I think it’s safe to say that in college the most common battle we face is when we feel as if our life is spiraling out of control and that we will never be able to finish the never-ending to-do list in our head. We have all been there. When we hit that point, we typically get our stuff done, get lazy again and then let the cycle go on. This year I decided to change a few of my daily habits to see if my stress level, social life, and health would improve. Luckily, after some trial and error, I discovered tips that work.
1. Declutter Cleaning and purging clutter in your room, workspace or backpack is a productive way to spend your study break. Compared to watching Netflix as a study break, there’s less of a chance that your 30-minute break will turn into three hours. What you’re doing benefits you as well! Clearing away any distractions will help your mental focus. Additionally, cleaning your room will get rid of all the germs that are hiding around trying to get you sick. Say goodbye to spring fever.
2. Get free of negativity Unfortunately, it is easy to get caught up in your life. The world does not revolve around, and someone will always have it worse. Keeping that mindset helped me stay positive and manage my stress this year. What came with developing a consistent mentality, unfortunately, meant that I had to lean off some of my friends. If all they did were complain and create a negative circle, I would start to feel negative. Not wanting to be around negativity will not make you a bad friend. I realized that I couldn’t put energy into making others happy 24/7.
3. Technology detox To ensure that I would spend my free time productively and positively, I decided to start deleting some forms of social media. I kept the platforms that I felt like supported my social life but deleted my finsta, snapchat streaks, and Twitter. Some things to ask if you’re considering removing social media are: 1) Does this account help me have genuine conversations? 2) Do I miss out on anything when I don’t use this? 3) Do I spend too much time on here? Doing this helped me stay off my phone and enjoy the real world. I was able to connect online, but I was no longer caught up in digital “streaks” or venting about my workload on my finsta.
4. Create goals Well, create short-term goals. I am now an avid believer in writing down tasks, no matter how big or small, on a physical piece of paper. The satisfaction of crossing off a completed job is not only rewarding but motivating. I have so much more confidence in my productivity when I have a paper full of crossed out tasks, even if one was to make my bed and shower.
5. Vitamins and health A rule of thumb is that your health comes first. I made my health my priority this year. That meant maybe not going out every week Thursday-Saturday. It also meant taking daily vitamins and trying to get over eight hours of sleep. It involved cutting out some not so healthy snacks. It meant prioritizing the gym over a happy hour sometimes.
Overall, these changes were hard to accomplish. It took a lot of justification and getting over some fears that my friends would hate me. But in the end I see that I still have a social life, I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been, and my grades never looked better