9am: On a good day, I usually wake up by 9am. My day begins by lying in bed and checking my phone for a good 30 minutes (i.e. endless TikTok scrolling). After getting out of bed I make myself a nice breakfast, which makes a really big difference on how you perform in the day; If you eat good, you feel good! A favourite breakfast meal that I’ve been making is a good smashed avo on toast and a cup of coffee. 

While I eat, I like to make a note of some tasks that I should complete today to keep a check on my productivity. I like writing these down and checking them off throughout the day as an incentive to keep pushing through the workload. 

11am: After the waking up process, I get started with my work. Because I don’t have any scheduled classes at this particular time, I complete a couple of other tasks that I’ve set for the day. Usually these are unwatched lectures or working on tutorial sets for classes. 

Today I have a chemistry lab at 1pm. I like to prepare for class beforehand by doing any pre-lab work, or reading through the lab manual to familiarise myself with the upcoming prac. 

1pm: Lab time! Labs are usually 3 hours, which seems laborious (no pun intended) but are quite engaging and informative. This week in chemistry we worked through some pracs centred around galvanic-cells and redox reactions! 

4pm: Around this time I take a breather. This is one of my favourite parts of the day, and is super important when it comes to looking after my own mental and physical wellbeing. If you take anything away from this article, let it be that breaks are necessary in your routine!

Sometimes my breaks take the form of texting and FaceTiming my friends, or having a snack, but today I decided to go on a walk around my neighbourhood to get that step count up!!! I spent a good hour walking around the block listening to podcasts before returning home to get some more work done.

8pm: One of the many benefits of the UNSW social scene is being involved with running a particular society, giving you the opportunity to contribute your talents and connect with different individuals within the society.  

Tonight I had a meeting with my director and a few subcommittee members in designing a cover photo for an upcoming event that the Science Society was running. This was pretty chill and we bounced a lot of ideas off each other and ended up making a finished product we were all proud of.

12am: I usually aim to be in bed by this time. I normally wind down from the day by talking to my friends, or having my own “me time” in the form of TikTok or watching the Great British Bake Off (a newfound obsession of mine). Goodnight! 

For those planning to join us at UNSW next year, my word of advice is to really embrace the UNSW experience and get involved in societies or any of Arc’s student-led teams! In my first year, I’ve met and worked with so many amazing people and it has fostered a sense of belonging in the UNSW community. You won’t regret it!