In the Home Stretch: Staying the Course

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You’re in the last weeks of your academic year, and it’s been a long haul. You’re in those last laps, those last 2 km of the marathon. The challenge is to keep going, to keep motivated, to pace yourself to win, and if not to win big, to finish.

If you are like most students, a lot has probably piled up for these last weeks. There may be some midterms yet. There are papers due, presentations to be given, and group projects to wrap up, all while keeping up with classes, reading, seminars, quizzes and labs. All of these commitments come due during this next month. Not to mention that the weather is going to be unpredictable, COVID rules will continue to change unpredictably, and job schedules are what they are.

Being stressed is one hundred per cent normal for students this time of year. Just rereading that last paragraph was enough to get my heart rate going, as the memory of student days past triggered the perfectly normal response of fight-or-flight. I chose to fight. 

What to do? How to deal?

The key is to map it out. Once again, use your planner to schedule backwards from deadlines. Get everything that needs to get done on your planner. Allow for the unexpected. 

Then work the plan. When the plan doesn’t work, adapt the plan. If a road race runs into an unexpected obstacle, there’s often a detour around or over mapped out for you. As a student, you are the one to map around and over.

Key pointers for keeping the pace in the home stretch:

  • Deal with procrastination–break tasks up into part tasks and attack the easy part first.
  • Take frequent short success breaks as you complete each part task.
  • Take small rewards for what you do get done, as you get it done.
  • Plan for mental and physical health by keeping your routines of exercise, sleep, meditation, nutrition, hydration.
  • Check in with yourself daily at the end of the day. Endorse yourself for what you got done. Note what you are going to do tomorrow.

Take the long view:

Two months from now, you will be in another head space with different challenges. If you find yourself speculating about worst possible cases, take the secure thought that Bill Gates and Michael Dell are university dropouts, Michael Jordan was dropped from his high school’s varsity basketball team, Steve Jobs was fired from the company he founded, and Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a news anchor.

In short, your grades are not your destiny. They are among some of the tools that you will use in achieving that destiny. These last weeks – focus on these particular tools by staying the course.

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Connect with me if I can help. It’s what I do. [email protected]