Staying Ahead Over Break

Ahhhh Thanksgiving break, the sweet smell of turkey, pumpkin pie, and impending stress. It's a known fact among college students that the two to three weeks after break are the absolute worst. Finishing projects and lectures all while preparing for finals...how is anyone supposed to make it out alive? While is stinks to have to use your break preparing for these upcoming weeks, it's one of the best things that can be done..in moderation. A friend of mine who was a year ahead of me in school gave me some of these tips as advice my Freshman year, and since then I have continued to use and tweak them over the years. Because they were so helpful to me, I decided to pass this knowledge along to anyone else who finds themselves struggling.

1. Sleep

• ​​Because the next couple of weeks are going to be long and stressful, sleep might now be the first thing on your mind. Take some time during the week to catch up on some of those z's or even just relax. Be a regular young adult for a minute and binge watch some TV before you have to start worrying.

1. Check Your Syllabi

• ​Before leaving school, make sure to check every syllabus given to you by a professor at the beginning of the semester. For some reason, there are professors out there that like to have assignments due right when break is over or there might be the chance of an assignment you forgot about until now. Checking what you have coming up will help you to see if you need to play catch up, but also to get a jump on what's to come.

1. Start Making Study Guides Now

• ​After taking some time to sleep, breath, eat, and catch up on your shows, it's time to get back in school mode. Taking notes that you have already received to making them into study guide or flash cards is a really smart idea. Both the week before finals week and that actual week are going to be crazy busy, so going into that time with study tools already in the works will be one of the easiest ways to cut down on stress and worry. My favorite index cards to use are the bigger, blank ones because they are useful for drawing visuals as well as writing information.

1. Rebuy Essentials

• ​One of the best things to do over break is head to the store and grab some last minute, end of the semester essentials. Used up or lost all of your pencils, go grab some. Need more index cards, head to the store. Toilet paper? Absolutely! Grabbing these items now makes it easier on yourself during the upcoming weeks when you'll be a bit too busy to run to the store. PLUS, if you throw in a puppy dog face, or maybe just a simple please, mom and dad might help you out by throwing you five dollars.

1. Breathe

• ​This one seems so simple, but is often forgotten. People tend to look ahead and miss out on the time to spend relaxing with their family. Yes, being prepared is great and extremely important, but so are these memories you could be making. True life: as you get older, time goes. There are so many times I wish I would have relaxed, pushed my work to the side, and watched a movie with my family. There will always be tomorrow to continue, but the moments are fleeting. This also true when it comes to yourself. Looking too far ahead will stress you out more and you'll forget to take the time to relax and take a nice, big, deep breath.

all my best wishes and vibes,

Zoe

#stress #study