Diary of college life II

Missed the part I? 

Every week a different problem, in the hope to find a sooo needed balance between all the things going on!

Today I'll write about balancing an exercise schedule with extremely demanding classes.

Exercising your wrist writing paper shouldn't be your only workout!

That's though, I know. Finding the time for working out while you have to go to classes until 6 p.m. and then you have a huge quantity of papers to write or assignments to make (and then you have a life, read: hanging out with friends) is not easy, at all. It's more easy to just let the working out slip at the end of the list of things you'd like to do in your spare time (if you're so lucky to have some!). But they told "Mens sana in corpore sano" and, at the end, no one want to become a bookworm.

So, I'd like to share some tips with you to find a balance; some of them are direct experience and well tested, others are still in the work in progress phase, but I know they are good for me (and you too!)

1. All Counts : If you live in a small city or in a campus where your classes are scattered all over, consider walking from one class to another as part of your workout. You're moving your legs, by the way. If you begin to consider this a section of the exercising of the day, you won't be too frustrated at the end of the day if you couldn't do nothing else!

2. The elliptical machine will be your new best friend : it's deadly boring, so why don't maximizing your time and studying or revising while ellipticating? The time really fly away and you could do 60 minutes  workout and be ready for the tomorrow test all at once!

3. Less is more : squeeze in mini workout through the day, do some yoga in the morning and before going to bed, lift some weight between commercials while watching TV, do chores... all counts, remember?

4. Walk! I don't usually do this, but my boyfriend walk while repeating aloud lessons all the time. Although he doesn't do this for exercising related reasons, this could be a great way for moving a little.

5. Take a pause. One week before finals I don't exercise at all (read I don't go to the gym or to run, I continue to walk however!). I know this could sound like a blasphemy to most, but in my opinion, lose a week of exercises is a lot better than fail an exam because you needed to go to the gym every day for one hour! Giving your body a rest from the gym or hard workouts while your mind is so busy for studying it doesn't sound a bad idea to me! 

And after the exam? 

Just go for a nice run, what a better thing to relieve all the accumulated stress? (except celebrate with friends, but that's another deal =)

***

I'd really like to read your strategies and tips, pointing out that waking up at 5.45 a.m. (or even 7 a.m., for that matters) for a workout is not an option in my case =)

Diary of college life I

This week I started the second semester of my last year of college, after my exchange with Belgium. I didn't expected that it would have been so hard to re-start all the things again (classes, assignments and so on). I literally felt so overwhelmed by the things that needed to be done, studied (already in the first week!), all the documents that I had to fill after the exchange, the hardest classes that I've ever followed, a thesis to write... To not mention the fact that, living alone, I needed to deal with all the housekeeping related things, and I had so little time to do the things that I love (photography, cooking, running, sleeping...).  All this is driving me crazy!!

So I thought it could have been a nice stress-reliever to share my worries and experience (and some tips too!) on the blog. Every week a different problem, in the hope to find a sooo needed balance between all the things going on!

Dilemma #1

I graduated, and now?

Well, I didn't graduated yet, but I couldn't help but wonder what to do after that day. Apply for a Master abroad? Find a job? Take an year off to pursue my newly born passion for photography and cooking? The options are quite (and frightening) unlimited.

After a lot of thinking and talking with anyone able to give me an advice (note to self: too much different advices are definitely not good for clear your thinking!), I came up with this, a mix of personal ideas and tips in the hope to clear my mind and, maybe, to help some of you too!

1. Do what you like. Seriously. 

The problem? 

You don't know how do you like to do (or better you don't think that it could be a job). 

( Solution at the point 2)

2. Do what you liked to do when you was a child. Sure, your abilities and ideas change over time, but why the hell I want to do a Master in Mathematics if I've never been that good with numbers, and I didn't even consider a Master in Organization and Event Management since organizing is the thing that I do better (and enjoy most, even when I was a child!)

3. Break the rules. Since I study Economics, I thought it was natural to pursue a career in this field or in Statistic. I was afraid (and still am) that changing field and therefore completely changing the way I see my future job (and myself too) meant failing. Right now I think I'll be happy even if I won't never have a Phd.

4. Don't limit yourself to do well what you are doing, but ask yourself if this is what you really want to do. I need to remind this every day. I'm really good in what I'm studying now, I got good grades and all those things, but this is not making me happy, so why is so hard to change the plan that I had in my head about my future (Master in Economics and Phd)?

So that's it, pretty messy eh?

I would really appreciate if you could tell me your point of view, experience or whatever! Either if you have the same doubts, either if you have already successfully answer the question and are now happy with your choice!