It's that time of the school year again. The time of year where deadlines abound, sleep is sacrificed for the grades, and there's a sprinkle of the occasional breakdown. It's midterms season. During this insanity, it's very easy to feel beyond overwhelmed and, more importantly, easy to forget to take care of yourself. And though I still find myself struggling to stay healthy and focused during midterms time, these ten tips are ones that I know will help keep you going. These tips will also help you throughout the semester/term as well!
1. Get at least 6 hours of sleep.
Now please keep in mind that even six hours is very little, especially over long periods of time. However, it's worlds better than that all-nighter you might have planned. Rarely are all-nighters ever worth it. But if you inevitably do pull an all-nighter make sure to stay hydrated (and not with coffee, actual water), keep your blood sugar up (but think fruits instead of chocolate), and try to eat a lot of protein the day after. It helps recovering from the all-nighter easier.
2. Break up your studying time into chunks.
The longest stretch of time someone can stay concentrated is 50 minutes. So break up your studying time accordingly. When you do take breaks, don't hop onto Facebook/Snapchat/Twitter/Instagram/God knows what else. Take the time to stretch and take a quick walk to chat with friends or to just get some much-needed fresh air.
3. Take 5 minutes every morning to go over everything you want to accomplish that day.
Studies show that taking five minutes to go over what you want to accomplish for the day make you that much more productive. Make it a habit to do this every morning. However, make sure to include components of health goals (whether physical, emotional, or mental) in your list of things to do.
4. Make sure to work out and try to eat healthy (even though it seems impossible to do so).
It's easy to think that you'll be more productive if you don't have that one hour spent working out. However, once again science backs me up, taking that one hour out of your day to work out will increase your productivity later on. On top of that, you feel great about yourself. Combine working out with eating healthy and you also reduce the risk of getting sick, and let's be real, not getting sick is KEY in surviving.
5. Review your notes before going to bed.
Reviewing your notes before going to bed helps your brain process the information and makes it easier to remember what you need to know. However, make sure that your getting the right amount of sleep. If you're not getting enough, the opposite happens and you're even more likely to forget.
6. Change up where you study.
Changing the locations of where you study helps you stay focused on what you need to get done. It also helps prevent you from getting really tired of one place. You get a change of scenery/an instant boost in motivation.
7. Know when to say know no.
It's easy to think that you HAVE to do everything you've signed up for, especially if you are leading various clubs and activities. However, the sign of a great leader is to know when you can't do something. Take the load off of yourself and delegate. Focus on what you need to focus on.
8. Take time at the end of the day and reflect on what you need to improve.
When it's the end of the day the last thing you want to do is think about all of the things that went wrong. But what will help is think about what went wrong, and then figure out what you could have done to prevent it from happening. This will help you figure out your areas of weaknesses.
9. Seek out all of the study groups/office hours/TAs.
This one intuitively seems obvious. But even I find myself thinking, "Oh, it's okay, I can figure this out eventually by myself." But make a study group, go to the office hours, and meet with your TAs if you need to. You don't have to go at this alone. Also check if your school has any tutoring programs that you could request a tutor from. It might take some looking around, but I'm sure that there is one.
10. Remember that everything will turn out okay.
At the end of all of this, what happens during midterms or finals really won't matter. You're going to make it through all of this and it will most definitely turn out okay. Don't forget that you matter to people, you are loved, and these grades DO NOT define you. YOU define you. So just make yourself the best you possible.
