A typical day for a Lancaster Economics first year student and what was weird about this year.
Due to pandemics, lockdowns and changes to the way we learn, a typical day for me in first year was certainly not the typical university experience. I am, however, a strong believer that change is good and, in this article, I will show you just some of the ways my routine changed for the better in one of the weirdest academic years ever.
My day would begin just as (I assume) everyone else’s does, with waking up. This was usually around 8:30 but that was heavily dependent on the previous night’s activities and the time of my first lecture. It was easy when working from my room to get into the habit of getting out of bed five minutes before my lecture and just “watching it” while I ate breakfast. Tip: don’t do this, fight the temptation to stay in bed, get up in good time, eat, shower and basically act as if you’re going out to work. This was the one change to my routine that made the most difference over the year.
Breakfast. I often opted for Greggs on this one. It never failed to deliver and it was only a three-minute walk from the accommodation, the walk helped to wake me up for the rest of the day. This is not very economical, however, so the rest of the time, to optimise my consumption bundle, maximise my utility and minimise my opportunity cost I just had cereal.
Then work would begin. My usual place of work was a convenient two-second walk from my bed, sometimes I would go to the library instead just for the longer commute. Online learning has its pros and cons. One pro was that I got recordings of my lectures, if I missed one, I could just watch it later. I did this often and it allowed me to have a great deal of control over when I did (or didn’t do) my work. it was hard to imagine going to university and not having access to all the recordings like that. One con of remote education was never leaving my room. This was something that needed attention, so it became part of my daily routine to have random walks around campus, keep my room clean and constantly organise work stuff. Lancaster has been judged one of the best campuses in the country in recent years so no matter what direction I walked in; it was well worth my time.
Lunch. I never eat too much for lunch, maybe fruit and toast, leftovers, whatever is in the fridge. This is also caffeine o'clock when I have a big coffee to refuel on student-petrol.
The afternoon is my most productive time of the day. Luckily for me most of my timetabled lectures and workshops occurred after lunch. This was also when any reading I wanted to do was done.
7:00 is about tea time (if you’re southern you may call this dinner, in that case, be prepared for people to come for you like piranhas the first few times you say it in Lancaster). I liked keeping this simple and, more importantly, cheap. Chili Con Carne, Pasta, Curry etc. were the typical meals. Before coming to uni I was looking forward to cooking big meals with my entire flat as this is a much cheaper way of eating whilst living with people. This never happened though, I had two flatmates: one kept to himself, the other I was really good friends with, but unfortunately, he had the eating habits of a prisoner of war, he never liked the idea of having exotic foods like spaghetti or vegetables.
In the evenings what I’d do varied, I often played snooker in Squires in town, or went to one of the other spots like Kanteena, Pendle Witch and the Crafty Scholar. I figured out that when working remotely you don’t see anyone face to face, so it’s important to have people as part of your routine. Exercise was another vital part of the daily grind. I compensated for being in my room for too long by playing basketball or football or by going to the gym.
I’d try and wind down for bed at about 11:00. After a long day of economic modelling, financial theory and maths, I always fell asleep watching something on Netflix. Often the thing I watched would be the same as the previous few nights, as I would fall asleep within ten minutes each time I’d watch it, forgetting it completely.
This was (hopefully) a once in a lifetime kind of year and it’s given me the chance to really scrutinize my routine and work out what makes me tick and what keeps me motivated. Although the next few years at uni will undoubtedly be quite different, I’ll be sure to maintain some of the habits I’ve picked up in lockdown.
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