Sixteen weeks have passed and all of us college kids find us at the end of yet another semester which means the ominous finals week is approaching faster than we thought, stress is starting to consume 99% of our thoughts, and we’re all operating on little to no sleep. With deadlines fast approaching, each and every one of us college students is wondering how and if we will survive another week of college finals and live to see the first day of summer. In the midst of all of the madness, just remember, it’s just one week, just 120 hours of our lives until summer will be here and we can all just sit around and laugh about how stressed we were during finals week.
Here are some quick tips to keep your sanity.
- Don’t cram! It’s a lot easier to sit around and cry about all of the projects and papers that you have to write, but cramming will just make you more stressed out in the long run. Start by running to-do list and begin by creating daily goals during the weeks leading up to finals so you won’t be too overwhelmed during testing week.
- Don’t procrastinate. It’s so much easier to put things off until the last minute, but I’ve never heard of someone who doesn’t regret pulling an all-nighter the night before a test. Start by making a list of everything that you have to do for finals week now and force yourself to complete tasks in advance - trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.
- Learn the magic word, “No”. I don’t know what it is about finals week, but it seems like distractions are literally everywhere and everywhere you look no one else is doing homework. And… just when you’re finally settled and begin to type that paper you should’ve started weeks ago, that one person comes over and provides the world’s most persuasive arguments for ditching homework and going out and getting ice cream, and you realize that you have to learn the difficult skill of telling people “No” in order to keep your sanity.
- Relax. It might seem like you don’t have enough hours in the day to relax, but making time for yourself is a huge component in maintaining mental health, especially during a week that causes an influx of natural stress. Try scheduling in at least an hour during your day to spend time with friends, catch up on some episodes of Netflix, and just do something that you truly enjoy.
- Be positive and surround yourself with positivity. Nothing is worse than being surrounded by a group of negative people who are constantly complaining about how much finals week sucks because that’s just basic common sense. But consider this, instead of dwelling on all of the negatives, just think about the fact that going to college and getting an education is something that millions of people around the world only dream about, so maybe finals week isn’t so bad after all.