For you lovely readers who are humanities students like me, I know you feel my pain during this time of the semester. Our essays pile up, half of them are due on the same day and must be 8 pages long, include outside sources, contain a bibliography, have a super amazing thesis and —
Okay everyone, breathe! Take a moment to absorb the sunny (but freezing and snow-covered) day and just keep breathing.
It’s the middle of midterm season, I’m drowning in a sea of loose papers and textbooks, and Teen Wolf is on TV. Despite all of this, I’m still going to pause it all so I can tell you guys how to stay on track.
Pretty generous, I know.
In all seriousness, it could just be me (though I’m pretty sure it’s not), but this semester seems almost twice as busy as the last. Everyone I talk to seems swamped – waist-deep – with schoolwork, and it can definitely be difficult to find encouragement when you feel trapped by your workload.
The dark side may have cookies, but the Internet has Facebook, Tumblr AND Netflix waiting for you.
So, for those of us that are experts of the Web, but are still motivationally-challenged, I present to you three ways to beat your procrastination issues:
This extension is available to almost all types of browsers (yes, even those of you on Internet Explorer). It blocks websites (of your choice) for a specified amount of time so you can focus only what is absolutely necessary – that you hand your paper before that 9am deadline. I can’t even recall how many times this has helped me in the past.
A lot of people gawk at me when I say I read better with music playing, but I’m sure I’m not the only one. For those of you that are musically inclined but know how much time/effort making a ‘study’ playlist takes, here’s a website with pre-made playlists that are based largely on moods. Hit ‘Explore’ and type in ‘study’ + whatever genre floats your boat, and voila! You’re good to go.
Someone in high school suggested this to me. In the simplest terms, The Pomodoro Technique breaks up your time so that you can a) work efficiently and b) prevent a burnout from happening. This particular method suggests creating time slots of 25 minutes in which you work intensely, then take a short break, and then resume your next 25 minutes of productivity. Reminder: your ‘short break’ should ideally be less than 25 minutes long.
And as a special bonus…
Go get ‘em, tiger!
Don’t talk to strangers. It’s the piece of advice adults instilled in us as a safety precaution, but the more we’re told not to do something, the more we’re inclined to do it. It’s a fact.
If there’s one thing that’s clear this year (to everyone but the freshmen), it’s that there’s suddenly way too many people on campus. The Starbucks and Tim Horton’s lines literally never end, and you have to wade your way through crowds of people before most classes. Still, there’s one problem that tops both of these annoyances: there’s not enough seats in the cafeteria.
You’re sitting in class, taking notes, comprehending today’s lesson. You stop typing. You gasp. You have absolutely no idea what the professor just explained to the class.
“If you have any questions, stop by my office during office hours or schedule an appointment if those hours don’t work for you,” your professor announces at the end of class.
Scary, isn’t it?
…But, it doesn’t have to be.
There will come a time when you have to make direct contact with your professors. But don’t freak out, professors are there to help you, not hurt you. So stop watching those Frankenstein movies and you won’t feel like a victim. Just follow these guidelines to tackle your anxiety, and talking with your professors will no longer seem like a scene from a horror film:
First things first: RELAX! Never panic or you WILL spill coffee on your beige trousers and the stain will never come off (not that I would know, that’s never happened to me).
If you’ve woken up late, save yourself some time and skip the beauty routine – you look great as it is. This gives you a few spare minutes to make it to class feeling more composed. Hey, being a bed-head beats running in late and tripping on the stairs, right?
Let’s stop using the word “loner.” Yes, I’m serious. And you know why? Because when I googled it, the results were a mixture of girls sitting in the rain (all in black and white for some reason…why?) and quotes about unrequited love, and my brain went into rage mode and so I’ve decided that “loner” is officially banned from my life. People, not all loners are sad people who write love poetry and listen to mellow music! Some even have friends!
Remember back in the day when you would get so excited about going back to school? Remember when you would carefully lay out your brand new clothes? Remember when you would wake up at six in the morning because you were just so DARN excited about going back to school that you could barely sleep?
Yeah, I don’t remember that either. Not anymore at least.