During this period of COVID and still adjusting to school, it can be extremely stressful to balance everything.  It may seem like a constant cycle of stress and depression every day of the week.  My goal is to help students not feel so disheartened, especially through these times.  Here are three tips to avoid this:

Plan out your day: Almost all students are constantly crunched for time and are stressed trying to get all their work done. You may already have a routine, but it may not be efficient.  Plan out your routine in the most efficient way and write it down so you can check priorities off (something about checking things off brings you more serotonin than you may think).  When you do this, try to plan out when you will do your assignments or get ahead in classes.

Get enough sleep: If you are not going to bed on time you will not be able to pay attention in class or get anything done. It may seem like a good idea in the moment, but it is more likely to hurt you than help you.  You will be much better off finishing that last minute assignment you have procrastinated for weeks in the morning if you have already worked on it for hours the night before.

Take breaks: This is so important to finish your work well. If you are doing work and are zoned out, you are most likely just writing down incoherent thoughts.  Take a 15-minute break to do whatever on earth you want and relieve some stress.  Not only do you want to take a break while doing work, but also on the weekends. Be efficient with your weekend time and try to get ahead one work to prevent stress for the next week.  However, don’t waste away your weekend just trying to get caught up or get ahead.  Make sure you set time to relax and have fun on the weekends you have planned out in the first tip.

You are not even close to alone in this cycle because every student has felt this before or is feeling it right now.  It is not the end of the world if you do bad on one assignment.  What matters is that you are working hard enough to be successful in the real world.  Every student is together in this, don’t be afraid to speak up about it.