It is finals week and with that comes the urge to do everything you can do to finish strong (translation: to scrape by with a decent grade). This last minute shove often involves foregoing your own basic needs. You don’t sleep enough, you can’t even imagine having time to exercise, and you definitely don’t eat right. However, those actions can take a toll on your emotional and physical wellbeing. You transform into something grouchy, tense, and reclusive. The library becomes your lair, and you its fitting gremlin.
Luckily, there are steps you can take to avoid turning into the monster you fear becoming when the clock strikes midnight on finals.
1) Even if you don’t think you have time, exercise. All of that stress can make you tight, and if you allow it to bottle up, it could affect you even more negatively. You don’t have to exercise every single day of finals week or even for very long, but if you take a 15 minute run on a big test day or go to the gym before a paper is due, I think you’ll find that your mind will be much clearer and your heart will be a lot more steady.
2) Do nothing (at least for a little while). Take 30 minutes to just veg. Don’t think about the work you need to do, don’t think about the time you’re “wasting,” and don’t use that time to complain to others about the work you should be doing. Take yourself away from your usual study place, go on a walk, or just lay with your eyes closed. Clearing your mind even for 30 minutes (or 15 if you can’t spare that), will help you put things into perspective. If you can spare a little bit of time, maybe things aren’t so dire.
3) Keep positive. I know that finals week is bleak. Everyone you know looks and acts like a cast member from The Walking Dead, and you feel like you’re living the bad end of a fairy tale. Luckily, attitude can really pull you out of the depths. If you remember that it’s just a week, and it too, as everything, shall pass, you’ll—get this—survive. But also, you’ll survive if you don’t have a good mentality.
Best of luck this week, and remember to take care of yourself! You’ll perform and feel so much better because of it!
