Hej everyone! Welcome to this weeks post 🙂 Since birth, I have been told that I am a restless human being, and I could not agree more. I love to be busy and so I do all that I can to ensure that I am not only busy, but doing several different things so that I do not get bored. Perhaps some of you can relate. So I thought for today’s post that I would share with you a day in the life as a KTH student who is active in student life, works several jobs, and still gets good grades 🙂 If you’re wondering what the secret to managing this is? Here is your TLDR: Schedule, schedule, schedule. My calendar(s) are my best friends and as long as I can visually see my time and be able to plan my activities in blocks then I can manage everything perfectly! I think a key trick here is to physically write out your calendar, for me, I feel like this helps me have a better grasp at what I have going on, complementing my online calendars.
Agenda for the day:
- Breakfast/work on assignments
- Class- Internet Marketing
- Fika
- Job- head to the office
- Dinner
- Mental health walk/physical activity
- Sleeeeep
Starting Off the Day
If anyone knows me, they know that breakfast is my favourite meal of the day! It is that very thing I need to survive my day, so having a solid healthy breakfast is everything to me. Today I had some smoked salmon with a bunch of dill and some veggies! I think this meal alone is a testament of me becoming more and more Swedish by the day with a bit of my Slav heritage sprinkled in! As I had my breakfast, I worked on one of my assignments for my Internet Marketing class. This week I am preparing a case study that I will present to the class and debate against another group. I personally love this type of learning, it is so different from what I usually do which is usually research paper writing and conventional presentations.
Class Time!
Now it’s time for me to head to class. This period I have class usually only 2 days a week which is about 8 contact hours per week. I have been really enjoying my classes as they have been very practical and extremely relevant to my career path! My class today was on sustainability marketing.
Obligatory Fika
Something that I appreciate in Sweden is the fika break, when you are on the go and have a packed schedule it is essential to take some time to slow down and enjoy a moment with delicious desserts and great conversation with friends.
Activate: Corporate Sam
After the first half of my day has been spent at school, it’s time for me to head to work. Currently, I am working as a sustainability intern for a real estate private equity firm. My work entails some really cool projects that involve the overall aim to decarbonize our portfolios. You’ll notice that I do have to wear more formal business attire, this is just the vibe at the firm. It is not the same in all offices in Sweden. When I worked in industrial manufacturing work attire was different depending on department. In R&D people wore jeans, in my department it was a mix of suits and jeans, depending on if you had a client meeting, so it really varies with who you are working for and with what. Currently, I work 16-20 hours a week, I only recommend looking into larger working contracts like these after you have had at least 1 period at KTH so you know how much time you need to dedicate to your programme. When I first started at KTH, I worked 4 hours a week maximum, so that is important to keep in mind when you are looking for part-time work in Stockholm.
Dinner Time!
After a few hours of work, it was time for dinner! I was meeting up with a friend and we decided to go to the grocery store and make whatever we could find on discount. Believe it or not we found clams for a ridiculously good deal, so linguini with clams was the meal of the night and it was absolutely delicious! I think one of the best things to do when you are quite busy is to schedule things like meals with friends so that you get the social aspect into the mix of your day! I personally love to cook and its how I get some mental clarity after a busy day so I always try to bring some friends into the picture to balance my days out.
After Dinner Walk
I always make sure to end off my day with some kind of physical activity to calm my mind and tire myself out. Today I decided to go for a walk around my neighbourhood. It was so incredibly pretty to see the boats in the bay strung with lights, it made for such a cozy atmosphere.
Then I realized that I not only had a food coma, but was also super tired, so it was time to go home do a few preparations for the next day and then I went to sleep!
Overall, 11/10 day. *Disclaimer- not all of my days are like this, sometimes are spend a whole day at school only, others only at work, so it really varies day to day 🙂
Speaking of mental health walks, have you checked out Sai’s blog on Student Well-Being at KTH? See you next week!