What all the guys above have said is all great advice. I want to re-iterate what Batty and Malla above have said. I'm not at uni myself - not any more. But I was. And when I was at uni I felt the same. When I was at uni, my terms were longer than most of the rest of uni too, start the year on the 1st September, finish the year at the very end of July, have the month of August off for summer holidays then start it all again. 2 weeks off for Christmas, 2 weeks off at Easter. It was longer than the traditional school year. Assignments, coursework, essays, practical placements, it felt like it was never ending. On the one hand, you just want to stay in bed, cuddle your special teddy and eat sweeties. On the other hand, you have your weekly project that you need to research and complete, you have reading up to do on another subject, you need to revise ready for a test later in the week, plus you really need to be thinking about your termly assignment. It gets very stressful.
You need to remember that it's stressful for everybody. There are lots of others in the same boat, struggling to juggle uni and personal life. It is, however, made more difficult when your brain wanders into a different mindset. For me... I would get overly stressed and my mind would just shut off and be like "La la la la la la la, not gonna adult today!" It was far from deliberate - my brain sorta does that in stressful situations. The best way to cope, from my point of view, was twofold. The two things I did are exactly what Batty and Malla have said above.
1) Scheduling. Try and keep to some sort of timetable. I knew that on a Monday I would get my weekly project. So Monday was for researching that project. Monday lunchtime, library, get books, check the internet, print off stuff. Monday evening, look through everything and figure out what is useful. The resources I find on Monday would be what I use. Then Tuesday evening, I put it all together. I use Wednesday evening if needed. Ready to present it all on Friday. Using lunchtimes at uni was useful to get things done such as research and revision, that way I didn't need to do it later, at home. Keeping some sort of schedule is really, really important. It's VERY difficult when you first start, but you eventually get into the swing of the routine.
And...
2) Rewarding yourself. When you have your schedule, you can compartmentalise your grown-up stinky work. It also means that outside of that schedule, you can relax. So.... for me, I would do my work during the week. That would leave me weekends free to do what I want. You know what? Sometimes that would involve not getting out of bed, snuggling with my teddy and just being little. Sometimes it would involve going out shopping or watching a movie or.... well, anything. Just relaxing. Letting myself be in little space if my brain happened to go that way.
It's all about trying to find some sort of balance. You can't be little all the time. And equally, you can't work yourself into the ground. 'Balance' is something that people really struggle to get the hang of. But it is something that, if you can get right, will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life.
Something else I should perhaps add. Wanting to hide under your blankets and hide away from the world can also be a sign of being low. I know for me, my little side came out so much because I was feeling very low. I did my best to get through uni by attempting to be organised, like I described above. However, sometimes you do need a little extra help to get through it all. I was lucky, I was in touch with a counsellor who I had seen for years and who was very helpful when I was really low or stressed. However, all universities and colleges in the UK (I checked your profile, you're in the UK too which is why I'm mentioning this) have an obligation to provide free counselling services for students who are struggling emotionally. If you feel that you are struggling, it may be worth looking into that.
Good luck! And if you feel you need space to be little, then this is the perfect place!
and rewarding myself seems like a good idea too xx
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