Life

As a student I just feel like the only things I do is study at uni and work at my job, I feel bored and exhausted most of the time. Whilst I enjoy and am motivated to work on my future and am doing really well; I feel like I don't really have much of a life outside this.

People have all these interesting stories about their lives and even in movies everything is so fast paced and energetic, but when it comes to me it's only ever about my career or academics. It's only sometimes where I do get a break that I'll work on my art or play on PlayStation or helping out my parents.

I'm thinking of incorporating new things into my routine to live more of a colourful life, I want to escape this boredom.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what you do in your spare time or things that help you to live a more fulfilling life?

Hey there!!

I know you've probably heard this before, but joining societies can be such a good way to fill spare time, make friends and have fun! Loads of societies run socials as well, this can be going out or sober socials. For me, I joined rugby and would train, play matches and socials each week.

I also just like trying to incorporate some form of excersise each day, outside is best. Also trying new things, maybe a new recipie or book can be really fun.

Hope that helps a bit
Kat

As a student I just feel like the only things I do is study at uni and work at my job, I feel bored and exhausted most of the time. Whilst I enjoy and am motivated to work on my future and am doing really well; I feel like I don't really have much of a life outside this.

People have all these interesting stories about their lives and even in movies everything is so fast paced and energetic, but when it comes to me it's only ever about my career or academics. It's only sometimes where I do get a break that I'll work on my art or play on PlayStation or helping out my parents.

I'm thinking of incorporating new things into my routine to live more of a colourful life, I want to escape this boredom.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what you do in your spare time or things that help you to live a more fulfilling life?

Go to the gym and get jacked

That. would be interesting actually

As a student I just feel like the only things I do is study at uni and work at my job, I feel bored and exhausted most of the time. Whilst I enjoy and am motivated to work on my future and am doing really well; I feel like I don't really have much of a life outside this.

People have all these interesting stories about their lives and even in movies everything is so fast paced and energetic, but when it comes to me it's only ever about my career or academics. It's only sometimes where I do get a break that I'll work on my art or play on PlayStation or helping out my parents.

I'm thinking of incorporating new things into my routine to live more of a colourful life, I want to escape this boredom.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what you do in your spare time or things that help you to live a more fulfilling life?

As a student I just feel like the only things I do is study at uni and work at my job, I feel bored and exhausted most of the time. Whilst I enjoy and am motivated to work on my future and am doing really well; I feel like I don't really have much of a life outside this.

People have all these interesting stories about their lives and even in movies everything is so fast paced and energetic, but when it comes to me it's only ever about my career or academics. It's only sometimes where I do get a break that I'll work on my art or play on PlayStation or helping out my parents.

I'm thinking of incorporating new things into my routine to live more of a colourful life, I want to escape this boredom.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what you do in your spare time or things that help you to live a more fulfilling life?

Trust me, the pump is addictive (do you know what a pump is?)

From my understanding it's the blood rush that makes your muscles extra muscular?

Anon,

Life is not a movie. Sometimes life can be interesting because there are lots of problems to contend with, so when life feels pretty mundane be thankful that you are not having to deal with lots of drama!

All that being said, it's good that you recognise that you are more than your studies/ work and that you want to be a more well-rounded individual. This will help you to get a better balance in your life and help you have more to talk about when you meet people.

Make rest a part of your routine.

You should never feel guilty about needing to rest! There is a difference between rest and laziness, as long as you personally can tell the difference, then you don't have to feel bad about taking the time to recharge so that you can concentrate and focus better on your studies. It seems counterintuitive, but resting makes you more productive! It means that instead of spending ages going over the same things again and again, losing focus or struggling to get work done, you can work more effectively and efficiently.

It is very easy to wear oneself out by becoming a workaholic or to even make yourself ill, so do block in time during the week to rest.

For me personally, that looks like taking some evenings off during the week and taking Sunday off.

People make your life interesting, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, so perhaps you need to get to know more people and to build more friendships. You might need to get out your comfort zone and talk to more people e.g. the person in the library, in the student union shop, or in the queue. Be willing to strike up conversation, attend different events at uni, and get to know people.

You could also learn a language, find out about different cultures, travel, volunteer with a charity, join a running group or train for a race. There are lots of things you could do, which could lead to opportunities to meet new people.

Hope that helps,

Oluwatosin – 2nd year student – University of Huddersfield

Hello,

I hope you’re well. I can completely relate as I’ve been through this before - it’s very easy to fall into this pattern when at uni. I’d say try & remember any hobbies you had in the past, before you started uni & maybe restart them?

Some fun things you could choose to explore are: skating, knitting, reading, art, pottery etc. You can even type in “hobby / activity recommendations” in your search engine to see if you could find anything interesting!

Kind regards
Jade
Cov Uni Student Ambassador

As a student I just feel like the only things I do is study at uni and work at my job, I feel bored and exhausted most of the time. Whilst I enjoy and am motivated to work on my future and am doing really well; I feel like I don't really have much of a life outside this.

People have all these interesting stories about their lives and even in movies everything is so fast paced and energetic, but when it comes to me it's only ever about my career or academics. It's only sometimes where I do get a break that I'll work on my art or play on PlayStation or helping out my parents.

I'm thinking of incorporating new things into my routine to live more of a colourful life, I want to escape this boredom.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what you do in your spare time or things that help you to live a more fulfilling life?

Thanks for your reply, it's true that I do not have to deal with any drama now and I'm really glad about that because I really don't have the energy for that sort of thing, you've made a good point in regards to resting - I have been managing my sleep since summer started and I've been feeling a lot better. It's just that sometimes when I do have a lazy day and go to bed at night, I just lay there thinking I've wasted my day and I could have done so much more better things - though this is a mindset I'm aware must change.

I will take your advice of having relaxed evenings and spend those times with my family instead.

Even with the people thing, I do have quite a decent sized social circle; friends from sixth form, people at uni, work colleagues, family, neighbours etc I'm a very talkative person and I often get along very well with others. To clarify from my original post - I don't have difficulty with speaking to people; I can speak very well and am often speaking on the behalf of others because my friends know I'm a very reliable communicator. My dilemma is that I often feel some form of envy when people talk about exciting experiences, I'm so caught up in my career and academics that I feel myself lacking in these sorts of things, thus I'd like to be able to pursue new things and wanted ideas as to how I should go about it; hence this post. I am working on language learning and I do feel that travelling and going out more would help - thank you

Hello,

I have defiantly had times like this where I feel like I am not fully making the most of life, maybe I am not enjoying the majority of my work, focusing on uni or my part time job and I feel like I'm not fully present. It is really hard to make time for things you enjoy especially when you feel exhausted by other aspects of your life such as uni. It is really important to do more of the things that make you happy, and finding this can be such a fun little personal project, especially during Summer. It is really hard but scheduling in time before or after your work day is a great place to start. Have you got any ideas about the sort of thing you would enjoy? It is great that you are wanting to experience a more colourful life and that you have recognised this is something you want to work on

I personally really enjoy excersisng for example, I have recently taken up running. I love running because this can be done alone, with friends or family or even with a running group. If you are a beginner, I would really recommend Coach to 5k to get you started and once you get up to 5k you could also go to park runs which are so so fun, inclusive and good vibes. There are lots of people who run slowly and even walk, and there are lots of solo runners. I personally find moving my body and getting outside massively improves my mental health and helps me feel like I am in a movie hahah.

I also really enjoy reading fiction books, going to the gym and walking my dogs. Some other things to consider as others have mentioned are attending societies, universities will often have lots of different societies so be sure to look at their students union at the different societies to see which interest you. Uni gyms will often have a swimming pool, as well as classes and groups for different levels as well. Another thing you could consider could be going on solo days out, this could be to a city you've never been to or to your local coffee shop but this is something I love to do when I am feeling really bored with my life, like a tiny little holiday.

You could also look on social media I have seen quite a few TikTok series of people trying out different activities after or before their 9-5s to make them feel more fulfilled. Maybe watching some of these would help inspire you as to what kinds of things you might enjoy. You could also try practicing meditation as this is a really quick thing to incorporate in to your day if you are busy and is sooo good for your wellbeing.

I hope this helps, good luck finding your colourful life

Katie - Second year Educational Psychology student.

What society are you trying to run?

You mentioned working on your art - is there an art society at uni? You could join that?

And as for things running late into the evening - go to them, let them be late in the evening. What are you missing out on? Playstation?

Thanks for your response! The last part made me laugh quite a bit, I'm currently working on creating a Society for Women in Computing, it's something my lecturers have recommended doing so I'm working with some classmates to put things together for it.

Unfortunately my uni doesn't have an art society. In regards to the society stuff in the evening, at the moment nothing much is really going on, but I personally don't feel too comfortable walking around my city when it starts getting dark in the evening because it's a pretty rough area and there's all sorts going on, a serious incident also happened at my uni recently - so I'd rather not anyway. Transport is also an issue, because I'm still working on my driving and the buses are never on time.

Anon,

Good to hear you're managing your sleep better! It makes such a difference!

Anon, it's okay to have lazy days, especially during the summer. You will soon be back to studies so make the most of the time that you have now to not think about deadlines!

Time with family is precious, especially if you plan to travel or move to a new place after uni. When you're busy with assignments, you don't have so much time to hang out with family, so it's great that you can spend more time together now : )

Fab! It's so good that you're a great communicator and have a decent sized social circle. Why not arrange to do some stuff with them? It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It could be a BBQ, picnic, or pizza night, but it might just be nice to catch up with people.

Exciting experiences will come in their own time but you might also have to be proactive. When I think about exciting times in my own life, they have come from being friends with people from different places, so during my first degree a lot of my friends were from abroad, so I have ended up visiting people in different countries. It's been exciting to get to know different places and cultures. Aside from that, it's been thinking about hobbies or interests, I wanted to pursue, and pursuing them e.g. learning a new language, going to the library and getting a language book, finding places where I could learn nearby, downloading an app, watching films in the language etc...I ended up meeting people who had an interest in the same language or spoke the language, so that opened up more possibilities. Perhaps you can start to pursue a particular interest you have, for e.g. think about where you would like to travel to, start learning the language, see if there is a society at your uni that is connected with that country or language and get involved with some of the events or socials. They might even be able to help you plan for a trip there next summer!

The boring times are times to rest and prepare.

All the best,

Oluwatosin – 2nd year student – University of Huddersfield

Do you live near any other society member who could go along with you? Might be worth asking.

WICSoc sounds great - best of luck with it.

And why not start an art society? Post around on social media asking who would like to join one, get your SU to support you. Then zoom call your first few meetings, plan an exhibition, see where it develops from there.