Happy finals season! Whether your finals are in progress or quickly approaching, it’s definitely a struggle to keep the focus on studying and finishing the last assignments of the semester with the distraction of the holidays coming up. I feel like everyone can agree that we’d all rather be holiday shopping, baking Christmas cookies, decorating our homes or apartments, and watching Christmas movies. But before we can do that, we have to make sure we study and work on our finals the best we can and finish the semester well! To help us all study, I’ve come up with a few ideas on how to focus and study efficiently as well as how to incorporate the holiday season into our study routines too.
You’re Almost Done!
Use the holiday/winter break as motivation to get through finals! Work knowing you’ll have time off after all the hard work is done! We all deserve it!
Listen to Music
Listen to calm/subtle Christmas music while working on hw or studying for finals. A few playlists that I’ve been loving and recommend are the Spotify playlists called: Acoustic Christmas, Indie Christmas, and Folksy Christmas.
Reward Your Studying
Study with a Christmas treat or award yourself by taking a study break to make Christmas cookies or a different holiday activity as a reward for finishing an assignment or studying for your goal amount of time.
Snacks and Coffee=Motivation
While studying, I feel like having a snack or something to sip on definitely helps me keep focused. Such as having a coffee or warm drink while working is nice to both keep you warm when the weather is cold and with coffee you get some caffeine to help you have the extra boost of motivation. You can even tie in some holiday spirit by treating yourself to a holiday coffee drink from your favorite coffee shop such as a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks.
Avoid Temptations From Your Phone
Try to avoid social media while studying or working on homework. Some of the best ways are to set your phone away from your work space, turn it off, or download a social media blocking app that locks your apps on your phone for a certain amount of time so you can focus. Personally, I understand that holiday posts on Instagram and Pinterest are addicting to keep checking up on, but if you set a break time then it can be used as a reward of finishing an assignment or you studied for your goal amount of time.
Productive Study Space
Study in a quiet and productive space, you can even sit by the Christmas tree or in a room by Christmas decor and lights in your house or apartment to bring in some comfort and sense of the holidays while working on your final papers and study for your final exams.