important. It is easy to get yourself bogged down and into that vicious cycle of worrying about work, procrastination, and stress. Keeping yourself healthy by trying to eat well, doing some exercise, and taking some time to spend with friends and family really help to ensure a clear and focused mind which is key to writing good, concise, scientific essays. I would definitely say the few hours I have spent on work in the last week have been more constructive and conducive to getting my portfolio finished off and my first draft of my literature review completed. With the Easter holidays coming up I am also motivated to get a large portion of work done so I can enjoy some time with my friends.