School is officially back in session. This means you and your friends’ weeks are jam-packed. Weekends may be reserved for your part-time job or study sessions now, so seeing your friends and family can become quite tricky.
Luckily, there are ways to maintain an adjusted yet equally fabulous lifestyle as a university student- you just have to try out some hacks. So without further ado, here are my tried and true social life tips for the school year.
1. SLEEP
This may sound off topic, but sleep ties into your social life in a very important way. Us students often put sleep last on our list of priorities. But in University, god knows there are a lot of things on that list of priorities. Cramming, bottomless pots of coffee, all-night parties…Between all those things, students quickly lose sleep and inevitably lose steam. Make sure you SLEEP.
If you start out the back-to-school gate with balance, the more likely you will be able to keep that balance throughout the school year. You can’t do everything. Compromise with certain things at different times. Sometimes, an all-day study sesh or an all-day nap is required. And sometimes, that girl’s day spent in bed watching Netflix is more important in the long run.
2. Combine your worlds
Who says you can’t catch up on those readings, and have a cup of coffee with some friends? Do both at once. Studying with people has been proven to be beneficial, as it can push you to work harder than if you were alone in your room. Make an event out of the study date! Set up your dining room table, bring out snacks, make a pot of coffee, put on some soft instrumental music, reserve a half hour catch up session before the studying begins, and then get to work!
3. Make a Facebook group
Create a Facebook group with all your closest friends. My groups of best girlfriends and I did this last year and it saved us during the semester. On the group, we would post silly pictures of ourselves, bullet-point style life updates to keep each other in the know, and we would coordinate girl’s nights directly from the group. Even if we didn’t necessarily see each other for a whole week, we always felt like we knew what was going on in each other’s lives.
4. Answer your messages.
I know, I know- it can get overwhelming to keep up with the emails, calls, Facebook messages, texts, and Snapchats during the day. We live a digital age, where everyone expects everyone to be attainable at all times. It’s ,important to disconnect, but it is also important to take the time to answer your friends and family. Thoughtful messages like “have a good day!” or “hope we can hang out soon!” should not be left unanswered. Someone you love was thinking of you and took the time to send you a message. During the school year, messages might happen more than in-person interactions, so don’t take that lightly. I am notorious for forgetting a text, so I have found that writing it down on a to-do list really helps. It may seem silly but hey, we’re busy, so whatever works!
5. Sometimes, you won’t have a social life
Finally, it’s important to realize that some weeks you will not have a bumping social life. And that’s ok! That is why messages, study dates, coffee breaks and power lunches sometimes have to do the trick.
You need to accept the fact that during the semester, school and your health are the number one priorities. You can then make the necessary adjustments to your lifestyle to keep in touch with everyone you love as much as possible!
So your social life during the school year won’t be like it was in July, but with these few tweaks, you may find that your friends won’t ever seem too far away.