I am thankful to be in college, but it isn’t always an easy thing to tackle, especially once it hits mid-semester. At the start of the semester, it might seem easy to plan your assignments, get ahead, and even make plans with friends. However as the weeks go by, break happens, and now you have only a month or so left, it can feel hard to get back on track to succeed and be ready for the remainder of time. So if you might be feeling overwhelmed, unmotivated, tired, or stressed to the point you’re in a funk, I have a few ideas for you to look into or try to help you finish the semester strong. These might seem simple, but can go a long way.
Use a Calendar and Planner (Digital & Physical):
Using a calendar and planner can help you be reminded and prepared on how to plan out your days and weeks, but having both a digital and physical one can be even more beneficial. From my experience when I hang my calendar on my wall, it allows me to notice my plans right as I get out of bed. Having a digital calendar can help me through the day as I go to classes and complete other tasks to make sure I’m on track.
The same goes for a planner, having one where you can write down your plans can make you lock in more with your day as well as just hold you up to what you need to complete. As for a digital version of a planner, the Reminder or Notes App on your cell phone can be helpful to access throughout the day and you can set notifications to go off for them. So just from this first point, it can start to keep you from leaving your funk.
Creating More Time for a Proper Sleep Schedule:
Besides using calendars and planners to help organize and schedule your days, making sure your sleep schedule is also getting resolved or at least a little looked into is important. During this time, we might feel like less sleep is needed to be productive in getting more done, but this is not always the case. When you don’t allow yourself enough sleep, it can result in you messing up your time management to wake up and get ready for the day or have focus when attending courses, jobs, and other events.
That is why it is important to look into when you should be going to bed or getting rest because it can affect how you can function in those coming mornings, days, or even weeks. It also allows for you to take a step into getting out of your funk because you are taking the initiative to improve the quality of your rest, while also making sure it won’t affect your schedule and daily routine to a negative extent.
Put Do Not Disturb On and the Screen Facing Down:
My last and final idea is to focus less on your phone. Our phones can be easy objects to distract us. I know in my experience, it can be hard to not look at the screen, because it is almost as if we have become programmed to see if we missed a call, text, or notification in general. It also just holds an outlet for us to get news or a form of entertainment through apps, so it can be easy to click on one thing and end up scrolling for hours on end. That’s why I recommend using the do not disturb feature on your device, as it can silence notifications from coming through for the timeframe you choose.
Besides this setting, putting your screen facing down can help because you can be less likely to click on the screen, even with a do not disturb setting it can be tempting to do. Other ways to also manage screen time are putting your phone away somewhere out of sight and assigning yourself a limited amount of time when you can use it. Putting it away in a backpack or even in the next room is helpful for some who may still become unfocused by it being near them. As well as assigning a limited time can help create more focus on other things throughout the day and limit your procrastination to get tasks done.
This third and final idea to help get out of your funk is probably considered the most important because using your device for long periods affects not only how you acknowledge and stay on your schedule, but also how you go to sleep such as using your device before bed or use it late at night.
Although these are three ideas, there is much more to branch off of. Some examples are focusing on what you might be struggling with in your mental health and finding resources or ways to manage them. Another is allowing time for social interaction as this can make sure you are working on communication with your friends, family, and peers, while also not staying in an isolated state. As well as the importance of looking into when and what you eat to make sure you are nourishing your body. I know it can be hard to get out of a funk, but when you start taking small steps such as these, they can help blossom you back to succeeding the remainder of the semester.