We are at the final stretch: finalizing papers for classes, creating study guides, or even reading through our notes for our upcoming exams. With the school year coming to a close, this would be a busy week for us for sure. On top of this, there is also this added pressure to do well, since we all want to start and end the school year strong.
With the added pressures from ourselves to do well sometimes, we can send ourselves into a mode of panic, something we don’t want during finals week since we want to have a clear mind when finishing up our work. As always, it is important to remind ourselves that we can do this and that we are doing great. Here are five things to tell yourself during this hectic and nerve-wracking time.
1. “Relax, you’ve done the work this entire semester. You got this.”
We’re on the home stretch balancing the amount of work we have. While we ensure that we don’t procrastinate all of our work, we may find ourselves busier than ever. When we are sitting on our desks all day, looking at a computer screen, studying most of the days, sometimes we can feel this sense of panic and might have this voice in our head saying, “I have to do great, I need to do well.”
If we are adding more pressure to ourselves we can unconsciously overwhelm ourselves. When this happens, this can make it difficult sometimes to do the work, since we may tire ourselves. We may think that we are pushing ourselves to the limits, when in reality we are pushing ourselves off a cliff.
During this busy season, it’s important to remember that we are ready. We may think we aren’t prepared but we are. We have been practicing the skills and learning a lot since the beginning of the semester to get to this point. We’re ready. So when you are doing your work, finalizing papers, or taking an exam, it’s important to remember that you can do it. Your professors believe in you, and so should you. There’s nothing to worry about. If you reviewed all the work, studied every detail in your notes, and understood the topics being discussed then you are more than ready to ace your exam or paper.
2. “Enjoy it. Have fun.”
No one enjoys exams or final papers. If you are like me, you may dread it whenever you have to do it. When I’m doing a paper or even studying, sometimes I find myself taking way too many little breaks, every 20 minutes. Getting up, watching a TV show, or just walking around my house to calm my nerves down. If you have planned your time accordingly, this may be fine, but if you are in a time crunch this is a nightmare.
I realized that when I get nervous or worry about the outcome of my work, I find myself unproductive and a bit more stressed. I think for this it’s important that you can’t control the outcome of the work, in the end, your teacher decides the final grade you deserve for that assignment. However, what we can control is the quality of work we submit or that we do. Instead of thinking about the grade sometimes we should think, “what is the best way I can show off my knowledge?”
When I think about the learning rather than the grade, more often than not, I find myself worrying a bit less about the work. At times, I find myself enjoying writing the paper or studying for the exam because I am just being present in the moment and taking my time, which is very important during finals week. If we take things slow, we can feel calmer from the moment we start our day until we end it. More importantly, when we are at ease we think more clearly, allowing us to remember the content when we are in our chairs taking our online exams.
3. “You’re on the last stretch, just push a bit more.”
Are you tired? Having a hard time finding the motivation to do the tasks every day? Don’t worry — we all feel that right now. There are days when I wake up thinking that today would be a perfect day to sleep in and do nothing. But with all the work that needs to be done, I can’t do that, and sometimes, that makes me lose a bit of motivation. It also makes me wonder if I will be able to submit good quality work to my professors.
Think of finals week this way: there are only a few days until the semester is over. We can finally sleep in and not worry about waking up for an 8:00 am class, or if you’re in a different time zone as me, you don’t have to stay up until early morning. You can watch Netflix all day and spend your days either in your room, under a blanket, or catching up with your families and friends. Once we are done we don’t have to look back at all the school work we did this semester, and we can just move forward and think about the upcoming holidays, and hopefully, recharge for the upcoming semester.
Finding motivation can be difficult, but we just have to push our energies a little bit more so that we can reach the finish line. It’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it once we have handed in our papers or finished the exams for our classes. We can breathe and tell ourselves, “I did it! I’m done! It’s over!” For me, just imagining this motivates me and gives me the energy I need to complete my tasks. It reminds me that if I want to take a break already, I would have to do all my work well so that I wouldn’t have to worry about anything during the holidays.
4. “You did your best and that’s more than enough.”
During finals week, the worst thing that I can do, that happens more often than I would like, is that I begin to overthink every single detail and content. Sometimes I am thinking to myself, “should I keep this? Remove it? Did I phrase this right? Will my professor understand what I am saying?” as I am looking at the work, not editing the actual paper yet.
If you begin to feel the nerves kicking in tell yourself, “just do the best you can, that is all I can do at this point.” Don’t try to brush it off and continue to do the work — it’s not healthy. By shrugging it off you are hiding those nerves instead of dealing with it at the moment. If you are not in the right headspace, or if you are running purely on worries and fears, you may find yourself not doing the best work you can. You can find yourself looking back at the paper saying, “I could have done better.” In these final days of school, the last thing that you want to feel is a sense of regret, especially once you submit it.
Stay calm, relax, and remember that you are doing great. If you are feeling a bit nervous, tell yourself, “I am doing the best I can, and that is more than enough.” If you believe in yourself and think that you are doing a great job, your professors may too. Nevertheless, regardless of the outcome, you should be proud of yourself and the work that you put out no matter what. You should say, “I did my best, so I shouldn’t worry about what happens because I know I gave it my all.” By doing this, it can give you peace of mind even after you are done.
5. “Move on and don’t look back.”
After I am done with my work, it is sometimes very tempting to review your paper or even go back to your notes to check if you put the right answer on the exam. Unfortunately, this happens often, especially when I am worried about how I did. I know that this is hard to resist, but if you can avoid doing this at all costs.
Whenever I do this I realize that the peace of mind that I have, the ease I feel after finishing a test go out the window. My brain begins to spiral and I think, “did I get this question right?” trying to think about what I wrote, even when I can’t. I find myself nit-picking and critiquing every detail that I wrote down, trying to figure out how I could have improved it, even if I tried my very best.
Once you are done with your exam or paper, don’t look back and move on. Close your laptop, go watch a movie, or call your friends. Do anything you can to avoid looking back, thinking about the things you could have done differently, how this can be improved because the truth is you can’t change it. The best thing you can do at this point is to pat yourself on the back, tell yourself, “I did all I can and I tried my best,” and congratulate yourself on finishing your work. Now, all you have to do is relax and enjoy your day.
We have been through so much this year, so no matter what happens, we should always be proud of ourselves, even when we make mistakes. Just being able to push ourselves and remaining resilient and determined throughout this school year is an achievement in itself. Reaching the end may be difficult, but as long as we continue to push ourselves a bit more, and try our best, everything will work out the way it is supposed to.