One of the most important things you can do throughout the entire business school journey, truly start to finish, is developing skills to take care of yourself and reflect on the process. No matter where you are, whether you are just starting to research schools or you are starting with us in May here are some things you can try out.
Reflect, Reflect, Reflect
This year at NYU has truly flown by, it seems like just yesterday I was excited and nervous about moving to NYC. Now I am on apartment number 2 and graduating in just two months. One of the best things I have done is keeping a gratitude list. Every night I write down at least 5 things I am grateful for from the day. School goes by quickly and can get stressful and hard, this list kept my mind on what was going right and reminded me why I loved the program. Doing this every night set a habit of reflecting that served me well in prioritizing my time and energy in this whirlwind. If something was consistently making the gratitude list, like seeing my friends at school, I knew I should make sure I was setting aside time to hang out with people every single day even when I was busy. If something was never on the list, I knew it was time to drop that commitment. Time is precious, especially in a short program like this, keep track of what is meaningful and what isn’t serving you and adjust accordingly.
No More Zero Days
During this program I have had weeks that were so busy I didn’t think I would see my apartment, a book for fun or the gym ever again. I realized these always threw me out of whack, which made my work less efficient which in turn just increased the likelihood of this cycle happening again. I started making the commitment to No More Zero Days of what I need to take care of myself and my body. Yoga is my workout of choice, so on days when a full class isn’t in the cards, I make sure I do just 1 vinyasa at home. The first step is the hardest so this usually turned into a longer workout, but sometimes it didn’t! I grew this list as I could, I love reading and it calms me down much faster and more effectively than watching TV.. Again, I decided to read just one page a day, which some days turns into multiple chapters, but sometimes is just one page. I encourage you to find 1-3 things that make you feel happy and at peace and aim for just 1 every day. Some days I still hit 0, but on the days I hit just 1 page and 1 vinyasa even if that is all I do, I go to bed much happier and calm.