Having anxiety can be a stressful thing in itself. Try adding schoolwork, maintaining a social life, working, and sleeping into that equation. It can get extremely overwhelming, as any college student already knows. If you’re like me and have performance and social anxiety, college can seem almost impossible to handle. With finals time around the corner, here are some tips for how to handle finals if you have anxiety.

1. Organize your life using a planner.

If you don’t already have a panner, I definitely suggest getting one. I love my Lily Pulitzer, and it has definitely helped me throughout this semester. It helps a tremendous amount to physically see your upcoming exams written down. Then, you can plan your studying accordingly.

2. Do not (I repeat, DO NOT) wait until the last minute.

You probably have five or six cumulative finals to study for. Do not wait until the night before to study for them! To avoid this, make a schedule for what you will study each day, starting at least one week in advance (because starting a month early just isn’t realistic). I promise it will make a world of a difference.

3. Create study guides.

Go through the chapters in your textbooks or the PowerPoint slides your professor uses for class and create a study guide of your own. Physically writing it will help you remember it better, but typing it can go much faster and then you can focus the rest of your time on studying the material. I like to go to an empty classroom and write everything on the dry-erase board.

4. Test yourself.

Testing yourself is a proven way to remember the material better than just studying repetitively. This way, you can be unbiased and see what material you should focus on instead of focusing on the material you already know.

5. Stay healthy.

I know it’s hard, but avoid caffeine. Get a healthy amount of sleep at night. This means don’t pull all-nighters! Studying large amounts of material without sleep will not result in a good grade. Trust me. Also, stay active. Working out is a great stress reliever and builds confidence. This will help when you're studying!

6. Take breaks.

Study for about 45 minutes or so, and then take a 10 minute break to let your brain relax and decompress. You don’t want to put your brain on overload because it will forget everything come exam time. Just spread your studying out and take breaks in between.

7. Listen to music.

Listen to calming music and breathe deeply. This will help your stress level go down.

8. Stay positive.

Walt Disney, said, “if you can dream it, you can do it.” Just stay positive, have faith in yourself and God, and everything will work itself out and be okay.

You’ve been learning this material all year long; it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. Just breathe, relax, and get studying. It’ll be worth it when those graduate schools see those A’s and B’s on your transcript. Good luck on your finals!