How to Go When Everything Stops: Keeping Motivated in the After-College Transition

Every year since Kindergarten, I have returned to the classroom in the second week of January and carried on where I left off in December. Now that I've graduated from university, the schedule I've known and (mostly) loved has been thrown out the window. Here's how I'm keeping myself busy during my never-ending winter break.

After being in school for so long, many of us are more productive when we have something to work toward. It's much easier to let ourselves veg out when we have nothing coming up. As a college student, I worked two campus jobs, was in the newspaper club, took a full-time course load, and competed as a student-athlete, so it's safe to say I'm used to having things on my plate. I'm most comfortable in a busy, feedback-centred environment and I sometimes fall into a slump when that lifestyle disappears. To stop the slump before it starts, I'm trying out the traffic light method.

While I came up with the fun name, I'm sure this idea is nothing new. You'll begin by setting a few daily goals that are achievable and within your control. You can make as many goals as you'd like, but you'll need at least three for this method to work. I recommend staying under ten. Then, depending on how many of them you complete, you'll assign one of the traffic light colours to your day.

Here's how the colour system works:

Red: 0-33% of daily goals completed

Yellow: 34-66% of daily goals completed

Green: 67-100% of daily goals completed

These percentages may not line up exactly depending on how many goals you set, but they provide a rough guideline. For instance, if you have five daily goals, you may mark your day green if you achieve 4 to 5 goals, yellow if you achieve 3, and red if you only get to 1 or 2. I keep track of my progress by drawing a coloured dot on my calendar each day, but this step can also be personalized. Here's an example:

If you have any long-term goals that you're working toward, it is also a good idea to choose daily tasks that help get you closer to your major aspirations every day. As a recent graduate, writer, and retired student-athlete, I designed my daily goals around my larger hopes of finding a job in my desired industry, publishing my work, and staying active. But this is not to say that your goals can't be fun! Your checklist can also feature social, personal, or leisurely items such as reaching out to friends, journaling, or making time to recharge.

Another great thing about the traffic light method is that it's flexible to change. I started with five daily goals; however, when I recognized that other areas of my life needed improvement, I implemented three more. Or, if you achieve a long-term aspiration and no longer need to work toward it, you can remove daily tasks as you please. This way, you're not confined to a system that is not working for you.

The traffic light method is also unique in that it does not punish mistakes. One of the hardest things about other self-bettering programs such as the 75 Hard or 21-day habit training is that they do not allow for momentary lapses. One of the leading reasons that people do not follow through with their long-term goals is that they count every mistake as a moment of complete failure.1 Having to restart your plan every time you have a slight misstep is not only unrealistic, exhausting, and unmotivating, but it doesn't mimic the lifestyle we are accustomed to as former students.

With the traffic light method, marking a day as red does not mean you have failed the challenge. Instead, it means that you had an off day. You'll have another chance to finish all your tasks the next day. While this will require you to hold yourself accountable, it gives you structure without having to overexert yourself.

The transition from a hectic college life to an unregimented lifestyle is a hard adjustment. While our natural response to this shift might be to slow down entirely, it's beneficial for us to implement some structure. With the traffic light method, we can keep working toward our future or create new habits while still giving ourselves the rest we deserve.

References

1.Polivy, Janet, and C. Peter Herman. "If at first you don't succeed: False hopes of self-change." American Psychologist 57, no. 9 (2002): 677.