As the last week of classes comes to a close, the dreaded hell week looms nearer and nearer. Almost every student on campus is struggling to get through the last few days standing between them and freedom. But in the moments between the concluding sentence of your final paper and the first slide to another PowerPoint, we all take a moment to reflect on the semester. What was good? What was bad? Should I have really eaten those weird cheese fries from the dining hall last night?
When I look back on my semester, I notice a lot of little mistakes I made, that ultimately impacted not only my work ethic, but my mental health. They weren’t good mistakes to make — but they’re extremely common ones. So here’s my list of six mistakes I made this semester, that you probably did too.
1.) Becoming addicted to a show on Netflix partway through the semester
You know what I’m talking about. The addiction likely started out innocently — with the intention to watch just one episode after a particularly long day of class. But that one episode of the new Netflix original everyone has been talking about turned into two, and then three; before you knew it you were binge watching episodes almost nightly, almost to the exclusion of your homework. I’ll admit there was more than one night where I lay in my bed on my fifth episode of Criminal Minds, having not even touched the pile of homework that was due the next day. There’s nothing wrong with taking the time to relax and watch a show or movie, but once it becomes an addiction, you’re in for a hard habit to break.
2.) Not taking a class as seriously as I should’ve
I am 100 percent guilty of this. You have every intention on the first day of classes to treat this class as important as the rest of them, but the farther you make it into the semester, the less and less time you find to dedicate to that class. The assignments are few and far between, and you start to think that you’ll have no problem acing the class without trying as hard. So you slack off (a lot), and before you know it, your final exam is coming up and you have done none of the readings the entire semester. Unfortunately, those classes that have less assignments sprinkled throughout the semester have the hardest projects and papers, meaning you’re stuck at the end of the semester worried about your grade in that class.
3.) Not making enough time for friends
Sometimes, the stress of the semester seems to be a little too much. You’re neck-deep in assignments and readings, and you’re trying so hard to do so well in your classes. So you skip plans with a friend one night. Then it’s another. Then it’s another. It’s not that you don’t want to hang out with them — you just don’t have the time! By the end of the semester, you guys run into each other and you’re spewing apologies for being so distant, with the promise to hang out more next semester.
4.) Procrastinating
While I’d love to say that I won’t make this mistake again next semester (like I do every semester), it probably won’t happen. You all have those assignments that really seem like no big deal when they’re assigned, or the ones that you just simply don’t have time to get done ahead of time. You make yourselves the promise that you’ll start it tomorrow (as you turn on another episode of that show you’re addicted to on Netflix), but still end up cranking it all out in one night. Not only does it stress you out more than it should, but it also cuts into our hours of sleep and productivity the next day.
5.) Thinking that sleep isn’t as important as it really is
This one goes hand-in-hand with procrastinating. You stay up until four in the morning working on that assignment you procrastinated, thinking that just one night of little sleep won’t be so bad. But on a different night, you decide it’s a good idea to marathon the first three Harry Potter movies and don’t go to bed until well after 5 a.m.. Before you know it, by the end of the semester you’re exhausted — from your amount of work and your lack of sleep.
6.) Not putting aside some me time
