Picture this: It’s late February, middle of the semester. Spring and Summer break are so close… yet so far. And all of your classes are piling on readings and assignments and essays, preparing you for midterms and finals which are slowly but surely creeping up. The stress is getting to you, and you begin to find yourself staying up all night or procrastinating on all your assignments and skipping class. You just have no motivation to finish all this work!
Welcome to the mid-semester slump. I, too, am in the middle of it right now. I seem to find myself staying up all night and sleeping in late, missing my classes. I’m procrastinating on all of my class assignments (including writing this article, oops.) So, how can we, as overwhelmed and burnt out college students, prevent this slump from taking over?
Don’t Skip Class!
For me, the hardest but most important step is to actually get out of bed and go to class. The last thing you need on top of worrying about the actual class content is worrying about how many absences you have and if that might affect your grade. Plus, going to class shows initiative, and gives you more opportunities to ask your classmates or professors for help in person. I also found talking to my advisor to be very helpful, because they can sit down and listen to you and help you academically prepare.
Break down assignments!
Another tip is to practice time management by breaking down your assignments into smaller, more manageable tasks. I know that sometimes, just looking at your planner and seeing your due dates can be daunting, because you’ve given yourself an ending place (when it’s due), but no starting place. For example, if you know you have an essay due at the end of the month, instead of putting it off until you flip the planner page and see – oh shoot it’s due this week – set smaller goals for yourself. Maybe at the end of every week, give yourself a due date of one paragraph. That way, by the time the entire essay is due, you’ll be able to finish it up instead of just be starting and rushing to finish it in one night.
Manage your free time!
While on the topic of time management, you also have to manage your free time. College gives us way more free time than high school did, and it’s easy to see that 3 hour break and just go back to your dorm and watch TikTok in bed the whole time, but there’s so much more you could be spending that time on! If you have large breaks, go grab your favorite snack or Starbucks drink, head to the library, and really challenge yourself to complete some work. It’s easier said than done, but once the break is over, I guarantee you you’ll feel so much better knowing you spent your time wisely and knocked some of your assignments out of the way. You could also use this time to study with friends, so it’s more enjoyable and you’re all holding each other accountable for completing some work.
Don’t be scared to ask for help!
At the end of the day, burnout is very real and very exhausting. If you’re really having a lot of trouble – talk to your professors or advisors and let them know you’re stressed. While they know you need to complete your work, they were also once college students too, and they know that it’s a particularly stressful and confusing time in your life. It doesn’t hurt to talk to them and see if there’s anything they can do to help you.
Midterms and finals will come and go before we know it, and we’ll finally be on summer break. Look forward to that in the future, and for now, try these tips out and see how much better you may feel. We can beat this mid-semester slump, I believe in you!