I think we’re all in that point of the semester where you’re running low on cash, your laundry is starting to pile up, you’ve resorted to eating only ramen and you have three papers and two speeches due tomorrow. Trust me, I feel you. I thought my last semester of college would be easy and carefree when in reality, it’s the total opposite. I’m more busy than I have ever been, and I know that being organized and having the appearance of having it all together gets harder and harder to maintain. Here are some tips on how to get keep your life together when it looks like it’s falling apart.
1) Get Organized.
If you don’t have a planner, get one. If you have a planner, use it. Those tiny bound notebooks are your key to having good time management, and they keep you from being surprised when your 8 a.m. professor asks you to hand in that assignment you had no idea about. Take time to break down all of your classes, work and extracurricular activities inside your planner.
2) Clean Up.
Let’s talk about that pile of laundry sitting on your floor. Clean it up. When I feel unmotivated to clean my room or house, I put on some fun music I can sing along to and remind myself how satisfying it will feel when it’s done. If you have dirty dishes in the sink, go ahead and jump on top of those too, because once you stop cleaning who knows when you will feel motivated to start again. For my roommates and I, we designate one day a week where we have to clean up something, whether it by our rooms, the kitchen, the laundry room or the living room. Nothing beats the feeling of coming home from classes to a clean house.
3) Exercise.
I have recently started going to the gym four times a week. I cannot tell you how good it makes me feel to know that I have done something productive for my body. No, I am not America’s Next Top Model, but it’s so refreshing to walk into the gym knowing that you are going to be walking out better and more fit than when you walked in. When you finish a workout, your bodies naturally release an endorphin called serotonin. Serotonin gives us feelings of happiness, calmness and reduced anxiety, which are all the things that help us feel like we have our lives together.
4) Save Some Money.
You don’t have to eat Mexican food every other day, you don’t need a new pair of shoes every week and as hard as it is, you do not have to walk into your favorite boutique on a regular basis. Saving money is easy. All those coins sitting around in your car? Place them in a cute little mason jar and go turn them into dollar bills once the jar is full. Something I do is save all my $1’s and $5’s. I place them in a jar and when I want a new pair of shoes or want to go out some weekend with my girlfriends, I pull from that jar instead of my ever decreasing checking account. Little changes in money habits lead to big rewards in the future.