5 Helpful Habits Every Student Should Develop While Attending College

By Amelia Woolard

“With great power comes great responsibility.” Peter Parker – AKA Spiderman – popularized this phrase back in the 1960s, and honestly, it still rings true today, especially when the mantra is applied to the college lifestyle. What do we mean, exactly? Well, whether you realize it or not, attending college is not only a considerable privilege, but it’s also the perfect window of time for a young student, such as yourself, to work on those certain habits that are inherent of future success.

Sure, it can be easy to shrug off something as silly as self-improvement when you’re living it up in your own off-campus crib, with no one to tell you otherwise. However, with the perks of adulthood come responsibilities. You owe it to yourself to begin laying the foundation for a happy, healthy, and successful adulthood now, while avoiding habits that will cause you some form of strife later down the line. Not sure what those habits are? No worries! uCribs has come up with a few of our own, and we’re spilling them all in this blog.

Getting a grip on your tendency to procrastinate.  

Guilty of procrastination? Who isn’t? When you’re in college, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of obligations on your plate at any given moment. From extracurricular responsibilities to homework assignments and midterm exams – which will be here before you know it – procrastination is certainly difficult not to give into from time to time.  Even if you feel like procrastination is the name of the college game, you’ll want to work on breaking this bad habit long before you walk across the stage during graduation.

Why? Well, procrastination is one of those dirty little habits that’s harder to break the older you get.  If you think you have trouble completing tasks on-time now, just imagine how difficult it will be to face a challenging project at work or how frustrating it will feel to deal with the repercussions of a strict deadline you failed to meet. Habitually putting things off until the last minute can also make you look lazy, disorganized, or immature in a professional environment – and we’re pretty sure that you would prefer none of those words to be used in describing you. So, put in the work to beat procrastination, and your future self will thank you for it.

Avoiding toxic health habits.

No doubt about it – college is stressful. After a long week (or several in a row), many students turn to parties and local happenings to unwind before gearing up to do it all over again come Monday. If you count yourself among those who like to hit the town on a regular basis, you’ve probably already encountered the all-too-common pressures to party heavily, drink to excess, or engage in drug use.  Though you might think little of these behaviors now, you can bet that these type of college extracurricular activities will take their toll on you eventually.

We’re not saying that you can’t have fun on the weekends, but you need to realize that there is a fine line between enjoying college life and engaging in behaviors that will carry serious long-term consequences – whether it’d be your health, finances, or otherwise at stake. For example, keep up your social smoking habit and you might end up joining the ranks of heavy smokers, who not only experience life-threatening health issues, but also spend anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000-dollars a year on cigarettes alone. See our point? Spare yourself the health concerns and the overwhelming monetary expense by ditching unhealthy behaviors, like this one, sooner rather than later.

Learning how to focus on yourself.

Confession time: how often do you catch yourself comparing someone else’s achievements, possessions, or all-around lifestyle to those of your own? Mark Twain famously said that “comparison is the death of joy” – yet, in spite of this, many of us knowingly compare ourselves to others on a daily basis, whether it’s on social media channels, in the classroom, or while we’re out and about in our college towns. FOMO only sets us up for failure in the long run, since we’re looking for validation from others instead of ourselves.

Comparing yourself to others not only forces you into a tight spot mentally, but it can also put a damper on your efforts to grow. After all, aside from going to class and making the grade, college is all about discovering who you are and where your passions lie. If you become too obsessed with others’ thoughts of you, or how you think you stack up next to other people, you won’t be able to transform into the wonderful, well-adjusted young adult we just know is inside of you. Hey, it might be cheesy – but there’s some serious truth behind these words!

Taking care of your mental well-being.

It’s 2020, y’all – so, why are you still so shy about addressing your mental health? Everyone is doing it! No, seriously, if there’s one habit you should start working on, like yesterday, it’s paying better attention to what’s going on inside your head. Tuning into your mental health needs will allow you to handle the current demands of college life more efficiently. It will also pave the way toward a productive and more mindful adulthood. Allow us to explain.

It’s no secret that mental health is a contributing factor to many of our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Unresolved mental health issues can derail relationships, cause us to lose jobs, and can even evolve into physical health problems, such as high blood pressure. Keeping your mind healthy is like exercising your physical body – doing so will help you enjoy life to the absolute fullest. For that reason, you’ll want to start paving the way towards healthy mental habits, such as going to therapy or journaling, on the regular basis. A good way to get started in your venture? Go ahead and schedule that much-needed mental health day. Your overworked mind will appreciate it more than you might initially realize!

Transitioning from a night owl to an early bird.

Ready for some hard-to-swallow pills? Here it goes: science says that morning people tend to be happier, sleep better, and excel in their work environments more so than those who sleep in later. Now, while we understand that it can be hard to even think about waking up early –even if you don’t necessarily need to on that particular day – you have to admit that there are some clear-cut advantages to getting a jump on your day as soon as possible. And – no surprise here – those same advantages often parallel the ones you’ll need once you’re out in the real world.

Obviously, becoming a morning person is favorable if “Adult You” hopes to clock into your first post-grad job on time. What about the other benefits that morning people seem to enjoy, though? For one thing, you certainly enjoy being more productive and just healthier in general. Even if you don’t care too much about it now, your adult self will soon prioritize these common-sense wellness goals over binging that new Netflix true crime docuseries until 3:00 AM with your roomie. When the time comes, you’ll be glad that you conquered your fear of rising before the sun.

Whether you’ve just entered college or are gearing up for graduation, it’s never too early (or too late) to begin developing healthy habits to take with you into adulthood. If you want to crush it as a bona fide adult – like we know you will – it’s a smart move. From kicking bad health habits to finally getting a hold on your chronic procrastination, these 5 habits are the ones that you’ll want to prioritize and focus your energy on. Then, you can graduate with the skills necessary to your success and live prosperously as a young, newly minted college grad.

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