{"id":430,"date":"2022-09-26T11:49:45","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T15:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/?p=430"},"modified":"2023-01-30T10:00:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:00:43","slug":"the-life-changing-power-of-writing-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/2022\/09\/26\/the-life-changing-power-of-writing-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life-Changing Power of Writing Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emily Yoder CAS’24<\/p>\n

As I began this semester, which, as a junior, marked the halfway point through my college career, I decided to evaluate the past two years. I\u2019m studying abroad in the spring and realized that, after I leave campus for Christmas break, I won\u2019t return to BU until I\u2019m a senior, at which point I hope to be well on my way to completing graduate school applications. \u201cTime flies\u201d is a clich\u00e9, but all clich\u00e9s are rooted in some reality and I decided to do some early semester critical thinking to maximize this last semester on campus before all of the responsibilities and life changes of senior year hit. I think that critically evaluating oneself during periods of change is a positive way to ensure that that change is for the better. I regret not making lists such as the one that I\u2019m about to outline before my past two semesters at BU; doing this as a form of journaling taught me what factors are the most important to my mental health, happiness, and academic or professional success. So, enough background: here\u2019s a guide to writing some easy (and hopefully relaxing) self-analytical lists as a form of journaling!<\/p>\n

A Short Guide to Self-Reflection:<\/h4>\n

Make lists! Write out:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What things made you the happiest last semester? Were they social, your
    \nhobbies, trying new things?<\/li>\n
  2. What upset you the most last semester OR what negatively impacted you
    \nlast semester? Were these things in your control? Were they patterns, or
    \none-time, exceptional occurrences?<\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0What worked well for you academically or professionally last semester?<\/li>\n
  4. What didn\u2019t? (Note: a really important part of this process is balancing
    \neverything going on in your life which, for most BU students, is a combination of academics and jobs, your social life, and your time outside of class otherwise. Don\u2019t limit the lists to just one of these areas!).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Analyze those lists! Now that you hopefully have some bullet points about things that made you happy or unhappy and worked or didn\u2019t work, make a new list from that material:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Which positive things that you learned from thinking about last semester will you continue to do?<\/li>\n
    2. Which negative habits you may have found will you drop?<\/li>\n
    3. What can you generalize about yourself overall from these lists? i.e. \u201cI\u2019m the happiest when I maximize my social time\u201d or \u201cI need time to myself to recharge\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I hope that this little outline can help you think about your college experience so far (or maybe your high school experience if you\u2019re a freshman!); I love writing but journaling can occasionally intimidate me, so I\u2019ve found that listing things, for example moments I want to remember or that made me smile, is a great way to start reflecting about myself and write some things down without being overwhelming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Emily Yoder CAS’24 As I began this semester, which, as a junior, marked the halfway point through my college career, I decided to evaluate the past two years. I\u2019m studying abroad in the spring and realized that, after I leave campus for Christmas break, I won\u2019t return to BU until I\u2019m a senior, at which … Continue reading The Life-Changing Power of Writing Lists<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8817,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[143],"tags":[7,47,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}