I don’t know about you guys, but Thanksgiving did me under. I’m talking extreme laziness, no motivation, and researching how to build a time machine just to fastforward to the end of the semester. Just a few weeks ago I was getting all sentimental about graduating early, and now I can’t wait for school to be done — at least for the semester, anyway.
Seeing Christmas decorations popping up everywhere, decorating gingerbread houses, Christmas shopping…all this holiday spirit is going right to my head! Who can do work when Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer is on TV? Who can concentrate when ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ is blaring through the speakers? Who can possibly study when there’s an online sale on the perfect gift for your brother?
The end of fall semester is always the hardest, in my opinion. Christmas is my favorite time of year, especially since my birthday is just two days later (going to be 21 this year, holla!). All my friends finally come home, my family’s in good spirits, and we can all finally just take a breath. Getting back into work mode after Thanksgiving is always a torture because all I can think about is Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! I just really love Christmas, ok?
Luckily this week I didn’t have much work to do. But this week and next is going to be finals city. So, how can we (I assume I’m not the only one with break and Christmas on the brain) concentrate and make it through the home stretch? One plan I’ve found to be very helpful: tune it out. Turn yourself into the Grinch for at least a few hours a day to get your work done. If we sit around in misery desperately singing Christmas songs and making little origami boxes to put under our mini Christmas trees, the work will only continue to pile up and before we can enjoy Christmas, we’ll just be worrying about whether or not we passed our finals.
If you can’t bear to part with the Christmas spirit for a few hours, there’s another trick you can try: bring your work and Christmas together in harmony. You can go into full-on Christmas mode. We’re talking Christmas sweaters, turning your bed into Santa’s sleigh a la the kid from The Santa Clause, wearing reindeer antlers to class (ok, maybe not that extreme). IF you’re in a happy Christmas mood throughout the day, you have no excuse to ignore your work. Put on those antlers while you study for extra brain power. Make some acronyms for Santa and Rudolph to remember important details for your final paper. Make up a song to a Christmas tune to help you memorize facts for your test. Sit in your Christmas sweater by your tree as type up study sheets. By learning and doing your work while in the Christmas spirit, you will feel happier, accomplished, less stressed, and possibly be more productive.
Finally, if your brain is about to explode from cramming and you need a break, just take one. Make that gingerbread house. Do some online shopping. Go outside and pretend to build a snowman since we still have no snow (which I’m totally ok with. All I need is a white Christmas and then the snow can be gone). As long as these breaks don’t stretch for days, you should still be able to survive finals week without panicking about failure.
Enjoy these last few weeks of the semester, as stressful as they may be. Instead of drowning in your work, indulge in some cheer up time and breaks. Enjoy Christmas time, but not too much that it takes over your life—that can come after you hand in your last final of the semester. Though finals time is the crappiest time of year, don’t turn into Scrooge or the Grinch. Christmas is right around the corner, and that should help pull us through. Or ya know, Hanukkah and any other holiday you may celebrate.