College can be a very stressful time for a lot of students. Next week is Spring Break, and I should be super excited and happy. If only it weren’t a week of midterms! March starts tomorrow, and I am really not ready for that! If you’re as stressed as I am right now (or more so!), maybe these tips that I’ve come up with will help you out!
My Favorite Tips and Tricks
1. Get some greenery!
I am fortunate enough to have an apartment with a pretty big windowsill in my bedroom. What better to help me out of a low-point than seeing the life that my care brings to these plants? Well, except for the little succulents that I have. Somehow I’m killing those (by underwatering them!?)…
I have some baby succulents from Home Depot in the large beaker to the left, which are slowly dying. The rest of them seem to be doing alright, so maybe there’s some hope for me yet!
2. Go for a walk in nature!
Luckily, my class is doing inventory on a plot of land, so I get to go out on a hike for several hours every week. However, you don’t need to go on a hike to get out in nature. Sometimes I’ll simply walk around the sidewalk trails that wind around my building, or just aimlessly around campus. Also, you can find really cool plants or spots for reflection!
I found this really pretty tree while out on a hike!
3. Eat a good breakfast!
By good, I don’t just mean tasty. Make sure that it has some sort of protein, and maybe add in a healthy treat, like fruit!
4. Write down all of your assignments in a place where you can see them.
For example, I make sure to take each of my syllabi and write down each of my assignments, how much my professor has weighted them, due dates, and the grades that I got.
This is the back of my door right now. I can just sit at my desk and look to the left to see where I’m at in the semester. The list and calendar allow for two different ways to view the same information.
5. I also keep up with a wall calendar above my desk to help me keep everything straight in my head!
This hands above my desk everyday.
6. Now, if you really want to take this organization to the next level, you can also keep a day planner and an updated Google Calendar like I do!
While this may seem a little excessive, it really does help me figure out when I need to get things done and keep all of my assignments straight in my head.
This is what my day planner looks like for March! I have a lot of travel coming up!
7. Get some exercise!
I recently joined a health and fitness program at my school. It’s an eight week program where I get a mentor, who is a Nutrition major and a competitive power-lifter, to help me build better habits for my nutrition and fitness. She helps me set goals for myself every week and is always there to give me advice or answer my questions. It’s really helpful because it eases my anxiety and helps me make better choices!
These may not be the most healthy snack, but they’re much better than cookies! These are my two favorite flavors so far.
8. Don’t refrain from getting help, if you need it.
Seeing a counselor can be very helpful for sorting out your emotions and thoughts. I used to see one more regularly, but now I have the occasional appointment every few weeks to check in. In addition, I like to journal. It’s helpful to get my thoughts out of my head and figure out what I want to talk to my counselor about. Actually, I hope to someday use my journal to write a book!
This is my private journal, which I keep next to my desk. It’s from Barnes and Noble, if you want to try and find this design!
9. Try to take some time away from school.
Last year, my boyfriend and I started a tradition of going back to the city where we first got together in the eighth grade. We head down to the coast for a weekend and stay at a very nice (yet very cheap!) hotel on the waterfront. It’s a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We get to forget about college, work, and responsibilities for a while. I love being able to take some time away from everything and just focus on my relationship.
I wish this picture would do justice to the beautiful sunset that we saw while talking a nice walk by the pier!
10. Just realize that college isn’t forever.
This is honestly the hardest thing to do. In the moment, it seems like college will never end. This semester is the fourth semester of university for me (fifth if you count the classes that I look last summer!). However, I was dual enrolled at community college for my last two years of high school and took one summer term there. So, I guess I have completed eight traditional semesters of college courses and two summer terms thus far. I still won’t graduate until December of 2018, so it seems like college is going on forever. In the end, though, the drama of your friends, the bad grades, the occasional mental breakdown… they’re all fleeting. You’ll graduate at some point and move on from college life to professional life.
Somethings in college will last a lifetime, like friendships with wonderful people! However, most things are fleeting, such as those calories from the cheesecake that made my roommate question our life choices for a moment!
These are some of the things that I do on a regular basis to try and manage my stress in college. Maybe these will help some people, or maybe they won’t. Really, you just need to find what works for you and then stick with it. I hope that these at least gave you a starting point. Breathe and take some time to clear your head, so that you can figure out what you need!