February brings a bag of mixed emotions for most university students.
We all long for the beloved reading week to arrive, but in the meantime must throw ourselves deep into the coursework we have. For most, this means our weeks are ramping up with tests to write, assignments to draft, and papers to agonize over.
Oftentimes, reading week feels like the light at the end of the tunnel but then it’s over before you had the chance to enjoy it. I have compiled a few tips that help me feel like I can truly rest during reading week without feeling entirely overwhelmed before or after the break. Ultimately, it’s up to you: do you want to survive or thrive over reading week? I have done both “types” of reading weeks and personally, I prefer the second one :)
TO SURVIVE:
I tell myself that I’ll work on all the assignments I have and all the midterms I need to study for over the break.
TO THRIVE:
- Prioritize. I ask myself: what is the highest priority right now? It might be studying for future exams or getting the rough draft of a big paper outlined. Sometimes, it’s writing a few papers and catching up on a missed lecture. I like to think of a few important things that I would like to get done over the break, and then a few items that I could do over the break but aren’t as important.
- Project. I ask myself if I am able to get ahead. If not, I just focus on what is most important, whether that be material I should review or writing papers. If I think I am able to get ahead in my coursework—great! I like to roughly schedule those into my reading week.
- Plan. I schedule my week. I find that outlining my reading week like I do my regular school weeks ensures that I get enough work done while still making time to slow down. I also like to choose rough days and times that I will work on something I want to complete over the break. This helps me feel less guilty for enjoying my free time and less overwhelmed by the work I do have to do. I find when I don’t plan what days I am going to do schoolwork, it’s easy to push it off for another day. Suddenly, it’s Saturday night and I haven’t gotten anything done yet!
- Personal. I like to ensure that I do something non-academic that I enjoy over reading week. Am I able to spend time with people on family day? What day works best to study with a friend over coffee? Sometimes it’s something big like a trip with friends, other times it’s an early morning pancake breakfast with friends. You only get one reading per semester, so I try my best to do something fun and enjoy it!
