Learn how the Grid helps students in their wellbeing and productivity and could aid you in keeping healthy and productive. This Case Study was contributed to us by our very own intern Delia Balauca.
Who are you?
I’m a second-year university student doing Media & Communications at Goldsmiths. I juggle my assignments, being an intern and 3-4 other activities such as running a student society and various events or workshops for my department. I also have a cat and some fish!
Key Challenge
Doing all of these activities remotely poses a challenge since I need to be highly organized – double booking is my sworn enemy, along with forgetting to show up in the first place! Things can get muddled very fast if I don’t take care of my schedule.
Another extreme I sometimes fall into is booking too many things during the same week – with everything being online, it seems easy to go to class, lead a study session, meet with my tutors, brainstorm work ideas, attend another 2 workshops… I’m terrible at scheduling breaks which are so vital.
How Grid helps me as a student
Since discovering the Grid method I’ve started to have a better balance between me-time and work-time.
I struggle with impostor syndrome quite often, and my Grid gives me a clear and easy picture of:
- what I managed to get done
- when I overwork.
Taking breaks is also easier with the Grid; I feel less guilt when I take time off to watch Netflix or spend half the day making macarons.
What I really like about the Grid
“I like the fact that Grid is highly visual, and I’m a huge sketch addict. I find it hard to do projects if I don’t put pen to paper, and the Grid is always close by and ready to use. For me this is more appealing than a Bullet Journal since I’m no longer daunted by having to open the journal and ‘set time aside’ for planning. Gridding happens quickly and can be done anytime, which makes everything feel efficient and effortless. And, I can still use highlighters and washi tape to ‘pretty up’ my page as well, so it’s quite the best of both worlds.”
How Grid has helped me so far
Using weekly Grids seems to fit my university flow. Besides my literal tasks, I also add my meetings onto the Grid, which makes it easier to recognise that they also take up some of my ‘social’ energy. I noticed a change in how much I enjoy doing tasks from all quadrants of the system, since I can now see and understand how my experiences feed off of each other (and my life feels wholesome!).
Once I finish my Spring Term, I plan on turning to a monthly grid. I can already see how well it would fit my due assignments and I’m excited to plan some harder, time consuming savoury recipes into my self care quadrant.
3 Productivity and wellbeing tips for students
At Make Time Count, we understand studying being a lot like work with all the deadlines, projects, teams and interactions. We also know that many students juggle their studies with P/T jobs as well as rich and demanding personal lives.
Today more than ever before, being a student can be stressful and demanding. Which is why creating good habits and foundations for balance and healthy working is key. We’re passionate to help students learn this crucial skill. Grid makes this easy and offers great flexibility for adaption and creativity so that what you have works in practice.
To learn more sign up to our Grid Clinic or Grid™ Introductory training. In the meantime, here are 3 tips from the Make Time Count team to help you achieve results and be well.
- Find a system to get organized. It always ends up saving time and keeping stress at bay.
- Focus on your studies but if you can get a P/T job to hone in your real job skills to build your career, do it!
- Ask for help! From extensions on papers and assignments to work deadlines, we’re all human! This means that sometimes we bite off more than we can chew. It’s okay. This is part of the learning.
There is always a way to create order and keep motivated!
