SURE, I’M GOING TO CATCH UP ON EVERYTHING DURING SPRING BREAK!

/in /by


For many of you this is the week before Reading Week. Or Winter Break. The name shifts, depending on the campus, or the year. The concept goes back to universities’ awareness that Something Was Needed for many of their students. Six weeks into Winter Term, students were stressed. [From our year of COVID- related lockdowns, uncertainty, ZOOM classes, ever-changing public and campus health advice and mandates, we can say to our pre-2020 selves, “You had no idea!”]

So something had to be done to relieve the stress. A week to catch up, because of the work that was behind? A week to decompress from the constant pressure of class-study-lab-quiz-read-research? Hence the ambiguous terms: Reading Week. No, Winter Term Break.

Regardless of what your campus calls it, it comes down to a week with no classes, no labs, no exams, no quizzes, no papers due: a week where you are the captain. And regardless of the potential stress break benefits or catch-up benefits, spring break ends up being a BIG source of stress for many students as they come crashing into the week after spring break!!

That’s because it’s so easy to park all sorts of good course work intentions into that week, then, with all the distractions and the feeling that we just deserve and need that time off, we sail through the whole week, maybe not even enjoying it fully, as the list of what we thought we’d get done keeps not getting done, but trying to make itself heard. 

I never want my students to face the worst case, where exams and deadlines hit the week after break, their grades go down, and they sadly find admissions at Grad School, Med School, or Law School don’t really care that they were doing fine until Break Week.  

I like my students to return from Break Week both refreshed and ahead of their academic game. 

So here is the checklist for what to do this week to get the best from break week.

Monday or Tuesday, plan your Break Week:

  1. Review your calendar for deadlines and exam dates up to the end of term.
  2. Review break week R&R activities that you really want to take part in.
  3. Review your work, family, and mind/health commitments.
  4. SCHEDULE IN THE R&R FIRST! You can change it later, but it’s amazing how much more motivated you will be about slipping in a few hours of academic effort when you now have the fun stuff scheduled.
  5. Prioritize what will make the week after break week go smoothest for you. Maybe it’s keeping brushed up on formulae and applying them in STEM courses. Maybe it’s making notes on one article each day for a paper that’s due the Friday after break week. 
  6. SCHEDULE IN THE MIND/HEALTH COMMITMENTS NEXT. Eating well, sleeping well, meditating, exercising–this is not likely the time to embark on a new fitness routine (unless that is your favourite R&R activity), but keeping the routines going keeps both work and play more effective.
  7. Pick a couple of times of day where you are least likely to be distracted, and where you are most on your mental game. If your previous Break Weeks have been marked by Big Plan, Little Do, look back to how much you actually did do, and up that by a realistic factor. One or two hours a day is way more productive than eight hours planned, but zero done.
  8. SCHEDULE YOUR ACADEMIC TASKS FOR EACH DAY last. Schedule a last review before you go to bed each night, and check your schedule for the next day. 
  9. Allow for slippage–the R&R may be late getting started, or take longer than you thought. Ditto the academic tasks. 
  10. Plan small rewards for each work session complete. Maybe just a stretch and self-endorsement; maybe a chocolate coated cranberry, maybe . . . you know what works for you!

Before Friday: 

  1. Make sure you have all the material you need for your academic tasks–all texts, all class notes, for example.
  2. Make sure you understand how to apply all formulae (email TAs or other classmates if you need to) and that you understand the detail of what is required on projects and exams due after Break Week.
  3. This is the week to ask instructors and TAs these things, as you won’t be able to ask them during Break Week.

BONUS:

  1. If you have extra time this week, you might choose to see how much you can get ahead by reading a few extra articles, or drafting a paper, or starting to review a few chapters in the text.
  2. Feel free to use any time gained there as BONUS during Break Week for binge watching, ZOOMING with friends, or getting your marathon time down (unless you find yourself energized and just keep going on that paper!).

That’s it! If you spend about an hour this week on this checklist, I guarantee (which I almost never do), that barring unforeseen disaster, your Break Week and the weeks following will go better than if you wait until you’re in the actual Week, responding to life as it happens. 

Next week: Eating your Break Week cake, and having it too!If you’d like to use part of your Break Week to set up strategy for the rest of the term, connect with me by email or with the form! [email protected]