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I'm a girl from Western Australia, employed by the government doing data entry for education security and I live with my family. I'm also a student just about to launch into her second year of a Business and Arts double degree. I study by correspondence through a country uni in NSW, Australia. Reflecting on my first year of studying business, I have one word: fascinating.

When I left Year 12 I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do. I knew I loved history, science and logic. Over the holidays, I considered a number of different courses at various universities. I found myself gravitating toward my love of history but I felt that maybe it wasn't the most fiscally rewarding career choice. And then I discovered the Business and Arts double degree. This discovery reawakened interest seeded by the business report on the radio and discussions with my sister-in-law about property markets. And so I set out to become a business student.

Within my first few weeks of study, I found the subject had captured my attention: the logic, the clarity (at least for the most part!), the theories. Despite this, study often lost out to other activities. I worked three days a week and, although I lived with my parents, I still had to keep my room tidy and help out. And then there were the social commitments!

I think study taught me a lot about time management. Because each day of my week varied greatly from the last, my schedule couldn't run to the clock. Through the year, I tried many different methods of organizing my day. I discovered fairly simple to do lists worked well. I gave each chore, study task or event a time estimate and found a place to slot the task into my day as I worked. When I had spare time, I started with the quicker tasks to build up momentum. When I had limited time, I worked on the task with the best fitting time estimate.

I'm very excited about the coming semester of study. I have introductory units on business statistics and marketing. I'm excited to see how much I will learn about those subjects but also how much I will learn about myself and the world. I'm still nervous I won't find the time to fit everything in or that it'll come to exam time and I'll be cramming again. But mostly, I'm fascinated by business.

Learn more about this author, Lauren Okely.
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