Many students struggle with maintaining stable mental health and managing their time properly. But what they don't know is that something as simple as journaling or writing to-do lists can be beneficial to their mental health and academic records.
What is journaling?
Journaling is the act of writing down your thoughts and feelings to understand them more clearly. Many psychologists ask their patients to keep journals, which hints at the fact that journaling is therapeutic and helps an individual to control emotions and work through stressful times.
What is a to-do list?
A to-do list is a list of errands and other tasks – often written on a piece of paper as a memory aid – that one needs or intends to accomplish. It serves as a reminder of what you need to accomplish. When we check things off, it's proof that we were able to get stuff done, and that makes us feel good.
Benefits of journaling:
- Improves Mental Health: The act of taking pen to paper can help you relax, manage anxiety, cope with depression, and enjoy one of life’s pleasures (writing). By putting your thoughts and feelings down on paper you can gain a deeper understanding of the causes of your internal conflicts.
- Boosts Emotional Intelligence: Journaling can help you make sense of how you’re feeling about a certain person or situation that is troubling or inspiring you. It can also help you understand your triggers. Giving you more control over your emotions.
- Helps with Achieving Goals: The physical act of writing down a goal can make it feel more real and can motivate you to achieve it. You can use your journal to not only craft specific goals, but also to monitor your progress as you take steps toward accomplishing those goals. As students, we always have things that we look forward to accomplishing.
Benefits of creating to-do lists:
- Increases productivity: At work and home, having a to-do list may help you prioritize your work and personal tasks. This allows you to organize and complete the most crucial tasks first.
- Improves time management: To-do lists can be used to improve time management because all of your tasks are laid out clearly in advance. You can more easily decide what to do after you complete a task and move on to the next item on the list.
- Improves memory: Creating and maintaining a daily to-do list can help improve your overall memory by reinforcing your short-term memory. By writing tasks and short-term goals and continually checking the list, you might retain more information.
Many other benefits depend on the individual. Choices like these never go wrong!
