When it is your first time living alone, a new world opens up for you. There are many opportunities for self-development, responsibility, and freedom. Be it moving into a dormitory, sharing an apartment with your partner, or moving into a rental unit by yourself, all of these changes can be quite challenging to deal with. You can use these tips as a starting point in making this transition less torturous for you.
Peace of Mind
The first few days of living alone can trigger a lot of feelings or a sense of not quite fitting in. Be kind to yourself by trying to sleep better, prepare healthy meals, and work out often. Make space for spending energy on your favorite activities, and focus on relaxation. Writing down your thoughts on paper or meditating can help you heal by processing your emotions and feelings.
Prepare for budgets, burnt toast, and laundry mysteries…
Adjusting to the new reality, especially managing one’s finances will be one of the most difficult tasks when moving out. Even with my finance background, personal budgeting can become tricky without proper organization. The first step is creating a budget by listing all the expenses like housing, bills, groceries, and commuting. Make sure that you have also included rainy-day funds and emergency funds. Thus, managing funds through a budgeting app (e.g. Goodbudget) or even using an Excel spreadsheet is very important.
Getting into good habits
Living by yourself means you are responsible for daily chores such as cooking, cleaning the dishes, and drying laundry. If these tasks sound heroic, it is best to begin in small steps. For example, learning simple recipes, creating a cleaning calendar, and reading labels before throwing clothes in the washing machine will work wonders. These will seem like insignificant habits but will massively simplify the tasks you undertake daily. The more specific you are with the habits you want to establish, the easier they are to achieve. For example, “I want to cook five lunches a week from scratch” is much easier to work towards than “I should make more meals at home”.
Staying without a plan can bore you out and make you lazy. Deeply carve a plan for the day that distributes study time, rest time, and personal time. Maintaining a calendar (e.g. Google Calendar) where you can note down meetings, activities, and goals will help you balance them and not be stressed.
Living the MBA life Be mindful that your MBA group will be your family for some time, and you will be spending many hours with them. So, get along with your friends and make plans to engage in some fun activities. Almost a little of everything is possible in Vancouver, beautiful mountains, plenty of outdoor activities, shopping centers and restaurants, etc. It is your opportunity to explore new things!
About the Author
Arturo Ramirez holds a major in Finance and Business Administration. He is currently pursuing a full-time MBA at SFU Beedie School of Business. With six years of experience in multinational banks, focusing on Corporate Banking and Operations, he is looking to expand his expertise and explore new areas of growth. As an SFU Ambassador, Arturo is excited to welcome future students and build strong relationships with his peers throughout the journey.