I’ve done reasonably well in college. I have never failed a course, I’ve gotten along well with all my professors, and I have made Dean’s list a couple of times.
But the accomplishment I am most proud of from college has been the extent to which I have maintained decent mental health throughout the exams, projects, and intimidating deadlines that come with college.
I have had a few instances where I had to spend entire days studying for one exam or finishing one paper, but I have never been to the point of skipping whole nights of sleep or ignoring my health to finish projects on time.
This is something that I am incredibly grateful for. Many of the things that helped my mental health throughout college were not ultimately results of my actions. I had great professors who did not assign an unreasonable amount of work, I did not have many obligations outside of school, and I have friends and family who were supportive and did not bother me when I was studying.
But it is also the case that my mental health in college was significantly improved by a few habits that I believe anyone can bring into their own lives. By sticking with these habits, I was able to have a healthy approach to projects, exams, papers, and more throughout college.
These habits include keeping a realistic schedule, forgetting about results, and practicing negative visualization.
Keep A Realistic Schedule
The first thing which has helped me tremendously is the idea of time blocking from Cal Newport.
Here is a blog where Cal Newport explains time blocking and shows an example of it:
Essentially, time blocking allows you to plan your day in thirty-minute intervals and make changes to your schedule throughout the day smoothly if needed.
The value in time blocking is that you waste no time throughout the day wondering what you should be working on, because you began your workday having already sorted it out. Not having to spend time wondering what you should be working on is great for productivity. But perhaps more importantly, not worrying about whether you are working on the wrong thing at a given time is great for mental clarity.
Time blocking also helps you understand how long certain tasks actually take to complete. Speaking from experience, it is often the case that people underestimate how long something is going to take. As a result, they end up hurried and frustrated when the task takes longer than expected. When time blocking, you get to assess your expected time and actual time spent on tasks each day. This removes frustration that can come with having unrealistic expectations and helps you prepare better for the future.
Newport has mentioned before that he worked on schoolwork on a 9-5 schedule during college, and this is the schedule that I prefer to follow as well. From 9-5 each day, I attend classes, work on projects, and study. I usually do not do homework on the weekends (though I certainly have), and being the generous boss of myself that I am, I give myself an hour-long lunch each day.
When I had a night class one semester, I simply took the time that I would be in class that night and subtracted it from the 8 hours I would normally work on school during the day. The class was from 6pm to 8pm, so I would give myself time off from 3pm to 5pm.
Forget About Results
It is cliché to say that if you try your best, you should not worry about results. But this old saying is repeated over and over for the simple reason that it really is great advice.
The reason for this is that results are ultimately something which we have less control over than effort. Tying your sense of accomplishment to something you do not control is a recipe for discontentment and frustration.
This idea is captured by the metaphor of the Stoic Archer, which Psychology Today has a great article about: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/202207/the-metaphor-the-stoic-archer-explained
The idea is that once an archer has taken all appropriate steps towards succeeding in hitting the target, like noting wind direction, aiming straight, etc., the archer must shoot at the target understanding they have done what they can to ensure success. Whether the arrow hits the target is no longer up to them once they let go of it, so they must accept the results knowing they tried their best.
This same principle applies to grades. Once you have completed an assignment, studied for an exam, or prepared for a presentation to the best of your ability, it is important to not be attached to the grade you receive.
Now, saying you should do something to the best of your ability can be a little ambiguous, as it seems there is an endless amount of studying or preparing one can do for an exam or a presentation. My advice regarding this ambiguity is to seriously ask yourself what a reasonable amount of preparation for a given exam or presentation looks like. If you do not trust your own judgement on this matter, ask your professor.
Practice Negative Visualization
The last thing I’d like to mention is a bit counterintuitive. This is the idea of negative visualization. It may sound strange to say that imagining things going badly is helpful to you, since when we think of visualization, we usually imagine ourselves completing the task in mind perfectly. But there are great benefits to imagining where things could go wrong.
I first discovered this idea of negative visualization from the writer Ryan Holiday. Here is an article from his company which describes negative visualization well: https://dailystoic.com/premortem/
The benefit of negative visualization is that it mentally prepares you for what could go wrong and makes you more resilient as a result. The person who only imagines things going perfectly may panic when one thing does not go according to plan, but the person who has thought through what could go wrong is not surprised when something does, leaving them in a better position to adjust and continue towards their goal.
Imagine giving a presentation in front of your class, and suddenly you forget the next point you were supposed to address. If you only imagined things going perfectly, you will likely freeze and panic when this happens. But if in advance you considered what you will do if you forget about a point in your presentation, you will be better prepared for it. Perhaps in this instance you will smoothly move on to your next point and return to the forgotten point later if you remember it.
Negative visualization also helps relieve anxiety about upcoming projects, papers, and exams because thinking through what could go wrong helps you see that often the worst scenario is not as big of a deal as you thought it was. Or, at least the reasonably expected worst case scenario, because there is an unlimited amount of things that can happen.
So, if you imagine the worst-case scenario of taking an exam, you may find that even if you fail the exam, you can still pass the course. Or even if you fail the course, you can retake it. Obviously, it is best to avoid failing exams and courses. But sometimes we treat these situations as if they are life or death, causing exams and presentations to put us into fight or flight mode, which is both unnecessary and counterproductive to succeeding in exams and presentations.