Dr. J’s super-helpful advice to new college students

(I share these tips with all my first-years.)

There are five vital elements. Ready? Here goes:

Wash your hands thoroughly and often. You don’t want to get sick, and you don’t want to make other people sick.

Buy, get used to, and regularly wear earplugs for sleep. A lack of sleep will make you tired and prone to illness — it will catch up with you and make you miserable and dysfunctional. And when you’re living with a bunch of other people, some of them will sometimes keep you awake or wake you up. In such a situation, good earplugs, with noise reduction of 31db or more, will be your best friend. Some people find it uncomfortable to wear earplugs that go deep enough into the ear to make a proper seal, but if you stick with them you’ll get used to them. I can’t overstress how important this is. (There are many good brands, but the ones that are easiest to find are Mack’s and Hearos.)

Have a life beyond school. For Christians, the best thing is to get involved in a local church, or to participate in some kind of social ministry. The key thing is to be around people who aren’t going to school. Serious prayer time, free from distractions, is vital also. These experiences will give you perspective, and when you start to get stressed out, perspective helps a lot.

Work when you work and play when you play. Most college students — and most professors, for that matter — spend a lot of time in a betwixt-and-between headspace, in which they are sorta-working and sorta-playing — chatting with friends either in person or online, having a show on a nearby screen or in their ears, etc. This is a recipe for (a) being forced to pull all-nighters and (b) never having any actual down time. When you need to work, find a place to do that where you will not be interrupted, and turn off your computer’s ecosystem of interruption technologies. You’ll be much more productive and, when you’re done with work, you’ll be able to enjoy playtime.

Don’t make life harder for the people around you. Don’t be the person who distracts other people, or interrupts them, or wakes them up in the middle of the night. Be considerate. Don’t add to the stress of your friends and neighbors.