For years I’ve responded to emails, Facebook posts, LinkedIn questions and phone calls from parents of college students looking for suggestions and reassurance. Now, I’ve finally pulled some of the most asked questions and my responses into a series of AMA. If you have additional questions you don’t see covered here, contact me today.
Fitness & Wellness
Q: How can my student stay physically active without a structured high school sports schedule?
A: For a college student to keep in healthy shape, they must incorporate working out, rec sports, etc. into their daily routine. Most students are active…when they feel like it. This means that they are less likely to workout or play sports when they’re bored, tired, hungry, angry, sad, etc. If they have more of a schedule like going to the gym every week day at 9:00am or rec basketball 3x/wk at the same time, they are far more likely to remain active despite how they feel.
Q: Are campus gyms, intramural sports, or fitness classes worth the time and money?
A: Short answer – you don’t have a choice. All of these are typically mandatory student fees. If there are extra fitness classes that cost money and you kiddo is more likely to participate, I say go for it. I’ve had a ton of students who are very self-motivated to stay fit but rec facilities might have super limited hours or are kind of run down. I also think less used facilities like the pool for lap swimming, running track, and climbing wall can be great adjunctive options.
Q: How does exercise help with stress and focus during college?
A: Exercise provides an opportunity for healthy social interaction, distraction from more hedonistic or unhealthy behaviors, promotes an all-around healthier lifestyle, and activates the brain and body in ways that actually increase academic performance.
Q: What’s a realistic amount of physical activity for a busy student?
A: Another short answer but one with a lot of scientific basis – One hour per day. It’s important at the beginning of semesters but absolutely essential when the workload and stressors pile on. This frequency and duration combined with a good diet (Mediterranean Diet is best to aim for), good social group, and great sleep lead to a fantastic semester.
Q: How can they avoid injury if they’re new to working out independently?
A: Nearly all larger schools have rec facility staff that can help give suggestions. There are also opportunities for one on one fitness coaches. If they can’t find anyone to help, best advice is to start with low weight, low intensity, low speed and increase aerobic and anaerobic workouts over several weeks. They should also check with a doctor if they’ve got medical conditions or are taking medications that might impact their physiological response to working out.
Organization & Academic Skills
Q: How can my student avoid procrastination with so much unstructured time?
A: I teach students to think about M-F as work days within a work week. Work hours are encouraged between 9am-4pm depending on class schedule of course. Additionally, I teach them to give every hour a home on their calendar. Not every hour needs to be super productive. For example, I’m very protective of students’ evenings and encourage them to block out time from 5pm-10pm for socializing or just hanging out. If we’re intentional and boundaried about our work time, it allows us to be fully present during out evenings.
Q: What’s the best way to keep track of assignments, exams, and deadlines?
A: Front-load as much as possible. What do I mean? Pull everything from the school’s course portal and put all tests, papers, homework assignments AND periods of time to actually get these all done. Most students never think about scheduling time for work or, if they do, they keep it generic like “Work Time.” Instead, I want students to put time in on the front end and put all of their work periods with specific tasks for the entire semester. It’s a lot to do in the beginning, but I equate this with spending time and energy on getting a super detailed blueprint rendered if you want to build a home. More detail leads to predicting and solving future problems before they arise.
Q: Should they use a paper planner, digital calendar, or both?
A: I prefer online calendars like iCal or Google Calendar since they can’t lose it, they can share it with their parents, and is more of a living document that can be easily changed. I live and die by my Google Calendar. I advise against having paper AND online since they will often not update one or the other and then they give up on both. Lastly, you didn’t ask but this is also a good time to mention the use of white boards in their room or apartment. This is not for calendar use, but for putting up the random to-do list thoughts and needs that come up as we’re making dinner or on the phone with mom. White boards, when combined with their calendar, is a great extension of their prefrontal cortex (executive functioning portion of the brain).
Q: How can I encourage them to seek tutoring or academic help early?
A: If they have a history of struggling academically, I’d make it a mandatory piece of starting school Fall semester freshman year. If they are returning students, I’d make sure to bring it up at the beginning of the semester, but start handing the responsibility of searching for and signing up for help up to them.
Q: How do they balance schoolwork with social and extracurricular activities?
A: There is no such thing as balance. That’s for scales and trapeze artists. Instead, I encourage students to attend to each of the parts of their life (eg. friends, family, school work, fitness, sleep). It’s just like taking care of a garden. We don’t balance our care for the plants – we attend to each one with different amounts of water, fertilizer, and pruning.
Thanks for reading today. Please forward to a friend if you found this helpful. Join me next time for Part 3 when I answer your questions about Motivation, Mindset, Communication, and the Parent-Student Relationship.