The end of the year brings with it so many things. Projects and papers and finals and holidays and the busiest of schedules trying to cram it all in while enjoying all the season has to offer. These last few weeks of the semester have it all. I love to reset in the new year, and if you’re reading this, you may also be the type of person who gets excited about a new planner and a blank schedule to color code. But what if you went into the new year well-rested? What if you didn’t completely burn out during the end of your semester? What if instead you were able to experience the joy of the season while also prioritizing taking care of yourself?
September and October are filled with all the things. Events on campus, social gatherings, tailgates and football games, job fairs and internship applications, student org commitments and club sports, not to mention all the midterms and projects for classes. It’s easy for that to continue to bleed into this last month of the semester and Thanksgiving break and then right into finals. Go, go, go with no break in sight. Until you absolutely burn out and spend your entire Winter Break recovering.
You most likely know what it feels like to have too much on your plate and not enough time to rest or reset. What it feels like to lead and say yes and be stressed about all the things you are doing. What if there was another way?
With just a little prioritizing and planning ahead, you can set yourself up for a less stressful end to your semester.
What if, instead, you took these last few weeks as a chance to pause. To catch your breath and catch up and maybe even get ahead for the next month. What if you used the next month to set yourself up well, ahead of time, for your finals, so that instead of cramming, you could just review? What if the things that mattered most in December, got started now? What if you took your Thanksgiving break to actually rest and actually look ahead.
Yes, this is a challenging task in itself. Thinking ahead and saying no to things now, in order to be well-prepared in the future is not easy (let me tell you, this doesn’t get easier as you get older and have different responsibilities). But this time of year you get to pick your hard. You can either space it out and take care of yourself in the midst of that (yes, working ahead while maybe your friends seem to be having all the fun now), or you can save it all for your finals week and burn out during December. Both are hard, you get to pick which kind of hard sounds better.
This might mean you say no to a few extra things on your plate this month. Maybe it means you go to bed at a more consistent time so you can get up earlier or start a new morning or evening routine so you are used to it by finals time. Maybe you start making some study guides this month, instead of doing them all right before your final exams. Maybe it means catching up on reading or starting that term paper way ahead of its end-of-semester due date so you can actually go to your campus writing center to get some feedback on it.
Think ahead to the end of your semester and determine what are your biggest to-dos. Is it a final or a presentation or handing off a leadership role in a campus org? Figure out what you can do now to help prepare yourself for later. Can you start your research or talk to a professor to get the ball rolling? Can you determine what your next steps are or connect with your group for the project and at least get started on the process?
Utilize these next few weeks to set yourself up well for all the year-end things. This will not only help you end your semester well, it’s actually something you’ll be able to implement well past your college days.
With just a little prioritizing and planning ahead, you can set yourself up for a less stressful end to your semester.
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