How To Survive University

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Welcome back. Johnny and…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:06

      Welcome back. Johnny and Yusuf from Propem Fitness are here again. Today-

   2. JOJonny0:11

      (laughs)

   3. CWChris Williamson0:12

      ... we are going to discuss how to survive university. How many degrees have we got between us? One and a ... uh, you're a chartered accountant. Yeah.

   4. YUYusef0:22

      An ACA.

   5. CWChris Williamson0:23

      One and a ... you're now a bachelor of medicine.

   6. YUYusef0:26

      Oh, yeah, true. Well, I'm, I'm a, a ... is it a health science diploma that you get after halfway through? And then ... so 1, 1.5-

   7. JOJonny0:32

      You're the only one that knows. Don't ask us.

   8. YUYusef0:34

      Oh, okay. (laughs) true.

   9. CWChris Williamson0:36

      (laughs) You've got, you've got kind of two. I've got two. So there's five degrees between us, in like cumulative amount of like what?

   10. YUYusef0:41

       How have you got two?

   11. CWChris Williamson0:43

       (laughs) Masters.

   12. JOJonny0:43

       When did you sneak a second one in? Oh, I see. Right, okay.

   13. YUYusef0:45

       I done a master's, ma- master's.

   14. CWChris Williamson0:46

       Master's.

   15. JOJonny0:46

       Master's.

   16. CWChris Williamson0:47

       So we've been at uni for like, what, f- twelve years between us? Something like that?

   17. JOJonny0:50

       Time.

   18. YUYusef0:50

       Yeah.

   19. JOJonny0:50

       Bare time, bro. Bare time.

   20. YUYusef0:51

       Made every possible mistake that you could make-

   21. JOJonny0:54

       Yeah.

   22. YUYusef0:54

       ... at university. Been waste man, been super productive, and everything in between. So-

   23. JOJonny1:00

       I re-sat a year at uni.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:02

       Did you?

   25. JOJonny1:02

       Yeah.

   26. CWChris Williamson1:03

       What for? I would have never guessed that.

   27. JOJonny1:05

       So ... well, uh, it's part of what I want to talk about.

   28. CWChris Williamson1:08

       Fantastic.

   29. JOJonny1:08

       Went just basically ... came out of first year hard, with momentum.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:14

       (laughs)
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (clears throat) …

   1. CWChris Williamson15:00

      trying to get some low-hanging fruit for studying tactics.

   2. YUYusef15:04

      (clears throat)

   3. CWChris Williamson15:04

      So I think the one thing that I ha- Like, you can't o- completely write off your entire first year-

   4. YUYusef15:10

      Mm.

   5. CWChris Williamson15:10

      ... as it being a waste, but-

   6. YUYusef15:13

      (coughs)

   7. CWChris Williamson15:13

      ... one of the things that you should do is begin to grease the groove of at least r- understanding how to study effectively.

   8. YUYusef15:21

      So, yeah. I'll, I've got it. So I've, I've split my notes up into this, different sections, so before we move on to study, just the final thing on, um, 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 Freshers' Week, second degree, who was, he was 18, he was called, um, I'm not gonna say his name actually, but... (laughs)

   9. CWChris Williamson15:45

      (laughs)

   10. JOJonny15:45

       (laughs)

   11. YUYusef15:45

       Um, but he-

   12. JOJonny15:46

       His national insurance number. Don't worry.

   13. YUYusef15:47

       (laughs) But he was a Muslim guy and he was drinking and I was chatting to him about his Muslim family. I was like, "Do your family know that you drink?" "Oh, no, no, it's, that's actually the f- first time." Like, "Oh, how come you're drinking?" And he's like, "Oh, just, you know, it was Freshers' Week and I, I have to 'cause of the pressure." I'm like, "Do you even like it?" He was like, "No." I'm like, "Well, don't just, like, completely compromise on who you are for the sake of approval."

   14. JOJonny16:07

       Yeah.

   15. YUYusef16:07

       "Don't just, like, do this because you think that's what you're supposed to do." And I was like, "Look..." I, I, I took it out of his hand and I was like, "Just be you. Don't, don't try and..." 'Cause this is a slippery slope. This is the time when, if you make that one compromise now, that's it. Like...

   16. CWChris Williamson16:23

       There's numerous ones that are gonna then-

   17. YUYusef16:24

       You've set yourself-

   18. JOJonny16:24

       It's a good point, and people are, are doing that, Muslim or not, in, i- in loads of ways, in Freshers' Week.

   19. YUYusef16:31

       I was like, if you like it-

   20. JOJonny16:32

       Yeah.

   21. YUYusef16:32

       ... go ahead.

   22. JOJonny16:33

       Yeah.

   23. YUYusef16:33

       Like, but the fact that you're saying you don't even like doing this, but...

   24. CWChris Williamson16:38

       Well, I did loads of stuff-

   25. JOJonny16:39

       Yeah.

   26. CWChris Williamson16:39

       I did loads of stuff that I thought that I, I thought I liked at the time. Like, I was going out all the time, and I very quickly realized that for me, I was much more interested in developing my business.

   27. YUYusef16:47

       Mm-hmm.

   28. CWChris Williamson16:47

       Like, I want to spend time developing my business, but because all of my flatmates weren't like that, I'm like, "I-"

   29. YUYusef16:53

       You feel like a weirdo.

   30. CWChris Williamson16:54

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Evernote. …

   1. YUYusef30:00

      Like, "How did I not know about this before?" And when now-

   2. NANarrator30:02

      Evernote.

   3. YUYusef30:03

      Yeah.

   4. CWChris Williamson30:03

      Yeah.

   5. YUYusef30:03

      Whenever I see anyone sat in a lecture with a Microsoft Word document open, I'm like, "You're so basic." Like, just, ugh.

   6. CWChris Williamson30:08

      Get Evernote out and start, start using it now.

   7. YUYusef30:11

      Clearly.

   8. CWChris Williamson30:11

      And if, this is the thing about greasing the groove, right? If you start using Evernote in your first year-

   9. JOJonny30:16

      ... then you're in the rhythm of it when it really matters, when second year kicks in and third year kicks in.

   10. YUYusef30:20

       Thi- this is the thing about the 10 pancakes or the bug in the system that very, very soon, it'll be a year later and your heart will be like, "Oh, god. I've got to collect all my notes."

   11. JOJonny30:27

       Yeah.

   12. YUYusef30:27

       And if they're just indexed, 'cause you don't want to be spending ... You've got a month to revise. 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-

   13. JOJonny30:40

       Yeah.

   14. YUYusef30:40

       ... you know, that is ...

   15. JOJonny30:41

       It only becomes insurmountable if you don't just manage it in a way that is ... Like, just establish a process. Establish a, like, how much work am I willing to do per day? What's my minimum effective dose to keep on top of this so it doesn't become a house fire?

   16. YUYusef30:56

       Oh.

   17. JOJonny30:56

       That I can't get out of.

   18. CWChris Williamson30:57

       And do it. And do it-

   19. YUYusef30:57

       People do just fitness as well.

   20. JOJonny30:59

       Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a wh-

   21. YUYusef31:00

       Exactly the same.

   22. JOJonny31:00

       ... whole 'nother topic, isn't it?

   23. CWChris Williamson31:02

       So, moving on.

   24. YUYusef31:04

       Couple more tips on academic before we go on?

   25. JOJonny31:06

       What I, what I keep laughing at, incidentally, is just how I don't think ... The, the, the where your advice is coming from is such a-

   26. YUYusef31:17

       (laughs)

   27. JOJonny31:17

       Like, you've d- you did a Russian memory course?

   28. YUYusef31:20

       Oh, yeah. I did a Russian, Russian memorization course.

   29. JOJonny31:23

       (laughs)

   30. CWChris Williamson31:24

       Eight tomes or something of ...
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   That's a lovely way…

   1. JOJonny45:00

      per- time of your life where everything's new and nothing stays the same.

   2. CWChris Williamson45:03

      That's a lovely way of putting it. I think as well, another, 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.

   3. JOJonny45:22

      When you were doing your GCSEs, and-

   4. CWChris Williamson45:24

      Yeah.

   5. JOJonny45:24

      ... like, yeah, it's-

   6. CWChris Williamson45:24

      Do you know what I mean? So if you, if you've been with-

   7. JOJonny45:27

      When you did it like that, it's mentally-

   8. CWChris Williamson45:28

      Fucking crazy. So think about the fact that if you're in a relationship for six months at the age of 18...

   9. YUYusef45:33

      It's a large fraction of your life.

   10. CWChris Williamson45:35

       It's a very, it's a significant proportion of the time you've been alive.

   11. YUYusef45:38

       (laughs)

   12. JOJonny45:39

       (laughs)

   13. YUYusef45:40

       Yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson45:41

       And you go, "Right, okay."

   15. JOJonny45:42

       Oh, my God.

   16. CWChris Williamson45:42

       "So I'm, I need to try and look upon this." And that's the problem with this perspective. Think a lot of what we're trying to get across here is the fact that you need perspective.

   17. YUYusef45:49

       It's horrible 'cause I had such a, uh, lack of self-awareness, combined with a lack of experience, and, um, this sort of... I- I mean, I'm so c-, I'm so lucky that, um, my girlfriend broke up with me before I went to uni 'cause I ... And I was upset at the time, forgot about it within a week because of-

   18. CWChris Williamson46:07

       (laughs)

   19. YUYusef46:07

       ... starting the, you know, uni, and then I was like, actually, uh, uh, that unconsciously, poorly articulated feeling of what you've described, both of you, of like the seeing people in a relationship and just seeing something a bit-

   20. CWChris Williamson46:22

       Mm-hmm.

   21. YUYusef46:22

       ... um, held back about them and a, and a bit, like, unwilling to, to dive in. And the people who were in a relationship, yeah, they fall in at the first hurdle 'cause they're, they've like, 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-

   22. CWChris Williamson46:39

       Mm-hmm.

   23. YUYusef46:39

       ... that they sleep with or they meet.

   24. JOJonny46:41

       In, y- you've had the worst of, of all scenarios because you've had ... you've missed out on months of experience. You've had to navigate a failed relationship remotely while at uni, potentially since room.

   25. CWChris Williamson46:51

       It's traumatic, man.

   26. JOJonny46:52

       Awful conversations on the phone.

   27. YUYusef46:52

       Ruined your 21st birthday.

   28. CWChris Williamson46:54

       Rui-

   29. JOJonny46:54

       Yeah.

   30. CWChris Williamson46:54

       Yeah, ruined my 21st birthday. I remember getting into another argu ... I was i- in another argument as I was trying to write, like, the first set of exam, the first set of assignments for my master's. And I'm just looking-
5. 1:00:00 – 1:05:17

   Did you split in…

   1. YUYusef1:00:00

      I could see it having gone very bad quite easily.

   2. CWChris Williamson1:00:02

      Did you split in third year into two houses?

   3. YUYusef1:00:05

      Yeah.

   4. JOJonny1:00:05

      Yeah.

   5. YUYusef1:00:06

      There was also a guy who we knew who d- they did a similar thing. This group of people, like, one of the guys on their corridor, they want to, they, like, didn't want to leave him out so they went, they lived with him. And he ended up, uh, being a sex offender. He ended up putting one of these, like, fake USB sticks in the bathroom and filming the girls showering and, um, like, was saving the videos on his computer. Police raided the house. He threw his laptop in, like, a bin on the street, um, and ended up as, like... So, so basically-

   6. CWChris Williamson1:00:37

      Jesus fucking Christ.

   7. YUYusef1:00:37

      Yeah. (laughs)

   8. JOJonny1:00:39

      Woo! Whoo!

   9. CWChris Williamson1:00:39

      That is a yee, uh, hot story right there.

   10. YUYusef1:00:42

       (laughs)

   11. CWChris Williamson1:00:42

       Um, I think as well, another, 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.

   12. YUYusef1:00:59

       Mm-hmm.

   13. CWChris Williamson1:00:59

       Like I didn't get to-

   14. YUYusef1:01:01

       So the five bed- five person house, it's like three quid each or something, isn't it? So.

   15. CWChris Williamson1:01:05

       So just do it, do a halfway point. So do it 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 like infested the place.

   16. YUYusef1:01:18

       Mm-hmm.

   17. CWChris Williamson1:01:19

       Um, 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, um, tools to be able to clean your second year house to the standard that it was when you moved in. It is-

   18. YUYusef1:01:32

       So you're losing deposit anyway.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:01:33

       Yeah.

   20. YUYusef1:01:33

       So you may as well.

   21. CWChris Williamson1:01:34

       There was a five, five of us in a, a house in Jesmond, 500 pounds each in the DPS, and we didn't get a single penny of it back.

   22. YUYusef1:01:42

       Really?

   23. JOJonny1:01:43

       Mm-hmm.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:01:43

       Two and a half grand it cost to get our house back to working order. There was-

   25. YUYusef1:01:47

       Well, according to the agent, whereas you guys may have got two-

   26. JOJonny1:01:49

       It was, I honestly think we got a deal.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:01:50

       50 quid.

   28. JOJonny1:01:50

       I genuinely think we got a deal.

   29. YUYusef1:01:52

       Wow. Okay.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:01:53

       Like, there was-

Episode duration: 1:37:17