Video Transcription
Balancing Study, Work & General Life During Exams
Hey guys, how’s it going? Shay here from Student Life Australia, and today I’m back with a new video. Recently, I’ve been doing my university exams for semester two. I’m three exams down, one to go. They’re all ffull three-hour exams, so they’ve definitely been a solid effort. On top of that, I’ve been balancing an average of 30 hours of work a week at my job. I’ve also been catching up with my mates, maintaining myself, playing sports, and all that sort of stuff—and I’ve actually been sick as well. So, I’ve definitely had to balance a lot of things on my plate.
I’ve managed to pull through and do pretty well, and I think it’s because I found one particular tip that helped me make the most of the little time I had and enabled me to succeed. I just want to share that tip with you guys today—maybe it’ll help some of you during exam times or other periods of your life when you’ve got way too much going on. Let’s go!
Alright, so here we go. The camera’s running out of battery, flashing a red light at me, and I’ve already gone through this take like 10 times. So, I’m just going to speak, get it out, and share the tip—it’s going to work, I promise.
Exam times or periods in your life when you’ve got heaps going on—work, school, life—it feels like you don’t have enough hours in the day. Twenty-four hours just doesn’t seem long enough. Where can you find extra time to turn into either leisure, work, or productivity so you can get everything done? I found it in something I call “lag time.”
For me, I would waste 30 minutes to two hours on a regular day when I wasn’t in an exam period just doing nothing. I’d mindlessly scroll through my phone, stand in front of the fridge with the door open, wander around the house, or stare out the window—not really resting, not really working, not doing anything of value. I wasn’t even enjoying myself like I would if I were watching a TV show or something. And I wasn’t being productive either.
When I realized how much time I was wasting like that, I circled it out during the last few weeks to get through these exams. I removed that lag time and replaced it with either work, study, or proper leisure time. I ended up finding an extra one to two hours in my day, and that made all the difference.
Think about your daily routine. Look at all the minutes, seconds, and hours you waste doing nothing—neither enjoying yourself nor working. Identify that lag time and remove it. Fill it with whatever you need to do or whatever you feel like you’re lacking time for. I think you’ll find yourself being much more productive.
For example, yesterday I was studying for an exam I had this morning. I worked eight hours that day and was behind on studying. I woke up, studied, had a shower, went to work, came home, ate some food, studied, and went to bed. In that 24-hour period, I had no lag time. Everything I did was with a purpose. Even when I sat down to eat and watch some TV, I considered it leisure time because it helped rejuvenate me for my next study session.
I couldn’t do that every day of the year, but for my exam period, I needed to get stuff done, so that’s what I had to do. My tip for you: Look for the lag time when you’re doing nothing at all—not enjoying yourself and not being productive either. Remove it during busy periods and replace it with something purposeful. When the holidays come, you can indulge in all the lag time you want, but for now, find it, remove it, and get stuff done. It worked for me over the last few weeks when I had way too much on my plate, but I managed to get through it.
Alright guys, that’s it for this video. Plenty more coming up now that Nick and I have finished university for the semester. Leave your video suggestions in the comments, like, and subscribe—we really love that sort of stuff. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one. See you later!
