Senioritis: How I (Try To) Keep Myself on Track for the End of the School Year

by Tamanna Sood ‘24

As the weather begins to get warmer and my uncertain looming adult life gets closer and closer, my will to get any work done dwindles down further and further. I’ve had a serious case of senioritis since the beginning of March and have been falling behind in all of my classes. While it’s easy for me to say, “I made it! I have my degree,” the truth is, I still need to finish my finals and pass my classes. If you are anything like me, you also decided to save some of your hardest classes for your last semester of school. In order to get myself back in shape and finish my year off right, I’ve become stricter with myself! Here are some of the ways I’ve (tried to) keep myself on track: 

Wake Up Before 9 A.M. (Even on the Weekend)

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but waking up early is, in fact, a great way to maximize the amount of work you can do in a day. As a second semester senior, most of my classes start much later in the day. I usually like to sleep in and relax before my classes, but as deadlines creep closer and closer, I have to modify my schedule and sacrifice comfort. For a person like me who is desperately behind in her capstone project and needs every hour to make up for it, waking up at a standard time everyday and building a routine for myself has transformed my productivity. 

Similarly, getting at least 8 hours of sleep has been crucial for my productivity. Sleeping 8 hours might seem counterintuitive to getting work done, but in my experience, staying up late and working into the night impacted the quality and amount of work I was able to do. Following a sleep schedule and wake-up routine has entirely changed the way I view work and has even made me feel excited to finish college strong!

Don’t get me wrong, waking up early is hard but not as hard as you might think! I try to get up and out of bed right as I wake up so I don’t feel tempted to sleep longer. Washing my face or even showering first thing in the morning also helps me prepare to conquer the day. 

Develop Routines and Hold Yourself to Set Timelines

I’ve always been terrible with my time management and keeping on top of my tasks in a realistic way. I usually leave things to the last minute which always ends up biting me. However due to the lack of time left in the semester, I’ve really had to schedule my time effectively and stick to a planned out schedule. 

Mapping out my day and assigning realistic timelines to my tasks has changed how I view my work and my stress levels. Before, I used to sit down and begin work on tasks at random without a plan. This would actually cause me to feel more overstimulated and fatigued because I felt like I needed to get everything done in one sitting. Being realistic with myself and assigning a set number of tasks within a certain time frame has helped me feel a lot less overwhelmed. 

I really have been enjoying pomodoro timers  to complete my work. Under the Pomodoro technique, you work for 25 straight minutes and then take a break for at least 5 minutes before continuing again. My best friend has been Pomofocus.io which is a pomodoro timer website that allows me to write out tasks and assign a number of pomodoro timers I think I would need to complete them.

 I also have been loving working with “study with me” youtube videos playing in the background. I sometimes like seeing another person work when I’m alone to keep myself motivated. A lot of these videos will have pomodoro timers built into them as well! 

I try my best to get at least two hours of work done as soon as I wake up in the morning and two hours of work before I sleep. Before sleeping, I write out all the tasks I need to get done in the morning and  before ending my morning session, I write out all the tasks I need to get done at night. 

Creating a routine that works for you can make the process a lot less daunting. While this might be common practice for some folks, I’ve never actually been able to follow through with a routine, and it's been really great finally being able to stick to one. My advice is to play around with what works for you and keep things simple!

Find a Healthy Social Balance

One of the hardest things I’ve had to do during my academic renaissance is reassess my social life and balance out social activities with academic work. It’s hard for me to say no to plans with friends because I know I will only be in college for a couple more weeks. Instead, I try to adjust my social plans to fit my life and schedule. 

One way I’ve balanced out my social life is by separating my days of the week with the first half being reserved for work and the other half being reserved for fun. From Sunday to Wednesday, I try to keep my social events to lunches, dinners, and casual catch ups. From Thursday to Saturday, I keep my schedule open for longer social events! 

By splitting up my week like this, I am able to stay satiated socially and keep up with my work. Since a lot of other senior friends of mine are in the same situation, we also have been loving exploring new coffee shops and just working together!

Don’t Sweat the Small Things

I’ve always been an overthinker, and relaxing is something that doesn’t necessarily come easy to me, especially when it comes to my grades. Although I’ve been trying my best to stay afloat, I also know that I will never get these couple weeks in my life back, and I try my best not to sweat the small stuff. If I fall off my routine, which I often do, I do my best to keep my head up and remind myself I’ll be okay no matter what! 

Recently, I’ve been doing worse in a class than I expected at this point in the semester. While I’ve been trying to raise my grades, I also have made peace with the fact that it's okay if my transcript isn’t perfect. I do the best I can in each class and remind myself that at the end of the day, I will be okay! It's more important for me to remember this time in my life with happy memories rather than anxious ones! 

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