American baking shows: I’M NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS I’M JUST HERE TO CONQUER AND DESTROY

Go to class on the first day, some professors only give out the semester outline and due dates in person on the first day.

Try and make a friend in each class. Tbh I struggle with this but they can be lifesavers. 

**Better tip** make friends with a person who took the class last year, they know what’s up. Plus they’re more likely to help you bc they’re not in direct competition with you.

Wear comfortable clothes. Wear what you want, be who you want. Be yourself, even if yourself is weird. It’s college, no one gives a fuck.

Buy a diary. use it in every class. Sometimes that means pages and pages of notes, sometimes it’s a doodle. It’s all good.

Record every lecture on your phone. This will come in handy around exams especially if you weren’t really listening and only doodled.

Buy a big ass calendar. Write in due dates of all your assignments and stick it somewhere where you have to acknowledge it.

Put reminders for assignments on your phone but set it a day early. You’ll probably ignore the big ass calendar but most assignments can be done in 24 hours if they need to be.

Always sit in the middle of the lecture hall. The professor will remember your face but not enough to notice if you miss a class here or there

Engage with the professor, but email is better than office hours. You want them to remember your name, not your face. Ties into the point above. A professor remembering your name can be the difference between an A and a B in assignments and exams.

Bring a water bottle. Trust me.

No one ever reads all the recommended reading. Read as much as you can. Learn how to skim read. Peer reviews are a life saver, they talk around the new ideas presented in the original piece and cut out all the bullshit bc they assume their readers already know.

Backup everything!! Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage. Get it.

Join one club or society for fun, and join one that you can use on your resume. Actually, get involved in both. College is about having fun too.

Pack your bag the night before. Getting up will seem like less of a chore. This is especially important if you’ve had a good day, pack your bag for the following day as soon as you get home, before you even take off your shoes or pants or sit down. When you’re on a roll, run with it.

Make your bed as soon as you get out of it. It’s annoying I know, but you’ll feel more productive for some reason?!? 

Try to keep one area in your room or apartment clean. I mean spotless. It can be your bed, your desk, a chair. Just so that when everything is falling apart you can sit in your clean area and pretend you have your life together.

Try and eat at least three meals per day. Have a big breakfast, and when you’re cooking yourself dinner double up so that you’ll have enough left over for lunch tomorrow

Try and eat one piece of fruit or veg with each meal. For some reason it also gives the illusion you have your shit together and you can't feel entirely like crap bc at least you ate an apple yesterday, right?

Set up a standing order with a local supermarket to deliver your groceries if you can. I did this and delivery can be cheap too. It meant that even if I was in a super bad depressive episode at least I had fresh food being delivered weekly.

Get professional help. Meet your doctor regularly, discuss medication and therapy.

Set a reminder on your phone for your medication. Tbh I’m awful for taking my medication and ignored this daily so a friend and I would send each other a video on snapchat taking our medication and call out the other if we didn’t get one back. Do whatever works.

If you can, arrange to walk to Uni with a friend. When I’m depressed I don’t give a shit about anything relating to myself but I have this loophole where I don’t like letting others down so this worked for me.

This works with studying too. Form study groups and divide up the work. This way I would do it because I didn’t want to let my friends down. Use your anxiety to your advantage. 

Use ‘The Ivy Lee Method’ for Peak Productivity

Write down what topics you covered daily. This way when you freak out around finals week about not having done enough there’s a physical list of all the shit you’ve covered during the semester. 

Shower daily even if you’re just gonna get back into bed. Wanting to die when you’re clean is slightly better.

Brush your teeth in the shower. Two birds, one stone. Personal hygiene can go out the window when you’re in an episode.

Have nice clothes that you only wear on your low days. When you look good, you’ll feel a little bit better. Also, adds to the illusion that you’re a fully functioning member of society.

Exercise. I would make myself do 10 minutes of HIIT on my worst days. Idk those endorphins helped with not wanting to be alive. Tbh I think this saved my life but that sounds so dramatic  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Spend more time outside when I’m dissociating feeling the wind through my hair or the sun on my skin can ground me again.

Try and correct your sleep pattern nothing will fuck you up more than a messed up sleeping pattern. I’ve no tips to help with this bc it’s entirely individual and I suck. I’m currently trying to stop using technology after 9 pm.

When you move from room to room in your house bring one thing with you. If you’re going to the kitchen bring the glass from your desk. If you’re going to your room, bring your shoes from the hallway. It slowly makes things cleaner

[Disclaimer!!: I’m not saying these will magically cure your depression or that they’re universal. It’s different for everyone but these helped me and even then I would struggle some. But it’s the trying that counts.] 

make art with your friends. After Laughter