Hello friends welcome, or welcome back to my channel.
If you're new here, my name is clarice and i am very happy to have you here.
I'm also very excited because i'm trying something a little bit new with this video.
As you can tell by the title, this video is going to be all about different habits and routines i'm trying to implement to make sure i'm staying balanced, specifically as a student.
Now that we're heading into the busiest months of the year, at least in my opinion, november and december i keep looking over my calendar in the month of november is genuinely like Goliath.
I don't know if that's the right analogy, but it is humongous.
The amount of deadlines and things I'm gonna be having to deal with.
So that's why I wanna make this video now, just to go over some of the habits that I'm trying to implement these next few weeks and months, so that I don't burn myself out pretty much.
And instead of just sitting here and talking about these habits, I thought it would be more interesting for you guys, but also more fun for me, to also edit this back and forth with footage of me actually implementing these habits and these tips into my routine over the course of the next week.
So, without further ado, let's get right into it.
First things first.
We're starting with the morning, of course, and that is to go through what i've been calling my morning checklist before i start my day.
This is pretty much just my morning routine, but for some reason, framing it like a checklist helps me see it as like more of a non-negotiable thing, and it also simplifies things, especially when i'm in a rush and like i have to, you know, get ready for the day right away, because sometimes i feel like it's easy to like really jam-pack your morning routine with all these like healthy habits and wellness things that are great and that are super beneficial, but especially when you know i'm having a busy week, i just need to go through it and have it be almost like mechanical.
So that's why i've been calling it a checklist, and then i've also added this rule for myself where i'll avoid going on my phone while i do this checklist and i can only really pick my phone up and look at my notifications after i'm done.
Lately i've actually been charging my phone on the other side of the room and when i wake up in the morning i have to get out of bed to turn my alarm off, which is definitely very brutal and it's definitely a result of, you know, desperate times needing desperate measures, because these past few weeks i've just been really easily falling down a rabbit hole of going on my phone and like doom scrolling pretty much before bed, And I can easily spend like an hour wasting my time consuming mindless content before I fall asleep.
And obviously I felt terrible about myself because I felt like I had like no discipline and clearly scrolling that much on social media right before bed is not good for anyone's mental health.
So whenever I feel myself falling into that cycle, really the only thing that helps for me is putting my phone, like physically, on the other side of my room before bed and forcing myself not to touch it.
Good morning, everyone.
It does not look like morning because it's a very dark gray, gloomy day outside, but we are doing my morning checklist.
I've just turned off my alarm, made my bed and then usually after that I'll make my way to the bathroom to do a bit of skincare.
Specifically, I like to do these two things.
As you can see, I've got an ice roller that I keep in my freezer, and every morning I like to just go over my face like this, especially like around my eyes.
That is where it feels the best.
After that, the next step is to put on some eye patches.
All right, there we go.
Eye patches are on, and I usually leave these on for pretty much like the remainder of the morning until I have to get ready to leave the house.
That is a little overview of my morning checklist.
I'm going to go make myself a cup of tea now and bring out my journal.
And then I'll pretty much be done after that, because after journaling I just get dressed and have breakfast and I'm good to go.
So next up on this list is to schedule out my week and block out chunks of time where i can work outside of the house, whether that be, you know, booking a study room, going to the library or a coffee shop, just anything that'll get me outside of my home.
I'm a big homebody.
I love, you know, staying at home but, especially since being in university and having the opportunity to kind of configure my schedule so that I have like, home days and days where I don't have to, you know, go out and go to class.
I feel like it's easy for me to blur the boundaries between home and work, and add on top of that the fact that my quote unquote job is one that I can do from home.
It's just easy for me to stay in my PJs pretty much all day.
But in the long run I know it's much more productive and it's just easier for me to maintain, you know, mental clarity when I force myself to schedule time outside of the house.
VoiceOver Clarice here, jumping in to tell you about today's sponsor, which is Inara.
I'm so happy to be working with Inara again on this video, and it's truly been my go-to tool, especially during my library study sessions.
Inara is an AI-powered workspace that keeps all of your research notes and papers in one place to streamline and facilitate your research or studying.
With its specialized agents, you can now combine your own uploaded files with millions of sources from the web.
For example, you can type at research to combine your notes with recent studies online, or at create flashcards.
Allows you to instantly turn your notes into study questions, which is so handy and saved me a bunch of time when studying for my midterms.
One of my other favorite things about Anora is the ability to chat directly with the files you've uploaded.
I use this all the time when revising, including recently when I had to study for my marketing midterm.
I was able to use the chatting feature to clarify certain things, reference some information that gotten lost in my documents and review external sources with clickable references.
The platform itself is also really geared towards helping you in your research.
You can upload pretty much any type of file, including video and audio, and when you're reading or writing papers, you can highlight, edit and cite all your sources without ever having to leave anara.
You can try out anara for free by heading to the link in my description and, if you choose to upgrade, make sure that you use my code clarice20, for 20 off of your subscription.
A huge thank you again to anara for partnering with me and for making my library study sessions that much easier.
And let's move on to the next habit on my list, this next thing.
It kind of goes hand in hand with the morning checklist that i was telling you guys about earlier, and that is to do a closing shift whenever i go to bed.
I have been taking this more seriously i would say this, like past month and a half, ever since coming back home for back to school, and it is such a simple switch, but i feel like it makes a pretty big, noticeable difference.
I did not come up with the term closing shift, but it's just something i've seen people online referring to and i guess it's kind of your night routine.
But more specifically, i feel like the closing shift for me is just like resetting your space for the next day and preparing everything, like your outfit, your lunch and whatever else needs preparing for the following morning.
Specifically doing like a mini house tidy and just making sure my room is clean and making sure my backpack is all packed for the following day and making sure there's like no dishes, you know, lying around in the kitchen.
Those little things have been making a huge difference.
When i wake up in the morning and i'm not saying you have to do like a huge deep clean every night you can put on a timer for even just 15 minutes.
Usually i'll like put on some music and i'll just listen to a few songs And I'll just go through that closing shift, as they say.
For me, this is also a good way to switch out of work mode and just turn my brain off from my to-do list and refocus my energy towards relaxing and winding down for the day.
Good evening, everyone.
It is a lot later than I would like to admit.
It is 11.50 right now.
And as you can see, I have my alarm set for 7.15 tomorrow.
So I unfortunately am not gonna be getting my eight hours of sleep tonight, but this is a realistic look into me trying to fix my sleep schedule.
And it's really tricky because I was sitting at my computer and I have a lot of editing I needed to catch up on.
And I feel like I get my best editing done later at night for some reasons, the only time where I can actually sit down and get in like the flow state.
So anyways, I could have kept editing, but my Final Cut Pro software was lagging a little bit, which I decided to take as a sign that I need to get ready for bed, and that includes doing my closing shift.
There was like a period of like a few weeks where i had a streak going and every night i was so diligent and so consistently putting all of my stuff in its place, getting ready for the next morning, and then i just fell off my game.
But we're gonna get back on track because that's what this video is all about.
So gonna tidy my room a little bit.
There's like some stuff lying around prepare my outfit for tomorrow, prepare my lunch, all that good stuff.
And hopefully that'll also help me unwind and help me transition into relaxing for the evening.
Enough rambling, I need to get to bed, so cue the closing shift.
All right.
Next step on this list is to schedule social plans that you can look forward to during your week.
And this doesn't have to be anything like crazy, whatever it might be.
I've just noticed that having things outside of work that I can look forward to makes such a huge difference, because it's so easy to like get caught up in the deadlines and just start feeling really overwhelmed and think of all the things that you have to do.
So making time for things that you enjoy doing and look forward to can take a lot of that stress off.
And I want to emphasize the social aspect of this also because you can, of course, you know, schedule time off where you're just by yourself, but by making plans with someone else it kind of holds you accountable and obviously I don't like to cancel plans, so I'm not gonna flake out at the last minute.
I always feel so much better when I like spend time with my friends and we get to just talk and catch up and vent.
Even if that's just a study date.
I do this a lot with my friends when we're both busy and we don't really have the time to grab a coffee or do anything.
Quote-unquote fun.
We'll just meet up at the library and work together.
But there is a lot of comfort in having some company.
So I highly recommend, when you're planning out your week, trying to schedule little pockets of time where you can catch up with a friend, no matter what that might look like.
Look at this rain.
It just won't stop.
I love bars.
We need to listen to some Bon Iver right now.
Yes!
It's a good dude.
I got mostly the foam on top.
I don't know what it is, but buddy rain.
This is the best cover I've ever heard in my life.
Turn it up.
Okay, this is actually making me enjoy the rain a little bit more.
Next step on this list is definitely something I need to start implementing, especially now as we're heading into colder months, because it's only gonna get harder, and that is to get outside and get some fresh air.
I am not kidding when I tell you there are so many days where I will be sitting at home on my computer and next thing I know I look outside and it's already dark.
So I really want to make it a point to schedule walks for myself.
Like literally, i'm gonna pretend I have a dog and I need to take it out on a walk, Because otherwise it's so easy for me to stay inside all day and not even feel the sunlight in my face And we're gonna get less and less sunlight.
So that's why I want to make it a priority to get fresh air every day.
I always feel so much better, you know, on the days where i go outside and i walk, and i think it's actually like obviously there's a lot of benefits associated with it, but i think one of them is also that improves your sleep and like has some effect on your circadian rhythm.
I should look into that more.
But long story short, go outside, and i'm saying this to you, but i'm also saying it to myself.
Last thing that I'm implementing over the next few months to stay balanced isn't really something that's like super tangible, but that is just to lean into the cozy vibes to the max.
As we all know, the days are getting shorter and shorter and really the only solution I found to get me through these literal dark times is to lean into coziness whether that be making yourself a cozy cup of tea while you're working or even making you know all kinds of different cozy playlists that you can listen to as you're going about your day today i guess the point of this is really just to romanticize and kind of spice up your routine a little bit but you know on top of like all those habits and all those wellness things you can do for yourself it's really the little things like i know a lot of people say that but it's true it's like that matcha that i wake up looking forward to or like that scarf that i wrap myself in you know as i'm on my way to class Those are like the small things that really helped me ultimately get through my days. good morning everyone as you can see i just made myself a little pumpkin spice latte i've got my pumpkin candle going and today's really just a work catch-up day i'm probably gonna stay in this cozy fleece all day and just work in my computer it feels like i've been trying to get caught up all week and yet there's still stuff i have to do but that's just the point i'm at in the semester and on days like this especially like today where i'm just sitting in front of my computer it's easy for everything to feel really repetitive which is why i try to quote unquote romanticize small things whether it be again making myself a fun little drink putting on an outfit that i think is cute putting some youtube on in the background whatever it might be just doing a few small things like that that will bring me comfort and just kind of make it easier for me to go through my day i guess anyways what i want to do right now is i have my computer and i want to actually plan out my uploads for the month of November and part of December not gonna lie it's been tricky for me to find time to edit on top of school and stay on track of consistent uploads but I love making videos with all of my heart and I feel like whenever I sit down and plan out my videos I always get so inspired so that's what I'm gonna do this morning before I dive into the rest of my work for the day and I also love to just take this time to go on Pinterest and gather some inspiration so That's like a small thing that I like to do every once in a while just to get inspired when I feel like I'm maybe in a rut or when I feel like every day is the same.
I feel like it's fun because obviously I have this outlet which is making videos, where I get to just document my life and sometimes it's fun.
As much as I like to, you know, just document whatever's going on in my day-to-day.
I also like to kind of plan out my videos around seasonal things or just things that i'm excited for like, for example, right now we're heading towards the holidays and i feel like it's always fun to plan videos and plan out activities and almost write up a bucket list of things i want to do, and then i can use my vlogs as an outlet for me to do them.
Anyways, that's what i'm going to do right now.
It shouldn't take too much time, but i'm excited.
On that note, that is all I have for today's video.
I wanted to keep it simple, with only like a few key things that I'm continuously trying to implement, because I feel like it's easy to get overwhelmed and to start adding all of these things, but really a lot of the time it's all about just like reworking or reframing what you're already doing.
I hope that you enjoyed this video and let me know if you liked this format as well.
I truly have no idea how it's gonna turn out because, as of now, I've only filmed this portion of me sitting down and talking, but I really look forward to putting this video together.
Hope you have an amazing rest of your day or night, wherever you are.
Thank you again so much for watching and I'll talk to you soon in another video.
Bye.
