This semester has been a bit of a challenge so far. While I have been very excited to be back on campus, it has also felt like I’m trying to rejoin my pre-covid life, while incorporating an entirely new life built up during the past year and a half away from campus. Because of this, I have had to pick up some new habits to balance my workload, while also reviving my social life and leaving myself open to new opportunities.
Organization
I have always been decent about staying organized, but even with my excessive planner usage, having school completely online has really made it difficult for me to stay focused, and to keep my schoolwork manageable. Trying to keep my days as organized as possible has been very helpful so far, not only as a way to keep myself on track, but also to give myself a sense of direction for the day.
I have been trying to not only keep my schoolwork organized, but also my social life. Writing down not only all of my assignments for the day, but also my social commitments and plans with friends has been really helpful so far. It has helped me to know more accurately how much time I have to get things done each day, and it also gives me something in my schedule to look forward to.
Taking Breaks
While school was completely online, a big trap I found myself falling into was overexerting myself, and not taking any time to decompress in a day. I am a very type A person in the sense that I really don’t let myself relax at all until I know everything I need to do for the day is done. This mentality became very problematic, because during online school, all of the work for potentially the entire semester is just available on D2L. I honestly still struggle with this, because I often feel like I would be making things easier for myself if I worked ahead. However, this semester I have been trying to set firmer boundaries with myself. I will write down everything I’m doing for the day, and then I just focus on completing that, rather than trying to knock out all of my work for the week in just one day.
This has also helped me with balancing my social life. It can also be very easy for me to overexert myself socially, and I often find myself accidentally double booking myself, or ignoring my own needs in order to spend time with friends. While I’m very excited to have more opportunities to see people this year, I have been trying to also incorporate off days, where I just focus on myself, and give myself the time and space I need to recharge.
Trying New Things
Finally, I have also been pushing myself to try new things this semester. I want to be able to take full advantage of all of the things I feel like I have missed out on by being off campus last year. In order to do this, I have been trying to say yes to new opportunities and to try new things even when I don’t always feel like it. While being off campus, I have also noticed that I have a lot more social anxiety than before, and I often found myself getting trapped in the same routine simply because it felt more comfortable than putting in all the effort required to break out of it. So this semester I have been trying to avoid getting trapped in my comfort zone. I have been trying to hang out with new people, join new clubs, and generally seek out new opportunities.
Getting back into the routine of campus life has been difficult, and recovering from being in quarantine and being away from everything has been more of a challenge than I would have guessed. These are just a few of the ways I have been trying to readjust to my own life and keep myself on track.