It’s the most wonderful time of the year! There’ll be much hollying and jollying, but there will also be plenty of stressing out about the upcoming semester as well. Final exams have mostly been completed, essays and projects have met their deadlines, so students on their winter holiday should be focused on relaxing and chilling with their friends and family during the holiday season. But there is also plenty of work and studying to be done before the next semester begins, and this is a complete drag. No worries though, there are a number of things to optimize your couch potato schedule and your busy bee schedule to make it all work together.
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Take Your Much Needed Rest
After finishing a few all-nighters to do your assignments and complete your projects, its time to get some much-deserved rest and relaxation. Sleep in a little, hit snooze, lay in bed and binge netflix. Don’t even think about opening up your e-mail and replying to anything right now, just r-e-l-a-x. The work will come eventually, but you will need to clear your mind and rest your body so that you can begin to be productive again.
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Make Plans
Whether they are study plans or social plans, it’s much better than living day-to-day with no idea what to do next. At least with a plan, you’ve got something to look forward to and get you up and going. Laying in bed without an agenda’s nice, but planning things help you become more productive during the day. It also helps you fit more things in your day, especially important if you’re visiting your family after being away at college for the semester.
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Keep in Touch with Classmates
Messaging and sending memes to your friends while you’re on Holiday Break is a routing probably carried over from the semester – and something you still do anyway. But it’s also important to stay up to date with the academic calendar and your courses. The last thing you want to do is miss an important deadline, or forget to register for courses or something like that.
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Declutter Your Life
If there’s a time for de-stressing and decluttering, that time is now. Organize yourself, empty your e-mail inbox, clear your notifications on your phone, check all your unread messages. Change your homescreen and personalize it, delete your Instagram posts that don’t fit your aesthetic, throw out old papers, Marie Kondo your entire closet! The possibilities are endless, but hardly pointless. The feeling of cleaning up your life both on social media and in real life will have the most positive effect on you during your winter break.
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Routines Are Your Best Friend
Sticking to something familiar, like a routine, is good for being productive. You don’t really need to think about these routines, as you just do them regularly. Starting may be the hard part, but once the ball is rolling, it’ll become second nature. During the winter holiday is a perfect time to begin a routine, as you have the time to do so – once the spring semester begins you’ll just have to adjust accordingly.
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Stay Healthy
During the holiday season, it’s easy to gain a few pounds as there’s non-stop celebrations and eating, and it’s even easier now to get ill with the coronavirus spreading. But you should be more careful about your health and be aware of all the things going around you. You may be tempted to go out to the local bar or have large gatherings, but one should be very cautious before deciding to do so. Follow the CDC guidelines for coping with COVID during the holidays, and make sure to social distance and wash your hands!
Once you’ve gotten your needed rest both mentally and physically, it’s time to think about the spring semester and doing your assignments. Sometimes students are given a project or a reading assignment over the break in order not to forget things they’ve learned in the previous semester. But it can be a drag and quite difficult to motivate yourself to do it. Some even argue the fact that students shouldn’t be assigned homework over the break but sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ve got you covered with a few tips to keep up with and do your assignments.
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Read Read Read!
One thing that students forget to do is to keep their brain active. Reading is essential for higher learning – even if it’s for leisure. Your winter break should be productive not only in the things you do, but what you are doing as well. Look ahead at future reading assignments and see if you can work ahead of the syllabus, you’ll thank yourself later.
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Plan Ahead
Knowing what your near-future or far-future looks like will make you feel like a genius later on. Being prepared is a huge advantage going into the new semester, plus it helps you complete winter assignments on time. There’s no need to rush this either, you are setting aside your extra time to make your workload more manageable in the future.
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Ask for Help
If you’re stuck on an assignment or don’t have the motivation to complete it anytime soon, ask for help. Treat it like any other assignment, and find someone or somewhere to help you out. Assignment Expert is a wonderful resource with the experts to help you finish your projects or tutor you on the latest subjects when you’re feeling stuck.
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Revise the Materials
Students usually forget the information they crammed into their brains after they have taken the exam. Some courses are built upon the foundations of a prerequisite course, so it’s important to revise those topics in order not to fall behind and have to relearn it.
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Take Breaks!
This is self-explanatory, and you can refer to earlier in this post on the best ways to do it, but it cannot be stressed enough. Winter BREAK is meant for you to do exactly that; take a break. Make sure your body and mind are well rested and not overworked. Take care of yourself, and everything else will fall into place.
