Well, it’s that time of year again: you’re nearing the end of the semester — and while you’re reminiscing with your friends about this past school year, you’re also probably up to your eyeballs in final projects. Not to mention, exam season has you feeling like you’re scaling the side of a mountain with a 100-pound weight strapped to your back.
Feeling burnt out, sadly, isn’t an exclusive symptom of exam season, but something you can experience anytime, any day. In fact, a 2021 study from Marist College shows that college students reach an all-time high of anxiety and fatigue ending the school year and heading into summer. It can be a lot to not only pass your classes, but also prep for your summer internship and put your best foot forward professionally – especially if it’s the first time you’re entering your desired field.
So, in order to avoid being exhausted all summer and avoid heading back to school with a drained battery, I talked to Dora Kamau from Headspace about how to combat these feelings of burnout. Now, you can not only rock your internship but also turn it up and dip your toes into having a feral girl summer.
- Stop multitasking.
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I know, I know this shocked me too! I always thought that multi-tasking would allow me to be the most productive, the most efficiently, hence creating an ideal result. I don’t know about you, but in the age of hustle culture, I do have the toxic habit of judging my self-worth on my productivity and success level.
“Extreme multitasking might be creating a breeding ground for your feelings of burnout,” Kamau tells Her Campus. “If the goal is to live it up and enjoy your weekends and perform well at work, the best thing you can do is connect with the present moment.”
If you let yourself fully recharge Friday night through Monday morning, you’ll be able to focus during the work week, meaning no unfinished projects to bring home over your much-deserved time off — the ideal schedule for a hard-working gal that also wants some crazy summer memories.
- Cut the negative self-talk.
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ICYMI, how we speak to ourselves has a powerful impact on our mental and physical health, including managing stress. “If we experience constant negative self-talk about work, it’s hard to hear anything else. Our thoughts and feelings don’t need to control our moods or behavior,” Kamau says. “By choosing less judgemental words, we can interrupt that familiar loop of thinking that can create more stress and tension in the mind and body.”
While it’s clear the recurring theme here is taking breaks, that is not just so we can have a weekend on a boat, or a shopping spree with your bestie, it’s actually a necessary part of rewiring associations such as “Sunday = anxiety.”
If we take time for ourselves to recharge we will go into the week feeling rested and ready to take on the work week, allowing us to actually look forward to Sundays rather than feeling FOMO from working over the weekend and the dread of heading back to the office without an ounce of motivation.
- Start separating your work from your life.
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Once we can limit our habits of multitasking and fully live in the moment we will free up space in our mind that once was spent worrying, allowing us to see things more clearly.
“Delete work-related apps off our personal devices, schedule ‘no meeting’ times through the work week — and actually stick to them —, or even practice short meditations on our lunch break,” Kamau says. “In this less reactive, more observational state, we might even feel like it’s time to really shake things up, like level with our boss about our overwhelming workload or start hunting for a job at a company that’s a better fit.”
While as college students we don’t always have that luxury, having a clear perspective during your summer internships is sure to help you know what you want and don’t want for your first job post-grad.
- Start setting intentions.
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While I’m sure we’ve all heard people tell us to set positive intentions, Kamau says that this can actually be beneficial. “Creating a practical intention on Sundays for the week ahead can help us navigate workplace stressors more effectively,” Kamau says. “We’re choosing to act a certain way, even though we don’t have to — we’re making a commitment to ourselves, for our sake.
Not sure how to get started? Kamau suggests these intentions for a first-timer: “This week, I want to listen to others more,” “Starting Monday, I’ll practice patience,” and “My aim for this week is to try to take feedback less personally.”
- Create a routine.
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While we can try to rewire our thinking and habits, that is always easier said than done and something takes time. So while you’re working on transforming some of your bad habits it can be helpful to have a routine that is comforting and de-stresses you. That could include working out before heading into the office, or completing your 10-step skincare routine before bed, but what if I told you there might be an immediate quick fix to your feelings of anxious fatigue during the day?!
Meditation can help us manage our thoughts and bring us back to the present moment, getting us out of whatever spiral we were circling down. I have always found quieting my thoughts to be difficult but through the guided meditations on Headspace, I have successfully reaped the benefits of a consistent meditation routine — it definitely has helped me stop multitasking and overthinking as well. Even if you don’t think meditation is for you, Headspace offers an 85% off student discount meaning you can have a yearly subscription for only $9.99. So, give it a try and maybe you can be the face behind 2023’s new trend: zen girl summer.