College students know what I mean when I say “that time of the semester is coming up…” — finals. Although seasonal depression is dwindling and the nice days are becoming more frequent, the most stressful weeks of the semester are upon us and there’s only one thing to do, and that’s to get through it.
Becoming overwhelmed with school is something that every student deals with at one point or another. Seniors dealing with graduation and applying for graduate schools, juniors planning out their next year to prepare for graduation, or just passing finals in general; this is a tough time. Acknowledging all these factors makes the feeling of being overwhelmed come on extremely quickly, changing your mood and affecting productivity and health overall. We can’t let this happen though. Throughout this article, we will discuss how we can manipulate being overwhelmed into something that actually helps motivate us.
Personally, I can become really overwhelmed with school very quickly, but I have collected and created a new plan to battle this and help myself out a little so I don’t feel like I can’t get everything done. To begin, I write down everything that is on my mind. The things I have to do, think of, or plan for that might cause stress. I know, this plan does sound overwhelming in itself, but stick with me. Once I write down everything on my mind, the creation of a to-do list is essentially brought to life. The next step is to separate it by time. Putting due dates or rough estimates of when things need to get done will help spread out the number of things needed to be completed. For example, things that need to be done this week are top priority such as classwork or exams, then there is the extra stuff like scholarships, internships, work, doctors appointments, and other time-consuming endeavors. One by one, crossing stuff off the list, it becomes smaller, making the weight on your shoulders lift. Now it is natural for more things to also be put on your plate over time but keeping everything needed in one place, somewhere you can see that list, eventually, you will complete it all. Or it will be summer and some stress is relieved.
I love a good planner or whiteboard. Color coding my planner for specific tasks makes it easy to understand and find what needs to be accomplished. With a whiteboard, the satisfaction I receive from erasing something off my list is the best feeling ever. Literally erasing it not only from my to-do list but from my brain as well. Another great way to overcome stress and feeling overwhelmed during this school season is to ensure a little self-care. Setting incentives for yourself such as “if I finish my homework for the week, I can go out for dinner Friday” creates the drive and want to accomplish the tasks at hand.
Overall, completely avoiding stress and the feeling of being overwhelmed is not something you can dodge entirely but there are ways to combat it and essentially help yourself overcome it. All in all, if you just make things a little easier for yourself, doing little things like writing down your homework or setting alarms, can eliminate the despair of finals season and essentially make it easier as well.