As a student your number one priority is school, as it should be. Week one of the semester and you have your priorities in check you are on the ball with school, sleep, and your social life. Then week one ends and you’re done reviewing your syllabi and playing ice breaker games with your classes. Week two peopleis where it hits the fan. Week two is where school work starts to pile up and 8 hours of sleep becomes a privilege.
As the semester goes on your list of to do’s gets longer and prioritizing becomes a necessity. However, what happens when life pitches you a curve ball? For example, lets say you have made it your priority for the day to study for your Midterm, but you also have work and a laundry list of chores waiting for you when you go home. So many things going on at once and you can’t seem to focus on one thing, because you are worried about all the other things you haven’t started yet. Stop, breath, and read these 3 tips.
First, stop freaking out and take a breather. Go outside, grab lunch, or take a cat nap. You may feel like there is no time in the day for a 10 minute meditation sesh in the middle of your college campus, but your mental health, the state of your sanity should ALWAYS be your main priority. In his TED Talk, Andy Puddicombe, talks about the benefits of taking 10 minutes out of your day to do or rather not do — anything. Something as simple as doing nothing can do so much for our levels of stress and our overall mental health.
Next, make sure you are eating well and eating enough. Your body is a machine and machines take fuel to power them, but more than that machines need an adequate quality and quantity of fuel. To be more clear think of your body as a Ford F-150, you’re not going to fuel up on ethanol right? You wouldn’t because your body, this F-150, takes quality fuel to keep its engine, your brain, functioning to its full potential. Eating right and supplying enough fuel to your body is essential to keep yourself from crashing at that mid-afternoon slump.
Finally, after you have centered and properly fueled yourself, write out what you would like to get done that day. Everyday I write out 8 things I would like to get done. I make 6 of my goals professional, this can be anywhere from going to class to applying for a job. For the other 2 goals I make them personal (like working out). After I have made my 8 goals for the day number them by importance. For anything that has a time deadline put it higher on the list, but make sure to take some time for yourself that day too.
Life is about a balance. As young adults getting into stressful situations is inevitable. The very nature of our title as “young adults” means yes were young so we are going to screw up one way or another, but HELLO you have the responsibilities of an adult now so you must handle it with grace and dignity. Making mistakes, failing to handle those mistakes, and then making the same mistake again is how you learn. You can’t control what is going to happen, but you can keep your priorities in check. And that is how you learn to adult.
learningtoadult 