THE WINDSTORM OF MARCH
Midterms are over, reading week has passed, and there are a few days left in February. What’s next?
What’s next can hit hard, especially if this is your first year in college or your first year in grad school. It can hit hard like the storms across the continent last week, except the academic windstorm of March lasts until the first week in April!
As I mentioned last week’s blog, everything is due soon, but classes and labs continue. The first pointer today is not to miss class to complete projects—these last weeks are the weeks where professors are making sure they cover what they may have missed that they know is going to be on the exam. Near the end of term profs are often more apt to cue, hint, and outright tell you what is likely to be on the exam.
Last week I encouraged you to look after the infrastructure of self-care to build up your core of motivation and academic stamina.
This week, I encourage you to take these last February days and the weekend to look ahead and plan ahead. Using your calendar and the syllabus, plan out every deadline. Now take a week at a time, and chunk what needs to be done for each deadline. Pencil the coming week’s chunks into your scheduler.
As you start each chunk, endorse yourself. As you complete each chunk, take a small reward. Double endorse and bigger reward when you meet each deadline. Remember, endorsing is positive self-talk for effort, giving yourself a genuine Attaboy! Rewards are for results—and small rewards along the way help us get to the goal with larger rewards at the end. I encourage a bigger reward the last day of class, just for making it through the term.
At the end of each week, take the time to review and readjust your time prioritization as you chunk the work, schedule it, and plan your reinforcers and rewards.
What we’re doing here (and I say “we” because I take the same approach myself) is project management that includes thought regulation. That’s the reinforcers and rewards. Further thought regulation is weeding out the sabotage of worrying while you’re working: when you’re working on a chunk and your mind goes to “everything else I’ve got to do,” stop and jot it down for your scheduling and rechunking session. And reinforce yourself for stopping the distracting chatter.
In summary: Chunk. Schedule. Weekly reassess. Reinforce. Reward. Save your worries for reassessment time. These tools will help to keep you from being blown away in the blizzard that’s coming up.
I’m starting a list of the rewards and reinforcers that students set for themselves—what works for you?
Connect with me for more tools to meet your academic goals this term [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.