If you’re anything like me, the start of a new semester is maybe the only time when you enjoy going to class and you actually feel motivated. However, by the time October arrives, this inspiration is usually long gone. The number of times I’ve found myself halfway through the semester so burnt out that I’m one minor inconvenience away from dropping out of school is alarming when I look back. I’ve learned the hard way how unsustainable it is to go to class all day, come home to study all night, sleep for 3 hours, and then repeat the same cycle the next day. I've been making more of an effort over the last few semesters to make changes so that I don't end up feeling as burnt out, and here are some tips that I've found more helpful.

Get enough sleep

If you only take one thing away from this blog post, please let it be this tip. I know how tempting it can be to neglect a good night’s sleep to finish up an assignment or cram for an exam. Up until last year, I can confidently say that on a good night, I would get 4 hours of sleep on average. There were so many semesters where I would pull multiple all-nighters, or sleep for just a few hours to finish off some schoolwork. Despite constantly hearing how important sleep is for you, I for some reason never believed the extent of how true this is until I started following a proper sleeping schedule, and the difference it makes is amazing. I know when you have a lot of deadlines, getting told to call it a night and go to sleep is annoying, but I genuinely find that I’m more productive and work better the next morning after getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep.

Exercise regularly

This is another one I didn’t believe was actually as helpful as it was until I started incorporating it into my routine. I cannot count the number of times where I would be sitting at my desk, crying at my laptop, and my mom would come into my room and tell me to go on a walk and I would never listen to her. But once I started going on daily walks, or doing some sort of exercise consistently, even for just 30 minutes, it has made a huge difference for my mental health. Like who would have thought that getting fresh air or moving your body is good for you?

Make time for yourself

From my experience, whenever I’m feeling burnt out while trying to work on an assignment or study, it normally takes me 3 times as much effort to get something done compared to when I’m not burnt out. Especially during midterms or finals, I know it feels like you need to spend every minute of the day that you’re awake being productive, but I’ve found that when you’re feeling burnt out, the best thing you can do is to step away from your schoolwork. You need to take care of yourself, whether that means taking a break to spend time with friends, find time for hobbies, or to take a nap. Ideally, I try to make my schedule so I have a full day off every week. This isn’t always possible when the semester gets busier, but I’ve found taking at least 30 minutes a day for self-care or to do something fun has made me more productive in the long run.

Be kind to yourself

Feeling burnt out, then getting even more stressed and overwhelmed for feeling this way, and not working as productively as you want is a cycle I am unfortunately very familiar with. But I’ve really come to realize how unhealthy it is to live under this much stress. I know for myself when I’m feeling this way, it’s probably likely that I’m not producing my best work anyways. So, sometimes you just have to accept that just getting the assignment completed and handing it in is good enough, even if it’s not up to your normal standards. As a perfectionist, this has been a tough pill to swallow. You may not receive as good of a grade as you wanted, but I promise by the next semester, you’re not going to remember if you got a C- on one specific assignment. No school work is worth sacrificing your mental health for.