Coming back from break and being thrown into school is harrowing, painful, and somehow possible every year. The first few weeks are always difficult until the whole semester’s workload becomes difficult, and the relaxation we were used to doesn’t quite leave. Whenever procrastination takes over, I rely on these few methods to ease back into the semester and feign not procrastinating.
Start by Really Examining your Syllabi
The first way I ease back into schoolwork is by really examining my syllabi and condensing all my assignment due dates into one comprehensive calendar. Syllabus week is never busy and by the time my classes start picking up (week 2), I’m prepared no matter how much time I spend spreading this out and have my semester readily planned out.
Watching Movies
Ah yes, Netflix. Relaxing by watching shows and movies is a little too convenient and reliable, but I like to feel better about hours of media consumption by watching documentaries and TedTalks instead of (re)watching my favorite shows. Sometimes, I’ll watch movies in my target language and try to understand as much of it as I can without relying on subtitles. It’s somewhat academic, right?
Reading (on Skincare)
The illusion of productivity hits a little too hard when I know I’m reading, and this goes to when I’m reading about skincare and health. My favorite blogs to read are Byrdie, The Klog, and Into the Gloss.
Reading (on Future Planning)
Reading blogs and stories of how others have survived college, job hunting, and embracing adulthood helped me a lot to prepare for what course of action I should take after high school. Refinery29 has a Money Diary series that follows how people work and spend over the course of a week, and seeing how people live in cities I would like to live in and with prospective jobs I’d like to pursue is so much more helpful than being clueless and letting the fear of adulthood consume me.
(Actual) Future Planning
Planning for the future can be intimidating and confusing and often overwhelming, which is why I like to focus on looking up prospective work, scholarships, and study abroad plans during my free time rather than think of it as something I should focus on at the same time as my school assignments. I get much more free time and feel a lot less overwhelmed this way and still get to explore my future, and really, who doesn’t check Indeed and LinkedIn when they’re bored?