20 Hacks To Make Your Life Easier At Nottingham Trent University
Get ready to have the best (and craziest) years of your life here in the place I love the most. Here’s 20 tips, ideas, and life hacks at Nottingham Trent University to help make the best college years here!
1. The glass speaker
Are you one of those people who always misses the alarm go off in the morning and then when you wake up you are actually super late? Let’s end that morning rush! At night, after setting your alarm, pop your phone in a glass. The glass will work as a speaker and make it impossible for you to miss your alarm in the morning!
2. Can tabs to save space in your closet
So we all know (especially girls) the struggle that it is having a small closet during your uni days. This hack is super useful and will change your life. Use a can tab to hang your hanger on another hanger! You can use as much as you need and get your closet finally sorted out. Now you know, start saving those can tabs after your favourite drinks!
3. Use Google Translate to spot those errors
After writing a massive essay and re-reading it a thousand times you will get completely lost. This means that by the time you have to go through it one last time to check for errors, you will probably miss half of them. The best thing to do is copy your essay to Google Translator and play it out loud so you can hear your essay whilst doing whatever else you have to do and spot those mistakes easily.
4. Ice Ironing
You don’t even bother to iron your clothes? I know the feeling, but every once in a while, comes the occasion when we have to look decent and presentable. If you’re still too lazy to iron your clothes, just pop a bit of ice on top of your shirt, wrap it around and throw it in the dryer. Voilá, no effort ice ironed shirt ready to put on.
5. Pasta single portion
I discovered this one recently thanks to a housemate. You know that little whole on the big pasta spoon we all have in our kitchen? That’s actually a way of measuring the pasta for one person! You can thank me later!
6. Record the lectures
How many times have you fallen asleep this semester? Come on, be honest. I know sometimes coffee doesn’t work so the best thing you can do is record your lectures and play them at home whilst taking your notes. This way you can sleep your way through uni and still do well on essays and exams. Best of both worlds!
7. Iron to make grilled cheese
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Make your sandwich, wrap it in foil and put your iron on top of it. Let it sit for 5 mins then turn it on the other side and do the same. Now you can enjoy a proper grilled cheese sandwich.
8. No dishes!
No one likes to do the dishes and no one likes to get their hands dirty whilst having a snack. Turn your snack bag into a bowl just by simply pushing the bottom of the bag up and creating a bowl shape. No more dirty hands and after you can throw it straight to the bin.
9. Another Hack for the Grilled Cheese lovers
Don’t have an electric sandwich maker? Just lay your toaster on the side and you can use it to make a great grilled cheese!
10. Pasta without the pot
This hack is way faster than using a regular pot to cook your noodles or pasta. Just pop them in your kettle and let them cook. Great delicious noodles without the effort.
11. Become a chef
Short on food but still want to eat decently? Go on www.supercooks.com . There, you can enter the ingredients you have at home and it will give you a recipe where you can use them and tell you exactly how to do it! Genius, isn’t it?
12. Get reliable information for essays
Instead of doing your research using google (that will most likely lead you to non-trustworthy websites) use scholar.google.com . Here, all the information you could possibly find comes from reliable sources like articles for example. Cant go wrong with this one.
13. For all the procrastinators out there
If you’re one of those people who leaves uni work for the last minute and spends most of your time online, you can download the “Selfcontrol” app. Yes, that’s the name. The app will allow you to block those typical procrastination websites for a certain period of time so you cannot access them and focus on your studies.
14. Make your essay look a bit longer
So you may not have a word limit for an essay but you kind of want your work to look like you have actually made an effort and you want your paper to look a bit longer. Changing the font size of everything will be too obvious but if you only make the periods bigger it will make a difference.
15. Chegg.com rent textbook
We all know how expensive textbooks can be. Some students can go through an entire years without getting them. Others grab them from the library. But isn’t it such a bummer to always have to keep an eye out for when the book is available and having to return them on a certain date? Here’s the news, you can actually rent them! Websites like Chegg.com will help you with that.
16. Use google drive for group work
Google drive is the holy grail for group work! Instead of completing that presentation and send it to your group mate so he can pick it up and continue, Google Drive allows you to work all together from the comfort of your bed and seeing the other group member actually working on the assignement and saves you loads of time.
17. Mug food
This is the best student hack ever! Mug cakes, mug macaroni, mug whatever you want to put in there! Look for recipes online, pop the ingredients in the mug, throw it in the microwave, wait a couple of mins and voilá! Dinner sorted out.
18. Little reminder
Set your essays due dates calendar as your phone lockscreen and never lose tracks of when you have to submit your work or when you have a test/exam!
19. Egg carton cooler
When you use your computer for hours in uni it is certain that it will start to heat up. When you finish your eggs next week grab the carton and put it under your computer. It will help your computer cool down and keep it safe!
20. No plate for pizza?
Maybe they’re all dirty or you don’t want to wash them after. Whatever it is, grab the top part of the pizza box, rip it in four and there you go, 4 plates that you can throw away after. Also, if you have leftovers when you’re done, fold the bottom part of the box in half and there you go, a new tiny pizza box. Double win!
