By: The Argus Staff
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the thick of it. It’s the pre-finals crunch time when all the long-term projects that nobody worked ahead on over spring break are due. Worry not. We have some ways for you to get through it.
First, prioritize your workload. You could work on doing those readings for that one class, but if you put those off for one day in order to finish that long-term project you keep putting off, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe skip lunch with friends once in order to get ahead on your schoolwork. It’ll pay off later.
Actually take the time to work on your workload.
Prioritizing is useless if you don’t actually put aside the time to work on everything. Spend some of the time sitting under a tree on the quad on a nice day, if working on homework all day makes you feel too cooped up.
Sunshine makes even the heaviest workload feel lighter. Sun exposure increases endorphin release, so you’re not just imagining that feel-good sensation.
Next, take a little time for yourself. Stressing about school constantly does not get things done faster.
Once you take the time for yourself, you’ll be more focused and relaxed. Meditate, go workout or even put on a face mask, if you’re into that sort of thing. It should be something that you find rejuvenating.
After you get something big done, reward yourself. That could be binge-watching Netflix, going out with friends or eating an entire bag of Starbursts. In all cases, this may lead to a feeling of regret later, but you earned that feeling of regret. You did well.
Once you get done thoroughly rewarding yourself for all your hard work, work ahead for finals. They’ll come around the corner sooner than you think. If color-coded binders are your thing, get started on that. If you prefer to not be that extreme, that’s fine too. Do what works for you. If you’re less type A and more of a procrastinator, just start getting your papers together. It’ll save you a lot of panic later about where that one paper with that one crucial bit of information went.
The most important thing during this time is not to panic. If you panic about how much work you have to do, you’ll panic about each individual assignment and eventually get into an endless cycle that makes you panic about panicking. That’s not productive. Stay calm. Get enough sleep. We will all get through this, just like every crunch time.
We’re basically professionals at being under pressure at this point. Don’t let the pressure wear you down.