“You cannot change your FUTURE, you can change your HABITS. And surely your HABITS will change your FUTURE”. -Dr. Abdul Kalam, Former President of India The New Year promises new beginnings January is the month of the year where people make the maximum number of resolutions. After all, the beginning of a new year, innately motivates people to make a list of all the things they aspire to do and get better at. Avoid decision fatigue There is no dearth of self-help information available via various forms of media today. We wake up in the morning and feed our brains with information from all forms of social media – Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok etc. Our eyes and mind dart from one topic to the other – COVID-19 news, Tik Tok dances, celebrity gossip and memes on a hundred different topics. Just seeing the influx of fitness and recipe videos makes us feel tired to a point where we don’t know where to start. Did you know that when confronted with an overload of information – our brain may even shut down when it is time to take a decision, because it has no idea what to process. Researchers call this ‘decision fatigue’. People mindlessly imbibe information without knowing the consequences it has on us. As a student, these are crucial years where you will have to be physically, emotionally and mentally healthy to take decisions with clarity. The habits you form now will go a long way in ensuring your academic, personal and professional success. Let’s focus on these 5 practices that are guaranteed to make a difference in your everyday life as a student: 1. Use the Pomodoro Technique: Research indicates that we work most effectively in 25-min intervals. Set a timer to break down your study or work into intervals of 25 minutes which will instill a sense of urgency in you rather that the assumption that you have an endless period of time to complete the task. Did you know that this time management technique was developed in Italy in the late 80’s and gets its name from ‘pomodoro’, the Italian word for ‘tomato’ after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Francesco Cirillio, the founder of this technique used. For more information on the Pomodoro time management technique, click here. 2. Reduce time spent on social media: Did you know that our brains are specifically wired to love endless scrolling which explains the amount of time we spend mindlessly scrolling through social media? In India, we spend an average of 3.5 hours everyday looking at our phones. This takes a tremendous toll on our eyes, minds and brains. Do not spend more than 20 minutes a day in total, on mindless social media scrolling and texting. 3. Read and listen to quality content: Choose an inspirational book or an inspiring TEDTalk over a WhatsApp forward joke! Improve your listening skills by following meaningful podcasts and TEDTalks. Not only will this help improve your vocabulary, it will also enhance your listening and reading comprehension skills and contribute to great conversation starters. 4. Inculcate the habit of exercise : Exercise helps you right from the cellular level boosting your emotional, mental and physical activity. If you find yourself drawn to video-games, binge-watching television or spending excessive time in front of your phone – make a firm resolve to include some kind of exercise routine in your life be it Yoga, a brisk walk or some exercise routine. If you are interested in playing a game like tennis or cricket, make sure to include time for that in your weekly routine. 5. Practise Mindfulness: Mindfulness can be simply described as the ability to pay attention to the present moment. There are many practices available to include mindfulness in your daily life like chanting, prayer, mediation, listening to meditative music or even focusedly pursuing a gentle hobby like knitting, painting or sketching. Choose any practice that is familiar to you or appeals to you and practice it in intervals of 3 day slots till it becomes a natural part of your life. The investment you make in yourself during this time will give you the mental clarity to be alert and active for the rest of the day. HCL technologies focuses on the values of Courage and Care that motivates us to Collaborate to stay as one of the top global technology companies in the digital age. These are the ‘values’ that HCL values as a company and these are the values that we look out for in the people who work for us. Guess what? All of these values are already within you and with the right attitude and dedication, will find ways to flourish and grow.
