Taking breaks while studying is key to a successful finals week. If you try to get too much done in too little time, you’re probably going to spend more time freaking out than working! Use these ideas as a way to get your breaks in, but be productive as well!
1. Call home: There are a lot of things to do during finals week, and calling home doesn’t usually take precedence over cramming for your stats exam or finishing up an essay. Mom and dad back home still want to know how everything is going here at Brandeis, and fitting in a quick call home between study sessions will both please your parents and allow you to de-stress by talking about all the work you have to do.
2. Do Yoga: Deep breathing, downward dog, and child’s pose- what’s not to love about a quick yoga session? After engaging in these quick, simple poses, you’ll come back to your work refreshed and calm.
3. Take a Walk: It seems like it might finally be warming up outside, so take advantage of the pseudo-spring weather the next time you need a break from the stale air in the library. Going for a walk instead of watching videos on YouTube will make you feel more focused when you go back to your work, and you will have fit in a quick cardio session as well!
4. Course Evaluations: You gotta do them some time, so you might as well take ten minutes between physics and art history cramming to size up the professors and TAs you had this semester!
5. Pack: As easy as it would be to pretend we’re not all going home in about a week, we have to face reality. Packing is a huge project, especially if this is your first move out! Space out all the packing up there is to do by working on it in fifteen minute increments when you take study breaks. You get a break from work as well as a head start on moving out. Packing in small time chunks during finals week makes moving out less overwhelming while at the same time allowing you to not leave everything for the last minute.