Ah, beloved Spring Break. It's a great escape while it lasts, but when it's over your hit with reality. You will return to school and you will have to finish the semester you started. As close or far away as it seems, there's still work left to be done. The final hurdles whether that be papers, projects, presentations, or whatever it may be, still counts towards your final grade. It's so easy to want to develop an attitude of pettiness or negativity these last remaining weeks. And yes, I admit the struggle is real, but here are some hacks to make the last few weeks of school that much easier.
1. Plan Out Your Week
Yes, actually sit down with a planner either paper or electronic and plan out your week. You don't understand unless you are already doing it, how much of a lifesaver this is. When you're shuffling back and forth between each class syllabus, checking emails for meeting times for clubs or other things, your mind tends to go insane. Why not decrease this calamity all together and organize your week! You will save so much time and won't be caught in a whirlwind of mayhem with all of the stuff you have to do or what is actually due. It will take an extra few minutes before your week starts, but you will have so much more time to get the important things than wasting it by trying to figuring out what you're supposed to be doing.
2. Don't Procrastinate
As much as I love to do it, I know I get nowhere by procrastinating. In the end, it just causes me to have more stress and only lessens my productivity. By ignoring my urge to procrastinate, I tend to get a lot more work done and reduce my stress by a significant level. Plain and simple, stop staring at what you need to get done and get it done.
3. Have the Right Mindset
As the saying goes, attitude is everything. And in this case, the same applies. I've found that the way I think about things or approach them can influence the overall outcome of that assignment, meeting, event or most anything. Your thoughts are more powerful than you think. If you are more positive about your ability to do an assignment well or that a meeting will go well then your experience will be much more enjoyable and productive rather you had complained the whole time.
4. Time Management
You've heard it a million times and so have I, but they're right... time management. Without it, our life is a mess. In college, we tend to have breaks between classes so instead of taking a nap why don't you utilize that time to do assignments or to get ahead. I have had so many instances where this has saved me. I have so many busy nights and don't have time to do my assignments. Especially when living on campus, college life doesn't end after classes. I am either volunteering, going to meetings, or have responsibilities elsewhere. So when I have a two-hour break, I've started to actually use it to get my homework done. If not, I would barely have time if any to get any homework done and turn it in by the due date.
5. SLEEP!!!
As contrary as this may seem to what I said about time management, I'm not talking about the kind of sleep you get when you take naps, but the kind of sleep when you actually go to bed for the night. Getting enough rest for the next day is so essential to the amount of productivity you will be able to achieve the next day. Your amount of sleep at night will affect your attitude and energy level for the day ahead of you. So as much as we love sleep, be smart about when you do it... at night and not during the day. If you get enough sleep the night beforehand, then you shouldn't need a nap during the day anyways.
Adding little changes like these will make the difference when it comes to getting through the final hurdles of the semester. Good luck and work hard! Summer will be here before we know it!
