As the semester begins to pick up speed, we all tend to become unorganized and frazzled and it shows in our outfit choices, baggy eyes, and countless crumbled up Starbucks receipts in our possession. It's right about now where we begin to panic or either tune out entirely. Although very justified, there are still ways to recover gracefully, and hopefully, provide some motivation to complete the semester in one piece. The spring semester tends to fly by so quickly, so I have gathered up some tips and words of advice that can help for now and future classes or situations.
1. Think short term.
If you think about the semester in terms of breaks then it will go by so much faster! Life hack: think in short term and deal with that short term period of time, then complete, and then repeat. This cycle is something that I've nearly perfected and have applied to all of my assignments. Example: work on one paragraph for thirty minutes without editing or revising. Just work straight through. Take a break for ten minutes and then go back and work for another thirty. Push out some more work time if you get inspired. Make believe that the thing you're writing about is the most interesting thing you've ever researched. It helps wonders and soon you'll be finished with a draft and all there's left to do is to edit and revise.
2. Keep good notes.
My personal preference is to hand-write my notes. Personally, I am able to understand what exactly I'm writing which helps me understand concepts and ideas more thoroughly. It may seem like a lot of labor but try to be as neat and thorough as possible. It will pay off so much come midterm and final week. I encourage you all to try that for a week. It helps so much and you're also not as distracted with the Internet if you were to have your laptop open and can dedicate more time and energy to the lecture.
3. Make a hello-how-are-you friend.
This sounds silly and a little awkward and probably terrifying to my fellow introverts but seriously, making small talk in difficult classes saved my life. Insert yourself in conversations that others may be having before and after class and sooner or later, you'll have small talk buddies! Start with a comment about the weather or about the class you are taking together which are universal topics that everyone can say something about about. These small scale friendships can even bloom into actual friendships. Study groups can form which I will get to in the next point.
4. Work smarter, not harder.
If the class is particularly difficult or uninteresting to you, suggest to your new friends that you all should work together to create a study sheet so that studying can be a lot easier for everyone involved in the group. Divide up sections of the text, questions, and key concept among the group and make sure everyone does as much work as they can in order to contribute equally to the group. I did this for the very first time in the past semester and we all passed with flying colors. Not to mention, we know how well we work together which gives us incentives to take future classes together.
5. Treat yourself after a hard week.
A way to keep motivated and overall keep sane in college is to remind yourself that the struggle will all pay off. Even if it is short term, say, by treating yourself with a spa day or going to the movies, or just taking a nice relaxing bath in the comfort of your own home, it's important to nourish the body and soul so that your mind can also have a rest and be ready for the next week.
I hope these points serve to motivate and keep everyone a little bit more put together as the spring semester winds up its gears. Remember to take a breath and take care of yourself and take a step back if you are too stressed. Trying to work under stress may work for some people, but to others, we might hit a brick wall and get nowhere. Good luck!
