I am not going to lie. Motivation is something that I am severely lacking as of late. The pandemic, political climate, and weather are more than enough to sour anyone’s mood. Add on finals and you have a recipe for disaster, so take a deep breath, buckle up, and read on. This is not going to be an overly peppy list that tells you to meditate and drink tea. This is going to be a brutally honest list of things that I think will help.
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Take time off: It’s probably not the best idea to start a list of how to stay motivated during finals season with the suggestion of taking time off, but you seriously deserve it. You have been working so hard this semester. College is hard even without a pandemic, so yeah, I think that you should take a break. Schedule an afternoon or even a whole day where you don’t have class, work, or other responsibilities. Stay in bed, watch TikTok, bake cookies. I don’t care what you do as long as you aren’t working.
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Update your planner: It’s time to dust off that 2020 planner that you haven’t opened since March. Make sure that you know when all of your assignments are due. WRITE IT DOWN. The last thing that you want to do is realize the day before your paper is due that you haven’t started it.
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Email your professors: Ask them if they can give you an idea of where your grade stands in their class. This can either kick you into gear and motivate you to do better, or ease your worries that you are doing horribly and need to study for three weeks straight.
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Ask for extra credit opportunities: If you think that you are going to struggle on your assignments, email your professors asking if there is any way that you can raise your grade. The worst thing that they can say is no.
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Talk to friends: Have a Zoom Party with your friends to blow off some steam. Talking to them might relieve some stress and you’ll have a group of people to complain to that are going through the same thing.
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Realize that this is all temporary: Things will not be like this forever and I am proud of you for everything that you have already accomplished. You are doing great and you’ve got this. Drink your iced coffee and buckle down.