Modern Wisdom - #034 - How To Survive University

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

Jonny & Yusef join me again as we relive our best & worst moments at university. Discover how you can complete a degree without going bankrupt, getting a police record or having a mental breakdown. If you've never been to university, then you might enjoy hearing that it's not quite the doss around of Netflix and chronic masturbation that you hear in the news. And if you HAVE been to university, then reminisce fondly or cringe your way through your memories. Expect to learn why you should go to Hadrian's Wall and wear a condom while you're there, what you can do to avoid becoming a basic bitch and how Evernote will safe your life. Further Reading: Evernote (with referral gains): https://www.evernote.com/referral/Registration.action?sig=a51c13796a1906976e4d676cbcc756e7836bf4767d9d76e822ed017352c3df86&uid=62953055 Anton Kreil on School Teachers: https://youtu.be/hzFl0uDwAQY Check out everything I recommend from books to products and help support the podcast at no extra cost to you by shopping through this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom - Get in touch. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners in the episode comments on the MW YouTube Channel or message me... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ModernWisdomPodcast Email: https://www.chriswillx.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello friends. Between myself, Johnny and Yusuf, we've been at university for 16 years and done five degrees between us. I've also seen recently my 13th freshers week completed, so you could say that we're OGs of the student game. Given that the new university year has just started and also taking into account our Obviously vast experience at dealing with our time at uni We thought it would be only fair to disseminate some of our wisdom down to any students who care to listen Or anyone who has been a uni and wants to reminisce about their most cringe-worthy times uni and wants to reminisce about their most cringe-worthy times. Or anyone who hasn't been to university and wants to find out that it's not the dos around of Netflix and

chronic masturbation that you may have thought it was. Today, you can expect to learn our favourite tips for learning quickly, studying effectively how not to go bankrupt, whilst you're at uni, how to deal with losing an erection when you've had a little bit too much to drink and an awful lot more. Coming up soon, I have got a secret super podcast with some real big dicks in the world of UK fitness. I'm going to be at Battle Cancer this weekend coming. And as a part of that, I've managed to grab some of the big swinging shlongs around

the warmer area and I'm going to get them to answer some of your questions. So if you want to find out what Zach George, Lee Machines or Sunni Webster have to say for themselves, make sure that you tune in this week. you'll have the opportunity to submit your questions and I will ask them the most awkward or embarrassing ones live on air. For now, we're going to go back to university, enjoy. Welcome back. Johnny and you, sir, from Proof and Fitness. I hear again today we are going to discuss how to survive university. How many degrees have we got between us?

One and a... You're a charity accountant. LSU. One and a, you're now a Bachelor of Medicine. Oh yeah, true. Well, I may, is it a health science diploma that you get after halfway through? And then, so one point five.

You're the only one that knows. Don't you? That's okay. You've got kind of two. I've got two. So there's five degrees between us and like, cumulative amount of like what? How have you got two so there's five degrees between us and like humiliating the amount of like what? How have you got to?

I don't see a lie. Master's. So we've been at uni for like what? 12 years between us. Bad time bro. Made every possible mistake that you can make at university. Been waste man, been super productive and everything in between. I so reset a year at uni.

Did you? Yeah. What for? I would have never guessed that. So, well, it's part of what I want to talk about. Fantastic. When it just basically came out of first year, hard with momentum, when it was that year, with same momentum.

Stiffy. And then about a third of the way through for fuck. And then fails back. Well, so we've got a lot to get through today. For those of you who don't know what I do, I'm a club promoter. And for the last 12 years or so in one form or another, I have had to look after freshers. They are usually the money makers for us in terms of guest listers. So what that means is that every year I get one year older, but the age of the

people who work for me and the situations that they encounter pretty much say the same. It's just faces and names that change. The diverges. Yeah. Just to be clear, those people also do get older. It's what Chris is saying is that he's working with different people. They're not for us to have the exception that they are getting older. Is that the way I'm saying? Chris is okay with that. What I'm saying is that although they are not for us in time, I see a snapshot of them while I continue to age.

And then there's a picture of them all that's in the attic of a dusty house and if they look at the picture of themselves, then they catch up all of the years that have gone by. And then yeah, And that's it. So, yeah, I thought one of the things that we all know pretty well is how to fuck up at university and what I'm common. And to prosper. And well, the thing is while I was at university, I really did, I prospered outside of uni, but I was categorically shite at university. The fact that I've got a 2-1 and then a merit in a master's is really, it's a, it's a miracle. So I think that means actually that you've mastered university, honestly, because it was kind of seamless.

Well, like, you're there for experience and your degree is part of that experience, but if you just get a degree, you would have wasted time. Yeah. For an expensive waste of time. Good point. So what do we want to start with? Surviving freshers week is probably a pretty good place to start. Can you remember your first freshers week?

Yep. What happened? Did you do anything funny? I just remember total, total overwhelm. Yeah, I think that's a great experience. Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed. I can't see it. So I think,'t, don't, I literally just hands behind you back. Kamikaze headband on and just go hook them. Don't do that. No, that is what to do. Yeah, you need to go for the other.

Just with everything. I think there are a lot of things to consume, consume all of them in as much as you possibly can. Just a week, isn't it? So yeah, just dive right in. How are your freshers? Because when you possibly can. Just a week, isn't it? So, just dive right in. How are your freshest? Because when you did your first freshest week, you would have still been Muslim.

Yeah, so that's an interesting point actually. So for anyone who doesn't know, I've done two degrees. One in maths and business, 2008 to 2012. Another one in 2013, 14 up until now. During which time I had a crisis of faith and I've never thought of it as sausage. It's a very slippery sausage and went down the wrong tube, the slope of carefers. So, first freshers week, pretty sensible, second freshers week, you're five, six years older, and you're like, oh, I'm too old for this. Even though 23, 24 is not really super old, but you realize the differential between having to do that with a bunch of 18-year-olds and you can smell the pulsating insecurity and

it's a surge of seeking approval because you've taken someone who was in the last age of their life along with a lot of alcohol, new people, new environment and it just creates this cocktail of desperation. It's a very, there's an awful, like a velcro level grasping for some sense of assurance and centering. So this is why people hook on to the people in their corridor or the first person they meet they just become instant best mates with. And if you just only hang around with the people in your corridor or whatever, then you get this misplaced sense of loyalty because you... We're trying to get it. So I sent this on the social, social chain podcast. If you don't

play a sport and don't have a really tight hobby that is going to immediately give you some sense of first identity and then second community with people at uni, what are you bonding with other people over? The people on your course, apart from the fact that they've also chosen to do your course, have in no way been discriminated to your interests or your mindset. This is, so here's my first tip for surviving university, surprise, surprise, work for an events company. Oh, here it is. This entire thing was a huge fucking affiliates scheme. No, here's the reason, here's my justification for why I think you should work for an events company. First off, it gives you support structure of people that are older than you, that understand the city, they can tell you where's good to go for food, where you should go on a night out,

you'll get to know a bunch of people, if you're into partying and if you like to go out and drink, you're immediately going to get a family of 200 to 400 other people, all of whom have got similar interests. They're at the same university. You've got a manager who look after you the whole time. You get free entry tonight clubs. You get discounted drinks. You get the family that you need at university and some fantastic support structure. That is quite a good point because otherwise, like, the alternative is like, if you don't expose yourself to a wide range of people straight away, is that you end up like narrowing your slice of people that you experience and withdrawing into just, you know, this happens every single time because I've seen so many freshers come through as well whereas just like they only hang around with

the first four people that they meet and then that's it. And the first four people may not be can may not be good for them. Anything that overlaps with them apart from the only thing they haven't common is that they're both equally desperate to hang on to someone. And then they end up living with them for the following five years. And so widening the net of the people that you can reach is a good idea. So things that I think going into freshes, let's go through it, yeah, by you. So going into freshes, I think it's such a cliche and everybody says it, but like your grades do not matter. If you get 40% that is all that matters and I even like everyone is like, oh well you know I know that you only get 40% that is all that matters and I even like everyone is like, oh well,

you know, I know that you only need 40% but I guess you know, for me at university there is quite a long period of time, probably six months to 12 months where you just need to completely let loose. It's the first time you've been away from home from your parents, you've got absolute liberation from all of the previous confines that you used to have. And I think if you don't take advantage of it in your first year, the fear is that that then surfaces in second or third year when it does matter. So bin yourself. I would advise as much damage as possible to yourself in the first year.

I can think of that when you're saying throw yourself in to the first year. What do you mean? But because you said that you went, you kind of spread out the deck of the deck. I don't know. I just didn't stop. I see very different problem. So I can really clearly remember. So one of the first times I met Dan, the broadcast Gibson, he just happened to be, he went to the same school, but we're in our friendly at school. He happened to be in the, the flat next to me, we're on the broadcast Gibson. He just happened to be, weren't at the same school, but weren't that friendly at school.

He happened to be in the flat next to me. We're on the same course. And I remember both of us at one point having this conversation that we were like, we'd missed the library tutorial because we were, there was something happening, alcohol related, which didn't go to anything. I didn't go to anything for like the first six months at all. Because it sort of been before, like smart card check-ins and stuff now. Yeah, so like, the library was actually quite complicated.

And so I didn't get a book out at uni until 30th, your 30th, five minutes out of it, because I didn't know how to. But I remember being really stressed about it at the time, thinking like, I'm fucking uni. That's impressive. I can't believe I'm already fucking uni, like it's 10 days in but like nothing happened

You didn't book out until the final yeah exams no I didn't get a book out ever it was all I never got a book or not even in my master's never got a book out one the only time I did get a book out I had to intimidate the Chinese lady who was starting at the third copy with it and then I took the book Went home went back in Newcastle and stomached a 10 pound a day fine because I was so worried I was going to fail the exam. 10 pounds a day. So, yeah, I think so. Yeah, don't worry about what I'm like, don't worry about intro lectures and library

tutorials and that's maybe a bit now. How many days have you had it for? Would it have been cheaper to buy the book? So you couldn't buy the book? Uh, for the time. So I think go dick and balls, the length and testicles on first year. Because I think actually the worst thing that can happen after uni is that you regret how you spent your time there. And I don't think you're ever going to look back. As long as it doesn't impinge on your degree.

Yeah. You're never going to look back and think, God, I partied far too much in first year. For a lot of people, obviously, we're coming at this from the side of a group that are either still at university or have relative amounts of freedom to do what they want because we work for ourselves. A lot of people are going to go into a much more bureaucratic organization. And their final bastion of freedom is their time at uni. And I can imagine that if I feel like this, for someone who doesn't have that same level of freedom once they get into a proper working routine, it must be even worse. I experienced that. But people living for the weekend once they get to it.

Yeah, well, that's just what happens. It's a hangover. It's oddly a hangover of not drinking enough and parting enough at uni. So first tip is go dick and balls during your first year. Remember that the 40% grade that you need, that's it, once you hit 41%, it doesn't matter after that.

Now I think it's probably not the same with you, those are. It's not, but I've heard people, I've seen people mess up by saying like, oh, I only need to pass 40%. So I'm just going to learn 40% of the course. I'm like, no, that's not how I want to. No, that's not how I want to. No, that's not how I want to. 100% of the 40%.

So that's actually a terrible idea. It's still my not working. Yeah, very, very risky. If anyone's taken what I mean is get a 40% grade, there's a terrible idea. It's almost not working. If anyone's taken what I mean is get a 40% grade, there's a learn 40% of the course, they deserve to fail. So your first tip comes from a place of get it out of your system, don't have any lingering sense of like, oh, I didn't quite squeeze the lemon there

and I'm just going to spend the rest of my life trying to catch up in the weekends for partying. I think it's not just, not even just that, it's just that especially when you first arrive at university, for me, what you should be trying to do is get as much of a broad cross-section of experiences and expose you to people as you can. Remembering, I know that you got at university 18 and you think that you understand how the world works, but I'm telling you as someone who's 30 years old, you don't even have the first clue. Like, I look at the boys that work for us now, the managers who I'm closest with, and then the girls as well

who are the guest list isn't stuff below them and some of our hostesses, etc, etc. And there's so much further ahead than I was at their age, like so much more mature, I think that exposure to the internet means that people are able to grow up and be exposed to different people more quickly. And yet they're still like Broadly like children like the children who can legally drink drive and grow. So that's actually what David said. As I was leaving the house I was like David. What are you what's your survival tip for university? And he was like you're gonna be shit the whole time But you're gonna think that you're awesome You go You're going to be shit the whole time, but you're going to think that you're awesome. There you go. So you're definitely right.

So I think be aware of the fact that it's a learning process in all areas of your life and don't try and take anything too seriously. I certainly thought that I wasn't prepared to mess up because I was at Comic University. There's all this pressure on me. I'm supposed to be this adult who's living on his own, who's supposed to have his life sorted out like 12 years later Still not got my life sorted out still mess up all the time So don't think that that's something that you need to do. There was a really clear moment for me about

Three months in really sharing my darkest moment here So I'm sat in the corner of my room because there was nowhere else to sit because there was just mess all over the floor. And I was eating a cold pot noodle. Sat perched in the corner, eating this cold pot noodle. And I just looked at my room and I thought, I've got to do something about this.

And I don't think, like, I sort of slowly did. But I just, I really felt like I, apart from the gym, I just let go of everything else in my life. I was just like, right, I'm just going to absolutely, I just felt like I was in a playground. And just go the time. And maybe that's not the right way to go about it, but I definitely don't look back at that and think that was stupid. Yeah.

I think a good thing to do is potentially try and join a sports team or a society. Yeah. I wish that I had doubled down more on the opportunity to play sports. Reason for that is, like, when you get to 25 or 30, like going, I'm going to start rowing. Like, no, you're not. No, you're not going to start rowing. You're not going to start rowing. But you need, this is a time to try new things. So go like,

I remember thinking ultimate frisbee was like weird. And now I think, if you give me the opportunity to try ultimate frisbee for a day, you're like absolutely right. What I don't do ultimate frisbee. So I think try as many different societies, sports and societies as you can. I'd like to segue on to you, Yusuf, about trying to get some low-hanging fruit for studying tactics. So I think the one thing that I like, you can't often completely write off your entire first year as it being a waste, but one of the things that you should do is begin to grease the groove of at least understanding how to study effectively. So yeah, I've got it. So I've split my notes up into this different section. So before we move

on to study just the final thing on Freshers Week and this desperation for approval and people latching onto each other is an example that I saw of a guy second time round with my freshest week, second degree, who was 18, he was called, I'm not gonna say his name actually, but he was actually insurance some of those. But he was a Muslim guy and he was drinking and I was chatting to about his Muslim family. I was like, do you finally know that you drink oh no, no, it's actually the first time,

like how can you drink? He was like, oh, just, you know, it's fresh as you can know, I have to because there's a pressure. I'm like, do you even like it? He was like, how can you drinking? It's like, oh, just, you know, as rush as you can, I have to, because there's a pressure. And I'm like, do you even like it? It's like, no, like, we don't just, like, completely compromise on who you are for the sake of approval. Don't just like, do this because you think that's what you're supposed to do.

And I was like, look, I took it out of his hand. I was like, just be you. Don't, don't try and, because this is the slippery slope, this is the time when if you make that one compromise now, that's it, like. There's numerous ones that are gonna then. You said it's a good point. And people are doing that Muslim or not,

in loads of ways, in first week. If you like it, go ahead. But the fact that you were saying, you don't even like doing this. But. Well, I did loads of stuff, I did loads of stuff that I thought I liked at the time, like I was going out all the time and I very quickly realised that for me, I was much more interested in developing my business, like I want to spend

time developing my business, but because all of my flatmates weren't like that, I'm like, you feel like a weirdo? Yeah, I loads of Peter Hurt, didn't realise that, I like Domino's better. I remember eating loads of Peter thinking this is the obviously the right thing. He's like in the corner of the room loads of Peter Hart. I don't really know, so I like Domino's better. There you go. I remember eating loads of Peter thinking, this is the obviously the right thing. He's out in the corner of the room, loads of Peter Heart boxes. I don't like studying.

I don't even like Peter Heart. Studying. Studying. So, with studying, the best way to go about this is not to think, oh, I don't need to go to lectures. No one's checking up on me here. This is great. I can just like, do start working a week before the exam. Just if you really want a good

degree, like if you're there to get a degree and to get a good grade, treat it like a day job. You're the one that's the master of your own time then. And I guarantee if you treat it like that, there is no way you'll get anything less than a first. If you just treat it as like a 9-5 during the day, the same way as when you were doing A levels, you couldn't go home during the day. You just turned up, did the work, came home, maybe did a bit of homework, but you don't even need to do that. Set yourself a really hard rule of no Xbox during the day, no nonsense before No Xbox during the day, no nonsense before 4 p.m. Then they would have to be a full 9-till-5. And once you've done that, you're evenings are fully free, there's no guilt.

The fun stuff tends to happen in the evenings anyway, and then you're a free agent. Is this in fresh, is this in first year? First year, it depends how scared you are of failing. Like I think, as you said, Chris, people are often, you get two types of people, the neurotic ones that are too afraid of failing. And ironically, they're the ones that need to pull back a bit. And then the ones who think, I'll be fine, they're the ones that fail. So you always have to look at your own track record and say, have a bit of self awareness

to say, am I someone who is legitimately at risk of failing? Or am I just too difficult to legitimate risk of failing or am I just difficult to work out that sort of thing? Because Cambridge suicides are the highest performers because they're the ones that have the most neurotic fear that they're going to fail. That's a terrifying statistic. I think what I would say is I had a very well established revision ritual, which was I'd identically learn everything on a page.

I'd write out my notes for the exam. I would summarize the entire module, write out notes for the exam, and then just learn it for baiton. So I could then, I could even remember when looking on the page, oh, there's that top left hand, but okay, so I'm learning about something to do with accounting Okay, what are the four prints? I'll have a count page and then I would have a summary eight pages and I would learn them verbatim like allow myself to read until a bit read a new bit

Close the page try and remember it if I could remember it go back learn another bit and just Compound it on top. That's what the guy and you're learning learn another bit and just compound it on top. That's what the guy and you are learning podcast. He does, but he talks about, he doesn't talk about doing it as verbatim because what the problem I came across from doing that was that I had a glass ceiling and box and sides on everything I knew because if it was, it was not your notes. No, I'm fucked because it interpretively I had nothing.

But for courses like business, accounting, like there's no creativity required. You don't need to be creative with your own. So I think that strategy works extremely well when there is a finite curriculum and it's like if you learn that stuff in these summary notes, you've got a lot of philosophy or classics. Then you need to read, and those degrees are, that's why they say like what are you reading? It's like at university, it's like the, you do have, there's no way around that. But you end up with a lot more depth of knowledge as a result and you can interpret it. And so yeah, the, the guy, the, the main thing that jumped out of me from your

podcast about learning was the guy saying, learning and memorization is repeated recall, not repeated exposure to the material. And loads of people, they just reread their notes, loads of times, and highlight. And it's like, then you just create the familiarity, fallacy, familiarity paradox. Well, you're looking at, oh yeah, yeah, I know that. That's fine, that's fine.

Closer but see if you can tell me. Yeah, and you're like, oh, no. So that's good for studying. I think relationships, I've wanted to study. Hit me. So something that I wish I'd done. So I feel like uni is the biggest example of Parkinson's law for most people. So it depends on the type of degree you do. Can you explain Parkinson's law, please? So you take as long to complete something as you allocate to that task, as you say, I've got it's the epitome of uni. It is. So, like, you come out of school where you're given day

structures, lessons, homework. You're basically a map between starting point and end point is built for you. With the little checkpoints in your way. You dropped them to uni and someone says, right, here you are for three or four years, you have to get a degree at the end of it. You don't even need to turn up. You don't even need to turn up. If you don't turn up, we'll send you the odd like stiff, like the real email, but that's it. So what I did certainly in certainly first and second year was you wait until I went to like three weeks before the exam

and they're like, oh my god, there's all these lectures to go through. If I had done 30 minutes of work a day, the entire time I was there and kept on top of like lecture today, like what were the key points? Can I understand and can I explain and forget about it? How many people that have been to university that are listening now or at university now, or even that have done A levels of GCSEs, left their revision until the night before? That's me all over Parkinson's law, work expands to fill the time given for it. And that's the reason why people do it beforehand. I think it's very telling of people's personality types.

My business partner, Darren, very, very procedural, likes to schedule things in. He would have finished it. I don't think I ever saw him finish an assignment. He did the same courses me later than like the Thursday before the Monday it was in. And it would be me who would be leaving one of our events at three o'clock on a Sunday morning for a 9 a.m.

Hand in on a Monday morning going back someone would have a party in my flat downstairs and I'd be upstairs like going downstairs to have cans of Red Bull. So my master's dissertation I'd done 4,000 of 12,000 words 36 hours before it was due to be handed in. Wow. And I stayed up for a day and a half, full case of Red Bull, and just wrote the whole thing. And I was so white and wrecked by the end of it that I didn't trust myself to drive to town to bind it.

So I walked to town from Jesmond to get my dissertation bound, because I wouldn't trust myself to drive. So I trusted myself to complete a 9,000 pound master's dissertation. I'd been working on three years but didn't trust myself to drive to hand it in. I'm not sure if that's an advert for doing that or I don't think so. Or at all. No, it was just it was just and the fact that I got through it as well to me my kind of synopsis of uni overall was that it was just get it done by any means. But now looking back, I think that that should have been an identifiating that I didn't care about the course. So I did

business management and then I did international marketing. And had I have done philosophy or psychology, I would have been sufficiently stimulated by the material that I did to actually want to learn. Whereas very quickly, it was a transactional relationship between mean university. That needs to get handed in right. I'll just bash it out. Minimum effective, does anyone have any? I'm going stress before, like, say, three months before it was in.

No, okay, fine. So at least you weren't bearing the load on your head of like, are that things in for three months' time? Like, it's always weighing on you. And I said, two things that came off of both of you, the thing about handing you a dissertation like hours before the deadline. My flatmate did that and ended up because it was universal time for dissertation handing at 12 o'clock on a certain day. All the printers and all the libraries were jamming and massive backermings and art of paper.

And he was losing the plots. He was absolutely losing his mind and his and that. It made me think like, you've had a year to know about this. There's nothing about that deadline that is particularly much special. You could have very easily had all this stress and stuff in week one or week 52, but, and so the Parkinson's Law thing applies so much. So it's a rule of thumb, would you say

that it might be an idea for everyone to just remove two days from the deadline? At least. Remove two or three days from the deadline. So if I'm going to avoid printer problems, you're going to avoid file losses. Oh, we should do. How do you work in a manner that means

that your file's never get lost? So the, I mean, I've had an assignment that I've kind of really internalized that lesson. I had an assignment that I had to hand in. It's due for mid-October, I handed it in two weeks ago. So that's a month early? That's a month early, because I was like, I just don't want it on my head.

The deadline is relevant, like it has to be done by that point. Okay, I'm not gonna fit my life around the deadline. I'm just gonna do it when I have capacity and get it done. But we seem to think that the deadline becomes like the point of focus and then our life has to then mold around it, which is a terrible way to work. The Parkinson's Law thing as well about doing 30 minutes a day for any degree is so valuable, but there are certain degrees that the stack of work is not possible to backload. If you're doing medicine.

So medicine is one of them and I've experienced two degrees. I did maths and business, which I know is not like a hardcore degree, but the first term of the first year of medicine was harder than the entire four years of my maths and business degree in terms of like total workload, total cognitive load, everything like that. And so, what they say about studying medicine is like eating ten pancakes a day. Like it's fine to eat ten pancakes a day, but if you miss a day, you've got twenty pancakes to eat that day. And if you miss that day, and you've got thirty, they're very quickly becomes an insurmountable amount of pancakes.

Yeah, I should give them a hand. What's the most? Are they the pancakes? Are they a little buttermilk? No, no, they're not. Just for the time being. They should give them to him. They should give them to him.

Yeah, they should give them to him. If you ever got to him, then tell me. Talk to me. How are you? I'll sort of help. So how are students going to avoid their work being lost? If it was me working in past me, it would be Google Drive. But now, I just saved everything on my computer and it was all fine.

Oh my God. I had three backup licitations, like physical, cloud, and stuff. So would you advise anyone doing a bachelor's or a hire to use Evernote? Yes. So how would you use it briefly? So you can use Evernote or handwritten notes. It doesn't matter and I know you're probably like, because I'm Mr. Papalus, but it's Sergeant Papalus. Sergeant Papalus, but left hand, I'm very anti-paper, but I recognize that some people like paper and it does help you in the data to learn better. So handwriting stuff does improve recall. So if you can do that fine, but you have to be systematic from the start and you can't let any single thing get away from you.

So what's the system? So whether you have separate files for separate modules that are chronologically ordered or whatever it is, but any time you have any scrap bit of paper, any lecture slides, whatever it is, don't just think I'll print it off later or I'll sort it later. Like put it into the filing system straight away because if you don't, you will end up with subpiles and it would be like a bug in a system that just compounds and compounds. So you would aim for, I'm going to guess, anyone who doesn't understand how to use Avenue you have notebooks and then within those notebooks you have notes. So you would aim for, I'm going to guess, anyone who doesn't understand how to use evernote, you have notebooks, and then within those notebooks, you have notes.

So notebooks are like a physical filing system, but digitized. It is. And it's all three layers. It's all held in the cloud. So it's cloud and local, which is good. It is three. So you have notebook stacks, which is like groups of notebooks.

So like a box with all your files in. The notebooks then have sub notes in, which are each one is a little plastic folder. And then the notes, you can search by title or you can tag. And so then you can have two ways of categorizing the same thing. So you could have year one module one notebook under the year one stack. But also you could tag the certain notes within there as cardiology. And then anytime other things within the branch of cardiology come up in different areas.

So if you're in third year and you need to look at something about cardiology, it'll pull up everything across all the years. So I think for me, the main reason that I like that, that I like the idea of using Evernote is how many times have you seen someone post? I see it all the time because I've got a lot of students on my Facebook. X number of thousand words through my piece of work. Computer crashed and didn't save. X, Y, Z. And you go, I mean, that, yeah, exactly. It's vomit inducing. And I've never had that. I don't think I ever had it happen seriously. Maybe like 500 words as a, as a gap. But the fact that I was doing

it on this weird, incremental, discrete sections of saving of work on Microsoft Word feels fucking a story. Yeah, just use Google Docs with Google Drive is free. And Evernote, if you upgrade for what, like, five pounds a month? It's incredible. I've not seen anyone that, like, whenever I recommended it and they're like, oh my God, like,

how did I not know about this before? And when now, yeah, whenever I see anyone sat in the lecture with a Microsoft Word document, I'm like, you're so basic. Like, just get ever know. I'll start using it now. And if this is the thing about greasing the groove, right, if you start using ever know in your first year, then you're in the rhythm of it when it really matters, when second year kicks in and third year kicks in. This is the thing about the 10 pound kicks or the bug in the rhythm of it when it really matters, when second year kicks in and third year kicks. This is the thing about the £10 kicks or the bug in the system that very, very soon it'll be a year later and you'll hear you'll be like, oh God, I've got to collect all my

notes. And if they're just indexed, because you don't want to be spending, you've got a month to revive. You don't want to be spending half of that time just collecting your notes and trying to pull them off things and find where they are and download them from the portal. And, you know way that is, like just establish a process, establish a, like how much work am I willing to do today? What's my minimum effective dose to keep on top of this? So it doesn't become a house fire,

like I can't get out of it and do it. People just fit in this as well. Yeah, well that's all the topic isn't it? So moving on. Couple more tips on academic before we... What I keep laughing at, incidentally, is just how... I don't think... The where your advice is coming from is such a... Like, you did a Russian memory course.

Oh, yeah, the Russian memorization course. Hey, toms or something of. But also, it was a lot, yeah, it was 42 modules. And it was like, you are running a business while doing a medical degree and managing both of those. So interestingly, that was something where like, you know, when people say, like, you only realize how strong you are, you're capacity when it's fully challenged and you have to work to that.

And I'm realising how much of a serial waste man I was in my first degree, the amount of time that I wasted, whereas now, like knowing all of the stuff that we're discussing in this podcast, if I'd went to do my first degree, again, it would have been an absolutely just really easy. Yeah, it could have had you cock out. I think it could have been a full-time job, could have done whatever, and it would have been stress-free. You're just such a different person. I get it. Looking back, like, I, the prospect of even being more organized just didn't trust me. It didn't even, it didn't even factor into your lands. Yeah, it wasn't because of the people. Well, that's an overwhelming force. I don't need that sledgehammer approach

just to pass my degree. And it's like, well, yeah, that's true, but you are absolutely capable. If you listen to this podcast, you're smart enough and you're capable enough to put all of these systems in place from the beginning and get away with an hour of work a day or two hours of work a day and smash it.

This may sound like if you're in second or third year that it's a lost cause. All that we're saying is that greasing the groove early is good, but greasing the groove and having a system at all is infinitely better than having none. So if you're listening to this and you're starting third year or maybe you've come back and decided to listen to this

and it's the beginning of January or something like that, like all you do in an MBA, whatever it is, look at the sort of system that we're talking about which would be evernote, get yourself a routine during the day, have a wake-up time that you get up to most days. If you're hung over, okay, do the same thing again, but have a routine for when you're hung over. Don't allow yourself to sleep in after midday if you're hung over. So you have a contingency plan, even for a handover? Yeah, exactly. You've got numbers of routines rather than one single routine.

Ryan Holiday recently did a very good Evernote post about it, where he says, you don't need to be militant about your routine. You just need to be militant about your routines. OK. You have a finite number of consistent situations that you come up against. All you need to do is when it happens, once, if it's new model it

It'll never happen again. You know use to it. Yeah, that's a good shot. So on that note never And there any circumstances work with people don't go to the library with mates and do this kind of bullshit Yeah, those are people It's been spending 16 hours in the library and they work at 15% capacity and you're like, well, you may as well have done one hour. They're just not valuing their time properly. It's absolutely.

Brian from Optimize.me does this lovely thing which is work done equals time, time's intensity. Yeah. You're like, right, okay, so I can do 10 hours at 30%, I can do three hours at 100%, which you want to do. And the three hours at 100% are going to bury themselves in your mind more deeply as well. And you're going to have a greater sense of satisfaction at the end of the day once you've completed.

Anything relaxing, you know, you haven't got this constantly elevated sense of stress. Because doing that level anxiety, it's all over the world. My whole first degree was that. It was sick. And a lot more work than I needed to. And it was a lot more time working than I needed to.

So there we go, actually, on that point, I think, try and create your room at university, whether it's in halls or in a house or private residences or whatever, once you've completed it. Have your room at university with a desk and an area which is conducive for you to do work by spending a little bit of money, avoid a couple of nights out

and spend a little bit of money on a nice seat or get your mom and dad to buy you a nice office seat. And then you're like, right, okay, I now have no excuse for not doing my work and I can do it in silence, in my room, or I can listen to music, but if it's music, it's my music. Yeah, and if you don't trust yourself to do that, even if you were to say, like, I've got my desk, Wi-Fi, I'm going to unplug the router, I'm literally just going to like, but if you can't trust yourself to do that, then only work in the library and never work. What work in a key Oscar in the library?

Oh yeah, on your own, like zero day. Yeah, somewhere that's like the anti-social, we used to have a place called the bunker, which was like, no fun signal underground or something. Yeah, it was like, it was literally underground, like I think it used to, maybe used to be a bunker, and like hardly anyone was there. It was 24 hours a day, there were showers, and it was just this waste land of a computer room. And it was just dead silent. It was lovely.

That's where you went. Yeah, that's where I lived. That's where I lived. Because also, if you go somewhere that is really unpleasant to be, then you're like, right, I've got this set of tasks to do. I'm going to go to that place. And because it's unpleasant, I'm going

to have an inherent incentive to spend the minimum time there. So I'm just going to go to that place and because it's unpleasant, I'm going to have an inherent incentive to spend the minimum time there. So I'm just going to spend that's what I like the idea of having even now like I've only recently given myself a got back to having a home office in my room. And I love it. Like it's just somewhere else where I can do work and it's just a nice, it's a change of scenery, it's silent. That's because now you're self-motivated to do. As I suppose you said the area you made was you were doing a degree that didn't feel aligned with what you were. So I guess motivating yourself to do it at home, you'd be like, oh, man, this is a... So moving on, relationships, I think would be quite a good one.

I just have one more just final thought. Yeah, just imagine what 18-year-old me would think if I was listening to this. You think you shut the fuck up? Well, exactly, because you want to have a good time, but I think try to look at it as you're buying a very expensive either if it's a vocational qualification that requires it, it's going to be a doctor or a architect or whatever, or a very expensive signal to employers, which is like, I'm semi-organized. It's extremely expensive, so you need to get that outcome. So how do you have the best time while creating that outcome? And having that discipline actually creates the best experience.

So it's the discipline equals freedom idea. But without people think, I'll just, I'll log around, like do what I did basically, I'll log around and then create these stressful chunks of my uni life. Actually, just chip away at it, you'll have the best time of all time, get a good degree. A really good point that the fact that doing a little bit of work and consistently will allow you to have more spare time. You can virtually, it sounds like, oh, well, you're asking me to be constantly working. No, I'm not. I'm asking you to split your work up into management. You have to do your work anyway. And if you're not going to do the work, then you need to leave university. So you're going to do that following of work so just do it in a manageable way and

you'll be that guy there. How's he getting, well like you said, how's he getting those results while he's doing all these other things and he's still getting these results. It's because of the process in the system. Cool. So relationships, Johnny, you said that you had some comments on relationships at university. So I I broke up with my girlfriend just before I went to university. Okay, because you were going to university. Yeah, because I have I remember thinking like I can't possibly go to university with a girlfriend

Which is why I don't know but so when I got to uni like a few people I was living with Had a relationship and they were still there, and I remember thinking like, what are you doing? It's like someone arrives, like having not enrolled on their course, but I was fucking doing. Yeah exactly. But best decision I ever made, I think. How long did the relationships of the people who you lived with last time?

Not long at all. It was like the battle of the sun, honestly. It was just, I remember just- People getting shocked at that. It was just life, just like, things like you just watch people cheat on each other and it was just, oh yeah, there was a lot. And especially the people who were in the long distance relationship, so I know that all of them are just so really, we were there for the long term, man, like a week later, you see them just in an orgy with, I think, I think, did you do that? I brought you a dick in the mouth

It's alright It's what you were saying Chris about like you go to uni thinking I'm 18 man like I know what's going on I know what I want, I know what my values are You haven't got a clue so I like hampering that first year of your life at university when you're going to meet Probably the most concentration of new people have have all these weird intense experiences with people even like, mate, that's my pan. Like, what are you doing with my pan? Like, weird experiences like that. I know exactly. It's such a common experience. Exactly. Like, who's eating my bacon, what sort of stuff? Like, you just need time to figure it out

and you don't need to have... It's crippling, isn't it? Something else to manage at the same time. I think that that's a really nice way to come at it because it can quite easily lead to us sounding like we're saying you should just spray around as much as possible during your time at university, which isn't necessarily right. I think what we're saying is that you should expose yourself to as many learning experiences you can. And a relationship is nothing short of a mitigating factor in that. Now, a lot of short relationships at university,

you actually think it's quite good to go the learning experience. But if you're going to look at anything, you would take some statistics and you would then model what you're going to do off the back of the statistics. I would love there to be a representative sample of how many people arrive at university with their girlfriend, a boyfriend that they had in college and what the drop-off rate is because mine lasted until so did you arrive at uni with a girlfriend and that was like my first main girlfriend

as well right so I was like oh god like you know you've got this sense of belonging you've got this kind of I've never had a girlfriend before I don't really know how to do it and that I'm naturally oddly sentimental in any case. So that kind of all was a perfect storm of me just not letting go. And it was just I ended up sacrificing so many experiences at uni. And that's not turning down girls to sleep with. Although obviously that was part of it. It was just stuff like that person is at a different stage of their life than you are. Even if they're at a different university, it's a different stage of their life than you are. Even if they're at a different university, it's a different stage of their life because it's a different place. And you end up, am I going to go to this cricket social? No, I'm not my girlfriend's. It's my, it's like so my

21st birthday, for instance, was another girlfriend, was spent with my then girlfriend, crying to me on the phone because I decided to go out with my mates instead of going to see her at my 21st birthday. So I didn't have a good 21st birthday at all regardless of whether I was with her or still at university. And I'm just managed to remotely mess it up. Just really long to really long Renee. And I think yeah, like just I think you need to be and this shouldn't be this shouldn't class as like, if you are in relationship, you should get rid of it. I think the best model for this is,

if you're in relationship, when you go to university and you're confident that you want to stay in it, then do so. But the second that you think, that you are unhappy in the relationship, then call it quits there and then, because not only are you wasting your own life, but you're wasting the other person's life Because they can be happy with someone else as opposed to being happy with someone who's unhappy with them

Even just the the headspace that so I remember like you go to sort of a There's loads of stuff that goes on in fresh as week parties and meeting new people and all sort of stuff People with boyfriends and girlfriends were definitely in like a less open people with boyfriends and girlfriends would definitely in a less open frame of mind, going to those things. There's been new experiences. Because what if someone makes a move, like I can't do anything,

I'm gonna have to have a little conversation. I'm gonna have to say, well, where were you last night? I went to this after party. Exactly. Well, no, you should go to the after party because you've never been to one before. Exactly.

So yeah, the predominant theme I saw with those, with people who are in a relationship was fear anxiety trepidation just like they're just desperately having on to you what they know is safe now at home relationship Yeah, and so they're just like they're just not there's like yeah, it's dipping your toe into the whole experience and And I was okay because I've I've got a girlfriend. It was almost like a Excuse or a shield. There was being used. Very much so. I think people use, to a degree,

I've seen some people use sports as that as well, so that they'll choose to not do something social that takes them out of their comforts. Oh, but no, I've got rugby story. Yeah, because I've got this. And it's like, well, no, hang on, you can do well. Oh, I'm a bit of on the C team, like, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

No one even knows you know. Like, it's fine. I think as well, falling into a relationship during Freshers Week on the first few weeks of the year, like... Also, I'm missing it. It's the same as like the first people you meet, you just latch onto the exactly like... There is going to be no time in your life that you're going to meet such a wide range of people, like just accept the sheer odds that are in front of you, that the likelihood of you meeting the person you should be in relationship with, being

within the first couple of days, and also living on your floor in your halls. Infantestinal isn't it? It's probably pretty low. Yeah, like extremely fortunate. Yeah, but that's what that's in the back of everyone's minds, right? It's all, no, no, this is why it's right. It's right because we're so close and you're like, no, it's not. It's a fucking nightmare because you're so close. I see it all the time, right? Like these guys and girls come to university and they've just tumble straight into

relationship because it gives them a sense of comfort. It gives them this sense of belonging, someone's got their back, and it just turns toxic so very, very fast. Again, what I want to try and get across isn't getting into relationships at university. Isn't necessarily a bad thing. The problem is cleaning onto them once they're already gone. You know that it's gone and treat it. If it was easy come, treat it as easy gone. And that's one of my primary problems at uni was letting go of things like that. It was very, very difficult for me. So I didn't want to. It's a sort of grabby fear to just like quickly just pin something down on your life. Because of the size, familiar, isn't it? It's you're're searching for familiarity in a time of your life where everything's new and nothing

stays the same. That's a lovely way to put it. I think as well. Another thing is that your sample size, so at 18 years old, your sample size of life experience is so low. Like you've really, at 18, only been close to the person that you are right now for probably about two years. Because two years ago, you were a completely different person

when you were doing your GCSEs. Yeah, I mean, so if you've been with... Like that, mental and fucking crazy. So think about the fact that if you're in a relationship for six months at the age of 18, that last fraction of your life, it's a very, it's a significant proportion of the time you've been alive.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you go right, okay. So I need to try and look upon this. And that's a problem with this perspective. I think a lot of what we're trying to get across here is the fact that you need perspective. It's horrible, because I had such a lack of self-awareness combined with a lack of experience.

And this, I mean, I'm so lucky that my girlfriend broke up with me before I went to uni because I was upset at the time, I forgot about it within a week because of starting the uni. And then I was like, actually, that unconsciously poorly articulated feeling of what you've described both of you as like the seeing people in a relationship and just seeing something a bit held back about them and a bit unwilling to dive in. And the people who were in a relationship, yeah, they fall in at the first hurdle because they're in cling mode already. But then the people that fall at the second hurdle are the ones that then jump into a relationship

with the first person that they sleep with or they meet. You've had the worst of all scenarios because you've missed out on months of experience. You've had to navigate a failed relationship remotely while at uni, potentially some risk. It's from that, if man. Or for conversations. Proend you 25th birthday. Yeah, room at 21st birthday.

I remember getting into another argument. I was in another argument as I was trying to write like the first set of exam, the first set of assignments for my masters. I'm just looking at my masters. Sure, so masters. I don't know if you want, Chris. It sounds off compared to the rest of your accent, but. I don't know what I say.

It's one of those words. It's like plaster or plaster. You're right, I say plaster band. For everything else, but masters, I always, I don't know why. What's the name of this app? Without thinking about it. Garage band. Not garage band.

Garage band. That's American. Abdomin. Abdomin. What would you say, would you say masters? I bet you would. Masters. Yeah, you would. I'm hybrid, I think. Oh, God. Anyway, I'm about plasterboard.

Plasterboard. Plasterboard. Plasterboard. Oh, yeah. Plasters. Plasters. So I would say a plaster. Plaster. Plaster. Plasterboard. Yeah, I'd say that as well. Third and none. I'm just going to go plaster the wall. Would you like a plaster? Do you like a plaster? Would you like a, would you like a plus to the, do you like a plastic, a plastic, a plastic finger? Do you, I don't know.

Are you only, you can't do if you're just like, no, but gentlemen, if you're going to, I'm not going to have to be done. And so, on the topic of, on the topic of being single at university, university, where a condom for heaven's, I mean, that's, that's my point. My point is, for the love of God, we're a prophylactic. Weezy.

Weezy. The easiest way to do it is, by them at the start of the year, by a big box, like a 30 box of G-Rex. Yeah, stick with the brands. Keep one in your wallet. That's all I'm going to say. So I have a buffer level of them, and keep one in your wallet all the time.

Again, for free. So I think keeping it in your wallet can cause abrasion. Yeah. If you set in your wallet because I put my wallet on my back pocket. Right, okay. But just a matter of rather having it. I would rather have an abrased condom than no condom at all. There's an argument to say birth rates are dropping in the UK that we should be giving the app. They put a tiny little pin back in the edge. Stays with tea and no problem prices. Yeah, the other way. Tea and no. The receipt.

Receipt, receipt, receipt. Oh, condom. That thing, girl in the maths class, you can be like, oh, what's going on? Oh, I've put that off. So put them in the bedside table next to your bed, because it's the same as defrosting the chicken the night before. You don't defrost the chicken the night before. You can't food prep in the morning.

If the condom isn't near the bed, it's in a reaction. The likelihood it is in a reaction. It's silent killer. I'm going to touch on something that I've wanted to talk about for ages and I'm probably going to bring it up on another one. You talk about erectile dysfunction. Yeah. Wow.

So, guys at university, it is normal. It is absolutely normal for you to not be able to get it up when you're pissed. It's absolutely normal if you're not able to get it up when it's in your head that you can't get it up as well. But for me, I think it was maybe my third year, and I was absolutely blind drunk out of my mind drunk. Couldn't get it up when I went back with a girl. And then that started to become a self referential echo chamber that was like, okay, now I've only had a couple of drinks, oh god, that problem might happen again, then it does, and then it gets to the stage where you're like, oh shit, maybe this is going to

start happening when I'm sober. And sure enough, it actually does. And you're like, right, okay, I need to break the spell of this somehow. And it's really, really difficult. And I've got a number of friends who have, this has been a cascade into a really, really difficult. And I've got a number of friends who have, this has been a cascade into a really, really horrible situation and all that it needed was someone to say this, which is it is perfectly normal to not be able to get it up when you're pissed. And if you laugh it off, she'll laugh it off as well.

And if you're a girl, it doesn't matter if it's never happened to you before, it's not about you to bout the amount of alcohol that he's had to drink. And if it happens, be gracious about it and just say, don't worry, you're not the first. Like, because that is just going to make him go, Oh, thank God for that. Yeah. That makes me feel so much better, because it 19, 20 years old, thinking I've got a rectile dysfunction.

Crushing. It's fucking terrifying. Did it happen to you? It's happened a couple times, yeah. And you go through a little cycle. It's the thought, it's the split second of God imagine the morning. Oh no. Oh, it's happened.

That's a good thing, because you've given people the safety catch to stop the safety valve, to stop that happening. And if it happens in the moment, you've given both men and women the way to, There you go. Just a lot of it all. The reason that it happens is it's the antagonistic reaction to being relaxed. So like, it requires relaxation. You are creating anxiety and stress. So interesting, the monic we're used for that is point and shoot. So, parasympathetic

nervous system regulates erection and sympathetic nervous system, which is the fight fly, regulates ejaculation and so P point S shoot. No, yes. But yeah, I think, you know, deep breaths, deep breaths, yeah. And just can see the fact that like if you put 10 hens and a bunch of shots into yourself and you've been day drinking on a bank holiday Sunday or something. Like there are men across the world that this happens to and the problem that you have is that you don't know that it's that common. Yeah, especially when you're that age, I think.

And you terrified of something. So my experience helped me a few times at uni and I remember thinking like, wow, I really hope I know what happens again, but it just takes a few conversations with people as you get to 20s and everyone's like, oh, I got really hurt by no happens again. But it just takes a few conversations to people as you get to 20s and everyone's like, oh, actually, this is really common. Yeah. But when you're 18, 19, no one wants to be the first person to raise it.

No, guys, is anyone else strong? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I was struggling to maintain my touchinity. And you're quite a... So good tip on the condoms. So I saw a patient who was stapling. Not sta-dug, I'm a sta-dug. That was a joke. Do not staple your condoms. Saw a patient who, fresh as weak, was a virgin, had sex with one woman, didn't use a condom. Got it, HIV.

Oh my god. It's so fucking... So like that's... Oh my god. It's so fucking. So like that's completely unlucky. But like, yeah, the chances is, it is bruh. So you just, you don't know who you've got. It was a lot. Yeah, it has excellent moments. And the thing is, as well, transmission rates, female to male, lower than male to female, this is something else. Girls is like just

ultimate unlucky. Yeah, girls, if you Girls, if you are listening, your chance of it. Cool. It's niche to me. Cool. Cool. Cool. Your chance of catching a HIV, catching a HIV, catching an STI as a girl because of the shape of your sexual organs. We just think what happens, you have a receptacle in your pelvis and people are shooting things into it, like possibly infected things. You can do that. Like you're going to, that's our losing erection, just play that, play that small segment back to yourself. That's going to be the pre-do.

You have a receptacle in some fucking hell. So yeah, I think as much can't and then once you're in a relationship with someone Easy way to do it if you want to be hyper hyper safe both go and get checked because both of you should do it in any case And then once you are go to fucking town. Yeah, like Make sure that she's on whatever form of birth control that is appropriate for her Make sure that she's on whatever form of birth control that is appropriate for her I'm going to say that. What I suppose to just like start making uni baby Just yeah, three just go to town Can't get pregnant in the year. Oh, yeah So relationships relationships on that one there. What about what about making friends and stuff like that?

So I've suggested my my main one is What about making friends and stuff like that? So I've suggested my main one is joining events company. If you like to go out and you like to party and stuff like that, I think into a fantastic way. Sports teams, I've got any friends, I don't. You've got us to be wanted. We be friends. But I pay you to.

It was a donation. We don't have to mention that. You don't have to say that. We'll get that out. No. Johnny, you did like rowing and stuff, right? It was a donation. We don't have to mention that. You didn't have to say that. Look at that out. No. Johnny, you did like rowing and stuff, right? I did.

Interestingly. So, there were two types of people that I encountered in uni. People who were obsessed about being on like the rugby or the rowing socials and all that sort of stuff. And people who very much just kind of like kept themselves themselves, I was really good friends with some of the people funny enough in my flat where I was a fresher, and they were the people who I ended up being really, really friendly with. And I'm still in touch with all of them now,

10 years later. One of them has just another wedding, just got engaged. Asked me if he is a best man. Really, yeah. So that's crazy. So the point with that is, again, as I just give you everything in my life, what are we trying to get out of this?

What's the goal here? Be a best man. Well, yeah, I mean, I can go, don't make it complete it. Do you want to leave uni with loads of low level acquaintances that you never speak to after graduation? Or would it be nice to have a couple of friends that you speak to in the rest of your life? And so I think there were a lot of people

who paid a lot of very diffuse attention to a large group of people because they felt like that gave them popularity and status. That's a good point. So I guess it depends on the timeline as well. It's like, if you see your university degree three years as a funnel, you don't have to narrow down in year one.

You can spread your net wide, feel out loads of different types of people. Not literally. You don't touch them. Yeah, do not touch them, but just feel them all out and then be like, actually, this group who I thought I was mates with was just because of the primacy effect. Yeah. And then you want to split test, don't you? Yeah.

And you know, there's no problem with split testing your social life because ultimately, it's a reciprocal relationship. As long as you understand that it won't be a true split test. Yeah. People are so tribal, man. Like, the fear I had was that because of that, because people are so tribal, I thought like, oh, if I, if I don't like knuckle down now with that group then I'm gonna lose them. But actually, I remember being I remember being a union

some of my friends being that also like who you're going out with tonight and then take a piss. Oh, you're going out with like the promo leads are you? And it's like, okay, there we go. That's like then that's the tribal nature and the problem is if you, if you are, if you are in a group of people who don't have a sufficiently high level of emotional intelligence to understand that this is a good idea and that they should be doing it too. You become a victim of their own insecurities,

which is really fucking dangerous. Because if you sequester to what they think you should do, it's a very, very fucking slippery slope. It is projection, isn't it? They project like, this is what I think I should be doing. I think you should be doing the same thing. If you're not, I'm going to criticize it. It's right. You're going out with a different group of people. I wish I was able to go out with a different group of people. You're not going out with us therefore, you're out of our little social circles. Yeah.

If that's the case, then screw them. Well, just use it as a, you can use it as a big fucking red flag about like the person who's not bad. Yeah. And in tradition, stop. Stop lost. You either move that into another. And the portfolio.

Um, I think another good point is, do not choose the flatmates you're going to live with in 2nd year or 3rd year in October. And I see this happen all the time. Like the number of people and this is the second year flat is always the rockiest doesn't it? Yeah, you've just made the this a rash decision early on. And one of the problems is that because good student accommodation, good private student accommodation is becoming more and more competitive now, that it's common for a lot of the good flats, well priced flats, to go by November, December time. And he like, okay, like there definitely is a spectrum between wanting to go early enough to still have a good choice of all houses, but late enough to be able to

make a good choice of flatmates, but I can tell you a fine fact, you would much sooner live in a shit house with good housemates than a good house with artholes. So I always attend towards the latter, like you don't need to make the decision before Christmas. Like, unless you're absolutely certain and you get on like a house on fire with these people and you know all of them, another one as well. There's very few towns that finding a flat is so competitive that you have to do it before. You'd be surprised when you cast a list. You cast a list.

For the really nice ones, and then you talk to them about you as well. But I'd imagine like, you're not totally, like you will find somewhere to live that is acceptable if you start searching in March or whatever, you know, it's not like you. Another thing to consider, I would refrain from living in a house with any more than max five people, ideally four. I agree. Because I was in a seven in my second year and we chose it early on.

And it worked out just about okay, but I could see it having gone very bad. Quite easy. Did you split in 30 or into two houses? Yeah. There was also a guy who we knew who did the similar thing. This group of people like one of the guys on their corridor, they want to they like didn't want to leave them out. So they went, they lived with him. And he ended up being a saxophone. He ended up putting one of these like fake USB sticks in the bathroom and filming the girl's showering

and like was saving the videos on his computer, police raided the house, he threw his laptop in like a bin on the street and ended up as like so so basically... fucking. Yeah. That is a great story right there. I think as well, another good point to remember when you get into your second and third year house is I would genuinely, genuinely advise at the halfway point and then at the end point, just pay for a professional clean. Like I didn't get to... So you have a five-person house. It's like three quid each or something, isn't it? So just do a halfway point. So just after Christmas before you come back to uni,

pay for a professional clean. On a five-bed house it'll be maybe 300, 400 quid at absolute tops. And that's if you've essentially infested the place. And then do another one at the end because it is not worth your time You do not have the expertise the inclination the time or the Tools to be able to clean your second your house to the standard that it was when you moved the Anyway, yeah, so you may as well. There was a five five of us in a house in Jesmond 500 pounds each in the DPS and we didn't get a single penny of it back. Two and a half grand it cost to get our house back to working order. Well, according

to the agent, I honestly think we got a deal. I genuinely think we got a deal. Wow. Okay. You got two and a half grand of damage and you think it was. They had to re-floor the entire kitchen because there were these maggots that were powered by protein powder because all of us, a mixture of protein powder and creatine. So they're all grown to humongous sizes. Yeah, exactly. They were all in their benching pizza crusts. And we had 210 bottles of Tesco value vodka that were just like strewn around we'd spelled out remember when you nut twist a big thing so we spelled nuts out with the bottles on a street was this over one year one year and how many people in the flop five so two hundred and a five by five forty two so that's one per week per person

yeah there's a very like consistent rate of looking for that. Well, they did the totally advice that we gave for Sunnish and Routine. True. Ten pancakes a day, yeah. Just... Boll of ochre.

I mean, there was once a week. There was once upon a time when Morrison's were doing three litres of Morinov vodka for £12. This was before Minimum Unit price in Kermit. And I imagine you would have drank other things. You wouldn't have just lived on vodka. So it was majority of the vodka. It was mostly calories. There was a time where we would so poor that all of us were drinking water, dilute juice,

like dilute orange and vodka. Oh my god. That's a cocktail because that's three ingredients, isn't it? So... Hahaha. Hahaha. That's my idea of cocktail. What do you do, juice? What do you mix off your list? So, I have a cleaning story. Okay. So I tried to clean my flat myself with my fun year-old. No, no.

So we looked at the price of a cleaner. Like, that's very good. That's very good. It went to... Well, sorry, we'll hire, we'll just hire the stuff we need. I can, I just really clearly remember the way this woman said this, I went into BNQ, went up to the lady in BNQ, very little, very aggressive Scottish lady, looked to you, so if there's a group of people, whoever she was speaking to, she looked straight in the eye, like that. And we were, do you, like look straight in the eye like that. And we went, do you have any cleaning equipment?

She was like, no, you don't have any cleaning equipment. She's like, well, we've got the dog doctor. The rogue doctor, okay, the dog doctor. We'll take the rogue doctor, which is this like- It's so hard to hear the bloody words. It's gone from me to you. This is, it's a tower that basically shoots out water out the front of it, runs some brushes over it, and then, that's like a dry brush at the back, it's shite, basically.

I've got the doctor. The doctor, I'll sort you know. The doctor's here to see you. It's 37% of the alcohol. The like is in the elbow. Pour this like purple stuff into this thing, push it over the carpet, did one row, we're like, that's jammed, that's like, die the carpet in one specific sweep.

Just, I don't know why it's actually some man. Something to do with the carpet, so then I had to do the whole house in this, in this new thing. And then they try to take the deposit office because somebody left a closed condom wrapper under the bed. We had used condoms under our bed when I moved in. Oh really? Yeah, the agent was just like, well sorry mate. And it used condoms and loads of mortises just on the floor. Well, as a good time. Here's the way. Here's a little hack for you. The way that, as I'm slowly moving into landlord life, beginning to understand this, the way that the DPS, the deposit protection

scheme works, is to do with the tenants returning the property in the condition that it was moved into it. So what you actually really want is for the condition of the property that you move into to be as dirty as is possible whilst still acceptable Then complain to the landlord of the letting agent They'll come around they'll clean it But your inventory will be done at the condition that it was when you moved in so if you do move in Take photos have a little bit of a look if you do move in, take photos, have a little

bit of a look, if there's any marks, stuff like that, just grab a couple of snaps, ever note them. Nice. And then, and then in, you can set a date on the ever note. To remind you, yeah, here it is. And then, yeah, there you go. Basically, you want it to be as low as possible so that when you end up moving out, you're like, well, that's cool. So no, no, no, doctor, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, laundry. And then so that's, it's difficult, but basically see, see your family at a cadence of once a month, probably the safe. I think another thing to consider as well,

which I never ever did at uni was that you've left your mom and dad and family back home and the dogs and stuff like that. And although you're having this fantastic time, your parents probably miss you. mom and dad and family back home and the dogs and stuff like that. And although you're having this fantastic time, your parents probably miss you. Life just went on for them as normal. They're now in the house and there's no more use of mess anymore. There's no more like him coming in from college and talking to you about how his days

been. Like think about it if you were them. Like if you were a parent, you'd want to feel like you were a part of your child's life as they've moved away to uni. So invite them up. Let's show them you university room. Like, if you've got a sports game that you're playing at or if you're doing a play or if you've got a presentation for uni or if you've got whatever, like invite them up to it because that's a very good point. That'd be a very meaningful experience for your parents. There's so many relationships, mature relationships that go to seed and people's parents split up during the first couple of years

of university because the final thing which bonded these two adults together was the rearing of this child. And I'm not saying that you inviting your parents up once every six weeks is going to save their marriage, but it's definitely at least going to make them feel a little bit better. I saw that happen. I saw someone witness the breakup of their parents in the first month of uni. Grin.

It's mad, man. Like, yeah. It's like tech, techs them as well. Yeah, it's like just like, you're spending eight hours a day on your phone. Like, you can afford to. And they have played a massive part in getting it at that point.

Just because you're nailing birds with condoms and like doing all the fun stuff, like it still doesn't mean you can make time to test your parents, just not widely nailing a bird with a condom. I just, I can't amight, sorry. Oh man. Oh man. You can nail. Or teaming or or man. Yeah, what I don't use other people's olive oil is a loop when you're having an

orgy especially when they've just bought it for three parts 75. I can tell you were the person in the orgy. I woke up the next day. where's all my olive oil going? Oh, so we had an old jeal last night. Like, what, with olive oil? I mean, why are you there? I showed me photos as well. I was like, guys, like, I've just bought it.

It wasn't open, they like clicked it open. But I mean, I'd be sad about the use of the olive oil, but I wouldn't feel disgusted because it would be almost impossible to put it back in. That's true. It was one of the dispensable bottles as well. So yeah, go. But even then, what are they going to do? It's scrape up and down their skin. You know what you should do to protect yourself possible to put it back in. That's true. It was one of the dispensable bottles as well. So yeah, go ahead.

But even then, what are they gonna do? Just scrape it up and down the skin. You know what you should do to protect yourself from that one of those like one cal sprays? Yeah. Not going back in there. No one's gonna be using that. Probably sharpener would you with it?

If you push it in slow things down, it's just significantly. So this is only one calorie. Yeah. It's like a one stroke spray, isn't it? It would be like a pull out and a screw. You just have to keep them a pull out. They'd be using and keep reapplying. Yeah they'd be using Gary's butter instead. So the other categories I've got, so we've been through academic, we've

been through social and relationships. And then fatness. Fatness, yeah. So it's a fatness. Physical and financial life. Let's go financial. Add in. OK, so the point that Johnny made earlier, which is very, very well put, of a degree, is an investment. And so when people are like, when people be like setting up a business is a business,

is too risky. It's like you're putting yourself in 60 grand of debt to go and do something that is... Is that how much university is that? Well for me nine grand a year times six years plus living costs so yeah pretty but remembering that I first the tuition fees for all of our first degrees, 9% as well, 9.1% is the new. It's 6.1 up until 24,000, but anything above that is 9.5. Like mortgage levels of debt.

Yeah, I think just suck off your student debt, pay minimum or go to good a paraguay or came in islands and just anyway. So yeah, it was somewhat, it was Nate Schmidt that said, you are taking on like a huge amount of debt to go and work a job that guarantees like 30 grand a year for life, maybe with a slight incremental growth. That's much more risky than starting a business, for example. So do start a business, do like, you know, it doesn't mean there's not mutually exclusive. Because it's financial outside of uni or while you're at uni. So remember that like uni itself is a is an investment. And so make sure you pass it because otherwise you've

got the worst of both of us, you're just committed to the debt plus the. The debt doesn't go away just because you failed. Oh, yeah, exactly. It's just tingling. All of our grads, you never ran above, like what is it, 15K? Like just cruise below the radar. Well, yeah, I see. No, I love the notice. cruise below the radar, but the point is you are there

to maximize your return on that investment. So you've already committed to the debt, even if you don't feel the cost of that because of student loans until later. So make the most of the opportunities, like you were there in an academic hub where there are people around you that are complete sources of knowledge, like professors, the people around you, the libraries, other people, the course, so just soak it up. How many of the student discounts as well and just take as much as you can that's designed to

feed you during that time? I would be interested to hear your thoughts on whether or not you would advise people to take a year in industry. Or I think Johnny probably has a way in between second and third year. No. Why? If you get paid and find a way. Yeah, no, you take it as a properly earned industry. I didn't do it. Pop that over there because you took it to the reserve. So probably in industry. I mean, I didn't do it. I popped out of that

because it sometimes buzzes the mic. Is that okay? I think the year in industry, what you're trying to get out of that is, do I want to go into that line of work? And I think you can do that in a lot less time than a year. Like obviously, yes, if you get like a salary or per rate salary, I would only be talking about if you got a, like a,

I think a typical like internships, maybe like 18 grand for the year. Right. So the two benefits are it potentially gets you a job following, assuming you like it, I suppose, but because you have the information that you, that you like it or don't, it pays you, but it denays you as well. So I did two internships over summer that were of that format just shorter. I mean, one was five weeks, one was first time I met you, actually, yes, during one of them.

And the other one was eight weeks long, got off of the job at the end of one of them. It was so paid. So you didn't say, you'll get the job off of it. Yeah, it's like a summer holiday, basically. And you get a flavor of, and I remember thinking, I don't wanna do either of these things. But, but I think that's definitely, so my approach to how I would plan my university years now,

if it was me, is I would do university year study, then I would do a summer abroad as probably a party rep or something so yeah because the intensity of experience that you're going that you end up having. I did in between this is a terrible idea in between my bachelors and my masters I did a you've laughed at masters again. I did a year in Ibiza. Now one of the problems of doing a year in Ibiza was I came back and my mind was about 75% of the speed before I'd gone out there. So it took a little bit of time for me

to get back up to operating level. That's not a year in industry now. I suppose, no. So my point is that you get a You get to experience a lot of partying over the summit I would also advise you're an industry and my reason for that is that by the time you're 21 and you finished If you've never spent any consistent time working now with the internship of summer internship kind of gets around this But with my model of going away and working abroad in Magalofal,

my mayor or whatever, you can't do that. If you've never been in a 9-5 and felt what it feels like to sit in an office all the time, you are going to tumble out. So one of my flatmates, JT, he'll be listening. He went, did three years of uni, this is before placement years, were really a thing, years and industry were really a thing. And he tumbled straight out of uni, 21 years old, into the Aldi graduate scheme. Oh, it's intense. 60 plus hours a week. Yeah.

Working in Middlesbrough, living with us, and he'd done his six weeks of being a checkout person. And he was on 40 grand. He's like, you're 20 years old on 40 grand a year, Audi A4 outside, like, full of it, and it sounds fantastic, but he'd never wanted to work in retail. He didn't want to do 60 hours a week of work,

and this guy is now just left a job at Bloomberg to go work at BlackRock. Right. And he's like, okay, that's the level that you're operating on. And I think that delaying the delaying you're entering into the working world first off, if you do you're an industry, yeah, it's a year of work. But if you can get it in the city where you're a uni, you get to spend it with your other university flatmates that are still studying. And you extend, you essentially extend your degree

whilst not having to pay whilst earning some really, really good money, you get to understand what the working world feels like. You have a bit of liberation and a bit of a break. Yeah, you can have to get back into academia, which is maybe not going to be so easy, because you've underste that groove of learning a little bit. But I think it's a really good idea. And I would, from my side, I mean, me and Darren went to Carnage, went to Run Scotland, Carnage for them, and BBC Radio Parliament featured us because they didn't like us at all. And we had to essentially fleet the country. But I found a couple of the quotes that I was looking for from this guy,

Nate Smith. He's a bit of a outlier because he quit college. So he set up a drop shipping company was in business school. As soon as he made his first thousand dollars drop shipping, he was like, actually, why am I in business school now? And just left. So he says, I have a passionate hatred for modern business school. I paid thousands to learn nothing of value. Then I spent my free learning, free time learning, copywriting online for free and started making more money than my professors in less than a year. Terrible ROI

college, the purpose, the purpose isn't fun, but it is a lot of fun to be there at least. The purpose isn't fun, but it is a lot of fun to be there at least. And where is it? Yeah, friend of mine graduated with a business degree, 50K in student loans, applied to 40 jobs entry level, didn't get a single one, moved back home, now taking real estate classes, dude can't even get a 40K per year job with his degree, but yeah, definitely go to college. Dude can't even get a 40k per year job with his degree, but yeah, definitely go to college. Take our thousands of student loans, learn how to follow rules, don't lead, get a job building someone else's empire, mediocre pays, you can go 40 hours a week, miserable, slow down, slow down, go on.

Tell them to go to college, tell them college's way, repeat, put the break to you, so like, don't let this be you. Stop it. You cast are going to be knocking down the door. So I think, yeah, totally, I do get that. We've got to see both perspectives of that. No, like that's someone who isn't outlining it.

Yeah, but I think what you can definitely take from that and what I think is a good thing to take away is, don't be scared of changing the course. Like, you've only committed one year and yeah, it's one big year. I think you have to read this one out, because I'm not allowed to, you know. It's such a good one. Imagine a product that doesn't allow refunds, doesn't guarantee results, has dramatically increased in price, has dramatically decreased in value,

encourages taking a massive debt if you can afford it. Debt is legally inescapable. This is called college, wake up. capable. This is called college wake up. Oh, well, if you're at university, you do. Well, so all five is one hour and 20 minutes into the podcast. All three of us started the businesses that we have at university. I'm like number one of saying that university was, for me, a waste of time. The difference is, I don't think it was a waste of money because it was £3,000 a year.

I see. It's made to you a different person, and I think, even if it doesn't get you a job at Ernst and Young, it's not about that necessarily, it's about who has grown you into. And I think there's nobody saying that hedging your income and developing multiple sources of income is a bad thing, regardless of what you end up studying or doing. I think, don't be scared of changing your course. If you get halfway through the year and you're like, right, I can't switch anymore. Right, okay, no, you can't, but you can bin that year. You've got your friends at uni switched to a course that you're going to like.

Even universities will allow you to move internally without having to reapply as well. I wish, I still to this day, wish that I'd done philosophy or psychology and said, and I knew at the time that that's where my passion lay. But I was very attached to the idea of a degree having a linear trajectory towards a profession and my terrifying fear was if I do philosophy. What job does that get me into? Whereas what I should have actually thought is what skills does it give me. And in terms of university, you may be paying.

I don't have any way near that level of force. I was at 18, I was just like, I mean, know how many were near that level of four sites at 18. I was just like, I mean, to be a business man, I'm gonna do business. That was nice. It was like, what a full internet business. So what did you all want to be when you started? You fuck knows.

Probably a business owner, which is what I actually ended up being. But one of the problems was, I got to see very quickly, so I did business management at undergrad. Very quickly, I got to experience what running a real-world business is like. And doing Club Promote for all that, Club Promote has get accused of being glorified party boys.

You get to see from the ground floor, you get a very, very good cross-section of everything from finances, logistics, operations, marketing, advertising, HR. You do everything. And you're like, right, okay, so, HR, you do everything. And you're like, right, okay, so each of the modules that I had at university, I was going into a lecture and learning something, then coming out, looking at my phone, and experiencing the real world. And I was like, what the fuck am I doing learning about Henry Ford scientific model of management?

When everything that I'm experiencing in the real business world, and I know it's the real business world because we're making thousands of pounds a year doing this business, is showing me that it's useless. That was exactly my experience of a business degree. I did a module in entrepreneurship because I was like, you know what, everything so far has been so dry and like operations research and linear programming and stuff that didn't have any. Kaizen. Yeah, it was like how Welsh is grape juice run their algorithms to allocate grates

from different sources to make the flavor the certain. It was like, this is completely irrelevant. So I was like, okay, module the entrepreneurship. And it turned out to be history of entrepreneurship in the 1930s in America. And I was like, this has told us nothing about. So I think that anyone who's doing a business degree should be really, really cautious about it.

Well, I suppose that's all like fucking popular. Because you're not going to have successful businessmen teaching you, they're not going to be lecturing you. It'll be academics that actually most likely don't have an ostensible business of their own by definition, because they're not in the job that... Well, that's Anton. That's the way it is. That is Anton. Those of these teachers are just fucking failures. We'll link the video, maybe actually get rid of us and Anton will appear here.

I had a dream last night. Wait three of us. Now he's back. Now we're back. Three of us were sat in a room and Anton came in eating scrambled egg and toast. That was a dream. In a bowl. Okay. But actually that's a really, are we wrapping up? Yes, we'll wrap up. It's a bit physical, don't we? Of course. I would, I wish so much. And I don't feel like it was available as much then. Maybe that's just going to And I don't feel like it was available as much then, maybe that's just going to didn't, I didn't see any of it, but getting some kind of concurrent alternate of education while I was eating me from podcasts, books, you know. I mean, now people's capacity to be able to learn stuff. Do a couple of, like, if you're doing 30 minutes of work a day, the minimum effective

dose throughout your freshness. I do 30 minutes of reading. Like, do, do, when rolling like a Udemy course or like a... I do not say that you have no time because most people read thousands of words a day but it's from some newsfeed or like something completely ass-an-out code. Limit-trade, limit copywriting. Those things feel so rough to both. If you have those, they're far more valuable than you'd agree.

And you're learning something else. Do it in your spare time. If I was back at uni, actually, the job that I would get, if I didn't want to be a promoter, another job that I would do would be get funding to, or use some of my student loan to get PT qualification, because I think that pretty much unqualified. I am aware that there is PT level three as a genuine qualification and PT is out there, I apologise, but it's a fucking couple of weeks course. I think most of PT is a degree that it is a terrible.

My point is that anyone who relies on their PT level three is like the source of the... My point is that from starting point to qualified, the takeoff is rapid. Get yourself a job at the gym group and you're only £35 an hour. And you could be 19 or 20. Flexible as well, so you can do it all. £35 an hour, even now it blows my mind that PT's get paid that much. It's fantastic. It's an unbelievable route to get into and you go, right, okay, I need to do what? Let's say I do 10 hours, 20 hours a week. Okay, that, that's between 350 and 700 pounds a week. Which of you you met any part of your uni met?

Just do Biny weekends. Biny weekends for most of the time you're at uni. Work during the day. That is a good point, actually. I couldn't, like, I think we could have done that quite easily. Yeah, yeah. You just do, well, I mean, the gym, the pure gym, no, lots of things, but yes.

Yes, we can. I think, I mean, that's what a fantastic option for, yeah. So speaking of gym, yes, it's thinking about this and it's Jim coming I think he's on his way, but video about Jim. You got Jim so Physical yes covered academic social relationships financial yeah physical you are between 18 and 25. There is no excuse for you to not be in good shape at that age. You are a walking ball of steroids. So if you're shapeless and skinny

fat and untrained and you have the full capacity to train and you aren't, you're wasting a huge and you have the full capacity to train and you aren't, you're wasting a huge dimension of your life and of your body. And it only gets harder from then on in. And if you miss that window and you only start training when you're 30, when you think you've got more time or when you're 40, you've missed on that window of potentially being able to build the base of a physique that you can carry for the rest of your life. That's a really good point. What's, there's a specific window, I think, between the age of like 12 and 18, or is it 12 and 14 or something, which is when people make particular physical adaptations,

then they're more pronounced later in life. I've got to presume that there's a tail-off that will occur 18, 20, 21, etc, etc. But you're totally right, like the fact that one of the only reasons I think that any of us are in good shape is the fact that one of the only reasons I think that any of us are in good shape is the fact that we started training when we were 18 years old.

I could never train again for the rest of my life. Go back in the gym. Young gym, for us. Yeah. Go back in the gym at 40 years old, 45 years old, to spend six months in the gym. Let only back in good neck. Back in good neck.

Even just the time alone, but also the endocrine profile, the hormone profile that you had at the time was so conducive to muscle gain. The other mistake is either not training at all or training, but constantly cutting. Constantly trying to be shredded. Okay, so give me a very easy, I'm at university, I'm a girl or a guy, what's the split that I'm going to do? How am I going to train? So first off, this goes for girls as well. I don't think just in terms of muscle mass and whatever. It's like, yeah. So first off, I would say that a good opportunity to get around this, if you don't like the idea of training, if you're not into maybe training on your own, first off, get a training partner that may help. Alternative would be start doing a sport.

Like if you're playing netball, you'll have netball training. If you're doing rowing, you're gonna get absolutely camed with some good conditioning work. Rugby's gonna have some good S&C coaches in there. You're gonna have a community of other people around you, but if you're not doing a sport like that, remembering that every uni's got books,

fucking table tennis, badminton, like ultimate frisbee, whatever it is there's something for you, but if you don't want to do that and you're going to go on to a training split, what's the suggestion? So get as lean as is reasonably practicable. So just like below 12% body fat, so like either for a guy. Yeah, for a guy or a girl, abs almost showing is lean enough. If you leaner than great and then just spend as much time as possible gaining muscle, don't go folking, fat bulking. Don't get your membership at the KFC club, just eat a slice surplus, you're gaining two to 300 grams a month for the whole

of your degree. And if you really feel like you're spilling over with body fat, spend two or three weeks cutting and get back on the ground. Before you see it in a broad, what are they doing in terms of training three days a week? Can I just add on to that an alternative? So if you do, if you're someone who's very visually focused, who isn't that bothered about, because I ideally are in a calorie surplus on maintenance the whole time, if you are going to cut, I would cut in third term, I cut when exam you're on. So don't let it get in the way of the rest of your. So like, that was something we both did right, I think, which was dieting when exams were coming.

It makes more productive as well. You're going to be at the library, you're distracted anyway. Turn one, turn two. Starting uni now, just forget about body foot. Well, don't forget about it, but don't forget about cutting. Have two terms, like 20 weeks or longer, of just built in muscle. I mean, the last term, if you want to diet for some holiday, do it then. That's the alternative. But ideally, I just think it's hard as an 18-year-old guy, you're extremely visually focused. I think that a lot of guys are at least when I was at uni, a lot of guys were just concerned about being massive. The biggest guy was the best guy. So it's this kind of race to hyper masculinity

because no one is yet showing any outright signs of supermasculinity because you're all just basically big children. This is the difficulty isn't it because we're trying to give advice for the two sides but yeah for the people because I know exactly the kind of person you mean that just tries to get massive and a lot of the time they overshoot and they just get fat and they end up just like my girl. The girl that fans to remain, the girl that wants to remain the girl that wants to room try and get to a size four like some unbelievably tiny size so they're just constantly on the stepping machine. Yeah, I'm telling you now that

guys will find you more attractive. You will be more healthy and you will enjoy the shape of your body more and it will be more sustainable for longer and your maintenance calories will be higher if you've got a little bit of muscle mass and that does not mean that you actually look like you have muscle it just means that you look like you have some shape to your body. Yeah, my yeah again I'm gonna fly the flag for it. Join across the box like I don't think as someone at university your the gym where I go I think a normal membership 79 pounds

across fit membership now is49, as a student. Yes, £49 a month, that is expensive, but you essentially have a PT, seven days a week, doing a class. Like, if you're someone who's really into the athletics, consider it. It's a small price to pay. I think never shy away from investing with yourself,

especially a gym membership, £49 a month. Like, you'd spend that in vodka easily. So, yeah, you spend that on two nights out. I'll turn it Lee, hire a coach. I just finished work with someone who's just finished uni. So he's been uni for four and a half years. And like, he's just finished working. He's off to work somewhere exotic.

But before and after, he is a completely different person, really, massively different person. And his perspective on it is like it completely reshaped my, because we all experience that you go from being like not that big to being the person who is very big person. And that impacts how you feel about yourself. And when you're going through that phase of your life, having that as something to fall back on, I got this. So, it's something that I always used to think while I was at uni was I would never ever miss a training session. And the reason that I wouldn't ever miss a training session was because I knew that if everything else in my life had gone backwards that day because

it's so turbulent, right? And we come back to the fact that you don't have a tremendously big sample of life to work with. Like almost every experience, especially when you've just moved away from home. Everything's novel. You've never dealt with this before, so you have no idea of how to model what is going on. Like now, for me, it's very rare that I have a new experience. I'm like, everything is some version of something I've already dealt with.

So I've got stuff to work with. But they think is why your life speeds up as you get older. Because it's not going to work. Dretchen Ruben, the happiness project, you should check that out if you want to learn out more about how to extend your remembered self life through the use of novelty. But yeah, I remember that I always used to train, so I was like, if I fucked it today and everything's gone wrong and I had now you with the girlfriend, it's back home and I did that and the other, I know that I've got a good training session in and my body's progressed

point not one of a sudden, which is a nice way to do it. So any parting thoughts on how to survive university? Final thing on physical is to get a slower cooker or a rice cooker or something. Because it just requires minimum competence at baking food, you can just put a bunch of frozen stuff in or whatever and it makes something that is possible as a meal and then you're not relying on like plain pasta or dominoes every day.

Super cheap as well. Super cheap. I actually got an email of someone asking if I was going to make that slow cooker ever known to public and I now have. So if you want the slow cooker recipes which are idiot proof is in I can make them and they're definitely uni student proof, give me an email, email the rest is in the show note and I will send you the note. So my rice cooker just broke of eight years, instantly bought another one, like didn't make to know how to second thought. And I tested the fuse first. So that was the second thought. I tested the fuse first. Just. No, no, no. So that was the second thought.

Well, I was like, oh, I was gonna get, I tried to perform CPR on it. It didn't work, but what do you want? Partly thought on life at university. Try to not leave with a regret, or try to minimise regrets. How do you know what you're going to regret? So, it's a tough one, but I think saying yes to as many things as you can, like if there's something that's tempting, and you find yourself saying no to something because you're worried

about, I need to do this assignment or I'm worried about my calories or whatever, things that went through my head when I was at uni just have as many new experiences as you can because it's like a period of life where ultimately I think probably all of us I feel like I went in like beating your old kid and came out like I feel completely different now. So I think those experiences shape you become. So breadth with experiences important I think. Stop clinging on to what you think is, or you become so breadth with experience is important, I think. Cool. Stop clinging on to what you think is safe, or you will, all of those new experiences will completely pass you by. It is possible to pass your degree and enjoy every new experience that you want to.

You're fully capable of doing that. You're the one in charge of your time. And if you use the tips, who have discussed, you'll be able to do all of that and have a really full day. Um, and a really rich life experience in those three years. I think we are. I think that's a really good way to put it. The, if I had known, attempted the stuff that we've gone through today of how

it organized my life or the fact that I shouldn't double down on any one set of experiences. So I became like big dick party boy. Like that was my thing. And it meant that I missed out on a lot of experiences that would have occurred during the day, because I thought, oh well, I'm not going to go to the trip to Hadrian's Wall because like, not to rubbish. Like no, I'll go out and get lashed with the lard. I'll day drink on Osborne Road from 11 a.m. when Spybar opens. Like, it's gonna be just the same

as when you day drank last week at 11 a.m. when Spybar. See that, that's so insidious as well, because if that's what you spend your week doing in the next week, very soon is the end of the year. You've missed out on that richness of life experience and you have become a more boring, more basic person that is gonna carry you for the rest of your life. And so it's a slippery slope.

So good here is more. So good here is more. So bloody hell. Where a condom while you there. That's it, that's what this happens. It should be called. Where a condom while you're there. Right.

Right. Okay, bye then. Thank you. Bye.