It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Winter Holidays! Thanksgiving dinner was served, Black Friday has finished, and now we wait for Christmas and New Year to commence! But that doesn’t mean we can’t start a bit sooner! Students are ready to take their exams and head home for Christmas and take a break before the academic grind comes back. Sometimes there are projects you need to finish, sometimes there’s some reading you need to complete, and sometimes there is work to be done before the next term begins. How can you possibly fit all of this into your holiday? Aren’t holidays esupposed to be relaxing?
Take a Breather!
The first step into feeling productive is to do what winter break is intended for; relaxing. Celebrate Christmas with family and friends, eat as much holiday ham as you can, enjoy your new Christmas presents and just chill. Everyone needs to recharge their batteries, and what’s a better way to do that then spread the holiday cheer.
This helps you destress from all the exams you took and keeps your mind off the lectures and classes during the first term. Once you have gotten your fill of eggnog and fruit cake, your brain is ready again for productivity. Don’t fall into the trap of being too relaxed that you don’t go back to work!
Set Goals
It’s New Years and everyone is setting goals the probably won’t reach by the next year. But this doesn’t mean you have to! Some goals you can set for yourself to finish by the end of your break, and they don’t have to be huge. Things like starting/finishing a book, or doing a page of your dissertation a day, or even just setting a weekly budget. These little, achievable goals will boost your morale and make you feel good about yourself.
A good thing about setting goals is that you can get into the habit of having goals to motivate you and it will be easier to achieve. Long-term goals can develop from your small goals and they don’t have to be school related either. Losing weight or saving money are some good examples of long-term goals that start as small ones.
If you can set these little goals for yourself, your winter break can be extremely productive and you’ll feel much better about it.
Manage Your Time
Coming home for winter break from college and spending it with your friends and family is important. So is studying for your classes, completing your projects, and getting ahead in class. Setting aside time for all of these can be difficult, and most days you want to catch up on sleep. But you’ll have to create some sort of schedule for yourself to make sure all of these things you want to do get done. Ask your friends when they are able to meet and have a coffee and catch up, as your family if they have any parties to attend, and build a schedule around that. In between those days maybe you can set aside time to study or read or just relax. Your time should be spent doing what you need to be done, so manage your time wisely!
Create or Continue Study Habits
Winter break is a brief pause in your studies, not a full-stop, so don’t treat it like one. Continue your strong study habits from before or create new ones to do better in the next term. It’s important to remember this so your hard work from the Fall Term doesn’t go to waste. Here’s a few good tips to keep your mind sharp while studying:
• Prioritize!
Checking your list of things that need to be done is important, but also making sure the ones that are time-sensitive get completed first is another priority. Deadlines for projects or applications should be done first. You can then look at other tasks like reading or working on a long-term project to complete later. Use your best judgment on what is a priority and what is not. Binge-watching an entire season of Game of Thrones is not a priority, but studying for your exam is.
• Treat Yo Self!
Working all the time may burn you out, so while studying you should incentivize yourself; give yourself a reward for completing a task. If you studied all day and were productive, you earned yourself and evening of movies and board games with your friends. It provides the right kind of motivation you need for all your precious days off school and can continue to be apart of your study habits in the future as well.
• Gradually Work Your Way Back
Students tend to throw all their work ethic and study habits out the window once winter break comes. Don’t do that. Don’t be like other students! Be better, and once you’ve had your fill of relaxation, slowly grow your study habits back. Read 1 page a day, or spend 1 hour doing some homework and work your way up all the way back to continue the daily grind at school. It’s not a lot but it really makes a difference. Remember that we’re here to help you with any assignment needs, big or small!
Winter break is the finish line students all are racing towards. A few weeks of holiday cheers to keep your mind off school work for a bit before you return. So spend those few weeks wisely, enjoy your holiday, and see you all in the next decade!!!
