Do you often hear that little voice in your head saying, “It’s okay, you don’t really need to do those readings for class”? Or the one that begs, “We shouldn’t be in class today, everyone else is sitting out on Schenley plaza!” We all have. It is the voice of “senioritis”—otherwise known as plain old procrastination. It convinces us to put off all of our schoolwork- because there’s always tomorrow, right? Then tomorrow comes, and work still isn’t done. You end up having to pull an all-nighter to finish that fifteen-page paper you had a month to write, but just never got around to doing. Either way, senioritis isn’t conducive for staying sane through Winter Break. Finals come around and you realize all those readings that “weren’t necessary” are the bulk of your essay-heavy exam, or that paper for your capstone.
Thus, we need an antidote! Well, there isn’t one. But here are some ways my peers and I (all suffering from the illness of being seniors) can fight off the worst symptoms of senioritis.
1. Make a daily schedule. Time your day down to the second: when you’re going to wake up, what you will accomplish during your two-hour lunch break, how many pages you will read after class, and when you can meet up with friends for drinks. Do this, and force yourself to keep to it. If you write that you are going to study for your upcoming exam forty-five minutes every day, schedule a specific time and do it! Your social life (especially now that most of us are 21) will suffer much less if you stick to your schedule. Be like our HC Pitt president, Nahja Martin, and invest in a fancy planner!
2. Devise a reward system. Make a study plan with rules and rewards. For example, when you finish ten pages of reading, eat a Reese’s cup (or intake a small amount, whatever your vice may be). This should obviously have a cap on it as to not gorge ourselves to the point of a chocolate-peanut butter sugar coma, but you see what I mean.
3. Take the weekends off. Seriously. Are you being productive anyways? Or are you waiting until it’s socially acceptable to step foot into Hemingway’s? Write it into your schedule that you will finish your work by Friday evening, and tune out until Monday morning. Unless you have a massive exam or paper due early the next week, you should be able to take time off and not feel guilty. It is your senior year, after all. Your sanity will thank you and you will feel at least somewhat refreshed by Monday.
4. Stop dwelling. Does anyone else have this problem where you sit around thinking about all the work you have to do, worrying yourself into a frenzy, rather than just doing the work? Either you care about getting the work done, or you don’t. If you aren’t going to do it anyways, there is no point in stressing yourself out. Instead, focus on what you are excited to do once you finish your homework—that is, taking the weekend off and going to Peter’s Pub.
5. Enjoy your time with friends. You may very well be moving to different parts of the country or world in the next year. Don’t neglect the good friends you have made here just because you have eighteen credits (Who knew we actually had to finish all those Gen-Eds?), busy being a Teacher’s Assistant for a class, have a part-time job, and signed yourself up for too many extra-curricular activities. Write it into your schedule if you must, but don’t forget to go out and spend quality time with the people you came to love in the short time we have spent at Pitt. Once you leave, you aren’t going to cherish the weekends you spent studying. You are going to remember the nights you ditched your homework and wasted time reminiscing about freshman year with your friends.
Photo Credit: Google Images