Self-Help: Tips and Tricks for Students by Ana Mestas ('25)

Ana Mestas (‘25) offers several self-help and studying tips, and incorporating these suggestions into your regular routine can help you! Experiment with them to find the ones that work best for you.

As we all know, being a college student can be really stressful. Not having enough hours in the day for school, jobs, homework, friends, family, etc. Knowing when and how to help yourself is imperative to being able to have a balance of all those things. Oftentimes, we are told waking up early, working out, and sleeping 8+ hours per night every day is the best way to improve ourselves and although those things are great, it is honestly not always as easy as that. Personally, I am an advocate for doing what you want to do when you want to do it and if it does not work out, that is okay. Sometimes you don't get 8+ hours of sleep, or you don't work out, or maybe you don’t finish your homework on time, or maybe you went to sleep at 3 am on a Tuesday night and that's okay because it happens to all of us. “Self-improvement” does not always have to be rigorous and fast, it can be whatever you want it to be and whatever will ultimately help you the most. 

The following are my tips on how to make life a little less stressful. 

1. Make sure you are doing what you want to do. If you come home from school and all you want to do is watch some TV or take a nap, then do that and don’t feel bad about it. 

2.  Make a calendar for yourself where you can see everything you have to get done that week, or you can start with everything you have to get done that day. It is always satisfying to scratch off what you have gotten done. 

3. Enjoy time with friends and family even if you have a lot to do. It is important to take a break sometimes and not think about all the things that you must do. 

4. Whatever doesn’t get done by midnight, can wait until tomorrow.

5. Take time for yourself, go somewhere you can be alone, and let yourself think without any distractions. 

6. Know that it is okay to not be “productive.” We should not always have to be doing something to feel good, it is okay to do nothing sometimes.