3 Habits To Relieve Stress as a College Student (or Recent Graduate)
During my sophomore year of college, I lived on an IV drip of caffeine and motivational videos on YouTube. I was eternally sick and regularly fell asleep in class. But I couldn’t get off the hamster wheel I had created for myself.
I was managing a startup, working 2 jobs, hitting the gym for 2 hours a day, and pledging a fraternity. It was the most exciting and stressful period of my life.
There were three habits that got me through it:
Creating a daily to-do list: Every morning at 6 AM, I’d wake up, sit down at my desk in my underwear, chug two cups of Keurig coffee, and write out everything I needed to do with the exact times I would do them. It was a little extreme, but absolutely necessary. My roommate can attest to it! We still laugh about it to this day.
Learning to say “no”: This one was difficult for me. Especially in college. You have so much optionality as a college student. You can literally do anything. There were a lot of things I needed to say “no” to in order to stay focused on the things that mattered most.
Prioritizing my nutrition: I basically ate the same thing every single day: three egg omelets for breakfast, chicken and rice for lunch, and chicken (or some other protein) and rice (or potatoes) for dinner. There were some exceptions, but this was pretty standard. I tracked everything I ate using Fat Secret. I did this for two reasons: 1) To understand how different foods made me feel and affected my focus and 2) To make sure I was refueling myself properly from all of the strength training I was doing.
Life gets hectic. In times of stress, the only thing you can do is focus on the things in your can control. So, if you’re working through a stressful time, consider practicing these three habits to help you push through.