However much you might try to think you make the best use of your time, I’m sure that there’s always some time during the day when you sit there not quite getting on with your work but pretending that you are. As a particularly keen procrastinator, especially when I find the work difficult, here are some of the ways I’ve managed to get through tough revision periods avoiding procrastination.
Make a timetable with not more than 45 to 90 mins revision sessions at a time. Don’t just write down what subject or module you will be studying, include key details of what particular topic, or which past paper you will do in this time. By micromanaging your time and breaking things down, you will feel more motivated to work as you know exactly what you need to achieve in that time period.
Take regular productive breaks such as cooking, (writing blog posts), tidying up or doing household chores, going for a run or walk, listening to music, or watching something, as long as it’s a particular episode or movie you have chosen and only watch that (not binging!!!). In the evening when you’re feeling exhausted taking a quick shower or bath can also be the perfect respite. Of course once you’ve finished all your work for the day, then feel free to watch those couple extra episodes you know you want to watch!
Stay healthy, both mentally and physically. Make sure to get some fresh air everyday, a short walk in your local park or even to the supermarket will leave you feeling refreshed and energised. In addition try to do some other exercise for 2 hours a week, either playing a sporting, going for a run, or even taking a longer walk. Make sure to eat a well balanced diet with not too much self-pity midnight chocolate. Try snacking on frozen grapes, carrot sticks and nuts during the day. Be adventurous and try cooking some meals from scratch, this will also provide some relief from work.
Separate the space you use for work from where you relax. For example only revise at your desk and then chill in the kitchen and watch Netflix on your bed. This will reinforce your brain for when it’s time to work and when it’s time to relax, so that when you do sit down to start your work for the day you won’t feel like doing anything else and so will get on with your work quickly.
If you’re stuck, ask for help! Otherwise you will just be left at the same point not knowing how to move forward. Normally your friends on your course or in your classes will be very willing to help you as they know you would return the favour. Also make use of your perusal tutor and lecturers when you get the chance in tutorials and lectures respectively. Getting a correct explanation for something you are stuck on can really set you on the right track to much more productive revision.
Now this one is a favourite of mine. Bribe yourself with treats. There are two ways this can be done, the first is short term goals where for example you could eat a treat of some kind, maybe a skittle or a smartie for every page you finish or maybe a biscuit for every chapter you finish. On a slightly longer term you could have a nice treat lined up for the end of a long day of work, such as meeting a friend, watching a movie or buying something but make sure you finish all your work before this treat. Having something nice as a reward for work is a positive way to motivate yourself. Having a long term treat for the end of the day also sets a time goal on your work making sure you get it done without too many distractions.
(I won’t lie and will admit that I wrote this blog post when I really should have been revising mechanics, but we’ll call this positive procrastination as at least there is some useful outcome!)
Thursday was Time to Talk Day 2018, a chance for us to speak openly about mental health, something that doesn’t happen as much as it should. There is a certain stigma associated with mental health, however when 1/4 people are affected by mental illness each year, it really is time to stamp out the sigma and talk about mental health. Following on from Paula’s post about what to do if you are worried about a friend’s mental health, I thought I would share some first hands tips of how to stay mentally healthy in a university environment and what to do if you feel that you are suffering in any way. In this post I will mainly be referring to stress, anxiety and depression as these most commonly affect students.
Noticing the signs in yourself: Signs that things might not be going well, and that you may be suffering from mental illness, can include feeling down, unable to enjoy yourself, constantly anxious, irritable, and oversensitive. There could also be more physical symptoms such as over/under eating, struggling to fall asleep or get out of bed in the morning, exhaustion or restlessness, panic attacks amongst many others. These might be accompanied by constant negative, and even suicidal, thoughts fluttering in your head and a general feeling of being dragged down or trapped.
Talk to someone: On average, someone suffering from mental health issues won’t tell even their closest friends and family for over a year. Although talking to someone can feel like one of the most difficult things to do, it can really help because it allows you to consolidate your thoughts and emotions. Honestly, don’t be nervous about how you will be perceived or whether this will change how someone treats you because if they do change the way they act around you, it’s only because they don’t understand. Talking to them about what you’re going through will remind you that you are not alone in this and that you do have support, while explaining how you feel will also help those around you to understand what, why, and how you are feeling and what they can do to help, even if it’s just keeping an extra eye out for you. Letting someone know that you’re not okay can actually be such a big relief as you won’t have to hide how you are feeling from that person, you can just be yourself with them.
Routine: Having a set routine that keeps you busy can be really helpful as it will leave less time for your mind to idle, which is often when negative thoughts can take over leading to low mood and anxiety. Going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day sets your body clock, allowing you to feel slightly less tired during the day. Make sure to take plenty of breaks from work, cook healthy food, and take part in at least two hours of exercise a week. Even a short walk around the block in the evenings helps to clear your mind or participating in a sport that involves some competition and teamwork is a great distraction from work and everything else going on. Make sure to keep some time aside for yourself, where you can be alone and reflect on events.
Thought journal: Keeping a thought journal allows you to not only track your mood over a period of time, but also to have a space to express exactly how you feel without judgement. It’s somewhere you can just write for you and can really help to get things out of your mind. Writing down some of your happy memories is also great as then when times get rough, you have something to look back on that reminds you of a better time and can sometimes cheer you up.
Contact your GP or the university counselling service: If things get too bad or you find that you are unable to continue with daily tasks or are harming yourself in any way then contact your GP, the Imperial College Health Centre or Imperial College Counselling without hesitation. Asking for help can seem daunting however I can guarantee that after seeing a professional, and being offered the right sort of therapy or counselling, you will definitely learn how to cope better.
In an emergency: Here are some places you can get immediate help if you find yourself affected by mental illness at any time:
If you or someone else is immediate danger contact 999
The Samaritans 24/7: National Helpline: 116 123, local number 020 7734 2800
In an emergency Chelsea and Westminster Hospital A&E that has psychiatric provision
West London Mental Health trust helpline 0300 1234 244
Some other more specific helplines can be found here
So whatever you do, make sure you are looking after your mental health and most of all, don’t be afraid to talk about it.
Mental health and university… recently I feel like I’m discussing this problem every single day. As a student representative I communicate this issue to colleagues, staff members, university support systems, external panels etc. I also wrote about mental and PhD – even if you’re not a PhD student, have a read, it might apply to you as well.
However, not everyone is talking about it. Some aren’t aware that this issue is important, some don’t care and many just are afraid or don’t know how to offer support to someone who might struggle. Tomorrow is a great opportunity to give it a try – Time to Talk Day 2018. It was initiated by Time to Change, a group of people who want to fight the mental health stigma. And on 1 February 2018 we’re especially encouraged to… talk. Just talk. But how?
Imagine that you are worried about someone around you. Maybe your friend started to avoid social situations? Maybe your classmate stopped attending classes? Maybe your sister doesn’t smile anymore? Or your brother smiles too much? Maybe the boy who sits in the last row and whose name you don’t even remember lost a lot of weight? These are all warning signs that shouldn’t been ignored.
You might think that it’s none of your business. That if your approach this person, she or he will just ask you to leave them alone. That’s certainly a possibility and you must be prepered for that. However, it IS your business. Surprisingly many people see these warning signs but decide to ignore them completely. Until someone finally reacts – or it’s too late.
Ok, but what exactly should you do?
First, make sure you’re alone with this person. Don’t start talking about difficult issues when there are other people around – it might be too embarassing. If you don’t know the person, just find some excuse to stay alone with them for a moment; this shouldn’t be too difficult, especially if you study together.
When you’re both in a comfortable, quiet place, you might say something like: “Recently I’ve noticed that… and this worries me a bit. Of course I might be wrong and everything is ok, but I just wanted to make sure. I’m here for you in case you’d like to talk at some point.”
And that’s it. If they don’t want to talk, accept it. If they say you’re wrong, that everything’s ok, don’t push them. In case you’re still worried, mention it to your personal tutor or a person responsible for student welfare in your department.
However, if they decide to open up, listen. It’s ok not to understand, mental illnesses aren’t easy to grasp – and nobody expects you to. Feel free to ask questions, but respect their privacy. If they don’t want to answer, then don’t pressure then. Also don’t feel that you need to “solve the problem”. It’s not your job! The most important thing is that the issue was acknowledged, they feel there’s someone they can talk to, but now it’s their turn – they need to reach out for professional help.
You won’t save the world. You probably won’t even save this particular person (if there’s really something wrong, not everyone needs to be “saved”, please remember that!). However, you might really change their life.
All sounds cheesy and unrealistic? Well, it happened to me. A long time ago I struggled myself and someone who I barely knew came and asked if everything was ok. I laughed their question off (so, again, be prepared that this might happen – it’s not easy to admit that you have a problem), but they made me think. In the end I reached out for help, which saved my life.
Let’s face it: doing a PhD isn’t always rainbows and unicorns. The process can be painful and annoying, and at some point you’re probably going to get completely stuck. If you’ve ever done any research, you definitely know what I’m talking about.
There’s something you need to do, usually some task that was supposed to be easy – a toy example, an almost standard code, a “quick” experiment to check your hypothesis. And here you are, spending long hours, days, weeks, even months, not even closer to solving your problem. You’ve tried everything, used all possible sources you could find, but this devil isn’t giving up.
Hm, you guessed, it’s happening to me right now. To give you an idea of how it feels, let’s take a look at some stages of stuckness as described by psychologists. Well, not quite, these are the stages of grieving after a breakup, but it actually works. Let me walk you through the stages of being stuck in research. If you happen to be going through this process, some cuteness won’t hurt, so enjoy the pictures.
1. Desperate for Answers.
In the beginning you’re looking for answers.
In the beginning you just want to know – how to solve the equation, why your experiments give such results etc. You work hard trying different methods.
2. Denial.
You can’t believe that you haven’t solved this “easy problem” yet. I mean, it can’t be that complicated, right? You’re sure the answer is so close, just waiting there for you.
Denial: “A problem? There’s no problem!”.
3. Bargaining.
Hm, maybe you don’t really have to do that? There are many directions in which your research could go, why can’t you just pretend that this issue doesn’t exist and move on? Or even try to swipe the problem under the carpet, nobody will notice, right?
4. Relapse.
You might actually persuade yourself (and your supervisor) that the problem isn’t worth pursuing. However, the issue will come back soon, I promise. A very similar problem will appear in another example you’ll try to tackle.
5. Anger.
AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH, bloody gamma functions, why are you doing this to me, whyyyyyyy?!?!?!?! (I think I’m going through this stage right now).
Being stuck might make you angry and that’s ok.
6. Initial Acceptance.
You accept that the problem needs to be solved, but it might be too difficult to tackle alone. You start reaching out for help and admitting: “I have no idea”.
7. Redirected Hope.
Hey, maybe you won’t be able to solve the problem alone, but there’s somebody somewhere in the world working on something similar who would be interested in joining forces? Or maybe you could tackle an even smaller subproblem? Maybe there is some light in the end of this tunnel?
I’m sure all PhD students have had similar feelings, just not everybody talks about it. Remember: no pain, no gain. You can do that!
It’s not a secret that grad school might be dangerous for mental health. In recent years people started to talk about it openly, numerous studies on this topic have been done (eg. on suicides or depression). The awareness of mental health is rising, which definitely makes it easier to get help when needed. However, this isn’t the full story.
A few years ago I started to consider a possiblity of pursuing a PhD. So I googled around – big mistake. Phrases such as “grad school mental health” returned thousands of websites suggesting that the coming years will be filled with pain and tears. Basically, in the best case scenario I’d quit before obtaining my degree; in the worst, I’d commit suicide. Not the most optimistic view. I decided to give it a try anyway, but I’m sure many potential students resigned from their dreams, worried about their future.
But the reality isn’t so dark. In fact, my experience with grad school is completely opposite. I started my PhD course struggling with a serious mental illness, so if Google was right, I should have gone completely downhill. However, pursuing a PhD at Imperial was a major factor in my recovery. And I’m sure that everyone can have such a positive experience – but that requires some effort. Here’s what I learned during my time at Imperial.
Last year I took part in the musical with our Musical Theatre Society. So much fun!
PhD is NOT your life. Research requires a lot of time and energy, but spending all days and nights in front of the laptop/in the lab is a straight path to mental problems. Remember the famous “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? Our brains have limited thinking abilities (at least mine does), so after long hours of trying to prove the same bloody inequality or debugging the code you might be better off going for a walk with a friend or rehearsing a play with your favourite society than trying to understand a difficult paper. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Speaking of societies, make sure you have a hobby. A non-academic hobby, within a society or on your own, as long as you truly enjoy it. For example, when research is too much to handle, I go to Blyth Centre in Blackett and play piano. Or go for a run. Or call a friend. Chances are that after I return to work, I’ll get a new idea.
But if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world. In fact, more often than not I don’t know what I’m doing – or my supervisor shows me that I had absolutely no clue, even though I was so proud of my “achievement”.
PhD is a constant failure.Which doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. Research is all about trying a thousand of things that don’t work only to succeed for the thousand first time. That’s why it’s crucial to have something outside of academia, so that we don’t base our value on our results. If I did, I would seriously feel like the most stupid person in the world, because whatever I try, it fails – until it doesn’t. By the way, these moments when we actually manage to fix this annoying bug in the code are worth all the struggles. Seriously.
Nutrition (pizza!) and friends – a recipe for happiness in the maths department
Ok, so you know now how important free time is. How do you spend yours? Playing computer games? Watching Netflix? Fine, as long as you make sure to spend some time with friends and family. PhD can be a very solitary job, especially in subjects such as maths, where we don’t even need to leave our bed (no labs needed). No matter how introvert you are, you need people as well. You need to talk to someone, laugh with someone, cry with someone. For this reason I strongly recommend to work in the office, even if you technically don’t need to. But my office mates make my days brighter, it’s great to know that someone sitting next to me is going through the same thing, struggling as well, but not giving up. And that it’s only one hour till noon when we’ll go and get lunch together, exchange the lastest gossip and let our brains rest for a few minutes.
Ah, lunch, I almost forgot about another important thing – take care of your body. It’s easy to forget about nutrition, sleep or exercise. I definitely don’t mean eating salads, going to bed at 9 pm and hitting the gym every day, because it’s just another way of putting a pressure on yourself. Eat whatever makes you happy, sleep when you’re tired and move when it feels good – just don’t forget to do that, no matter how much work you have to do. We’re not just brains, we’re human beings.
And when things get hard, ask for help. Yes, it’s difficult to say “I’m struggling, could we talk?” – but that’s the only way out. THE ONLY WAY. Talk to a friend, a family member, your supervisor (yes, they care about you as a person, not only about your results – at least they should) or a professional (remember about free counselling services at Imperial). You’d be surprised how much a single conversation can change your life.
Pursuing a PhD can be a great challenge for your mental health – but it can also a great experience that will help you thrive. PhD doesn’t need to mean “Patiently headed Downhill”. It can turn into “Perfectly happy Days”. It’s all up to you.
In some ways I have an advantage as in addition to my Asperger Syndrome diagnosis I have a long history of anxiety and depression going right back to my early teens so am already equipped for dealing with mental health difficulties. Here is what I have found:
Hi. 🙂 This is me (finally) following up on mentioning that I was stressed and depressed in second term this year. I am not anymore!
A period when you feel like you can’t quite cope with things (or perhaps a rather more extreme version of that feeling) seems to be common at university, so I thought I would share with you what helped me when I was in a similar situation and might help you prevent some sadness.
Firstly though, two things:
1) You might be thinking: ‘lol stressed?! Why would I be stressed at uni? No parents, lots of friends and activities and university is all about having fun.’
I agree with you— but I think you should still read this. Before university, and indeed before last year, it never crossed my mind that I would be having any difficulties. If I had been in some sense prepared that I might have these feelings I don’t think they would have worried me half as much. Even if you are that wonder-person who sails through everything (and good for you!) periods of not-so-great mental health are so common among students and indeed people in general that it is always helpful to consider how people around you may be feeling.
2) You might also think eee ‘mental health’ sounds kind of serious—I might get a bit stressed around exams but I’m not mentally ill and certainly labelling myself as such won’t make me feel any better.
I agree with you too, but as my tutor said, if things you are thinking or feeling are stopping you doing the things you want to do (e.g. you feel like you can’t go out with your friends because you are feeling too low, or you feel like you can’t cope with work or a deadline) then you should do something about it.
I am going to split the rest of this blog into two parts (it is a very numbered-list-style type blog for hopeful ease of reading), the first for if you already feel stress and anxiety and the second for pre-empting these scary feelings.
Section one
If you are already stressed/depressed/anxious:
1) Remember these are incredibly common feelings. Some surveys suggest that as many as one in four people have some level of mental health problem over just one year.
Another survey indicates that up to one in ten students report suicidal feelings (I’m sure you can all think for yourselves why these numbers might be higher or lower due to survey bias or people not being honest).
The point to take away from this is that even if your situation feels like it will never improve, a quarter of students don’t drop out of university every year and ten percent certainly don’t commit suicide.
Just because you have unpleasant or unwell thoughts doesn’t mean that they are an intrinsic part of you. People get happier, and things get better in the vast majority of cases—it’s just statistics.
2) Buy ‘The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook’ by Edmund J. Bourne. This was recommended to me and it is brilliant! I haven’t really investigated the field of other self-help type books, but this covers all bases from what symptoms of anxiety disorders are to why you might have them and what you can do about it.
Again, you might think ‘But I don’t want to label myself as having anxiety problems or phobias!’ but just stick a label over the title and read it anyway. It does talk as if diagnosing you a little, but only so that you can be directed to the chapters that best help you. Like you might assume from this type of book, it sometimes states the obvious but is generally very helpful and comprehensive. (It is also quite interesting, just from a ‘oh so that’s how I think/ why I think these things’ point of view.)
I recently read it again for a friend which was also great as it meant I could offer some actual constructive help rather than just sympathy.
3) Take half an hour out of each day to do something to actively de-stress you. This could be writing or reading or walking or killing as many virtual people as you feel the need for. It sounds obvious, but certainly wasn’t something I was doing at the time!
This is what my tutor recommended and it worked really well for me. It can be difficult in a time of high pressure to do this, but really you work so much better and more efficiently when you are not stressed it is completely worth it. Letting feelings of stress and anxiety—even from small things—build up in you can lead to you wasting far, far more than just half an hour a day.
4) Talk to people! It can be hard to feel like you are a burden on your friends or family and frankly a bit embarrassing to be ‘needy’, but you will be much more of a real problem to those close to you if you let things get worse and worse. Everyone needs help sometimes!
If you feel like you can’t talk to your family or friends student counselling might be another option—from what I understand it is literally just a space to talk about your worries.
Your university tutor is also a perfect place to go—mine was so helpful once I finally got up the courage to mention it to him, but I understand many people’s may not be so approachable.
If the thought of all that completely unnerves you, I find that writing down what you are thinking can sometimes almost have the same effect.
6) Don’t believe everything you think! If you are periodically putting yourself down in your head then you may start to believe that you are not really worth much. This is obviously very counterproductive to being happy.
The one thing I found most useful for controlling periods of sadness was to start to notice when I was being mean to myself by thinking these negative thoughts and stopping to write them down.
The idea is then to come back to them and logically question them like a good little Socrates. Are they always true? Are you being too hard on yourself? What evidence is there to support this negative belief about myself I am holding? And so on.
There is a lot more on this technique in the book I recommended above by the way, but I’m sure it is all online too (if you search ‘countering negative self-talk’ or something like that)—here is the first link I found and scanned that seemed to be pretty good.
7) Consider visiting a doctor.
I did not find it useful, but I think it depends what kind of treatments you are thinking about. I was just asked to fill in a very depressing survey about how I was feeling and acting and then recommended student counselling or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (which apparently has a very long waiting list in London). However, if you think some sort of medication may be beneficial for you, this is obviously the right way to go about it (and if you are prepared to wait for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or are somewhere without a waiting list, I bet it is really interesting!)
Again, ‘therapy’ can sound a bit OTT but from what I’ve read it’s all pretty simple stuff really, the kind of thing you could be taught in school or take an evening class on.
8) Try not to worry if you aren’t sleeping well (or at all). This is a hard one, which I definitely didn’t listen to myself. After a few weeks of Mondays with no sleep the night before however, I realised that it was almost entirely my worry about lack of sleep making me feel bad and not actually the lack of sleep. My body didn’t seem to mind too much at all.
The Doctor I saw advised me against sleeping pills, saying that they did not produce the best quality of sleep, but that obviously depends on your circumstances. Trying relaxation techniques before bed can also help you sleep.
9) Imagine what you would say to a friend having the same problems as you.
Chances are, with a bit of outside perspective you would tell them that everything will turn out OK—that this is just a bit of a blip and that your problems are not insurmountable. Why should you tell yourself any different?
10) If you are at Imperial, consider signing up to the exam performance workshop. This is not for people who have actual exam stress i.e. they blank out in exams, but is mean to be an introduction to how to cope with feelings of depression and anxiety.
I went last term and didn’t find it particularly useful, but most of the material it covered was in the book I have already mentioned. It could be a way to ask questions to someone friendly or get a bit more information about methods to keep calm. It was also nice just to sign up, to feel like I was doing something active towards feeling better.
Section Two
Preventing stress:
1) Take care of yourself! By the time you get to university you’ve probably already been doing exams for four years. If you have been stressed about some of those, then university exams are also going to be stressful at times. Between all the partying, societies, work and dubious student cooking you can leave little time to do whatever else you need to do, be it keeping in contact with friends from home, sleeping, or playing The Sims.
2) Take a note of how you speak inwardly to yourself. If you are often putting yourself down, comparing yourself to others negatively etc etc, this could build up to an unpleasant level in your head. See point six above about negative self-talk. It can become an instinctive reaction. Don’t let it!
3) Learn to relax properly. Even when you sleep, if you haven’t given yourself permission to properly let go, you won’t. Some examples of relaxation techniques are deep breathing exercises, mediation, learning to relax your whole body and mindfulness. It might sound a bit hippyish and you might feel like an idiot doing it, but it can work!
4) Talk to people early on about any sources of stress you have when they are still small worries.
5) Try not to worry about being behind on work! Everyone is! Also if anyone gets anything constructive out of doing problem sheets the first time round then they are a better student than me. I always seem to get my first inkling of a subject what feels like half an hour before the exam, and it’s worked out well for me so far (insert superstitious action here).
University is about having fun, and it is fun! My first year at university was the best year ever (ever ever), and the second was still pretty good, despite my stress. Some of these tips above might seem overly simplistic or a make you feel a bit stupid (no-one can look cool and be timing ten minutes of deep breaths) but being happy is really a simple thing.
The one thing I always try to remember when I am caught-up in the confusion of my own scattered mind is how easy it is to simply forget that it is you that gets to decide how you react to a situation.
When I was little (well not that little) I used to dread binomial expansions (you know like (5x + 4)^6 or whatever) because I knew that I would always get panicked about how long it took to get all the numbers you had to write out and I would always always always always get a bit of it wrong in the end, no matter how simple the question.
Then one day my Aunty Lizzy (who is a maths teacher) was helping me with a question that involved one. I was sat there thinking ‘oh god here it comes, this will take ages’ but she just wrote out Pascal’s triangle neatly and then proceeded to do the expansion, working out and filling in each number calmly. I realise this is very stupid of me, but this was an actual revelation. It genuinely blew my tiny little mind.
Until that point I simply hasn’t realised that it was even possible to do a binomial expansion without panicking and getting it wrong. It had never occurred to me that there was another way to react to them!
Of course, this is rather more difficult to apply to more actually scary things then a maths problem, but it feels to me like the exact same mental stumbling point.
So, if I could loan out my Aunty Liz to everyone so they could witness her doing her supremely calm binomial expansion I would. Since I can’t, I hope some of these points can help! 😛
If you need to speak urgently to someone, or want more information about mental health check out the links below:
And lastly, all I have left over now from a period where I didn’t think things would ever get any better are some cheerful cards from my family, a little smiley-faced squeezy ball that my brother got me, and hopefully a list of things that may help some other people. Positives can come out of even the worst experiences.
Also look what came through the post today!
It’s only my british science festival programme!!!
And (as if I even need to mention) we are in orbit around a comet for the first time in history! Best few days ever!
