Making it Through Finals Week

Any person that has ever been a student can agree with the statements below:

The anxiety of the culmination of a semester can be overwhelming as professors are setting deadlines for papers and exams. Some students may even find it difficult to perform at their best ability due to their immune system just not being at it’s best due to sleep deprivation.

The best ways to cope with the stress of finals week is to find something that can completely get your mind off of your studies or at least help you successfully get through them. Here are some tips that students have found helpful to get their minds off of finals:

1. Sweat it out in the gym! Wether you take a yoga, or hip hop dance class, do some laps in the pool or on the track or just do your normal workout routine, physical activity is a great stress reliever. It’s very effective so you can exercise, jump in the shower and head back to the library to finish some studying.

2. Get some sleep! The ad team at Red Bull hit it on the nose when they released the advertisement which states: “Nobody Ever Wishes They Slept More in College”. Although energy drinks such as Red Bull and 5-Hour energy can do amazing things when you are on the “heater” of your studying. Getting some sleep is 5x times better for you and is way more effective. Sleep deprivation is like an epidemic on college campuses, avoid this by maintaining a regular sleep schedule or by sneaking a nap in when you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall.

3. Listen to your favorite tunes! Walking across a college campus you will notice that most students are walking around with headphones in their ears rocking out to their favorite music. A good way to keep yourself going is to listen to music. Think, would you go on a 5 hour road-trip in silence?! NO! Help the time go by and take a study break with your favorite Pandora station or playlist on Spotify.

4. Don’t forget the study snacks! How do you plan on pulling a successful study session if you have not properly fueled your body? The suggestion is to always eat healthy foods, but the reality of being a starving college student is that sometimes that isn’t a reality. BUT if the choice is to be made to have a fully balanced meal over the calorie-loaded McDonalds deal for the same price, then make the smarter decision.

5. Watch the clock/calendar and maximize your time! As much as we would all like to say that we are not procrastinators, people stress over deadlines because the work that was assigned last month still isn’t done. So do what you can now to make up for your choice to go to out and party last week instead of the final paper. I wish there was a way to combat this but we’re in college, just get to it now. Don’t forget to breath along the way.

Let go after finals! Now that you’re done with the stress of studying do NOT continue to bite your nails waiting to get the results back. As a matter of fact go get your nails done, hair done, everything did! Have a King/Queen ____ [Insert your name here] Day where you reward yourself for all the hard work you just did. Even if it is simply taking a day to catch up on all the missed hours of sleep from the semester, do it! You deserve it, you’re officially on Christmas break anyways!