I started blogging in my twenties when I moved across the globe, was desperately lonely and terrified, stressed and elated and thriving and stagnating all at once. I wrote to remember what was happening to me. I wrote to imbue my little life with meaning.

I didn’t realize how much school affected my mental health until my Freshman year of college. I was sitting in my dorm, listening to my heart pound in my chest at the mere thought of doing poorly on my next physics exam and wondering how I had let my stress get so out of control.

The clock was ticking. I had gone home for Winter Break, and my sister had given me a Christmas present, a jigsaw puzzle intended to hang in my admittedly bare apartment. It was a great idea in theory, but now I felt as though I had a task to complete before returning to my apartment.

How I Optimized My Work: A Mental Clutter Check By Miranda, a Graduate Learning Coach Setting the Scene: A Mindful Check-In  As a graduate student trying to find the best ways to optimize my work, I have found that it … Continued

Part one on how I optimize work. Each of these will include check-ins and my own experience when I set the scene for productive work.

Drop-in tutoring has long since been a part of the Carolina tutoring tradition. Taking place in Dey Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 6-8 PM, drop-in tutoring is a place of lively collaboration between students and tutors to tackle Carolina’s toughest courses.

Where does my time go? Have you ever thought that? After a busy week and the hustle and bustle, feeling like you have lost time? I know I do all the time. As a busy graduate student who also works, most weeks end with me feeling exhausted and unsure of what I actually got done. I know that I had been busy – sometimes far too busy – and I did at least most of the work I needed to, but I honestly feel like time escapes me. I get that constant feeling that I am overwhelmed but not productive. The words effective and efficient use of time continually evade me.

In this blog series, “Ask a Coach!” our Writing and Learning Center coaches answer our UNC-CH undergrads’ burning questions! Check back every month to see what our coaches have to say about everything from taking breaks to utilizing office hours! How do I avoid burnout?

It’s the beginning of the semester—meaning, as a graduate student, it’s time for me to get back into the groove of planning and writing long papers. For me, the hardest part of approaching a paper is coming up with a topic that will stay interesting to me throughout the research and writing process. A good example of this is from the end of last semester, when I found myself dreading the final paper for my archives class. We covered so many interesting topics in the class, it was hard to decide which one to choose.

How do I turn off my brain at night? In this blog series, “Ask a Coach!” our Writing and Learning Center coaches answer our UNC-CH undergrads’ burning questions! Check back every month to see what our coaches have to say about everything from taking breaks to utilizing office hours!