What to Do During The Final Countdown • Life

Hello my loves! It's almost April and for me that means I'm coming up to the last six or so weeks of my Spring semester here. SO since I'm taking 18 units I'm kind of going bonkers over all of the stuff that I have to do. I have to do a visual analysis of a work of Eastern Asian Art, I have to direct a ten minute play, I have to prepare for my finals for both my language courses and also my history class. It's a lot to take in considering I have to wake up so early to catch the bus in the first place so I can't even stay up that late to do too much homework or anything really. So I try and dole out my time wisely, but it's all coming down so I'm trying not to freak out. I honestly need a time turner or something. 

So here it is: 

A List of Things to Give Yourself a Break During 

The Final Countdown:

1. Drink some tea.

I love tea. I try to have tea at least once a day or sometimes I'll make a huge batch of green or barley tea and put it in the fridge to drink instead of water. The reason I say tea instead of coffee or even tea and coffee is because to me coffee is a bit too bitter and plus most of it is caffeinated (even though you can find decaf, but I don't like decaf coffees either). A good green, herbal, or white tea is enough to relax me because I don't have to douse it in milk and sugar. I can drink it straight and it just feels nice. But this is for people who are avid tea drinkers and actually like tea, so if you don't apply then don't pay attention to this. 

2. Break study time into increments to give yourself break times.

This is something I picked up while I was on tumblr a lot. There's a blog named "unfuckyourhabitat" that's dedicated to help people clean for people who have a really hard time cleaning their house. I. e. ME So they have this app where there's a timer and what it does is that it has a 25 minute increment and then a 15 minute increment. What does this mean? It means that you clean for 25 minutes and then give yourself a 15 minute break. Rinse and repeat. It's pretty simple right? 

I started using this for my studying and just really anything productive I've wanted to do and it works really well. I did it during spring break when I was trying to clean my room. I didn't have a specific timer, but I had a playlist on YouTube running of Danny and Arin from Game Grumps playing Super Mario Maker. That thing has over 80 videos so I was set. What I did was I let it play through about two videos since each was around 12-15 minutes long and then the next one, I sat and watched the video, got on my phone, read a little bit, whatever. It made me way more productive. 

So if you're one to be really fidgety sitting in a chair for hours on end just studying, I highly recommend this. Just make sure you get back to that desk haha. Just stand up, do some yoga, stretch yourself out and then get back to work. Trust me it works.

3. Take a nap.

I've become a huge advocate for naps. Waking up at 6 in the morning when you had to stay up until 12 or 1 is not the preferred method of living, I have to tell you. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I get home at around 2, I usually feel the need for a nap. Weird that I wouldn't feel this on my busiest days right? Well I actually work out first thing in the morning so that energy follows through until I sleep, but I think if you're unable to focus because of a lack of energy--TAKE A NAP! Not even a long nap, I think it's proven that a short 20-30 minute nap can boost energy by six hours. Crazy isn't it? Now my naps tend to take two or three hours (unintentionally!), but yours doesn't have to. 

4. Wind down. 

What does this mean? Well anything that makes you relax for a little bit. Just to take a deep breath and expel all of that stress and tension you have. It's really not good for your health to stress too much. Even though you don't want to, you have to give yourself a nice little breather once in a while. Get back into the reality of the situation instead of having these exams, projects, and expectations looming over you. So do whatever it does that relaxes you completely. This for me is usually reading, listening to a podcast and just surfing the web, or watching some nice YouTube videos. Once I start to feel a bit more relaxed, I try to get back into the swing of things.

5. Take a bath!

I'm also a huge advocate of baths. I know it's not for some people, but I love my bath scalding hot. I just sit in it and let my muscles relax because of the hot water. When I get out, I feel completely rejuvenated and I'm relaxed and happy enough to throw myself into the thick of studying. I usually get a lot of housework done after a nice bath and shower. Now personally, I like to take my baths with a nice bathbomb from Lush or something similar. They smell really nice and they leave pretty colors in the water! All the more relaxing.

6. Eat/drink something. 

Now imagine this, you've been studying for hours and hours and you're starting to feel really, really tired. Well honestly, other than all of that other stuff, it's probably because you haven't really had anything to eat or drink for a while. How to solve this? Well as the little sub title says, eat or drink something. Preferably drink some water. I know in this day and age a lot of people don't do enough of it, but water goes such a long way. Take a nice big glass of water and chug that down. You'll immediately feel better. Along with that, try to have a small snack. Maybe you're feeling the munchies--but most likely you're thirsty. Brain needs water as my art history professor says.

These are how I combat the stress of school and studying. I'm trying to bolt through all of my requirements and be able to apply to UCs and Cal States along with USC in, hopefully, the next couple of years or so. I'm hoping to finish at least by Spring of next year and then maybe apply for either a Spring transfer or the Fall transfer of the next year they're taking in. This gives me about a semester to a year of a break before I get back into the swing of things. 

What about you? What do/did you guys do to combat the stress of school?