Whether or not you’re a seasoned commuter, you have one major or a double major and a minor, life can get busy fast and throw curveballs you weren’t anticipating. As someone who is a double major and has to commute over an hour each way, it can be hard to figure out how to manage your time to where you can be the most productive as possible and also how to pivot when things go wrong. This is your guide on how to not burnout and make life run so much smoother.Â
Planning Everything
Planning your life is absolutely crucial to surviving in college, especially if you’re a freshman or a brand new commuter. Life is a whole new beast when you’re in a new place away from home or you’re not living in the dorms anymore. If you’re working, tend to hang out with your friends regularly, in school organizations, etc., put everything in a planner or calendar. I personally use a planner, having something tangible to write down grocery lists, errands, or thoughts for projects is really helpful for remembering. For me, if it’s not in the calendar? The event or assignment doesn’t exist. Here, you write down everything that’s going to be happening in the semester, even the things that you’re not sure are going to happen because it’s better to be safe than sorry. Managing a course load can be a lot already, you don’t want to accidentally lose points for something you forgot about because you’re trying to schedule your yearly physical. Write down your exam dates, work dates, spontaneous or planned times with your friends, grocery shopping/errand running days, and doctor appointments. Nothing is exempt from the calendar. Writing down the days you want to do laundry, beauty maintenance, and cleaning your house is also a part of your life. It should be in the one place that keeps everything in check because you don’t want to have a social event on one day but it aligns on a time when you didn’t do your laundry because you forgot to do it. This way, you never have to worry about forgetting anything and you know exactly when you can and can’t pivot if something else were to pop up at a specific time.Â
Transit
Whether you’re commuting two hours or 20 minutes, you have to plan out your route and what time you have to be ready in order to leave the house on time. Yet sometimes, it doesn’t matter because a random event threw a wrench in your commute and now you’re 45 minutes late to class and stressed out. How to win against those random events at least 90% of the time is leaving even earlier than you thought you would, getting the public transportation app, and knowing every mode of transportation possible. When I was in my early learning stages as a commuter, I knew that where I lived was at least an hour from campus so I used to leave exactly an hour before. This is insane because that’s not accounting for the time it takes to walk to the train station, traffic or construction impacting that walk, and any train delays. Now I leave at least an hour and a half and, even with delays or trains shutting down, it’s foolproof. I can still make it to class 15 minutes early on a good day, but the best way to know how and when the train or bus is going to be delayed is by getting the transportation app for your city or town; it is life changing. Instead of guessing when the train is going to arrive or wondering if a certain bus is running, you can just make life easier and download an app. I’ve been in many situations where multiple trains are severely delayed or trains stop services altogether in the middle of morning rush hour and the app will tell you how to get to your destination with a different route and how long it will take. A good backup to have if you live or commute somewhere that has it is a rideshare app. It can definitely come in clutch if public transportation is just not working and you need to get to your destination stat.Â
It’s also important to know every mode of transportation possible because, again, you never know what’s going to happen on your commute. If you have to take a ferry to get to class, it’s good to know that it even exists. I was fortunate enough to have met someone my freshman year who was born and raised in the area and could take me around the city and help me get to know my way around. I think it is crucial to know your way around very early on to avoid getting lost at very inconvenient times. Befriending someone who knows the area or someone who is ready to explore and learn is the best way to learn your surroundings and put away knowledge for later, when it’s your turn to get around on your own or become a commuting student in the future.
Grocery/Errand Running
Shopping is definitely part of your planning but it has to be explained in much more depth because of how important it is planning out your food and your errands. When I first started commuting, I was all over the place when it came to food. Now that I wasn’t living in the dorms anymore, I couldn’t just go downstairs and get food or buy snacks from our little convenience store. I had to prepare and cook my own meals in a kitchen while balancing course work, work for extracurriculars, and scheduling my life. With a lot of trial and error and the countless YouTube shorts I watched, I have gotten grocery- and errand-running down to a science. The goal here is to avoid, at all costs, decision paralysis, where you’re overthinking and overwhelmed by options to the point where you’re unable to make a decision. I know this is all over social media and you’re going to think I’ve fallen under the hype, and maybe I have, but it works and it’s meal planning. I have had too many moments of opening and staring into my fridge and the haunting question, “What am I going to make for dinner?” Then, I end up making random foods without planning out the portions. By now I just made either a lot of food or not enough food and it only had two necessary food groups in it so I’m still hungry. With meal planning, you already know what you’re going to eat for that week so it takes away the stress and negativity attached to making and preparing food. This can be whatever food you want; you don’t have to follow a certain diet and you’re not going to waste and throw away food you like. When you go grocery shopping, it’s a lot easier when you know what you want to make and get exactly what ingredients you need to make that recipe. The part that eats up a lot of time out of this is the preparing and cooking part. I’ve had to do work and write papers while cooking because of how long it takes but don’t let it deter you. You should definitely plan out when you can take time to make your meals for the week but if cooking still takes up too much time or you have a busy week ahead, this is what I do. Especially now with the economy, groceries are very expensive so when I’m out of ideas, I go to the internet. You may have heard about this meal planning “hack” and it’s ordering a family meal from Whole Foods. It’s $35 and is measured out to feed four people and if you’re solo, that’s four meals. This is something I get every week because it beats spending over $100 for groceries and you get to pick out what you want in your tray and it’s a balanced meal that you just reheat. This was really helpful for me because some weeks, cooking everyday is not an option because I have a lot of work due that week or student organization events to go to and I end up getting home late because of how much of my time is eaten up by commuting.Â
Because of my busy schedule, I also line up my grocery shopping and errand running on days I have class. Since I’m already out for the day, it’s a lot easier to go out and buy groceries, do returns, and go to appointments than to do it on a day where you don’t have class or on the weekends. Just thinking about shopping over the weekend makes me exhausted. Another tip is that ordering ahead and doing pickups for food, clothes, anything is going to be your best friend, especially when you know exactly what you want and you’re the type of person who does what they need to do then get home. I personally end classes around the time of rush hour while it can be hectic getting home, so I definitely like to get to the store, get what I need, and go home. Lining up grocery deliveries as well to the time you get home is also a game changer. Getting groceries delivered is so helpful with a busy schedule because sometimes you can’t make it to the store or, if you’re like me and you don’t have a car, it’s not feasible to do extensive grocery shopping when you have to use public transit. It definitely helps to get things off your plate as much as you can so you don’t stretch yourself thin trying to do everything at once.
Being a commuter student is not easy, especially with how much of a day is consumed by traveling and how much that can affect how you work, cook, hang out with friends, and run errands. The last thing you ever want to feel is exhausted and burnt out because you’re trying to live in a different mode of life and still do everything all at once, all by yourself, and all the things that worked in the past that don’t now. The transition process was never meant to be easy but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your new normal easy by being prepared and planning ahead. Planning out your life, working out your commute and being ready to pivot, and simplifying the tasks of groceries and cooking all work together to create a lifestyle that will be much more manageable and works with you and not against you. The chaos will never go away, but at least now you’re prepared, productive, and your best self.