10 Life Changing Habits to Start in The 2020 for College Students
As we roll into the new decade I'm sure we've all thought about how we can make this year and the years to come better than the last.
As a student, you've probably thought of your personal and academic goals and decide what goals you want to achieve.
But wait…
Your goals aren't the only way you can change your life, your habits are a HUGE part of how much you'll accomplish and how you'll feel in this new year. Without small steps taken every day, you won’t be able to achieve your goals on a macro level and get what you want.
Trust me! After years of setting big goals for myself and achieving very few of them, I didn't start to see real progress until I started to analyze what my daily habits and routines were.
If you're struggling to think of ways to transform your life and achieve more, here are 10 LIFE-CHANGING HABITS you can start right now and achieve almost any new year’s resolution.
1. Set limits on your phone usage
It’s very easy to not realize just how much time we spend on our phones distracting ourselves. While sometimes it can be a lifesaver and social lubricant when you don't have the energy to socialize, on the other hand, it can prevent you from being present and focusing on your goals.
By limiting your time on your phone you open yourself up to boredom and inspiration that's needed to stretch your mind and get to work on your goals. Technology shouldn’t get in the way of your goals, it should help it!
2. Write down your thoughts
Journaling can seem like a daunting habit at first but there's a reason why so many people recommend it! It brings a lot of mental clarity and if you're an overthinker it gets rid of the pressure to remember all your important tasks!
You don't have to write a mini short story every day but daily or weekly braindumps in a blank notebook can be just what you need to clear your thoughts. This can include reminders, lists, to-dos, or anything and it doesn't have to be pretty.
3. Track your habits
Tracking your Habits and progress is a daily habit that can motivate you to get past your plateaus. Sometimes you don't realize how much progress you've made or you don't truly enjoy the process of trying to achieve your goals when that's part of the fun.
Stay present and checking in on your goals and this will motivate you and give you room to analyze your goals and be strategic. I use habitbull to track my habits and it is super easy and simple to use and the daily reminder of small progress is the little kick I need every day to keep going.
4. Read
I had to go there.
I guarantee whatever goal you are trying to accomplish there is someone who has already accomplished it and guess what? They probably wrote a book about it too.
You don't have to start from ground zero read books, blogs, short stories, ANYTHING! just surround yourself with the advice and narrative of people who are doing what you want to do.
Pssst. I have a blog post about how to read more as a busy student. You can read it here.
5. Going outside
Do you ever feel like you have your shit together when you have things to do, places to go and people to meet? It's that feeling of movement of physically getting up and doing things that are a part of the motivation.
Make sure your goals have movement! If they don’t, give them some. Have goal check-ins at a coffee shop, sit outside while you edit, whatever it is just get up out of whatever position you're most comfortable in and just go somewhere else.
The change in scenery and physical movement will be the boost you need.
6. Ask for help
Yes, this is a habit that most of us need to get better at! Especially students. You don't have to go through things alone whether that's your goals or your mental health.
Use the resources around you to achieve your goals whether it is free counseling so you can be in a good headspace to accomplish your goals or free tutoring or whatever service your school provides to help you, UTILIZE THEM.
Yes, you can do stuff on your own, but why would you when you can accomplish so much with the help of your parents, your peers, and your educators. Once you decide to simply start reaching out to people you realize your goals aren’t a huge boulder you have to carry by yourself.
7. Schedule everything
Have you ever finished the week and wondered where all the time went and realize you made absolutely no progress on your goals? that’s probably because you didn’t designate time to work on it. If you don't make time for your goals they won't magically happen.
You might think of yourself as not being the “schedule” type like I did. I didn't want my life to be restricted and have everything mapped out, but once I became the google calender bitch ( you know the one! The girl with the color-coded, every hour accounted for calender) I literally TRANSFORMED my life.
I actually had more time to do what I wanted! Because I was being intentional with my time and my free time was actually spent not worrying and being present.
I scheduled my day around my goals and my life just became so much more fruitful, scheduled everything down to my relaxation time and it made infinitely more productive.
8. Prioritize
Learning how to prioritize is a habit you need to conquer in the new year.
As students, we always have a million different things to do at any given movement but when you have your personal goals and school goals it can be hard to find a balance and you can easily end up not achieving either.
By learning to refocus and make a habit of analyzing how much that goal means to you, you can start to organize your life around the things you actually want to do.
I took a skillshare called Real productivity by Michael Karnjanaprakorn. This was a productivity class that changed my life! and it used a simple system of three priorities for the day, three priorities for the week, and three goals for the month. By honing in on just those three things I actually maximize my productivity.
If you want to try I created a daily planner that I use to achieve this system.
9. Take intentional Breaks
In this busy productivity-driven world, something that isn't talked about enough is using time off not to work on other goals but to refresh.
Burnout is REAL and if you try to catch all the fish you might end up catching none. As a student you need to start setting boundaries ASAP, your mental health is the most important.
Limit mindless breaks where you end up feeling stressed after, but instead, take time and schedule breaks into your day and set “out of office” time at the end of the night where you don't cram or do school work. By DECIDING to take a break you take the control back into your life and give your body the break it needs to power through and accomplish your biggest goals.
10. Integrate tools into your system
Technology is becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives and a lot of us haven't realized the power technology has not to take time away from you but to actually HELP you to achieve your goals faster and have more time for yourself and your hobbies.
Tools like google sheets, google docs, Grammarly, citation machine, Canva, and MANY MORE can actually be integrated into your everyday routine to help you run more smoothly and worry less. I have a whole list of apps that are essential for students if you want some more ideas.
All in All 2020 should be a year of INTENTIONALITY for students. We are achieving our goals in an age of noise and until we get real with ourselves and figure out what we want and utilize the tools we have not for distraction but for growth then we get to achieve more goals more efficiently and minimize burnout.
Disclaimer: Some Affiliate links where used, but all opinions are my own!