One “Independent Study Course” Students MUST Take

By Julia Dunn on April 26, 2015

Note: this “class” won’t be found in your school’s class search … but it’s offered everywhere!

As busy college students, we all know the feeling of being physically and mentally worn down by our university lives. We are frequently overworked and overscheduled with homework and extracurricular activities, along with many other commitments that eat up our free time.

Students try to cram as much into their days as humanly possible to stay on top of things at college, but as we all unfortunately know, our plans can be wiped out due to stress-induced illness, insufficient sleep, poor eating, etc.

Then, before you know it, you’re at the student health center being told to stay home and rest for seven days, wearing one of those ugly white medical masks over your mouth. Not allowed to go to class, not allowed to go to work, not allowed to go to that comedy show you were looking forward to this weekend.

Image Via: www.alivecampus.com

We get so wound up in our back-to-back schedules that often, we totally forget about the “class” students absolutely must make time for, no matter what: taking care of yourself. If it were an actual class, I’d call it “Well-Being 101” (you know…for the health of it).

Curious? Here’s your lifelong syllabus:

If you must pull an all-nighter, or an almost-all-nighter, make sure you get at least 6 hours of sleep at minimum. Going an entire night (or two..or three) without any sleep at all will hurt your ability to function productively and defeat the purpose of staying up all night to finish your work. Sleep will make you more creative, thoughtful, and efficient anyway.

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If you feel your body’s immune system growing weak, take a vitamin C supplement to give your body’s defenses a boost. Airborne and Emergen-C are my foolproof favorites when I feel a sore throat or a fever coming on—you can get these in drink mixes or vitamin tablets from stores like CVS or Trader Joe’s, and they taste delicious! Eating citrus fruits and extra green vegetables will help fight off illness as well.

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Take it easy with your course load for a term or two. Although it is tempting to take more units than your school recommends just to try and get ahead in your academic career, taking too many classes can quickly overwhelm you. There is nothing wrong with just taking the minimum number of units your college suggests for full-time or part-time students—relax and focus on just a few classes instead of spreading yourself too thin.

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Schedule time to do nothing. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a set amount of time each day where anything could happen? You can use this free time to go to an event, hang out in a friend’s room, lay around in bed and watch animal videos, or take an extra long time to eat a meal—virtually anything you want! Just don’t use it for schoolwork if you can help it. Scheduling free time (true free time) will keep you sane through even the worst of college stress.

Image Via: www.alivecampus.com

Take yourself out on self-dates. Go grab an ice cream cone downtown after class on a weekday, or give yourself $10 to spend on whatever you want—a shirt, a new book, fancy chocolates, the possibilities are numerous. Taking yourself out on self-dates is an important practice of self-love that positively impacts your well-being. After all the hard work you do in college, why not reward yourself every once in awhile?

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Get off campus for awhile each week. If you live on-campus (and especially if your university is fairly large), it’s incredibly easy to forget that life exists beyond your university’s premises. If there’s a certain day each week in which you don’t have class, work, or other obligations that keep you on campus, take yourself downtown or get away from your university for awhile.

 Not only does this remind you of your freedom as an autonomous young adult, but getting off campus and contributing to the life that’s taking place elsewhere gives you a lot of perspective—there’s more to being a college student than just college itself!

Getting away from school for 45 minutes or even an entire day will fuel you up with new energy that you can harness once you’re back on campus to keep doing what you need to do.

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You might be wondering, what’s the bottom line here? The answer is this: your health is just as important (if not more important) than your rigorous academic schedule. Maintaining your health is critical to productivity and academic achievement.

If you neglect to care for your physical, mental, and emotional health, you will likely have difficulty succeeding at whatever it is you’re trying to do. Actively take care of your health, and good things will follow!

Stay healthy, students.

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