Four Ways You Can Stay Productive This August
“Productivity?” I hear you say. “But isn’t it summer?”
Many of you reading this have just completed a challenging year of online learning, with the pressure of exams and assignments hopefully now a distant memory of last academic year. So, reading a blog post which encourages you to be productive might be the opposite of what you want to do.
But I’m here to tell you that productivity and relaxation don’t need to oppose each other. I think of productivity as a spectrum; the word can represent many different states. Productivity can be as simple as reorganising your folders, as intense as following a study schedule or anything in between.
I’ve compiled a list below of five tasks which you can do this August to stay productive, whether that be to combat some summer boredom or to get ready for the incoming academic year.
- View your reading lists and buy any recommended texts
Have a look online at the modules you are taking, and see if you need to purchase any required texts for them. From my experience of first year, most of the texts were available as PDFs, although a select few were required to be purchased as real books. Remember to check out if a specific edition is required, and see if any second-hand book retailers stock it before paying full-price. Some great places to look for cheaper textbooks/books include World of Books (www.worldofbooks.com), Depop and eBay.
The biggest note of all for this tip: make sure that the webpage has been updated for this year’s course – some module pages might not be updated until later on the summer, and required books may change from year to year. Definitely wait until it is clear that the page has been updated for this year’s course, to ensure you don’t buy the wrong texts.
2) Update or create your CV and LinkedIn
If you don’t have a CV or LinkedIn, creating one this August is a great way of consolidating all of your experience into one place. It can be overwhelming to create a CV or LinkedIn in one sitting, so working on it in chunks can help to manage this. Websites such as resume.io are great tools for creating CV’s and cover letters too.
If you already have a LinkedIn or CV, now could be the time to go through it, change the way you have worded particular phrases, add in any new experiences and perhaps even get a family member or friend to check over it.
3) Clear out the clutter on your laptop or computer
If you use a laptop or computer to study, you might have an excessive amount of folders or random documents floating on your desktop. Now is the time to reorganise them all; sort documents into folders, group old folders together into one larger folder to store and delete any documents that you no longer need.
4) Deepen your interests (or your intrigues!)
Summer is a great time to find out more about the things you’re interested in; whether they be academic or extra-curricular. Equally, the summer months give you the opportunity to try out things which you might be intrigued in too – they could be completely unrelated to your studies. Below are some places to get started:
Springpod – A careers platform which offers virtual work experiences from a variety of industries to 14-19 year olds. Current virtual work experiences which are open to applications include Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Colas. I have started a two-week virtual work experience in Journalism this month, and I am looking especially forward to the live webinars with real-world industry professionals.
Upwork – A platform which connects businesses with freelancers of many different creative sectors. This is a great opportunity to carry out paid work professionally for clients and to develop your portfolio.
The list above will hopefully help you ease back into (or start!) university life this September. Think of them as short, preparatory tasks that will allow you to focus on larger things once university starts. Having said this, don’t undervalue the importance of truly having a well-deserved rest this summer. Don’t feel as though you have to be ‘productive’ every single day – do what makes you feel comfortable and above all, enjoy your summer!
