We all know that 2017 was a hard year, and you probably don’t want a repeat of the mess of those 365 days. The best way to make 2018 a much better year is to start by getting your life together starting with five easy tips.
1. Get a budget book
Not only will tracking your expenses make you feel like a real adult, but it will also help you spend money on things you actually want and need. Budget books are super easy to start and pretty cheap. There are a multitude of different free printables online, or you can purchase one for anywhere from five dollars to twenty dollars. Plus, when you track your expenses, you can put more money towards fun things, like dinner with friends or even saving for a trip.
2. Schedule in GYST days
By the end of a long week, a “clean” room or “finished” homework are pretty foreign concepts. To combat this issue, I’ve started scheduling in designated GYST (Get Your Shit Together) days. I make sure that during these days I finish everything on my to do list, from doing laundry, cleaning my room, doing my homework, and even doing a facemask and painting my nails. These days relieve my stress throughout the week of worrying about a messy room and homework. It’s also great “you time” to put on a podcast and get things done that you’ve been putting off.
3. Buy a planner, and use it.
My planner is my most precious belonging (besides my phone of course), and I truly couldn’t’t live without it. The most important part of actually using your planner is to make sure it’s the best one for you. Whether this means a simple planner from Target, a Day Designer (which are my personal favorites), or even making your own bullet journal, the design should best fit your life and your schedule. There are so many different layouts, so it’s important your planner reduces your stress and helps your life. To use it though, make sure you buy one that you can actually carry around. If you buy a huge planner and don’t feel comfortable taking it with you, chances are that planner will end up in your desk collecting dust.
4. Declutter your devices every few weeks.
Our phones and laptops carry so much information from our lives. However, this means that they’re constantly littered with things we may not always need. Old screenshots and files that you no longer need take up so much space on your devices, and they’re easy to forget about. Going through your electronics and deleting any unwanted pictures, apps, or files from them and cleaning your devices will become just another part of your life that’s just a little more organized.
5. Take care of yourself
It should be everyone’s new year resolution to take better care of yourself. Whether this means eating better, exercising regularly, taking vitamins, doing more facemasks, or even saying no sometimes, we all need to take better care of ourselves, especially as college students. This also means going to class, filling out your planner, and going to work, but never pushing yourself. Your own well being should be pretty high on your list of priorities, so make sure that you’re finding the balance between treating yo self and GYST-ing.