Foundry Mack Blog

5 Ways to Reduce Screen Time in Kingston Student Housing Rentals

5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Screen Time As a student, screens play a big role in your life. If you’re not working on an assignment on your laptop, you’re likely using your phone to chat with friends, check social media, or play games. Whereas devices are certainly useful — and keep you from feeling bored — too much screen time may be detrimental to your mental and physical health. Reducing your screen time will help you feel happier and less lonely and improve your sleep. There are some simple things you can do right now. 1. Set Screen Time Limits Check how long you’re spending on the apps you use most. This will help you decide where you should cut down. In your phone’s settings, you can set a time limit for individual apps. Your phone will let you know when you’ve reached your limit for the day. Although it will allow you to override this limit if you want, you should, of course, always avoid doing so. 2. Delete Apps You may even like to delete some of the apps you use most. You could delete them temporarily to train yourself to have better habits or cut them out of your life permanently. 3. Make a Conscious Decision to Look at Your Phone It can easily become a habit to take your phone out and look at it whenever you have nothing else to do. Start only using your phone when you consciously decide to do so. To help you remember, you may like to set your phone to grayscale whenever you don’t need colour — this will make it instantly less appealing. 4. Reduce Your Notifications It’s easier to avoid looking at your phone if you’re not constantly receiving notifications. For non-essential apps, it’s worth turning off notifications entirely and just deciding when to check. For others, be more selective about what kinds of notifications you receive or change the type from alerts to banners. 5. Keep Your Phone Away from Your Bed When you go to bed, put your phone out of reach. You’re more likely to stay up past your bedtime if you have your phone and to start looking at it the moment you wake up. Plus, exposure to blue light before bed keeps your mind active and makes it more difficult to sleep. For this reason, it’s especially important to avoid screens an hour or two before bedtime. 6. Call Instead of Texting Your Friends To avoid sending messages back and forth all day, ask your friends to call you when they want to arrange plans or catch up. Scheduling video calls may even be a better way to stay in touch with hometown friends. It’s important to fill the time you usually spend on your phone with other activities. At university, this is not too difficult because you’re surrounded by other people — especially when you’re living with other students. You can find Kingston student housing rentals at Foundry Mack. When you want to socialize away from screens, you can head outdoors to the recreation area, fire pit, and BBQs. You can also spend time with your roommates and friends in your spacious suite. Book a tour to see why you’ll love living here.

7 Spring Refresh Ideas for Apartments Near Queens University

How to Give Your Student Living Space a Spring Refresh The warm weather, outdoor activities, and the sense that summer break is not far off all make spring a special time of year. Take full advantage of spring by giving your student living space a refresh. 1. Switch to a Spring Wardrobe Start your spring refresh by putting your winter clothes into storage containers — you can tuck these away at the bottom of your closet or under your bed. Fill your closet with the warm weather clothing you’ll need over the next few months. 2. Give Your Apartment a Deep Clean Dedicate a day (or even a whole weekend) to cleaning your apartment. Dust surfaces, vacuum the floors, wipe down appliances, and go through cupboards to look for expired food. 3. Declutter While cleaning, you’re likely to find many items you no longer need. Make time to declutter, getting rid of things instead of just tucking them out of the way. Students tend to accumulate a large amount of clutter, including notes, books, and handouts from past classes, freebies, clothes they regret buying, and just junk. Throw away, donate, or even sell whatever you no longer want. 4. Redecorate in a Spring Theme It’s always fun to decorate your apartment according to the season, as it allows you to switch things up throughout the year. Now you’ve put the holiday decorations away, your apartment may be looking dull. Welcome spring by adding more colour. For instance, you could purchase some inexpensive wooden photo frames and paint them in colours that match the rest of your decor. Use these to frame some of your favourite memories. Other ideas for decorations include a spring-themed banner and artwork you make yourself. 5. Bring Some Houseplants to Your Home Nothing says spring better than greenery. If you don’t already have houseplants, consider investing in a few. Choose plants according to the conditions they need and how much effort it will require to keep them alive. If you have little experience with plants or are often away at weekends, pick something that just needs occasional watering. If you know you’ll never keep even the easiest plants alive, purchase some fake flowers to put in mason jars instead. 6. Create a Spring Playlist If you like playing music while you’re at home, refresh what you’re listening to with a new playlist for the spring. Make sure to include plenty of songs to boost your mood — this will be perfect to have on while you’re cleaning, studying, or entertaining guests. 7. Change Your Bedding You’ll make a big difference to the appearance of your bedroom just by switching to new bedding for the season. Pick some bedding in bright colours or a fun pattern that makes you feel like spring is here. There’s not much you can do to refresh your living space if you live in a dorm on campus. For a dramatic change for the spring, search for off-campus housing. Foundry Mack has apartments near Queens University just for students. With a monthly cleaning service and in-suite laundry facilities, it’s easy to keep your apartment feeling fresh year round. Apply now to improve your living situation.

5 Ways to Reduce Screen Time in Kingston Student Housing Rentals

5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Screen Time As a student, screens play a big role in your life. If you’re not working on an assignment on your laptop, you’re likely using your phone to chat with friends, check social media, or play games. Whereas devices are certainly useful — and keep you from feeling bored — too much screen time may be detrimental to your mental and physical health. Reducing your screen time will help you feel happier and less lonely and improve your sleep. There are some simple things you can do right now. 1. Set Screen Time Limits Check how long you’re spending on the apps you use most. This will help you decide where you should cut down. In your phone’s settings, you can set a time limit for individual apps. Your phone will let you know when you’ve reached your limit for the day. Although it will allow you to override this limit if you want, you should, of course, always avoid doing so. 2. Delete Apps You may even like to delete some of the apps you use most. You could delete them temporarily to train yourself to have better habits or cut them out of your life permanently. 3. Make a Conscious Decision to Look at Your Phone It can easily become a habit to take your phone out and look at it whenever you have nothing else to do. Start only using your phone when you consciously decide to do so. To help you remember, you may like to set your phone to grayscale whenever you don’t need colour — this will make it instantly less appealing. 4. Reduce Your Notifications It’s easier to avoid looking at your phone if you’re not constantly receiving notifications. For non-essential apps, it’s worth turning off notifications entirely and just deciding when to check. For others, be more selective about what kinds of notifications you receive or change the type from alerts to banners. 5. Keep Your Phone Away from Your Bed When you go to bed, put your phone out of reach. You’re more likely to stay up past your bedtime if you have your phone and to start looking at it the moment you wake up. Plus, exposure to blue light before bed keeps your mind active and makes it more difficult to sleep. For this reason, it’s especially important to avoid screens an hour or two before bedtime. 5. Call Instead of Texting Your Friends To avoid sending messages back and forth all day, ask your friends to call you when they want to arrange plans or catch up. Scheduling video calls may even be a better way to stay in touch with hometown friends. It’s important to fill the time you usually spend on your phone with other activities. At university, this is not too difficult because you’re surrounded by other people — especially when you’re living with other students. You can find Kingston student housing rentals at Foundry Mack. When you want to socialize away from screens, you can head outdoors to the recreation area, fire pit, and BBQs. You can also spend time with your roommates and friends in your spacious suite. Book a tour to see why you’ll love living here.

7 Spring Refresh Ideas for Apartments Near Queens University

How to Give Your Student Living Space a Spring Refresh The warm weather, outdoor activities, and the sense that summer break is not far off all make spring a special time of year. Take full advantage of spring by giving your student living space a refresh. 1. Switch to a Spring Wardrobe Start your spring refresh by putting your winter clothes into storage containers — you can tuck these away at the bottom of your closet or under your bed. Fill your closet with the warm weather clothing you’ll need over the next few months. 2. Give Your Apartment a Deep Clean Dedicate a day (or even a whole weekend) to cleaning your apartment. Dust surfaces, vacuum the floors, wipe down appliances, and go through cupboards to look for expired food. 3. Declutter While cleaning, you’re likely to find many items you no longer need. Make time to declutter, getting rid of things instead of just tucking them out of the way. Students tend to accumulate a large amount of clutter, including notes, books, and handouts from past classes, freebies, clothes they regret buying, and just junk. Throw away, donate, or even sell whatever you no longer want. 4. Redecorate in a Spring Theme It’s always fun to decorate your apartment according to the season, as it allows you to switch things up throughout the year. Now you’ve put the holiday decorations away, your apartment may be looking dull. Welcome spring by adding more colour. For instance, you could purchase some inexpensive wooden photo frames and paint them in colours that match the rest of your decor. Use these to frame some of your favourite memories. Other ideas for decorations include a spring-themed banner and artwork you make yourself. 5. Bring Some Houseplants to Your Home Nothing says spring better than greenery. If you don’t already have houseplants, consider investing in a few. Choose plants according to the conditions they need and how much effort it will require to keep them alive. If you have little experience with plants or are often away at weekends, pick something that just needs occasional watering. If you know you’ll never keep even the easiest plants alive, purchase some fake flowers to put in mason jars instead. 6. Create a Spring Playlist If you like playing music while you’re at home, refresh what you’re listening to with a new playlist for the spring. Make sure to include plenty of songs to boost your mood — this will be perfect to have on while you’re cleaning, studying, or entertaining guests. 7. Change Your Bedding You’ll make a big difference to the appearance of your bedroom just by switching to new bedding for the season. Pick some bedding in bright colours or a fun pattern that makes you feel like spring is here. There’s not much you can do to refresh your living space if you live in a dorm on campus. For a dramatic change for the spring, search for off-campus housing. Foundry Mack has apartments near Queens University just for students. With a monthly cleaning service and in-suite laundry facilities, it’s easy to keep your apartment feeling fresh year round. Apply now to improve your living situation.

Life in Kingston Student Housing Rentals: 4 Job Market Trends to Know

Job Market Trends for 2024 Grads to Know If you’ll be graduating soon, it’s important to know what the job market looks like to ensure you’re prepared. Here are a few trends in particular to be aware of this year. 1. Fewer Employers Are Hiring Grads in 2024 may find jobs harder to come by than they would have in previous years. After significant increases in hiring in 2022 and 2023, fewer employers are looking for new workers this year. The good news, though, is the job market is still stronger than it was in 2021. 2. Higher Salaries Employers who are hiring are likely to be offering higher salaries for university graduates. Only a small number of employers say they are lowering salaries for new hires with degrees, whereas a large number say they intend to increase salaries for workers with bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees. This shows a recognition of the value graduates bring to the workforce. 3. The Impact of AI A major technological development in 2023 was generative artificial intelligence. Since it came onto the scene in the latter half of 2022, it is this year that it will likely have an impact on the job market. For instance, some employers may be looking for candidates who know how to use generative AI, whereas others may be looking to replace certain job duties with AI, which could reduce the need for workers. 4. Demand per Sector Some sectors are less affected by the above trends than others. In particular, the healthcare and education sectors are seeing a high demand for new workers. The aging population in Canada and heavy involvement from the public sector in these industries means they are likely to remain strong even if there is a recession. On the flip side, new jobs in many tech fields (including in software development, information design, and IT operations) are decreasing. This may be due, at least to some extent, to the growth of generative AI. Recent years have already seen a decline in tech, as well as in marketing, human resources, and banking, but the decrease in new jobs may be more pronounced this year due to the further development of AI tools. Other sectors that are seeing a decline in jobs include driving, stocking, and food service. However, this is less likely to be a concern for recent grads, as many of the jobs in these sectors don’t require a university degree. To improve your chances of finding a job after you graduate, it’s important to work hard while you’re still at university. This means making it to your classes on time and ensuring you dedicate enough hours to studying to gain good grades. Both of these things are easier when you have your own room in an apartment near campus. You’ll find Kingston student housing rentals located less than a 10-minute walk from campus at Foundry Mack. In addition to using the desk in your fully-furnished bedroom, you can take advantage of our bright study rooms — there’s lightning-fast fibre internet throughout the building, meaning you can study from anywhere. Contact us now to secure your spot.

Cramming in Student Rentals: Kingston, Ontario Students’ Study Tips

What to Do If You Have No Choice But to Cram for a Test Ideally, you’ll prepare for your tests several weeks in advance to ensure you have time to cover all the material. However, life can get in the way at times, meaning you may end up needing to cram for a test. To make your cram session as successful as possible, here are a few things you can do. 1. Gather Everything You Need Before you sit down to study, make sure you have everything you need. The last thing you want is to disrupt your cram session to search for a book, handout, or your notes. Also stock up on plenty of paper and a few pens. 2. Set a Timer Decide how long you can maintain your attention. It may be tempting to keep going for more than one hour, but if your concentration starts to wane, you’ll stop seeing the benefits. It’s far better to stop while you’re still engaged than to push yourself to exhaustion. Set a timer for however long you can concentrate and do nothing unrelated to studying until it goes off. Then, set a new timer for a break — around 10 minutes is ideal. Use this break to clear your mind. Activities you may like to try include a short workout, making a snack, or even a mindfulness practice. Once your break is over, return to cramming. 3. Turn Off Notifications If you receive a notification on your phone while you’re studying, you may be tempted to check what it is. To avoid breaking your concentration, turn off all notifications. If you like, you can use your break time to check your phone — but only if you put it away as soon as the timer goes off to signal the end of your break. 4. Determine Where You Need to Focus Unfortunately, cramming means you won’t have time to study everything. Instead, you’ll need to determine what’s most important for the test. Avoid going into too much fine detail and focus on having the main points clear in your mind. A great way to do this is to write a summary of the material. Depending on the type of test and the subject, you may like to write questions along with answers, make a list of dates with their events, or draw diagrams of key concepts. 5. Act Out the Information To help facts stick in your head, involve your whole body as you study. Read the most important sentences aloud, placing emphasis on the key words and act out the material in any way you can — get creative. 6. Give Yourself a Reward for Finishing on Time Motivate yourself to stay focused by promising yourself a reward. For instance, you could leave your favourite treat in the kitchen — but only eat it if you finish studying by your deadline. This will prevent you from staying up too late and feeling too tired to do well on your test the next day. The next time you have a test, commit to becoming more disciplined by scheduling study sessions in advance. This is easier said than done if you lack somewhere quiet to study without interruptions. The solution is to move off campus into student rentals. Kingston, Ontario, has fully-furnished apartments at Foundry Mack. You’ll be able to study in your private bedroom or one of our bright study spaces. When you need to take a break, spend some time with other students in the outdoor recreation area, which has a fire pit and BBQs. Book a tour to see where you could be living.