What I've discovered, however, is that not all of the ideas offered by these two blogs are directly applicable to my life as a college student...at least, not without some modification. That cordless dorm piece on Lifehacker is very much an exception...and not being obsessive about the number of cords on my desk, it's not hugely relevant to me. Still, I find a great deal of validity in many of the principles offered by Zen Habits and blogs like it, and have for the last two years been experimenting with how I can best modify some of those principles to suit my uniquely collegiate lifestyle. Here are some of the things I've come up with:
1) The Morning Routine. This is probably the number one case-in-point for a concept that I got from Zen Habits and adapted to suit my needs. Since I tend to go to bed rather late, I usually wake up about an hour and a half to two hours before my first class (or internship), then shower, do my stretches, eat breakfast, get dressed, and check email/Facebook/weather/Google Reader. I have grown to immensely value the chance to get my morning off to a relaxed, peaceful start, rather than jumping out of bed, throwing on whatever is closest, and rushing out the door. Since my first classes are never until 10am, it's usually only painful to do this on Wednesday, which is the day I have to be out the door by 7:45am to go to my internship.
2) Exercise. Obviously, this habit is not unique to any blog that I could point you to. Doctors, nutritionists, and many other professionals have been pointing us to the need to get exercise for longer than I could say. Leo's brand of exercise is a lot more intense than mine. I've never been much for gyms, or really for exercise in general, but I have decided to make a renewed attempt to do some form of exercise on a near-daily basis. To accomplish this, I instituted what I call my "daily constitutional," a walk around the neighborhoods near my school. A couple of days a week, the daily constitutional will consist of walking back from the Metro after my internship, but the rest of the time I walk a loop just for the sheer pleasure of this. My rule about this, though, is that I can't listen to my iPod or talk on the phone for more than a couple of minutes while walking. It's all about getting exercise and fresh air, and has become a very nice time for me to center myself in the world around me, outside classrooms and offices and the dorm.
3) Take this Sabbath Day. OK, I don't actually mean that literally. For me, Sundays are often my busiest day of the week. I am one of the planners for Sunday evening worship at the campus chapel, I sing in the choir or play my instrument, and I often help to lead the service. On top of that, there's always homework to do for the upcoming days. But what I started doing last semester is taking one day off each month to completely decompress. No homework, reading for class, group meetings-- just R&R. It's the greatest feeling in the world-- especially if you plan your life so that you can afford to take that one day off without falling hugely behind in your work (which tends to make your Sabbath Day more stressful than it's really worth).
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