9 fool-proof adulting tips to survive life in the real world

This post is all about adulting tips for college students.

If you’re new to this whole “adult” thing (or just not used to it yet), knowing some key adulting tips is the first step to getting confident in the real world.

After living on my own for a few years and having to figure this stuff out for myself, I’ve compiled 9 adulting tips I believe EVERY college student needs to know…. ESPECIALLY if they’re leaving home for the first time.

This post is all about adulting tips for college students.

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ADULTING TIPS YOU NEED:

1. Use a planner

YOU WILL NEED IT!

In university, your schedule will be all over the place. So, using a planner will be an absolute saviour for your time management and stress levels.

It doesn’t really matter whether you want to use a paper planner or a digital calendar. I use both, and I think it’s a good idea to use both.

Why?

A digital calendar is a great way to manage your time, but a paper planner just helps you keep track of all your assignments.

2. Don’t stretch yourself too thin

I REALLY WISH someone had told me this adulting tip before I started college!

This is one of the all-time top adulting tips for college students, in my opinion. There are definitely circumstances that make this difficult, such as having to work throughout university. But my best advice is to completely understand what’s on your plate ahead of time, and only commit to more if you KNOW you can handle it.

What else?

PACE YOURSELF when it comes to getting involved in clubs and teams at school, especially as a freshman. It can be tempting to join everything all at once.

But you don’t have to overwhelm yourself like that!

Instead, prioritize the clubs you want to be a part of the most and join those. Take on only what you can handle. And if you feel like you can take on more starting the following semester or following year, then do it. Just be aware of what’s on your plate and remember that you need to budget time for self-care too (or your grades and wellbeing WILL suffer).

3. Find at least 4 staple recipes

This is one of the most important adulting tips for college students who don’t have a meal plan on campus. Although, even if you do, this is still important.

Have at least 4 go-to, healthy, quick meal ideas. I promise you that when you get busy with school, you won’t have the time or energy to figure out everyday what you want to make and how you want to make it. So, have some staple recipes that you won’t easily tire of that you can memorize and whip out whenever needed.

I’m a huge fan of recipes that can be easily adapted based on what you have on hand.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• An avocado salad that takes about 20 minutes to make
• Scrambled eggs with veggies and bacon (if you eat meat)
• Spicy garlic lime chicken and rice
• Sweet potato fries (as a side or small meal)
• Quesadillas
• Chickpea and quinoa salad
• Ramen with eggs and kimchi (for the really lazy days)

These are some of my favourite recipes because they’re no-brainers. You can easily make them with little time, money and energy (which basically describes all of us in college)!

Some of them can be kept for a couple days, so you can make the recipe in bulk and just pull it out of the fridge to eat on busy days (meal prep is so key).

Others need to be made fresh, like the quesadillas, ramen, and avocado salad. But for me, go-to recipes have probably made up about 60% of what I eat during the school year.

And THAT is an adulting hack like no other.

4. Networking starts now

It doesn’t matter what program you’re studying. Networking starts now.

Keep in mind that anyone you meet in college can be a reference down the road or a simple networking opportunity. Professors, supervisors at co-op placements, fellow students, guest speakers, and more.

Don’t pass up the opportunity to connect with someone in your field. ESPECIALLY if they are doing exactly what you want to do in the future.

This is where having a LinkedIn account is also key!

5. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know

I have seen so many students who are adulting for the first time freeze up when they don’t know how to do something.

Examples?

They don’t know how to fill out a form, how to verify that they’re taking the right courses, how to cook a meal, the list goes on… But whatever it is, they freeze up and panic and get stressed instead of just calmly asking.

What to do instead?

If you’re at the doctor’s office filling out a form and you don’t know what something means, ask the receptionist.

If you’re not sure you’re taking the right courses, call your school’s student advising department and ask them to check.

And if you’re embarrassed that you don’t know how to cook rice (or something else simple), literally just google it (or ask Alexa or Siri. Your secret is safe with them). You don’t even have to tell anyone if you’re embarrassed.

At one point, everyone was “doing” adulthood for the first time. There is no shame and there is always someone you can ask for help!

6. Learn the right way to build credit

There are a LOT of myths out there about how you should and shouldn’t use a credit card.

Before going into university, understand the right way to build credit. Don’t just use your credit card all over the place, thinking you’re building credit.

DO NOT spend more than you can pay back. Especially if you’re already racking up student debt. You do not want to add credit card debt to the mix!

Other than that, do research and understand that your learning in the finance department should never stop. You should always be learning new things and trying to set yourself up for more success!

They don’t teach you this stuff in high school… You need to teach yourself!

Here are a couple great books to get you started:

7. Understand your insurance policy (and make the most of it)

College might be the first time you’ve had to deal with figuring out an insurance policy. My guess is that you’ll quickly learn the confusion of an insurance company making it seem like they’ll cover something they don’t actually cover.

Unfortunately, it’s the kind of thing that most people learn as they go along – and as they spend way more of their own money than they can manage, not realizing it won’t be paid back.

I’ve learned (the hard way) that insurance policies are never as straightforward as the “easy-to-follow” tables and charts they give you in the pamphlets.

So what do you do about this?

Once again, don’t be afraid to ask questions. And if someone gives you the wrong information (this happened to me and I found out after spending hundreds of dollars that would never be reimbursed), don’t be afraid to call them out and tell them you’re a student who can’t afford to (literally) pay for their mistakes.

Don’t let this scare you, though. Once you understand your insurance policy, it will greatly benefit you. Make the most of it! If you have counselling covered, get counselling! If you have massages covered, get massages! Make the most of it while you have a policy that allows you not to pay upfront. You never know if you’ll be able to get the same access to these services once you graduate.

8. Know how and when to go to the doctor

This may sound obvious, but so often, we put off going to the doctor when we shouldn’t.

In my first year of college, I started feeling sick and extremely fatigued seemingly sporadically. I knew I should go talk to my doctor about it, but for about nine months, I didn’t. 

Finally, I decided to go to the doctor. After being asked some questions and getting some tests, the doctor found that there was a simple solution to my problem. If I had simply gone to the doctor six or seven months earlier, I could have had the problem resolved so much sooner.

Can calling the doctor to make an appointment be scary?

Yeah, for sure. I hate doing it, too. But at some point, you’ve got to bite the bullet and just get it done. It’s the adult thing to do!

9. Learn how to budget

No matter what your situation is, budgeting is one of the most important adulting tips for college students. Whether you’re working and paying your way through college or whether your parents are paying for everything, you NEED to learn some basic budgeting skills.

Which of these adulting tips for college students do you need to work on the most?

This post was all about adulting tips for college students.

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