The Thanksgiving Break Trap
Thanksgiving break is right around the corner and while it’s a much-needed break from school the rest of the semester can feel like a whirlwind. There’s tons of projects and papers due and definitely not enough time to complete them. Teachers also have the habit of assigning things a week before break. With the upcoming free days we all just wait to do things over break, but let’s be honest nothing ever gets done during Thanksgiving break. But, hopefully, these tips will help you from panicking too much during the last bit of the semester.
Plan Ahead
I know this seems like a super obvious thing to do, but you need to make sure that you’re writing all of your assignments down. You might as well plan to not do any work during Thanksgiving break. I suggest getting the majority of your assignments, or at least a bulk of the work for them done before break even starts. This will help you keep your head above water when you get back to school.
If you have time to yourself while on break try to take a look at your class syllabus. This will help mentally prepare you for the assignments that teachers have yet to assign you. There’s like one week between Thanksgiving break and exam week so you need to make sure that you are able to get everything done. I suggest putting everything into a planner or a Google calendar to help you keep everything straight. Google calendar does a really great job of sending you notifications about things that it can make it really hard to miss simple assignments that you need to complete.
Start Now!
I can’t stress this enough! Anything that you can start doing now you should. This will help you from feeling overly stressed during the break. You can relax, spend time with your family, and eat way more than you should without being stressed out. This is a great time to just knock out little assignments that you have. If you don’t have any tiny assignments to do I would start the base work now.
If you’re assigned a group project at the end of the semester try to meet with your group before Thanksgiving break. Most schedules will get super crazy right after break and group projects can be an absolute nightmare to get done in general. Scheduling meeting times are the biggest issue so starting early that way you can work on things on your own when you have spare time is the way to go.
Go to the Library
The end of the semester also brings difficulty to stay motivated. You’ve been constantly working since the semester started and I know its easy to just leave everything for later, but you’re so close to finishing you just have to hang in there a little longer. If you’re struggling to study before or after Thanksgiving break try going to the library as apposed to studying at home.
The change in location and with everyone else studying around you will help keep you focused on doing your work. You won’t be as likely to take a nap, watch Netflix, clean your room, or literally anything else that you can do instead of doing homework while at the library. I swear that you won’t be alone in practically living at Strozier if you plan to do so. This is especially true right before and during finals week. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people order pizzas to Stroz in the early hours of the morning.
Be Aware
One of the biggest things that happen after Thanksgiving break is that time goes by too fast. There’s hardly any time to catch your breath with everything that you have to do. However, the more you understand that this is going to happen the more prepared you’ll be. For classes that only have a few assignments that are due at the end of the semester, it can be really easy to just let time pass you by. But don’t wait, I promise you’ll feel much better in those last couple of weeks of school if you start working on assignments now.
Don’t Be Afraid to Not Go Out
As hard as it might be to say no to hanging out with your friends, it’s ultimately your grade that’s on the line. Don’t worry next semester will roll around soon enough and you’ll have plenty of time to hang out with them. And one night at home doing work won’t kill you. You might even be surprised at how much you can actually get done in one night. You’ll feel more accomplished once you get something done or that you at least started something, which is your ultimate goal.
One night in might even enable you to go out with friends another night completely worry-free. Just cozy up in your bed with your laptop and start working on things. Most assignments during your first year of college won’t take too much time to complete, but they still need attention. You could possibly get all your work done way before finals week so you can avoid scrambling to put things together last minute. If you have a final test you’ll probably feel more confident going into your review sessions and test.
Limit Studying Time
If you’re the type of person who gets really overwhelmed the more you do work, set time limits on yourself. Write down everything that you need to get done before finals week and then schedule limited amounts of time throughout the week that you are going to set aside to study. This can help you stay more focused on doing your work because you won’t feel as much need to look at your phone or watch a show on Netflix instead of doing school work.
This can also be something that you take home with you over Thanksgiving Break. If you schedule everything out and you realize that those couple of days off would really set you back academically, you can tell your family that you only need a few hours a day by yourself for school work. I promise you they won’t mind giving you space for a little while.
I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving break and that these tips help you plan ahead for finals week fast approaching. Let us know in the comments below how you stay ahead of the end of the semester!
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