10 Ways to Combat Spring Semester Burnout

Whether it’s grabbing a coffee with someone from class, going on a walk with your friends, or just facetiming a friend from home, staying connected socially can have a huge impact on your wellbeing during a time of stress. It can be easy to neglect our friendships and connections with others when mounds of work pile up in front of us and we go into panic-mode, but don’t lose sight of meaningful friendships. If you’re feeling down on yourself about your academic success due to burnout, engaging in a sense of community with others can help you to look more outward than inward. It can serve as a reminder that your value is much more than your academics. Having friends to accompany you to different activities can also serve as a motivator for things like going to the gym or going on a walk together.

While staying connected socially is important, sometimes you have to set boundaries with others on how you spend your time. Don’t be afraid to say no. When you’re experiencing academic burnout, it’s important to recognize that some tasks may take longer than they used to because you’re less motivated. As a result, you might not have the same amount of free time or time for things like going out with your friends, and it’s important to know when to set boundaries and expectations on your time. Be honest with yourself about your workload and how much time you need to manage it, and don’t leave assignments until the last possible minute. You might need to say no to plans in order to stay on top of your assignments, and that’s okay!

Though the weather may not be as pleasant during the beginning of the semester, try to find ways to get outside and enjoy nature beyond your walk in between classes. During the winter especially, the days get shorter and there’s less sunlight, which can cause a deficiency of Vitamin D. A lack of Vitamin D and overall exposure to the outdoors can impact your sleep schedule, energy levels, and overall mental and physical health. Just making an effort to build some time outdoors into your schedule can work towards decreasing your overall stress levels and your ability to deal with and improve a sense of burnout. If you’re having a hard time motivating yourself to get out, see if a friend wants to tag along! When you have someone cheering you on and keeping you company, reaching your goals may not seem as difficult. 

Making some sort of spreadsheet or checklist of assignments that you can use to plan and check-off your workload is helpful not only for organizational purposes, but also for adding an extra sense of accomplishment to completing assignments. Personally, I like to use Google spreadsheets for mine, and color-code each by the class assigning it. I also like to group assignments by week, and have a counter of how many I have left to go before the end of the week, which makes the endless scroll of assignments to complete a whole lot less scary. 

While it may seem trivial and second-nature, getting a full nights rest is essential to managing stress. Getting less than the recommended eight hours of sleep each night will not just obviously leave you tired throughout the day, but can negatively impact your ability to work through your stress and not procrastinate assignments, leaving to further burnout. It also may lead to putting off accomplishing other tasks like going on a walk, eating healthier, or working out. Finding the right sleep schedule looks different for everyone, but you can start by considering reading before bed instead of looking at a screen, winding down in the evening instead of working until the last possible minute, staying active throughout the day, and working to regulate your circadian rhythms with sunlight exposure. Never underestimate the power of sleep over your everyday life, both physically and mentally. 

Scrolling on social media can sometimes make it feel like you’re never doing enough even if you’re doing what’s best for you, because it’s a collection of glamorized highlight reels from other people’s lives. But before you get down on yourself about your own successes, remember to keep in perspective that that’s exactly what social media is: the highlights. Exercise is essential to both our physical and mental well being throughout our lives, but be realistic with yourself. It’s currently February, which for some people might be a time of regret over unrealistic New Years resolutions. Is it realistic for your exercise plan to go from walking to class every day to doing a high-impact workout at the gym every single morning? Recognize that long-term sustainability is key, not just for your physical health, but also for your mental health. Constantly setting unrealistic goals for yourself and then failing to meet them can worsen feelings of burnout, academic or not. 

In higher education, particularly in more competitive schools and programs, we as students can fall into the tendency of placing our value as an individual in our academic success. Not only is this losing sight of the bigger picture of us as people, but it’s making your happiness dependent on something you can’t always control. Sometimes you might get a difficult professor, or have a really hard time grasping a concept in class. Also, life happens! If you get sick or struggle with mental health, your value as a person shouldn’t decrease because your grades might. When you find yourself focused entirely inward on yourself, social activities like volunteering or just spending time with others in meaningful ways can help us to look outward and keep our happiness and worth in perspective. 

Finding time to journal or meditate throughout your day or week, even just taking a moment to breathe and think, can be helpful in regulating your overall stress levels and mental wellbeing. For some people, this may look like journaling every night before bed (instead of scrolling on your phone), and for some it might look like going on a walk in the morning just to clear your head. When you take time to reflect on your feelings, it can help you work through them in a healthy manner, rather than internalizing negative emotions and feeling worse about yourself. In moments of academic burnout, it’s important to reflect on how you feel, and what may be causing you to feel that way. Maybe you feel burnt out because you stretched yourself too thin with hard classes, extracurriculars, or jobs this semester. Once you recognize that, you can think of ways to reduce your stress and workload like learning to manage your time differently, or reconsidering if every commitment you’ve made for the semester is actually essential. 

Along with having a good sleep schedule, finding the right exercise plan, and getting some time outdoors in, maintaining a healthy diet even through stressful times is essential. Though it might feel good in the moment to reach for junky foods, in the long run it’ll actually negatively impact both your physical health, and aspects of your mental health such as your stress levels and ability to concentrate. Eating worse only makes it harder for your body and mind to deal with academic stress. Eating whole, good foods, will give you more energy to not only get your assignments done, but work through the feeling of being burnt out and how to change it. Eating healthier can also improve your sleep schedule, which will have a similarly positive effect on your overall wellbeing. Reconsider reaching for that box of cookies right before bed, or starting off your morning with a frosted donut. Eat good, feel good. 

Though winter is arguably one of the less favored seasons, writing the cold seasons off entirely is like writing off an entire third or fourth of your life! It might look a whole lot less appealing outside, and your outfits might be ruined by a big winter coat, but finding things to enjoy about the cold weather will make it a whole lot more bearable, and can reduce your overall stress. Enjoy warm foods like soups and pies, and bundle up with accessories like colorful scarves and cute earmuffs. You may not enjoy it as much as summer, but finding things within winter to appreciate will positively impact your overall mental health, and allow you to better deal with academic stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.