I started a mechanical engineering degree a month ago, but until now I haven't been that organised when it comes to doing work outside of lectures - I've got some maths tutorials I need to finish, for example, and I can't seem to find the time to do them. So tonight I tried drawing up a timetable showing what times I'm at university during the day, and what time I have spare and therefore could be working - worked well for me while I was at school revising for exams. In doing that, and including times for travelling to and from uni, eating, chores etc., I've discovered that I only have 17 spare hours for anything else, assuming I stop at 9pm. (And I haven't managed to find time for a violin practice each day, either...think I'm going to have to hope that my labs in the afternoon end early. Well, it's happened before! )

Now, I'm not sure exactly how many hours' work a week I should be doing for my courses, but the lecturer for one of them said we should be aiming for three hours per week for his - I'm taking five courses this year, so if I do three hours per week for all of them that adds up to 15 hours spent each week doing work. When I was at school, the first time I tried doing a timetable like this I was wearing myself out just trying to do ten! I know university is a step up, though, so do you think 15 hours per week is a reasonable amount to be spending doing work outside of class? Less? More?

I haven't been out in the evenings for a while, and I've been using work as an excuse...whether the actual reason is shyness, social anxiety or just me being antisocial I'm not sure, but it looks like work might be an actual reason from now on! (Not that I haven't been working in the evenings, I just haven't managed to get much done.)