Break Ideas: Stop procrastinating and take meaningful breaks
With everyone blogging about the looming Term 3 (including myself in the previous post), I thought I would blog about something completely off the radar this time of the year: fun things to do when you’re taking a break.
It is very easy to procrastinate while studying and before you know it your 5 minutes break on Instagram turns into an hour long stalking session of some old classmate of yours. This then leads to a slight panic and resolve to stay in the library till 10 pm. As the clock strikes half 8, you’ve had enough and decide to call it a day. Tomorrow, you say, will be different.
Sound familiar? Short breaks are healthy but taking social media breaks in the library will both distract you from your work and not even make you feel more refreshed. Here are a few things I try and do- hopefully they would give you a couple of ideas.
Personally, I love working in coffee shops. I just find a comfy corner with a plug point and camp out there for hours. The background noise and smell of coffee stops me from panicking while working. Once a week, I usually work in coffee shop and save all the work I can do in a relaxed environment for then. For example, working on my political theory essay requires the pin drop silence of Floor 5 in the library but practicing Chinese characters for my language module does not.
As the weather is miserable on most days, don’t miss out on soaking some sun on those rare days it makes an appearance. Being cooped up indoors will just make you demotivated and depressed (or is it just me?). I usually take an hour or so to go for a walk. My favourite spots on campus is the lake behind bluebell- it’s so peaceful that you forget you’re just a few hundred meters from the buzzing piazza. Sometimes, when I’m feeling a bit peckish, I would buy some snacks from Cost cutter and have an impromptu picnic with friends.
By ‘talking to a friend’ I mean talking about something other than how stressed either of you are about revision. Sit down for a meal and have a substantial conversation. It would make you realise that in the wide scheme of things the exams/essays do not matter as much as you sometimes feel it does. As someone who loves the company of other people, I think I’d go crazy if all I was doing was locking myself in my room and working.
I know it’s sometimes hard to do something you genuinely enjoy without feeling guilty for wasting time and not working. But trust me, doing something for yourself will make you feel more balanced and productive at work- whether that is going for morning runs, meditating, cooking/baking to destress (your flatmates will love you) etc. Before you know it, you’ll have done more than fine in your exams/essays and be looking back in hindsight wondering why you were so stressed out in the first place.
As this will be my last post regarding Term 3/exams/essays, good luck to everyone with their revision this term. For me, this time is also very nostalgic because as much as I hate doing the essays (I’m on my sixth one now) I also realise that this is the last essay I will be doing in the foreseeable future.
