How to look and feel good when dealing with a busy schedule

University life is notoriously busy.  Your schedule is packed with lectures, seminars, coffee dates, exams, nights out, the gym, meals to be cooked, and laundry.  Everyone wants to look and feel their best, but finding the time on a busy schedule might prove more challenging than you originally thought!  Here are 5 tips to show up to every event in your packed planner looking like a god/goddess:

1. Beauty sleep

Your mum was right all along - beauty sleep is a real thing! Getting a solid night's sleep truly helps your appearance, minimising dark circles, brightening your complexion, and improving overall mood. That being said, uni brings both wild nights out and 9am lectures, so some sleep will have to be sacrificed…but maybe give the 4-day-bender a miss if you want to show up as your best self!

2. Carry the essentials

Sometimes there isn’t enough time to go back to your room and freshen up between events, so carrying a few beauty essentials in your bag is key.  I’d recommend a pack of gum or mints (no one likes bad breath!), a hairbrush and hair bobbles, mini perfume or deodorant, lip balm, a water bottle, and a portable charger.  Long days will also be extremely tiring, so bring a few snacks to keep your energy up.

3. Solidify your routines

Having set daily routines will cut down your getting ready time by a considerable amount. Have a solid, simple skincare and/or makeup routine and stick to it on the busy days - save the eyeliner experimentation for when you actually have the time!

4. Pre-planned outfits

Channel your inner Cher from Clueless by taking pictures of all your outfits and storing them in a folder on your phone. You’ll have all your outfit combinations right there at your fingertips and won’t need to think about putting together something cool or chic when you haven’t got the time to decide. Or if you’re not that organised, then simply choose your outfit the night before. Which leads to the next point:

5. “Being high maintenance to be low maintenance”

The basic breakdown of this point is being prepared the night before, so you can feel and look your best the next day, and many things can fall under this headline.  First of all, feeling good usually requires a balanced diet that fuels you properly, and that can be difficult when you haven’t got a lot of time. Planning your meals before you go shopping can really help, as well as making your breakfast or lunch the night before.  

Secondly, having a nighttime skincare routine usually means you’ll wake up with a better complexion and will therefore cut down the minutes you’ll need to spend on yourself in the morning. This can also go for applying hair products etc.  Spend time on yourself when you can - to still look and feel good when you’re short on time. Being super busy at uni can be unbelievably fun and rewarding, but it’s also extremely tiring. Taking a day or night to yourself every week to refresh may save you from feeling down and unorganised, and help you to feel and look your absolute best.