Finals are upon us, and you're probably reading this as a means of distracting yourself from whatever work is in front of you. I won't judge -- we've all been there. The pressure of finals at Wake Forest is excruciating. The all-nighters, long papers, presentations, and tests that keep us fearing the weekdays are horrendous, but maybe you're stressing too much.

Think about it like this: Will you be asked about the iffy grade you got sophomore year in a class outside your major, or about the time you turned an assignment in three minutes late online in a job interview? Probably not.

It's the degree at the end of college, and the scholar who earns it, that really matters.

Is that a license not to study this week? No. Work your heart out; I'll be right there alongside you. But don't get too stressed or distracted by the mountain of work ahead of you. This sort of thinking will only make the studying worse.

Instead of worrying too much about how long you need to study, study smarter.

When I sit down for a long night of work, I like to do a number of things. First, I use the Chrome extension Citrus, which allows you to blacklist any website you find distracting for however long you need. Usually, I set the block to 45 minutes, then have a 15-minute break.

Next: Ditch your friends. I usually work at a table with all of my friends, but chances are that at least one of you isn't doing work. By isolating yourself in the library, you're less likely to get distracted.

Finally, find yourself some good music. Spotify has a long list of ambient playlists, which I prefer, but some people like to play lyrical tracks as well. Just don't pick songs that you love too much -- you'll end up following the song instead of focusing on your work. Others like to pick the scores from popular movies -- I'd recommend the score from "Interstellar."

Go knock 'em dead, Deacs. Summer's almost here.