Making Time for Wellness
Making Time for Wellness
Transcript
It happens all the time. Students come to me and their complaint is that they don't have enough time to do the things that they need to do. There aren't enough hours in the day for them to study for their exams, write their papers, review their notes, and work in groups with friends, and they ask me how they can better manage their time. How can they recuperate additional hours to do the many tasks that they need to do? And my first question to them is, "What do you think you could give up "to create that addition time?" And in almost every case, what they say to me is "sleep." They could give up hours of sleep so that they could find additional time. This anecdote tells us something important about how lots of students think about time in relation to wellness, and that is the flawed understanding that you can sacrifice your wellness to find extra time.
This idea, I think, is based on some sort of concept that the mind and the body are two separate things and that you can keep your mind running and that you can stay cognitively effective without taking care of the vessel that your mind is in. I want to push back against this a little bit because to me, it seems clear that in order for you to do the things that you need to do in the classroom, and in order for you to be cognitively effective and efficient, you need to take care of yourself and you need to do a couple of things that are really important to stay well while you attempt to succeed academically.
Let me just say one thing in advance. Even though I think these things coming up are non-negotiable, it doesn't mean that you're going to be able to spend all of the time that you want to do them all the time, but I think it's important to recognize their vital importance as you think about managing your time because all too often, they get cut out or get avoided altogether and this is a recipe for disaster. I'd like to start with the one we've already mentioned, and that is sleep. Students seem prone to think about sleep as time that is somehow wasted that can be recuperated into studying. "If I'm spending eight hours sleeping, "I could be spending those eight hours doing X."
And the idea somehow was because you're not moving your pencil across paper or because you're not reading or actively taking notes that you're somehow not working, but it's important to understand that scientific research tells us that there is, in fact, important cognitive work being done while you sleep. In fact, we know that the learning that you're doing while you're awake is being made permanent while you sleep and so sacrificing sleep in order to study is a cognitive dead end. It's important to try to get your six to eight hours of sleep every night to stay well so that you can do the things that you need to do in the classroom. You will be a less effective studier and a less effective learning if you're tired all the time. The second thing to prioritize is nutrition.
As students get stressed out about the things they need to do, one of the things they often don't do is eat at all or eat well. Remember, your mind is located in your body and the things that you put in your body influence how well your mind works, and so even when you have a lot going on, it's important to prioritize eating well and putting the right things in your body. This will help you remain cognitively fresh and it will allow you to remain effective as a studier and a learner. The third thing students cut out right away when they're stressed out about exams and papers is moving through the world. They stop exercising. They stay sedentary, they stay in the library, they stay sat in front of computers for hours, and I understand. The idea that you would somehow get up from a task that you haven't completed to go exercise feels somehow luxurious when you're up against a deadline, but remember two things.
The first is this. When we take frequent, meaningful breaks from our work, it actually enhances the quality of our work. And so, instead of sitting down for three, or four, or five straight hours to study, the quality of our studying will actually be better if we get up and we move our body. This may be going to the gym, but it could be as simple as going for a brief 10 or 15 minute walk.
The second thing to understand, again, is that our mind is located in our body, so when we exercise and do good things for our body, we are also helping our mind. The next thing students feel that they need to sacrifice is socializing with other people. Again, when deadlines are pounding at the door, it can sometimes feel a bit flippant to go out for a coffee or a drink with a friend. Remember, those meaningful breaks help you stay cognitively fresh and staying connected to people helps you feel happier and connected. Isolating yourself, especially when you're stressed, is not a recipe for success. Even if you study with other people, it gives you that element of socialization and it makes you feel like you're still working, and so there are ways to incorporate other people into your life without necessarily feeling like you're slacking off. And finally, search for meaning outside of school. Meaning can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. It can mean church, it can mean community service, it can mean family, it can mean time alone.
When I talk about meaning, I mean something that matters to you. It's not your grades and it's not your academic performance. When you place all of your meaning in school, that means that your school, what it is that you're trying to accomplish in your classes, can become overwhelming or even paralyzing. So find something that matters to you outside of the school so that when you're feeling a bit burned out with your studying, you can turn to that thing and find respite. When students think about wellness, they sometimes think about this touchy feely concept that they don't have time for. They want to focus instead on the things that they're getting graded on, the things that they're being evaluated on, but remember, you may not be evaluated on sleeping your eight hours, and you might not be getting a grade on eating the right things, and someone may not be giving you a critique on how well you've identified meaning outside of school, but those things, together, are keeping you happy and healthy, and happy and healthy students are much more capable of academic success than students who are isolated and sad.
So make sure that you make time for these things. Make sure that you carve out space for these non-negotiables so that you can give yourself the very best chance of being happy, healthy, and successful.
This idea, I think, is based on some sort of concept that the mind and the body are two separate things and that you can keep your mind running and that you can stay cognitively effective without taking care of the vessel that your mind is in. I want to push back against this a little bit because to me, it seems clear that in order for you to do the things that you need to do in the classroom, and in order for you to be cognitively effective and efficient, you need to take care of yourself and you need to do a couple of things that are really important to stay well while you attempt to succeed academically.
Let me just say one thing in advance. Even though I think these things coming up are non-negotiable, it doesn't mean that you're going to be able to spend all of the time that you want to do them all the time, but I think it's important to recognize their vital importance as you think about managing your time because all too often, they get cut out or get avoided altogether and this is a recipe for disaster. I'd like to start with the one we've already mentioned, and that is sleep. Students seem prone to think about sleep as time that is somehow wasted that can be recuperated into studying. "If I'm spending eight hours sleeping, "I could be spending those eight hours doing X."
And the idea somehow was because you're not moving your pencil across paper or because you're not reading or actively taking notes that you're somehow not working, but it's important to understand that scientific research tells us that there is, in fact, important cognitive work being done while you sleep. In fact, we know that the learning that you're doing while you're awake is being made permanent while you sleep and so sacrificing sleep in order to study is a cognitive dead end. It's important to try to get your six to eight hours of sleep every night to stay well so that you can do the things that you need to do in the classroom. You will be a less effective studier and a less effective learning if you're tired all the time. The second thing to prioritize is nutrition.
As students get stressed out about the things they need to do, one of the things they often don't do is eat at all or eat well. Remember, your mind is located in your body and the things that you put in your body influence how well your mind works, and so even when you have a lot going on, it's important to prioritize eating well and putting the right things in your body. This will help you remain cognitively fresh and it will allow you to remain effective as a studier and a learner. The third thing students cut out right away when they're stressed out about exams and papers is moving through the world. They stop exercising. They stay sedentary, they stay in the library, they stay sat in front of computers for hours, and I understand. The idea that you would somehow get up from a task that you haven't completed to go exercise feels somehow luxurious when you're up against a deadline, but remember two things.
The first is this. When we take frequent, meaningful breaks from our work, it actually enhances the quality of our work. And so, instead of sitting down for three, or four, or five straight hours to study, the quality of our studying will actually be better if we get up and we move our body. This may be going to the gym, but it could be as simple as going for a brief 10 or 15 minute walk.
The second thing to understand, again, is that our mind is located in our body, so when we exercise and do good things for our body, we are also helping our mind. The next thing students feel that they need to sacrifice is socializing with other people. Again, when deadlines are pounding at the door, it can sometimes feel a bit flippant to go out for a coffee or a drink with a friend. Remember, those meaningful breaks help you stay cognitively fresh and staying connected to people helps you feel happier and connected. Isolating yourself, especially when you're stressed, is not a recipe for success. Even if you study with other people, it gives you that element of socialization and it makes you feel like you're still working, and so there are ways to incorporate other people into your life without necessarily feeling like you're slacking off. And finally, search for meaning outside of school. Meaning can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. It can mean church, it can mean community service, it can mean family, it can mean time alone.
When I talk about meaning, I mean something that matters to you. It's not your grades and it's not your academic performance. When you place all of your meaning in school, that means that your school, what it is that you're trying to accomplish in your classes, can become overwhelming or even paralyzing. So find something that matters to you outside of the school so that when you're feeling a bit burned out with your studying, you can turn to that thing and find respite. When students think about wellness, they sometimes think about this touchy feely concept that they don't have time for. They want to focus instead on the things that they're getting graded on, the things that they're being evaluated on, but remember, you may not be evaluated on sleeping your eight hours, and you might not be getting a grade on eating the right things, and someone may not be giving you a critique on how well you've identified meaning outside of school, but those things, together, are keeping you happy and healthy, and happy and healthy students are much more capable of academic success than students who are isolated and sad.
So make sure that you make time for these things. Make sure that you carve out space for these non-negotiables so that you can give yourself the very best chance of being happy, healthy, and successful.