If you’re a university student, you’ve probably experienced a mid-semester slump or some form of burnout at some point in your academic career. And if you haven’t, I’m sure it’ll come in some form eventually because it is totally normal and acceptable to have these feelings during the school year. At times, it can make you feel like you want to quit or take a break—or even drop out. During that stressful period where assignments start to pile up and exams are around the corner, I often feel tired and overwhelmed. When school starts to feel like a constant routine of memorize, study, write an exam, repeat; or research, analyze, write a paper, submit, repeat; it can start to feel like quite the debilitating experience.
I started to feel like my degree was more of a task to get done and rather than an accomplishment to work towards and enjoy. The constant burnout I was feeling from school made me forget why I even chose to learn about subjects of my program in the first place.
I knew that feeling and living like this was not sustainable and ultimately the opposite of how I wanted my university experience to be. So, after doing some self-reflection and listening to some self-help podcasts, I started to take steps to get back into the groove of enjoying school.
1. Recognizing and acknowledging burnout
Sometimes it can be difficult to accept that you’re reaching a breaking point. Often, I feel the need to push myself as hard as possible to achieve the best outcome in my academic performance. However, it’s not healthy to ignore the warning signs that you may be experiencing burnout. Although it seems easier to just keep going, you need to put yourself first and recover in order to be able to perform at your best. So, take a break and go for a walk, go to the gym, watch a show or movie, or even allow yourself to take a nap. Trust me, it helps.
2. Support Systems
Having friends, family and any other form of support is crucial in keeping you grounded. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone. Talking to someone can help you relieve stress, get your mind off school, or simply just put a smile on your face. Taking the time to reach out and socialize is really important in assuring that you don’t isolate yourself during stressful times or allow the stress of school to consume other areas of your life.
3. Taking care of yourself physically
Cooking for yourself is not an easy adjustment and plenty of university students end up eating Kraft Dinner for dinner (you’re not alone there). However, putting effort into your health in terms of diet and exercise can make a big impact. Eating well and hitting the gym really makes me feel like I’m rewarding my body after a long day of work. It’s important to make sure that you take care of yourself physically so that you have the energy to excel in school.
4. Taking time to do things you enjoy outside of school
One of the biggest steps that helped me enjoy school again was taking time to do the things that I love. It’s easy to become absorbed in your school work and forget about the small things that bring you happiness. Making time for hobbies like playing music, watching movies, playing sports or even baking can help you dissociate from school and put into perspective that there are other aspects to your life outside of school. It’s not wasting time if you’re doing something that genuinely makes you happy, because focusing on your happiness is also productive.
5. Thinking of the bigger picture… you’re worth more than your grades
This is a big one to unpack, as the biggest hurdle to get over is having the ability to think of the bigger picture when you’re in a period of burnout or a mid-semester slump. Oftentimes, we might have not done as well on an assignment, midterm or exam, but learning to accept that is not easy. This is something that has taken me a really long time to learn, and to this day I still struggle with it. A bad grade is difficult to swallow, but it’s not worth letting it haunt you. Thinking about how this one grade will impact your entire life can really help put into perspective how much you should let it stay on your mind. In most cases, a bad grade doesn’t affect the course of your life, even though in the spur of the moment it may seem that way. Equating your self-worth to a grade on an assignment is not representative of who you are and what you’re capable of. There are so many things that you will grow to achieve as life goes on, so in retrospect it’s not fair to yourself to let a bad grade get you down.
So, how did these steps help me learn to enjoy school again? Well, once I started putting these steps into practice, I was able to separate the stress from what I was learning about. At the end of the day, I chose this degree because what it encompasses had intrigued me. I began to focus on the content and enjoy topics that I was genuinely interested in rather than just getting the learning over and done with. As I started to enjoy what I was learning, I also began to retain the information better, which inevitably improved my academic performance.
Although I would love to say that after reading this you’re good to go, but that’s just not the truth. Learning to balance your academic life and everything outside of it takes some time, but is worth accomplishing. Once achieved, it may be one of the most valuable lessons of university—at least it has been for me.