5 Daily Habits Youll Be Thankful For

5 Daily Habits You’ll Be Thankful For With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, your everyday routine can become challenging to maintain. You likely have looming due dates for papers, projects, or workplace tasks that make it difficult to implement habits beneficial to your ongoing learning success. Keeping a reflection journal, updating your planner, and making time for your interests are just a few of the daily habits youll be grateful you made time for as 2019 draws to a close. Hoping to finish the year strong? Keep reading to learn five daily habits youll be thankful for this Thanksgivingand beyond. 1. Reading for pleasure As college students and adult learners, we seldom have time to read on our own outside of academic or workplace assignments. This holiday season, commit 20-30 minutes each day to reading for pleasure. This daily habit is an excellent practice that engages the brain, widens your worldview, and keeps you connected to your interests and other people around you. When searching for reading material, aside from books, consider referencing the following options: News articles Blogs or magazine articles related to your interests Audiobooks Its important to determine what time of day youre best able to set aside as focused reading time. This could be reading news pieces in the morning or listening to audiobooks on your commute to work or school. [RELATED: 5 Educational Podcasts Every College Student Should Be Listening To] 2. Keeping a reflection journal The way you keep a journal is up to you, but the idea is to incorporate informal writing into your daily routine. Writing helps you process things that have happened throughout the daya conversation you may have had with a professor, or how you feel you performed on an assignment, exam, or at work. You can use this space to plan out future goals and reflect on yourself as a learner. It can be as informal or structured as you want it to be. Additionally, this daily practice can also help you maintain and foster your writing skills. [RELATED: 3 Ways Students Can Benefit From Journaling] 3. Maintaining your planner Keeping an updated planner of all upcoming academic and personal commitments (like assignments) can help you stay on track throughout the semester. Unfortunately, its easy to let maintaining your planner fall to the wayside. Setting aside time each day to keep track of your responsibilities can help you stay focused and maintain a clear understanding of whats expected of you. 4. Setting aside time for your interests Setting aside time to incorporate personal interests into your daily life can help provide perspective in the doldrums of the semester, and it can remind you why youre in school in the first place. Reading is one way to do this, but you might also seek out a podcast or documentary related to your interest. You could also do something active outside, or find a group of people in your community who have similar interests. [RELATED: 6 Habits to Become A More Organized Student] 5. Practicing self-care Self-care is essential for staying on top of your work and staying healthy in general. Every day, incorporate some aspect of self-care into your daily routine. This looks different for everyone, but may include exercising, guided meditation, reading, or spending time with friends and family. In the busyness of the holiday season, its important to set aside time each day to incorporate tactics to help you destress. It can be easy to think of these habits as extra work on top of what you already have to do. Shift your mindset and think of these items as daily activities that will help you stay focused and successfully achieve your learning goals. Any topics you want to know more about? Let us know! The Varsity Tutors Blog editors love hearing your feedback and opinions. Feel free to email us at blog@varsitytutors.com.