Last week, I wrote about ways to stay organized. This week, I want to elaborate on the importance of routines. It can be hard to fall into a routine, especially when homework comes in waves and weather may throw your entire weekly schedule off-kilter. For those who struggle with depression and anxiety, routines are especially helpful, as they can help you accomplish small but important tasks. Here are a few simple tasks that you should try to do every day.
Wash Your Face
This is the one that I’m not really good at following through on… but washing your face every morning has plenty of benefits. It’ll help you wake up and remove all of the dirt and oil hiding in your pores before you apply makeup or head outside. It’s good practice to do this right before you brush your teeth. That way, you’ll actually do it instead of forgoing, only for your face to break out and your skin to crack as soon as you step out into the chill of a February snow day.
Drink Water
Make water your best friend. Seriously. Drink a cup when you wake up in the morning, and have a cup before you go to bed. Drink a little before each meal. Especially drink if you’re outside or are exercising. Why is water so important? Well, it’s going to help you metabolize food and flush out toxins, according to the National Education Association. What’s more, it can boost your skin quality and your mood. So go out and grab a reusable bottle! You’ll thank me later.
Walk
Exercise doesn’t have to be intense crunches and burpees at the gym. You can always take a nice stroll on the treadmill while watching Food Network, or if the weather’s nice, you can venture out across campus and into town with sunglasses on and earbuds in. The Victoria State Government in Australia suggests that even a half hour of walking each day is sufficient to promote cardiovascular health. If that’s not incentive enough, you can always use mobile apps like Pokémon Go, Zombies, Run! or Geocaching to get you moving.
Read
Do you stay up on your phone all night? Yeah, reading Twitter isn’t going to lull you to sleep like reading a book will. Whether you’re rereading your favorite YA romance or taking a deep dive into 1000 pages of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, reading before bed will help lower your blood pressure and reduce stress. So, put your phone on silent and pull out a book. As a wise philosopher once said, “Having fun isn’t hard, when you’ve got a library card.”
Do Something Stimulating
I’m a nerd when it comes to crosswords. They’re really the bee’s knees, in my opinion. I think my love of crosswords is genetic, because I spent Christmas break wedged between my mom and brother, solving New York Times and Wall Street Journal daily puzzles, I even downloaded a sudoku app onto our family’s iPad, just in case I’m bored and antsy. Puzzles like these are examples of stimulating activities that will exercise your brain. They don’t have to be puzzles, though. You can solve riddles, write, draw or really anything that will keep your hands and mind occupied. Whatever you do, make sure it’s fun. That way, you’ll get a nice break while working your brain.