Most days in life are unremarkable, dictated by routines and habits chosen at some previous point in time. However, the day-to-day is how we spend most of our time and determines our baseline level of wellbeing. Outside milestones, vacations, and special occasions, all that's left is the day-to-day.
Last semester, even though I made many great memories, I felt that my baseline level of wellbeing suffered. I struggled with consistency and lacked routine in the areas of my life that most benefit from consistency and routine.
In the new semester, I want to optimize my day-to-day and increase my baseline wellbeing in 2 areas.
Physical health
It's difficult to maintain consistency at the gym when traveling. Last semester, it always felt like I was on the back foot and catching up. Every time I would settle into a routine, something would make it difficult to continue—another trip, a paper to write, or a social commitment to attend.
The last time I felt this way was in high school: I was trying to manage debate and swimming, but debate required me to travel to tournaments almost every weekend. This caused me to miss practices. I rarely went more than two weeks without missing practice and always felt like I was making up missed time. This has made it hard to stay motivated, and I've felt that my streaks of consistency are always wasted.
In my experience, this is a sign of misaligned priorities. In high school, I decided that I liked debate better and switched swim training groups to one with fewer commitments. However, my physical health is not something I want to prioritize less. Instead, I want to make it easier for me to be consistent by lowering the bar—incorporating less time-consuming workouts on days where my I don't feel I can make room for going to the gym.
While this sounds counterintuitive, I think it will work because the problem I am trying to solve is not as simple as going to the gym more. I'm trying to build momentum and avoid the feeling of always catching up.
Mental clarity
Throughout the fall semester, I felt like I was constantly experiencing some form of information overload. There is a lot of pressure to fill every minute with something and I allowed my calendar to be set by FOMO rather than my own goals.
The problem was compounded by my lack of self-evaluation and introspection. Looking back, I spent my first semester living on autopilot, allowing important decisions like who I want to be and what I want to do to be made without deliberate, conscious consideration.
It's expected to spend time "wandering" the first semester of college. Still, I want to create points for reflection to intentionally guide my wandering.
Journaling is the most effective change I can make. I've written about the benefits of journaling before. I think that bringing it back into my life can help me identify which decisions are made consciously and which are made on autopilot.
Journaling also helps reduce mental clutter. The constant feeling of information overload is an obstacle to living intentionally because it takes up valuable attention. It's actually incredible how effective a mind dump is at sorting out stress. If something is bothering me and has been on my mind for a long time, I'll spend a few minutes writing down my unfiltered thoughts. It's important to not edit your thinking and go straight from brain to paper (or computer). Reading through my past mind dumps is comforting because they reveal patterns of worrying that are always overblown.
I think it was Austin Kleon that said something along the lines of:
It's not that people who write have a lot to say, but the act of writing gives you a lot to say by connecting you with your thoughts.