How I Live a Minimal Life as a Graduate Student

Graduate school has really been a test of learning how to live a more simple life.

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It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that I began to realize I was unhappy with my life. As a student attending one of the best schools in the world for my industry, I thought I should’ve had it all, but attending a fashion school honestly made me realize even further the environmental impacts of what I was about to go into, as well as the human lives being sacrificed in the factories.

So, before I had graduated, I decided to turn my back on the fashion industry and pursue something else with my degrees, despite having a highly specialized education towards these industries. When I was forced to stay inside and look at all of the things I’d acquired in my life, I began to realize I had more than enough.

And then I started graduate school, and realized that I had to go back out into the world and be what we call a more productive member of society, despite my inclinations that I was not cut out for a corporate or standard American expectations of what one’s life should entail.

Here are the tips that kept me sane and minimal throughout my time getting a somewhat intensive master’s degree. Throughout my two years of working full time while getting this full time degree, I learned quite a bit about myself, other people, and the world around me. Other things I just remembered again after the COVID pandemic.

I hope that you, my dear reader, find some solace in some of these things, places, and concepts that I learned to love.

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Reusable salad containers, coffee cups, and a new tea kettle really kept me going.

A big aspect of sustainability in my life is trying to cut down on the amount of plastics and waste I’m consuming, so as soon as I realized that I was going to be commuting to campus, and, on some days, staying there all day, I came up with a game plan to try and figure out the best ways to cut down on waste.

First, I purchased a salad container that separates the components and dressing, so when I’m ready to eat, I toss it into the bottom bowl part and mix everything together. I also pack some snacks I bought in bulk at Costco, which typically consist of nuts and oranges, and snack on those throughout the day when I begin feeling the hunger pangs.

And because I’m always tired and need some kind of caffeine to get me through the day, I finally invested in a French press, a reusable coffee cup, and an electric tea kettle we bought on sale at Costco.

On the days I really know I need coffee, I use the Copper Cow Vietnamese coffee and make a batch of that to take with me during the day.

For less tiring days, I make a huge batch of loose tea in my kettle and put it into my reusable cup, sipping on that and my reusable Hydroflask throughout the day. Even when I’m not at school, I drink about four cups of tea a day, and I generally get very dehydrated, forcing me to drink liquids often unless I want to pass out.

All in all, I’ve saved a ton of money, straws, and resources doing this instead of purchasing items often.

Libraries are a humanities graduate student’s best friend.

If you’re a humanities student like I am, you’re going to feel the pain of seeing how many books you have to read in a single week. At the peak of my graduate degree, I was reading about six hundred pages a week worth of history, literature, and hard theory. It truly was a lot.

But that said, I firmly believe in not having to buy every single book that’s out there on our syllabi. Unless you need a physical copy to annotate, don’t bother buying copies if you’re trying to simplify your life and be more financially responsible. Some of these books are quite expensive.

Through my university library, I’ve been able to get online PDFs or E-books, as well as physical copies shipped to our location. If the public school system doesn’t have the book, they’ll do an Interlibrary Loan for you and get it from another school.

I have not bought a single copy of a book since my first semester doing this, and considering I own a ton of books already, I never had the space to begin with to be buying 10 books per class.

Sometimes comparison truly is the thief of joy.

This used to be a major problem with me in undergrad, but I felt like back then that I had to keep up with the people around me. I imagine if I had gone to a “more prestigious” master’s program, or a PhD like I had originally planned, I was going to fall more into this trap again.

When it comes to publishing and research, especially in academia, there’s this deep sense of competition among cohorts even sometimes. You’ll see people going off and paying full money to study abroad in India, or taking expensive external language classes because they could afford it (or go into debt for it), which then makes you feel like you’re behind.

I’m a first generation college student, and will be the first in the family to get a master’s degree. I had no idea what I was getting into, and while I realize I’ve come so far and am doing well with it, you see where other people are at and feel insignificant.

But then I realize their parents might’ve had an education, and their grandparents, while I come from an immigrant family, and that my parents never had the opportunities really to go to or finish college.

So take a step back sometimes, and realize you’re doing so well. Then you’ll feel less pressure to consume, push, and burn out due to comparing yourself to your peers.

A good computer setup really helps prevent so many problems and allows more focus.

Because I work from home during the weeks, and have a major privilege being able to so do, I realized my second semester that my computer setup wasn’t doing it for me. I got my desk from Goodwill for $20, and my chair was free from a Facebook group, but craning my neck down to look at my laptop really wasn’t doing me any favors in the long run.

A laptop stand was my first big purchase, and that helped with the neck pain. I then ended up getting a wireless keyboard so I could type without pressing my wrists up against the stand, and then, in 2024, I splurged and bought wireless headphones. Those, when playing chill lofi music, have helped me so much when it comes to getting into the zone.

While my next big purchase, when I have the money for it, is going to be a desktop, I found having these items helped so much in alleviating the pressure of what it takes to constantly be staring at a screen.

I ended up wearing my cheap blue light glasses more as well because I was getting headaches, and my contacts because my regular prescription glasses also gave me headaches when I was trying to get through my readings and type out essays.

I know this section seems less minimalist, but because I was able to find these things that helped me out so easily, it prevented me from purchasing other dumb things down the road.

When you can’t find a system that works for you, you make irrelevant purchases that create more clutter, ultimately stressing you out in the long run if you can’t nail down the right flow.

A tablet and laptop helps a lot with the extensive amount of readings, cutting down on printing.

Continuing on and finishing with the technology theme, having a laptop really helped me out in this process. I was able to take it everywhere I go, especially when I was commuting to and from school, and when I headed out of town for work, I was even able to attend classes remotely sometimes by logging on and seeing what my professors could offer me.

During classes, as we were allowed computers, I could also log onto the PDFs and skim them as were talking, which was so great because I could just Control + F certain words and find the right sections.

I’d bought my tablet before I started graduate school, but because I had done so, it was so helpful for annotating PDFs of books and articles. I also took notes on it for a while and mapped out my thesis, which I found to be incredibly helpful and less wasteful when it comes to papers.

I hate printing things out, as it’s expensive and such a waste of a tree’s life, so the digitized versions helped out a lot.

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