With finals quickly approaching, do you find yourself relating to this gif more and more?
Finals are stressful and can be super scary especially if it’s your first time taking them or if your grade depends heavily on how you do. The following are some tips to help you feel more in control of your schedule and (hopefully) lessen your stress this finals season.
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Self Awareness
Self Awareness is one of the most important things to keep in mind. If your body is telling you to stop studying and go to bed then the best thing for you to do both for yourself and your grades is to stop studying and go to bed. By listening to yourself and getting what you need you’ll be in a better state of mind to get things done.
2. Make a To-Do List
I know you hear this one all the time but it really does work. Make a to-do list then color coordinate it in order of importance. For example, things in red need to get done immediately while you can take more time with things in green.
3. Put Your Phone Away
Even if you aren’t using your phone, having it next to you and listening to the neverending buzz of notifications is super distracting and adds more stress to you. There are tons of apps out there that give you rewards for not touching your phone, my favorite is Pocket Points. You could also just go simple and set a timer for an hour and put it on do-not-disturb.
4. Create Manageable Goals
Say you have a huge final and you have no idea where to start studying. A good place to start is by breaking down your study time into achievable things such as make flashcards, copy notes from Chapter 12, take a practice test, etc. By splitting your time like this you can feel like you’re getting more things done and track your progress better.
5. Take Breaks
Make sure to schedule breaks into whatever you are doing. It has been shown that we are more productive when we take periodic breaks. So whether you schedule them for certain times of the day or if you set a timer to work for 45 minutes then take a break for 10 make sure you are factoring in time to let your mind relax.
Time management is really difficult and takes trial and error to find what works best for you. I hope these tips will help as you go into finals.
Shoutout to GIPHY for all the gifs!