Meet Fatima Khan Lookmanji, a third-year student ambassador at Ontario Tech University. She wants to share her experiences as a student, and give some helpful advice to all future ridgebacks!

I wanted to write this blog post to highlight a huge challenge that I have continued to struggle with during my first year of university—one that many prospective students often face: the ability to time-manage effectively and get things done in relatively short amounts of time, while also ensuring time for self-care and the duties of the day!

I will outline my perception of how I was able to balance my university life and some tips that I find helpful. I find that the university has really allowed me to reach my full potential and achieve my goals by providing me with the necessary resources, knowledgeable courses, and tools to prioritize my life.

Throughout university, I have learned that the first step in making a difference within our life is to be kind to ourselves. I have always been a person that tends to be extremely positive and optimistic towards others, however, I often neglect thinking positively about myself or accounting for self-care. I have learned that the skill of time management is extremely important for balancing the demands of school and taking care of myself.

It is important to note that the university has various student support services, faculty-specific academic advisors and peer mentors that are always there for us and help make our transition to university a wonderful experience. I find that our university has an abundance of clubs and societies to take part in which truly gives you a sense of belonging and allows you opportunities to engage with fellow students. 

I realize that certain problems and tough decisions that can affect one’s academic endeavours can include: disorganization, feeling overwhelmed with studies, bad eating habits and poor sleep patterns. All of which are challenging factors that can result in poor grades.

These are all things I have struggled with in the past. Fortunately, I have learned how to balance my problems and take difficulties as opportunities to learn from. Taking struggles as learning opportunities and working on my time management skills has allowed me to overcome studying obstacles, work hard at using my full potential, weigh my options when presented with an issue and reflect on past mistakes to find the lesson. 

In addition, joining clubs and attending workshops has taught me how to transform some of my previous struggles into learning experiences. I've learned that when I come across spare time it can be dedicated to useful activities, such as self-care, studying and networking. 

I also noticed that throughout the day, I have the tendency to often distract myself with technology, such as cell phones, television, and laptops, which wasted an abundance of my useful time. Since a large majority of current education involves the usage of the web—and students constantly have their cellphones with them—it is quite easy to spend too much time on social media and surfing the internet instead of studying.

A helpful tip is to dedicate time in your day to play games or use social media. That way you still get to enjoy some time to yourself but don't waste your study time to do so. 

Although I am still a work in progress, I have made lots of improvements and will continue to use the experiences I have gained here at Ontario Tech to continue working on my knowledge and skills. 

With COVID-19 being another stressor in our present-day life, I find that mastering these skills and devoting time for self-care is as important as studying, and should be given equal priority, along with making long-lasting friendships!

To find out more about our university and programs, take a look at our viewbook!