By: Patricia Bibeau
For each person, school provides its own difficulties. For some, it’s maintaining a work-life balance, for others it is procrastination (don’t worry most people face this but many will not admit to it), other’s is how to create time for school and friends, and the list continues. Not only does it take time – especially as a full-time student – to even figure out what works best for you, but it is more challenging to maintain it. Trust me, I know…. Recently, I had undergone through surgery for a medical issue that had been going on for about 5 months. This whole experience came with its own waves of frustration and anger, while also bringing mental toughness and strength to me. Needless to say, I am glad that it is over with and done as it was not the issue itself that brought me struggle, but rather the effects it had on my school-life balance. There were months where I had to travel home for back-to-back appointments which, in turn, meant I missed handful of weekends with my roommates and friends, and instead had to sit in traffic on my way to a cold patient room. Though it had upset me to miss the best aspects of fall here at UMass, the most frustrating part was having to keep up with my workload as I was facing this challenge.
As I am sure we all know, life’s chaos does not pause everything else around us, instead, it feels like we must run 50 mph to just catch up. I especially felt this for the week leading up to my surgery and the week coming back right in time for finals. Everything was nonstop, constantly working, putting in hours at the library, eating when I can and honestly remember to, and trying to have an ounce of a social life while working with everything else simultaneously. Adaptation and flexibility are so important during these moments and learning what works best for you to prepare for when life’s chaos happens. I’m going to share with you helpful tips that personally helped me get through the toughest weeks this past semester. Take what you want from it, add to it, change it up, but hopefully there will be some piece that you can ultimately utilize.
1. Create a To-Do List
I get it, it sounds silly and it’s not like we are going grocery shopping or have chores/errands we need to do, but there is an element of satisfaction when getting through the list, crossing items off one-by-one. I find it best to color-code, one colors per class, club, organization, etc. as it helps me visually remember what I need to do per class. The most important part is to add the due date for each assignment, this way, every time you look at it you can see it clearly in front of you and it will help with remembering the assignments the day the assignments are due.
2. Make a Schedule
After you make a to-do list, it can be helpful to create a schedule in the beginning of the week or Sunday night and write down each assignment, incorporate breaks, whether it’s to grab food or take a walk or even to go the gym and implement some sort of exercise into your day. With a schedule, especially on stressful weeks, it makes it easier having an idea of what to expect, while also staying on track, keeping yourself accountable, and taking care of tasks more efficiently. When making a schedule, make it fun! I understand that making a schedule from scratch can be time consuming, so keep in mind that there are so many resources that can be used that has templates that can utilized to make your schedule fit your style, all in a timely manner.
Some great websites: Gizmoa, ScheduleMaker.io, Adobe, and Canvas…truly so many free sites online.
3. Breaks & Eating
I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep breaks within your schedule. It is not healthy for our brains to be under mental constraint when studying over long periods of time. As humans, we need mental breaks. Not only does it help keep stress levels down, but more information is retained with healthy breaks set. Additionally, it crucial that we keep moving our bodies, whether it is joining a yoga or spin class, taking a walk, or a quick jog. Movement is so incredibly important to keep a healthy mind. Along with movement…I cannot emphasize this enough: eat good, nutritious food. What we eat correlates to our mood, our function, our processing, etc. Having a healthy balanced meal not only fills you up, but it also helps in the long run especially when needing to focus up during stressful weeks.
4. Away with the Distractions
I hate to break it to you, but that phone of yours needs to be out of sight and out of mind. Phones can be so distracting no matter how hard it is to efficiently work on something with your full attention while your phone is next to you. I won’t lie, I’ve been distracted at least seven times since beginning to write this which just proves to you how easy it can be to hop onto your phone and start scrolling through some social media app. Personally, I find it helpful to take whatever it is that distracts me and place in one room or in a bag zipped up and have it out of my direct sight of vision. This helps because as said before, out of sight and out of mind.
There are probably a hundred other items that could be added to the list such as picking an instrumental playlist (currently in love with Spotify’s “Deep Focus” playlist whilst my roommates are in long term relationships with various mid 1500s classical music playlists), setting a bedtime, set a time to put all of the work away for the rest of the day, or even have a sticker book, a color book, or any other book to look forward to when resting. Another point is to reach out to professors especially if you are facing a very challenging point in life. Nine out the ten times they will try to help you as much as they can. If not a professor, then look at the resources on campus! There are hundreds of different resources that are here to help you grow and thrive, so might as well make use of the tools and resources given to us. Regardless of all the stress you may be facing, know that this is only a moment in time and as time goes on, the less amount of time there is where you still must face this moment. Good luck y’all, you got this!!
P.S. The Mind Explained is a great documentary show on Netflix that really opened my mind on various topics that relate to our brain’s functions. This was a great warm-up-on-the-treadmill-show for me as it is super informational, and I was able to take great key points away. I want to recommend this show as it was super informational and helpful!