TGIF - who doesn’t love the weekend?
Weekends at uni can be shockingly quiet sometimes as everyone recovers from their exhausting weeks of study, sports, and socialising, but they can also be a really good time to get out and see friends, go adventuring either in your university town or beyond its borders or try your hand at something new. For me, weekends at uni are never too quiet between studying and staying in touch with friends.
Whilst remembering that you need to (at least a bit) study on the weekends, today’s article is for my people who love a good weekend and will take any opportunity to not feel like their whole life revolves around university and studying. From getting out with friends, to going for that run you’ve been procrastinating or getting to a gym class, I’m here to discuss the best things I do with my weekends at uni.
WEEKEND SOCIALISING
Obviously, if you’ve had a busy week and no time to catch up with your friends, getting out to socialise on the weekend is a no-brainer. But, this can come in many different formats depending on the weather, how much time you’re willing to spend out of the house (instead of asleep) and what you actually want to do. For some, socialising on the weekend looks like getting out on a Friday night and releasing all of the week’s stress. For others, it may look like getting up early (ish) on a Saturday morning and going to grab coffee and go for a walk in the park with a friend. Either way, making sure you get out and see people on the weekends after a long week is crucial to make sure you maintain a healthy work-life balance and don’t feel bogged down by uni (otherwise you’ll lose all motivation for it!)
EXERCISE
There are all manner of excuses that one can make in order to avoid exercising, but at the end of the day, we all know it’s true that it makes you feel that much better about yourself and can really set you up for a good day or week ahead. I personally love getting out for a morning run on the weekends and a really easy way to do this (that’s organised for you) is to get involved in your local parkrun. Held every Saturday morning like clockwork, parkrun is a great opportunity to get out for a walk, run or just to support your friends if they’re running and can easily become an opportunity to socialise too! Alternatively, if you want some peace and quiet on your morning run, then definitely avoid the park on a Saturday morning. Not a runner? Then get to the gym and maybe even get involved in a spin, yoga or pilates class to start your day.
CLEANING
This could quite possibly be my most boring piece of advice ever, but cleaning your room on the weekends is an absolute must for me (and many of my friends). Having a clean space to come home to during the week, fresh sheets and clean laundry is more valuable than you likely realise, purely because you might not have been the one cleaning the house growing up and so took it for granted. Keeping your space clean and not smelling like the bolognese you ate last Friday will ensure that you always feel comfortable spending time in your room, whether that be studying or just relaxing after a long day at uni.
SLEEPING
I swear I’m more attached to my sleep as a uni student than I’ve ever been in my life before. Between late-night sports training, nights out and getting up early (well, earlier than I want to) for lectures, I’d argue that quality sleep is the most valuable commodity at university. Notice I said quality sleep, essentially, not that nap you had on your desk in the library after pulling an all-nighter for an assignment. Catching up on sleep on the weekends can be a sure way to make sure you don’t fall too far behind on sleep and go into every week feeling refreshed (at least a bit more alive) and ready to take on whatever comes your way during the week.
MEAL PREP
This is an important one! Having meal prep organised for the week is an absolute lifesaver when you have to run out the door for something in the morning, will be gone all day, and don’t have time to make lunch before you go or for when you’re in the door at 5pm after a long day and back out 30 minutes later for sport and definitely don’t have time to cook that pasta recipe your mum left you. This is where meal prep will save you, every single time. Obviously, freezer space at uni is limited so being aware of not taking too much away from your flatmates is important, but there should definitely be some space for you to meal prep at least 2 or 3 meals, and you should have some space in the fridge too (please note, if all your space in the freezer is taken up by ice cream then carry on, I can’t fault you). My favourite thing to meal prep is definitely bolognese sauce because it doesn’t take a ridiculously long time to make, keeps in the fridge well for during the week and freezes well for when you need an emergency. All you have to do is defrost it and cook some pasta (which is the easiest thing ever, I promise) and you’ve got a meal in 10 minutes. This recipe is my go-to but any recipe you can find on the internet will work, just don’t choose a super complicated one! I’ll also be including some of my favourite meal prep recipes in the next Friday Five newsletter, so make sure you’re signed up to receive it!
GO FOR A WEEKEND ADVENTURE
These can massively vary depending on the budget you have, whether you’re alone or with friends and whether you have a car - but there’s definitely something for everyone. Why not go visit a friend from school at their university and go on an adventure around their uni town? Or alternatively, plan a weekend away with your friends from uni to get out of your uni town and go adventuring somewhere new. More of a homebody like me? Do a quick Google and see what you can find to do in and around your own uni town - I guarantee you’ll have missed something on the tour you did when you were first looking around, and this is your opportunity to go see/do that thing!
CATCHING UP ON STUDY
My final (and most obvious) way to spend some time during your weekends is to catch up on studying that you’re a touch behind on. Nobody wants to go into a new week with work hanging over them from the week before, so taking some time on your weekend to tie up any loose ends from the week and make sure you’re ready to go for the new week can be a really good use of your time. Even if you’re not feeling behind, if you’re not ahead - you’re behind… So do some work anyway! It’s good to keep your mind turning over and not completely turned off, otherwise come Monday and it’ll take that much more work to get your brain going again. I’ll be releasing a members article later this month with my favourite techniques + apps to stay on top of my (slightly bigger) 2nd-year workload, so keep an eye out for that!
Hopefully, today’s article has given you some inspiration for ways you might want to spend some weekends at uni! As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments below or get in touch through our contact page.
To the freshers, I hope your first few weeks of uni are going well and that you’re settling in, and to the second/third/fourth/fifth (you get the idea) years, hopefully your workload hasn’t caught you too much off guard and you’re settling back in for another busy year!
Have a great week - we’ll be back next Tuesday with the next instalment of our societies series. Keep refining.
Mia