10 Habits of Successful Teenagers

Only a teenager can truly understand and comment on what it means to be one. It’s the most fragile age — but also when they are bombarded with changes and expectations while still trying to figure out who they want to be. Unfortunately, it is in these difficult years that actions start evolving into habits and thus it becomes very important to focus on oneself. Even though every teenager experiences different feelings and deals with different issues, some common habits are bound to stand in good stead through the storm of adolescence.

1.Sleeping for 8 hours

Been there, done that. I was told a gazillion times by parents to sleep early and not stay up the entire night. But practically speaking, that is just not possible for everyone. And thus I won’t say that you must sleep early or wake up before the sun is out (you don’t have to photosynthesize, after all). However, it is imperative that you get eight hours of continuous sleep irrespective of when you choose to sleep. Your blood vessels repair themselves when you sleep, your thoughts organize themselves when you sleep, your brain prepares itself to process information the following day when you sleep. Thus no matter when it is that you finally decide to crash, make sure you get enough sleep or else you won’t grow, literally.

Easier said than done, but it will improve your life significantly if you avoid social media. While it wastes your time and makes you obsessed with make-believe things such as ‘likes’, social media can also cause an irreversible chemical imbalance in your brain, leading to depression, anxiety, and paranoia.

Teenagers become phone/internet addicts and don’t allow themselves to explore the world around them as their eyes are constantly glued to the screen. Just free up those hours of pointless scrolling and don’t fall for these companies who are trying to make money by selling your attention. Cal Newport pointed out in his TED talk that these social media giants hire officials from casinos, who are responsible for making slot machines addictive, to design their user interface. And that’s borderline ghastly.

While it is completely possible to impose an embargo on these apps, you can start by monitoring how long you use them for and make conscious efforts to work your way towards not using them at all.

3. Make lists

With so much drama going on in your life, you are likely to forget about a lot of things. Even though you have all the intention in the world of doing something, sometimes it just slips out of your mind and that is really frustrating and in some situations, embarrassing. Turns out, as nerdy as it may sound, making lists can be life-changing. Listing down things that are to be done on a daily basis ensures that you don’t forget about anything and prioritise your workload with ease.

Making lists helps you plan for the near future and the validation of putting tick marks next to tasks gives a sense of progress that keeps you going.

4. Do your grocery shopping yourself

One of the biggest problems I faced when moving out was grocery shopping. I never did it on time, always forgot a few things, and was miserable at bargaining (only possible if you buy from local vendors). That is why, I believe, teenagers need to do grocery shopping for their house. This prepares you for when you won’t be able to rely on others, but more importantly, the responsibility makes you much more proactive.

As much as I fear sounding like your mother, doing such household chores will instil a sense of commitment and grocery shopping specifically will teach you how to handle money. Plus the entire process is a lot of fun, making a list, cycling to the store, browsing through the aisles, and stocking up the shelves at home.

5. Work well in advance of your deadlines

Procrastination is addictive. Putting off your work for the last moment is a dangerous habit you need to stay away from as it can seriously mess up things at college and at work later on. Teenagers should try and complete their projects/assignments well in advance of the deadline for multiple reasons. Firstly, this way you can give the required amount of attention to it and not work under pressure, only to turn in average work. Secondly, you will be able to go beyond what is expected of you and thus enhance your learning. Thirdly, you don’t know what might happen the night before the submission which you believe is long enough to complete whatever comes your way.

Get to tasks as and when you get them, don’t wait for the last day.

6. Identify the activity which revives you

When life gets too real and things just don’t go your way, meditation and all those mind-relaxing routines don’t work for everyone (they certainly never did for me). Which made me find the activity I can do to come back to my senses and restart my system. You need to identify what resurrects you, such that at the end of a long day, when you finally get time for yourself, you know what will save you. This doesn’t mean sticking to one activity from a young age, in fact, it is the opposite.

Try out different things and don’t disregard any experience as you don’t know what will work for you as of yet.

7. Exercise

You don’t need to hit the gym two hours a day or run 10 kms every morning, all you need to do is accommodate some sort of physical activity in your daily routine so that you are active and sweating regularly. Sports helps your body, just like sleep. It reduces the chances of heart diseases and improves your respiratory health. Teenagers get so caught up in other things that they take exercise for granted. Truth is, teenagers need exercise the most as it elevates their mood and relieves stress and unjustified anxiety. Otherwise, the new lifestyle would become too sedentary and unhealthy.

8. Don’t go too hard (or too easy) on yourself

Self-compassion directly impacts your motivation, mental health, and emotional stability. We need to learn to manage ourselves efficiently as being too harsh is counterproductive and leads to complacency, while being too easy won’t let you utilise or expand your potential. Teenagers need to find the right balance between the two extremes to be able to nurture themselves. There isn’t a universal guideline for this, everyone goes about it differently as it all depends on what expectations you have from yourself, thus it is important to have realistic yet ambitious goals.

9. Learn to say no

I genuinely wish I had this ability. Knowing when and how to say no will safeguard you from peer pressure. It will also allow you to stay away from people who push their work onto you, and you find yourself doing someone else’s work because you couldn’t bring yourself to say no.

Saying no is just difficult for me, as it would be for many others, and that is not how it should be. Teenagers should learn to say no in a respectful but confident manner, to things and people they know will lead to a detrimental impact on them.

10. Budgeting

Cause it’s all about the money, money, money.

Economics was founded upon the problem of scarcity and so was budgeting. You are not going to have unlimited money and thus you need to make the most of whatever your allowance is. To do so without missing out on anything indispensable while also saving enough to buy things you want, you must start budgeting. It’s a practice that will be very helpful in life when you are living all by yourself, as it makes you aware of your spending patterns and thus enables you to save and plan for the future.

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