Updated with current information for 2022
College can be a blast, but it’s also one of the most stressful points in your life.
Pulling all-nighters, struggling past the carpel tunnel of term paper after term paper, passing out in a head full of drool over a chemistry textbook that costs as much as your phone, it’s tough stuff. And then balancing the stress of living with roommates in an Athens Ohio apartment doesn’t make it any easier. Here’s how to find your center and chill out your inner Buddha.
Sleep
You might think you don’t have time for it, but you’ll actually get more done and better absorb the material when you get enough rest. In fact, we actually learn in our sleep. Science has found that studying for a test and then sleeping on it actually helps you recall the information. Sleep, and especially dreaming, helps rebuild our neurological pathways so we actually wake up smarter. Sleep is good for the brain as well as your GPA.
Exercise
Burning off energy is great for stress. As an OU student, you have free access to a gym. (Well, it’s not actually free. It’s included in your tuition, but since you’re already paying for it, you might as well use it.) Or get out of your Athens Ohio apartment and go for a run.
If you don’t want to go far and have a yard at your rental, just work out there in the sun. It can be body-exercises or just playing active yard games with your roommates. Living in a big, six-bedroom house comes with five other built-in workout buddies!
Study
Working from home is all the rage today – but it’s not perfect.
“The verdict is clear: For many jobs—particularly collaborative, high skill level, high-value roles—working from home simply doesn’t work, and we shouldn’t confuse a temporary abnormal with a new normal,” reads an article from TIME.
If we consider being a student as a “job” then it is also fair to say that it also is one that is highly collaborative. To succeed, you must be constantly working with other professors and students to understand the material.
So, naturally, being on campus for much of your work is important. This is made easy if you have a rental close to campus, or if your apartment comes with a parking spot.
Once on campus, hitting up Alden or just about any classroom building will help you to start working more efficiently on your assignments.
But not wanting to travel to campus for every single task is also understandable, so maybe team up with your roommates an organize team study sessions to keep the workflow at home. If you live in a big rental, like a five or six-bedroom house, you can even dedicate a section of the home just for studying and work.
If you live in a smaller unit by yourself, however, like a studio or one-bedroom apartment, then one thing you can do to increase productivity at home is to get a desk and only work there when at home. Working in your bed is proven to create linkages in your brain between your bed and work, making sleep much more difficult.
Chill Out
You can’t work yourself to death. Eventually, you’ll only burn out. There comes a point of diminishing returns where you can still push but you won’t make any progress and may actually regress. Take a break and chill out. Take a hike. Go out with some friends for coffee (or something stronger) if you live close to Uptown and campus. Head out to Strouds run and enjoy the weather, or just meditate in front of your window if your rental has a nice view. You’ll feel re-energized when you return.