Everyone has those days, weeks, even months when it feels like nothing’s working for them. They lack motivation, inspiration, and just feel stuck. As college students, we have so many things on our mind and it’s easy to get completely overwhelmed by all of it. However, there are a few habits that I’ve picked up in order to help myself get out of these funks.

1. Listen to music and DANCE! 
I love listening to new albums and artists when I feel stuck because it allows me to think of things in a different way and have a new creative anchor. Dancing releases endorphins, which will immediately make you happier and more motivated, especially if you’ve been spending your whole day sitting at a desk doing work.

2. Spend time with close friends.
Just being around positive, uplifting people who genuinely care about you will immediately make you more excited and happy to work! Most of the time it just takes a nice conversation with a good friend to you into a better frame of mind and allow you to get back into the groove of things.

3. Rethink your sleep schedule.
When we have many tasks to manage, we often completely mess up our sleep schedule. However, this affects our performance during the day and makes us forgetful, unmotivated, and tired. If you’re feeling stuck, fixing your sleep schedule will immediately make you more positive, attentive, and refreshed during the day!

4. Move around 27 items.
This is one of my favorite tips—it is a Feng Shui teaching and it actually works! Moving physical items around you allows you to connect with your surroundings and symbolically press the reset button. Changing your external environment is a really effective way to start looking at things from a fresh perspective.

When I started college at NYU, I knew I was going to have an interesting experience. I mean, I was going to live in the city for the first time after having grown up in the suburbs all my life! Along with the fact that I’d be living with three strangers and experiencing college classes, I had a handful of new experiences waiting in the palm of my hand. Little did I know that I was about to have a fourth stranger come into my life.

See, when I was young, I never had any pets. Well, the fish I overfed when I was eight doesn’t really count. The reason that I never had any pets as a child was because my mom dislikes animals. I remember asking my mom if we could get a dog when I was eight and all she said was, “You’re going to have to pick up the poop.” Eight-year-old me was horrified and never asked her again.

Since I never really grew up around animals, I’ve always felt awkward around them. So, you can imagine my hesitation when my roommate said she wanted to ask NYU for permission to let her dog, Bella, stay with us. I wasn’t against the idea, but I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, I was going to be living with an animal for the first time in my life! If I’m being honest, my first thought was, Mom is going to flip.

When the day of Bella’s arrival finally came, my roommate had already left for class by the time I got back to our room. I was meeting Bella for the first time alone. When I walked into my room, I froze for a few seconds as I soon as realized she was huge. Slowly, she came closer to sniff me. Then, she turned around and promptly went back to lying on her dog bed. That was the moment I knew that Bella was an angel.

While it may seem like I’m simply talking about my experience with a dog, there’s more to this story than that. This was a way that I put myself outside of my comfort zone, which is something I wanted to push myself to do more once I started college. It’s also about adjustment. Throughout life, we will have to work and get along with different people. This means adjusting to their habits and making compromises, especially if you’re living with that person. Although I’m sure my journey with animals was amusing, there is still something important I forgot to mention: my mom still doesn’t know.

Photo Credits: Sonia Butt

Summer brings beaches, winter brings slushy New York snow, fall brings pumpkin spice lattes, but exam season ... brings procrastination. The many options in the city are often a roadblock to getting through those thick textbooks and draining essays. But no fear! There are many tools made to help students battle through those tough couple of weeks:

1. BaTo.Life
We’ve all had those moments of promising to only check YouTube for five minutes and somehow that ended up being two hours. BaTo.Life is an online application which allows you to set up breaks—and properly enforce them. After setting the amount of time for your break, the website will count down. After the timer runs out, the tabs you have opened will be closed, and an alarm will tell you to get back to work. Sort of like an aggressive parent but ... hey, it gets the job done. Literally.

2. Forest
Planting trees may seem like an odd reward, but it sure is a new, innovative take on combating procrastination! The app forces you to keep it open for a pre-selected amount of time, which lets you grow a virtual tree if you don’t go out of the app. Should you exit, your “tree” dies, but if you keep it open for the entire time, your tree is planted in the game. What is interesting is that Forest partners with tree planters: coins that you earn from being focused are partially donated to their tree-planting partners in real life.

3. FocusWriter
FocusWriter offers a very minimalistic, distraction-free writing document that you can use when typing up essays or papers. Leaving only a solid color background or simple wallpaper, the program can remove those tempting tabs open next to your still very-much blank Google doc. It also offers timers, alarms, and daily goals that further ensure that you can finish your 20-page assignment on time.
 
4. If All Else Fails ... The Excel Sheet Method
Personal tip: While strict, this method has worked quite well for me when I am under a tight time frame to get work done. Simply open up an Excel sheet and label three columns for “Event,” “Start Time," and “End Time." Spend a couple minutes “assigning” all the time that you would have in a day, including blocking out time for short breaks, specific assignments, and other activities you have planned for the day. Follow the schedule as strictly as you can, and even if you can’t finish a task, move on, and revisit it later if possible. Though pressurizing, this method of fighting procrastination has been highly effective for many people—especially when it’s 12AM at Bobst and your paper is due at 9:30AM.

Happy un-procrastinating!

By: Raffi Laitamaki
​
A little over a month ago, I turned twenty and my mom decided it was the perfect time to buy me a self help book about my twenties titled “The Defining Decade.” At first, I laughed a little at the gift because I didn’t think that turning twenty was a big deal nor did I think I needed a self help book, but when I sat down to read it I realized that as always- my mom knows best. If you just turned twenty, are about to turn twenty, or are currently in your twenties this book is a must read. “The Defining Decade” helps explain why our twenties matter and why we should make the most of them right now.
Why do our twenties matter so much? Our personalities change more during this decade than at any time before or after. Before reading “The Defining Decade,” I had no idea that our twenties are our “best chance for change” because I had always heard that our childhood and adolescence shape our personalities tremendously. Similar to most people my age, I thought that who I was and what I was capable of was already largely determined by my childhood. I was wrong, and that is so exciting. It is exciting because there is still time to change- time to figure out who I want to be and deliberately work at making myself a better person.
    Our personalities change more during this period because our brains are not fully developed. The frontal lobe of our brain processes rational thoughts and allows us to think about the future, but this vital section does not fully mature until sometime between the ages of twenty and thirty. Therefore, every interaction and experience we have right now creates new connections in our brain that increase our capacity to learn new things. Right now our brain is being shaped by the people we talk to and the jobs we take, but in the future it won’t be as easy to learn new things or become who we want to be. After age thirty most of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are relatively stable, meaning that for the most part we are who we are. So don’t wait- now is the time to become who you want to be.

​

By: Siri Ranganath

For all the people studying abroad next year who see punny instagram captions from foreign countries and get nervous...

Study abroad is marketed to Stern students as an essential part of our “global education”--we get to settle in a foreign country and further our studies in places where the opportunities to enrich ourselves are endless. The freedom that comes with being abroad is undeniably attractive to the Stern undergraduate; we gain this freedom when we come to New York as freshmen and continually seek more of it. It’s an insatiable desire to be free of the things that tie you down, an inherent desire in people reaching their twenties.

On a personal level, I understand this. I can never forget how I felt opening up the portal on Albert that told me that I was accepted to the London campus in the Fall. The first feeling was complete elation; after all, I was excited to move somewhere even further away from home than New York, where I could learn and grow in new ways. The second feeling was relentless anxiety.

You spend months building a new network at NYU--you find people that bring NyQuil to your room at 11:30 PM when you’re sick, people that get frustrated for you when you can’t figure out how to do a Micro problem, and people that stay on the phone with you when you walk home alone when it’s dark out. In a single portal update, that network seems to collapse upon itself.

It’s not that you don’t think you’ll find more people to build a new network with abroad. It’s not even that you don’t think you’ll be able to build a new life abroad, but it’s the basic fear that you’ll get replaced because New York is too big to stop moving without you. Because who will your best friend grab Dollar Pizza with after your late night essay submissions? Will that person make jokes that slap just as hard as yours do? That seat you always claim in the West 4th Starbucks to read in--will someone else sit there to drink their coffee before a 9:30 AM class? You’re the person that eats all the Peanut M&M’s from the UC vending machine. Is that slot just going to stay mostly full when you’re gone? Does anyone on this campus love Peanut M&M’s as much as you do? Probably not, I promise.

We can’t find a definitive answer to any of these questions, and that’s what makes this process of packing up and leaving so difficult. Here are some tips to help you make sense of this vague anxiety you feel and cope with it:

1. Spend time with your friends as much as you can, especially if they’re not joining you abroad. I know we have midterms and then finals, but we can’t adopt the mentality that “once ____ assignment/project/exam is over, I’ll have time to be with the people I care about.” You deserve to have fun.
2. Connect with the people studying with you at the location you’re enrolled in. They’re going on this adventure too!
3. Stay on top of the logistical requirements for studying abroad, whether it’s getting a new passport or applying for housing.

Remember that you’re going abroad! You’re moving to another country for a few months. Plan the trips you’ll make and genuinely get excited. It’s going to be amazing.

By: Sydney Cheng

Sustainability is all the trend nowadays: from Starbucks going straw free to restaurants offering compostable single-use plastics, sustainability has infiltrated restaurants, kitchens, and Instagram feeds. Out of all the trends that have taken over the internet, I am glad that this one makes the world a better place not only for us but for the generations to come. But I didn’t always feel this way. How is one plastic straw or one plastic cup going to negatively impact the climate, the polar bears, or my life in any way? I thought. The truth of the matter is that it won’t, at least not immediately. But when billions of people think the same way, plastic enters our oceans, trash fills the landfills. Eventually, we will be forced to face the consequences. It is better to make a few small, sustainable adjustments to help our planet now than to wait for the situation to become even more dire. As a student, there are small ways to live more sustainably. Because I am an economics student, I am aware of students’ concerns about the price they will have to pay to be sustainable. But the costs of living a sustainable lifestyle–a tiny extra amount of time, energy, and effort–are greatly outweighed by their benefits: less waste, a healthier planet, a more sustainable life.

Here are a few easy tips for students who want to be more sustainable!

1. Straws
​
 If you’re new to sustainability, straws are a great way to start. Making a more sustainable straw choice, whether plant-based or reusable, is easy to implement in your life. I enjoy using my reusable silicon straw from Seastraws Co., a paper/reusable straw company founded by NYU students! Get your own here. However, if you’re a boba fanatic like me, a wide straw is also a necessity.

2. Cups

​I like to bring my own mason jar to coffee shops: not only does it make me look ten times more hipster, but I’m also reducing the use of single-use plastic. In addition, lots of places give you a discount for bringing your own mug/thermos, including Boba Guys and Starbucks.

3. Clothes

​The fashion industry is the second-most polluting industry in the world. The rise of fast-fashion, the production of cheap clothes that are worn for one season and thrown out the next, not only creates large amounts of waste but also encourages unfair labor practices. While it is true that ethically-produced, better quality clothing will cost more, it will last longer and have a better environmental impact. Buying fewer cheap items will save you money in the long run. Instead of buying a new item of clothing next time, check out your local thrift store or Poshmark. Click here for a complete guide on buying ethical clothes.

4. Buy local! 

Using locally grown products has many benefits, both personal and societal. Foods grown locally are healthier for you: they have more nutrients because, instead of traveling for weeks in an airplane, they are allowed to ripen naturally. Reducing the distance your food has to travel to get to you also decreases the amount of pollution used to transport your food. Finally, buying local supports farmers in your community and their families. Even though the eggs from your farmers’ market is more expensive than, say, a $2 dozen of eggs, the food you are putting into your body is healthier and safer for you and has a positive impact on both the ecosystem and the farmers in your community.

 5. Grocery shopping

​An easy way to cut down on plastic waste while grocery shopping is to use reusable produce bags. I use a combination mesh and linen produce bags from Whole Foods, which are very similar to these. A bigger way to make the way you grocery shop more sustainable would be to go to a waste-free grocery store, such as Precycle NYC. Everything–from cleaning supplies and pickles to pasta and spices–is sold without packaging. You bring your own clean container and buy in bulk! Buying food that’s without plastic packaging likely that it’s not processed–meaning it’s probably healthier for you than a bag of potato chips or a package of candy.