SPRING TERM: STRUCTURING FOR SUCCESS

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The intensity and pace of spring term courses provide a challenge, for sure. That challenge includes

  • The trap of thinking it’s only one course
  • The distractions of spring—the weather, outdoor sports, friends’ grads and weddings and getting together
  • Staying motivated especially if you’ve just completed a full academic year
  • Failing to adjust your pace—and your standards—to the demands and expectations of a course that packs thirteen weeks into six.

 My number one recommendation for dealing with these traps isn’t very exciting or dramatic. It doesn’t require a great deal of change or learning of new skills. It is simply that you maintain the structure that has worked for you in the past.

Maintaining that day-to-day structure of getting up, eating, grooming, exercising, reviewing your schedule at the end of the day, and getting to bed according to a consistent pattern means less energy and cognitive processing spent on deciding what you should be doing from moment to moment. This frees you to focus on your course and other life activities. 

Of course, flexibility is required “that’s one of the reasons you review your calendar and schedule each evening. But having that basic structure is motivating, especially when the pace is hectic and there are unexpected complications. Maybe it’s more that not having a default structure is demotivating, with lack of sleep crowding out deadlines crowding out any time in the sun crowding out time with family “not fun.”

The academic elements of that structure are pretty much the same across all terms, all courses:

  • Read the syllabus. It is your contract with the college for getting the grade.
  • Know your resources at the library and student services.
  • Set a SMART goal for the course.
  • Set a reward for reaching that goal.
  • Incorporate deadlines from the syllabus into your calendar.
  • Schedule backward from deadline dates, including finals.
  • Plan efficiencies into your schedule.
  • Allow contingency time for the unexpected.
  • Have contingency plans for the unexpected “this is particularly important in spring and summer courses where needed resources may be in short supply.
  • Incorporate breaks into your work sessions.
  • Reinforce for effort “every step you make toward a goal gets self-endorsement.
  • See instructors sooner rather than later to clarify expectations, resolve group issues that can’t be resolved within the group, or discuss problems with the material or a grade.
  • Study smart; work smart.
  • If you have a particular learning challenge, whether it be note-taking, reading for analysis, taking exams, making presentations, or writing papers, swot up as many techniques as you can incorporate into a short term (and plan for further development in the next term).
  • At the end, take that reward!

I told you it wasn’t very exciting. And you’re probably doing many—but not all—of these elements. I invite you to pick one or two elements that you aren’t currently using, and add them to your academic strategy.

Let me know how it goes.

Connect with me to plan and keep on track for a successful spring session. We may even spend a bit of time brainstorming about realistic balance during a heavy academic load: [email protected]

The information in this blog cannot take the place of support from your own mental health professional or community health resources.Reach out to them. And IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS, PLEASE DIAL 911.