With the countless deadlines and exams progressively piling on your responsibilities, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy mind and body. These tricks and habits can help you balance your time and take on this new semester with confidence.

Taking care of your body

For your own success and comfort, it is crucial to maintain a healthy routine. It’s easy to lose track of eating, exercising, and sleeping during the semester, but trying to persevere through your studies while being malnourished, dehydrated, and sleep-deprived can make it even harder to succeed in your studies. 

It can be hard to stay on top of grocery shopping and cooking when the semester gets busy, but eating well brings up your energy levels and helps you feel your best. While access to healthy food is a luxury for many, the IRCGM offers services to find food banks close to you and groups like Food not Bombs offer balanced meals for anyone who needs them. On campus, Midnight Kitchen provides weekly vegan and nut-free meals to students in need each week. Also take a moment to check out The Cheap Sheet, a booklet created yearly by McGill Student Services, which lists affordable, reduced-price, and sometimes free options for goods like groceries, textbooks, and clothes. 

Keeping an eye on high-sugar drinks and caffeine intake is also important for your body’s well-being. These drinks are dehydrating and a large consumption can eventually create health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and more. Opting for hydrating beverages with vitamins and electrolytes will give you more energy and help you carry yourself through the day. 

Giving your body rest by sleeping six to nine hours a night enhances your energy, mood, concentration, and your long-term memory. Taking a power nap of 20 to 30 minutes per day can also help you recover your energy during the day without the grogginess that can come with a longer midday nap.

Managing your mental health 

With summer giving way to the long Canadian winter, it can be hard to keep up your energy levels and positivity. To help maintain your spirits during the cold winter months, try to spend your personal time engaged in activities you enjoy. If you’re looking for new ways to get out of your home, McGill has countless social clubs and Montréal offers plenty of fun activities that can boost your serotonin. That said, accepting the low-motivation and low-energy days as well as acknowledging that your body and mind deserve care is a step that must not be overlooked. 

For students with mental illnesses or declining mental health, seeking support through therapy and healthy coping mechanisms is critical. The McGill Student Wellness Hub offers one-on-one appointments or online counsellors. 

Keeping track of your commitments

As lectures, labs, and assignments start to pile up, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of deadlines. Monitoring your responsibilities with a calendar and using a reminders app can help you be more productive and up-to-date. To-do lists can also help, although it’s worth spending some time to determine what method of keeping track of tasks best suits your personality and needs. 

Setting yourself attainable and realistic goals will help you maintain consistency in your projects and create a routine you can keep up with. It’s also important to keep an eye on what activities are making it more difficult to meet your goals. For instance, social media can suck up hours of your time without you realizing it: Tracking your screen time can help you learn how much time you’re spending on these platforms and how it’s impacting your life. Multitasking is a better option—like using your screen time or putting your music on blast while working out.