Study Ireland – Stories & Guides from International Students

In this investigative blog, Nishant Upadhyay, a MSc in Interaction and Experience Design student at the University of Limerick, offers different perspectives in tackling the struggles of work/life balance often held by master’s students. 

Almost every day, everywhere I go, I can’t help eavesdropping the conversations among groups of students about the assignments every other person has pending. I go to the library I hear them stressed out, I go to the canteen, I see them with their laptops open while having their lunch, even before someone asks to hang out in the evening, I can read a couple of messages about being not done with the assignments hence cancelling out the plans. It has been just a month and two weeks since this session started at the university, and I can sense the happening vibe in the campus environment turning into a network of frazzled students. Those who used to go out with friends are not looking forward to the fun nights, who proactively used to plan the coming weekend trips do not think about it at all rather cancel initiatives taken by others upfront, few of us have already begun anticipating the effort required for upcoming assignments. 

With these concerning thoughts in my mind, I mentioned the events of such interactions during my conversation with Art Matthews, who is currently studying Creative Writing at UL. Upon asking if he was anxious like others about submitting his assignments on time, he shook his head in denial of this state, smilingly confirming he was quite comfortable with what he had on his plate. Astonished by the response, Intrigued I got curious to know the why and how behind that confidence. I leaned forward with excitement to know how he was handling the creative writing tasks that required him to write in abundance. 

Art shared and I quote, “You see, I begin working upon them right the day I get the brief, for my latest assignment I was done 20 percent by the next day. I don’t wait for the deadline to push me, instead work on them gradually and leave the submission day just for a quick review before sending it out”. Upon receiving this amazing and proven strategy from him, I started asking around with other friends who were managing well with their work, about their tactical processes of figuring out the ideas, proceeding with brainstorming those ideas, and writing the long papers to express their thoughts on paper until they submit. 

Matt, a student of clinical psychology stated, “I try to estimate the total time required for an assignment as my first stage after reading the brief and divide this time over coming days to work on it each day but in bits. So, If I feel I am gonna need 7 hours on a particular task, I divide it into slots of hours for each day as 2-2-2-1. This way, I don’t end up spending my whole time working on one assignment rather give time to other modules too. You know we don’t have just one assignment. Gotta distribute your time wisely or you gonna miss one of them.” 

Matt’s approach of diving one big task into small chunks of daily tasks has helped me a lot and I can validate this strategy with my last few submissions on time without last-minute hustles. Having cancelled multiple Friday night events finally I made it to the last one and I think I will keep following his advice. 

The quick responsive part of the brain comes up with excuses immediately every time someone suggests you use a ‘to-do list system’. Some common phrases you might have heard or even used; “meh! I tried, but it did not work out for me”, “I am more of a spontaneous person”, or “Does that even work?”, all led us to reject what could be the oldest method of task management studies a to-do list. When discussed the same with Jyoti, a design student at UL, she looked away for a minute and said, ”You know what? It takes just a pen, paper, and a maximum of 120 seconds of your morning routine to make a to-do list for the day. I do it every day. With my morning coffee, notebook on the table, and my Outlook open, I sit to list down all the tasks for that day including my personal tasks along with academics. What do I get out of it? several moments of success every time I cross one of those boxes. At the end of the day, I look down the list and feel the pleasure of achievements, these small steps help me conclude my day on a positive note. Not every day I might feel the same level of productivity but even 5 out of 7 days in the week are enough”. After that talk I jumped on a product Notion that I have been using for quite a while now and made a to-do list, have been following this routine for a few weeks, it’s been working out for me pretty well. 

Pursuing a master’s can come with a demand for planning and project management skills that you might not have considered earlier but it’s one of the key skills that will help you get through. Our academic stress impacts our mental health and achievements help us get over them. A Japanese phrase, ‘ichi-go ichi-e’ enlightens the world with the wisdom of this message that states, ‘one thing at a time’. Believe me when I say, “This works”. Paper with a to-do list, division of a giant assignment into small tasks, and kicking off those tasks on the day of the brief can do wonders in the land of the academic battleground.