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(EXPERIENCE) Making This Summer The Foundation Of Your Best Year

Summer is a time synonymous with relaxing, unwinding and making the most of the limited amount of heat we get (to all my UK readers, it's tough I know). Exams are done, there is no academic responsibility and we suddenly have so much time on our hands.

What do we actually do with this time though? How much of it is spent doing... nothing? We have all experienced the moment when summer comes to an end and we are sat there questioning what
we have actually done for the past three months - it can be quite frustrating, especially when we have to go back to uni/college/school.

This article is designed to help you uncover ways in which you can make summer your most productive time period and use this time to level up yourself and your personal development.

Invest Time Into Passions
What really interests you? The summer period is a fantastic time to really immerse yourself in 'passion projects' that your attention can be fully invested into. By becoming engrossed in a passion project, you are also picking up new skillsets that can be transferred over into your academic career. Experiences make you more able to exercise 'reflexivity' where you reflect on yourself and your skillsets critically in relation to a said scenario  (fantastic for essays). So invest into a passion and actively analyse yourself - if you are passionate about something, chances are there is a reason why you feel that way. Understanding why enables you to gain a deeper insight into your personal motivations as well as identify potential career prospects once your academic career is over.


Work On Strengths, Develop Weaknesses.

What have you done well this year? What do you feel  could have been done better? This time frame can be used to continually develop the skills that you have identified as strengths as well as allocating equal time on bringing up or working on your self proclaimed weaknesses. I really want to develop my content creation over this summer period , so my time will be heavily invested into my blog , video work and other creative projects. I also want to develop and reduce the presence of my self imposed perfection principle  - this will be achieved by developing ideas and letting them go much quicker than sitting around tweaking unnecessary details. If you know what you are working towards, then you can allocate time to work on these said strengths and/or weaknesses. That way, when the summer period is done, you can enter back into your uni/college having actively sought out improvements - meaning that development has already occurred before the semester even begins.


Have Fun As Well!
It goes without saying that your summer should not be solely focussed on grinding 24/7. You should be letting your hair down and enjoying some down time with friends and family. Productivity is a balance of work and play - without the rest periods you become burned out - when you become burned out you don't produce your best work. Strive for balance in your approach to productivity and you will have a summer full of new found skills and awesome memories - enjoy!


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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope that it helps you in some way. I would love to connect with you on social media. You can find my pages below:

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I also write for Rife Magazine - to read my content on there, please click here.

I am a young advisor to Off The Record Bristol, a young persons confidential mental health service dedicated to helping young people through a multitude of treatments and services. You can find out more about them here.



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