The life of a student is a very busy and fast one. Often thinking about exams, projects and to keep up to date with everything. But one thing is for sure, we can’t just study, eat and sleep, we need those extra activities that keep ourselves sane and active. Call it walking, sport, cooking, books, we all have our thing.
Sometimes hobbies are just activities we do once in a while to relax, but for others (like in my case), hobbies are very important and something that not only requires time, but also studying and practice. Sometimes it's hard even to decide and prioritize which activity should we focus on.
Of course, there are different kinds of hobbies. Those simple ones that help to relax and rest... and those which require more time and effort. For me, my hobby is music; it is simply what I love: playing it, learning music theory and music production. All of this while studying mechanical engineering at the university.
Yes, as you can imagine, it is a challenge to manage the time schedule (considering, that, we humans need to sleep). And you may be asking, “Then why don’t you simply relax a little with the music?”. Well, the truth is that I would like to have always the music there as a plan B for my life, maybe even the plan A if the opportunity comes, I consider these the best kind of hobbies, the ones that could also give you something back, or that can prepare you for something.
With time and some help, I’m starting to get the hang of it, and I would like to share with you some tips that could help you as they have helped me:
Make a list of your priorities.
Make a list of all your activities, order them and visibly organize them.
Make a weekly schedule.
Once you know what is more important to you, what can wait or be done after, make a schedule. Give more time to the most important things. It is also helpful mentally not doing the same activities every day. Try to organize it in a way it feels a little different every day, different activities in different days, changing the order in how you do them. It prevents feeling trapped in the routine, this is a must-try!
Avoid social media before 17h (5pm).
We all have more time than we think, but social media and similar activities, take a lot of time in our day, just adding those 5 minutes you spent scrolling up and down on Instagram, or those 10 stalking persons... after adding them all, it turns out we spend hours there, which is not bad, as long as we do it consciously and not interrupting important or necessary activities!
Don’t forget about the time to relax!
Time to relax and maybe do nothing, is indeed necessary (and deserved) after a tiring week, it is not wasted time if you plan it! Overdoing always ends up bad.
And overall, don’t forget to enjoy! Whatever you do, if it makes you happy and gives you peace, is worth doing.