The first year of uni is the beginning of a new chapter in life. Sounds super cheesy, I know, but it’s true. When I started uni, it was the first time in my life I started cooking for myself, doing laundry, and paying my rent. It was all overwhelming at first. A lot is going on with your courses, while you’re also trying to get your new life sorted.

During this massive transition, there’s a lot of things that slipped through the cracks for me. I found out these things later, but would have loved to know when I first started.

Here we go!

Build a community with social sports

A great initiative run by Activate UTS, social sports competitions run for soccer, basketball, and so much more. All you have to do is sign up and pay between $5-10 for the entire semester. This is an excellent opportunity to meet new people with whom you already have a shared interest. Also, the Ross Milbourne Sports Hall is usually booked out, so this is one of the few ways to play there.

If you don’t find your preferred sport on the social sports website, you could also join a sports club!

There’s a student society for almost everything

Ok, there probably isn’t one to watch Netflix, but hey, you can start your own. There’s one to cook, one to eat, one to appreciate food, and even another to take pictures of the food you’re eating. I’m exaggerating a bit here, but you get the idea.

There are societies for professional development as well. A few examples include:

• UTS Consulting Club, which offers you the opportunity to interact with real-world start-ups and businesses to build up your consulting skills.
• Model United Nations Society, where you can debate others on policy decisions while representing a country
• Faculty-specific societies, where you can build up a professional network.

When I say there’s a club for pretty much everything, I mean it. There’s even one for cryptocurrency—Doge to the moon! Find them all here.

The cost of entry is usually $5-10 for the entire year! For that whole year, you’ll have access to all the club’s events – so no need to labour over a social calendar. And if you like the club, you can even apply for an executive role – say hello to even more career development..

Save your coin on apps

You can use many apps for free as a student if you use your student email. I’ll break them down by type. You can skip through to whichever is relevant to you.

Productivity:

Notion

This helps you track everything from your weekly schedule, job applications, goals, and even calculations for your current grade for a subject (so you know it’s time to stop slacking off).

They have pre-made templates, so it’s straightforward to use as well.

AdobeScan

AdobeScan is a mobile app that lets you take high-quality scans of any document you’d like, whether that be identity documents or cover sheets for assignments. All the files are then stored in the cloud. You can access them on your computer using Adobe or upload your documents to GoogleDrive/OneNote.

Writing:

Grammarly

Grammarly checks your punctuation, grammar, and even the tone of your writing. I use Grammarly quite a bit, and it’s significantly helped me improve my writing. I wrote this entire post using it.

Lifestyle:

Waking Up

Waking Up is a meditation app. You can get it for free if you send them an email. They have many different types of meditation, so there’s something to explore for everyone.

Intellect  

Intellect allows you to track your wellbeing over time. If you struggle with procrastination, anxiety, stress, or if you’re trying to build a journaling habit, Intellect is a great app.

They have an educational component where, for example, they’ve broken down why we procrastinate and how we can overcome it. After that, whenever you do find yourself procrastinating, you can write about it, break down the problem and gradually defeat it.

Hopefully.

Sometimes you’re gonna fail… and that’s ok

I failed to develop four things for this post, and “Three facts for first years” just doesn’t sound as catchy.

Featured image courtesy of Unsplash