8 Ways To Practice Self-Care During College Finals Week

Hey, Y’all. This week has been so busy. I’ve had two exams and two papers due, but I’m surviving. Next week is finals week for me and many other college students, but instead of giving you all a plethora study tips, I’m writing a practical guide to self-care during finals. This post is pretty long, so maybe pin it for later if you don’t have time to read it. I hope this helps you stay balanced during finals week.

1.//Continue Practicing Regular Self-Care

This is the first self-care rule college students forget when finals time rolls around. Once our schedules start piling up, we start neglecting our health. We don’t get as much sleep or drink enough water or forget to shower. I wrote a post in my first few months of blogging about creating a self-care plan and it’s one of the most popular posts on this blog. If you don’t have regular self-care rituals, I suggest you read it.

Practical Ways To Practice Self-Care

Take A Shower – I feel like personal hygiene is one of the first things to go when we’re busy. It’s a lot faster to put my hair in a ponytail and use dry shampoo when I’m writing a paper instead of taking a proper shower, but when I prioritize it, I feel so much better.
Read A Book – Read something that has nothing to do with school to get your mind off of all the work you have.
Get Fully Ready Every Day – Don’t go to school in sweatpants. When you look like a slob, you feel like a slob, and you end up being less productive. I get fully ready every single day (even when I’m sick) because it makes me feel better and helps me get my life together. There’s also a self-care aspect of just putting some time to take care of yourself.

2.//Don’t Skip Meals

I have a tendency to use food as a distraction and a means to procrastinate, so I understand the feeling of being in the zone and forgetting to eat. Because I live with my parents, I have someone who reminds me to eat regularly (Thanks Ammu!), but a lot of college students don’t have that. When there are so many papers to write and exams to study for, it’s easy to lose track of time and forget to eat. Remember to keep your energy up.

Practical Tips To Prevent Skipping meals

Have a Regular Eating Time – For me, it’s right after my first class for lunch and right after I get home from campus for dinner. When you eat at different times every day, it’s easier to forget meals. It’s one of the reasons why I eat meals at weird times on weekends. My schedule is different each weekend so I eat whenever I’m hungry. And when I’m busy, I don’t notice that I’m hungry.
Have Easy Snacks Available – I’m not gonna be one of those bloggers who talk about all the healthy snacks she eats while studying. I eat chocolate chip cookies. Don’t get me wrong, I eat grapes and oranges every day as snacks too, but I eat sweets and cheese like any other person. Keeping snacks available will help you stay energized when you’re up late writing papers (can you tell I’ve been writing a lot of papers lately).
Meal Plan – Right now, I’m lucky to have a mom who cooks for me every day, but I know I’ll need a meal plan once I move out. When I’m busy, even now, if I don’t have a plan for what to eat, I’ll cook the easiest thing: Ramen. It’s salty and really bad for me, but it’s cooks fast. Make sure you have a meal plan during finals. I know people who sign up for those monthly meal services like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh during finals time because they don’t have any time. Save yourself some money and meal plan and grocery shop in advance so that you can spend time studying without going hungry.

3.//Get Enough Sleep

I’ve preached about getting enough sleep many times before, but here I go again. I went to a very rigorous college-leveled high school where students bragged about staying up all night studying. I was never like that. Being in that kind of environment has helped me a lot now that I’m in college because I know how to manage my time and balance everything.

In high school, I would sometimes have to choose between sleeping or finishing an assignment. I would choose sleep every time (after a certain point) because not doing so caused me a lot of anxiety and I knew that any points docked for turning it in late wouldn’t be worth my mental health.

That didn’t happen very often, but it was a hard decision I had to make. Even now, I sometimes don’t finish an assignment the night before when it’s getting late. I sleep and wake up an hour or two earlier in the morning to finish the assignment or paper. Even though I’m running on less sleep, I’m still more focused doing the assignment after waking up.

Sleeping helps consolidate memories, improves your mood, and helps you think more clearly. Those are all attributes we all want during finals week.

Practical Tips For Getting Enough Sleep

Set an alarm an hour before your bedtime – Theoretically, this signals me to finish up what I’m working on and get ready for bed. I have not been good about following this rule recently, but it’s been helpful in the past. Having a reminder of how soon you have to go to sleep lets you know that it’s time to close your laptop, which is a task college students take awhile to do.
If you are staying up late writing an essay, set an alarm to wake up early and go to sleep– I’ve already mentioned this. Instead of staying up super late writing a paper, it’s better for me to set an alarm an hour or two before I have to get ready for class. This allows me to be more focused when writing the paper, and I get it done faster because of the time limit.
Don’t lie in bed on your phone – So many people can waste hours scrolling through their phone. This applies to both mornings and nights. In the mornings, you may waste a lot of time lying in bed instead of getting ready and heading to the library to study, and at nights, you can waste sleeping time by scrolling through Pinterest. The blue light from your phone also disrupts your sleeping pattern. Instead of looking at the time and thinking, “If I fall asleep at 1 AM, I’ll get 7 hours of sleep.” then waste more time doing something until you think, “If I fall asleep at 2:30, I’ll get five and a half hours of sleep” (I can’t be the only one who does that.), turn off your phone and read a book until sleep comes.

4.//Stay Organized

Nothing makes me more stressed than not having a plan. At the beginning of this month, I wrote out every single exam date, quiz date, and essay due date in one place and have been writing to-do lists every day. I showed this calendar on video chat to one of my friends and she said, “Wow, that’s a lot.” I haven’t even added my work schedule yet, but that calendar has been keeping me sane. Knowing exactly what I have to do next allows me to get out of my head and not forget everything I need to do.

Organization isn’t usually an aspect categorized as self-care, but I think anything that prevents you from being stressed and frazzled counts. Just the act of writing down everything I need to do gets me out of my head.

Practical Tips For Staying Organized

Print Out A Physical Calendar And Fill It Out With All Your Due Dates – I have an actual calendar in my room, but I know a lot of people only use their phones or planner calendars, so I recommend you print one out. Fill in every single due date, test date, and quiz date and hang it up somewhere you can see. After filling mine out for the month of April, I had a clear blueprint of my month on my bulletin board. Before that, all my assignments (3 papers, 8 tests, and 16 quizzes) were in the assignment list I made from my syllabus, which is helpful, but I have a better understanding of what to do and in what order because it’s all laid out on a calendar.
Use Your Planner – I use a notebook as my planner and personalize it the way I want. It’s like a less fancy bullet journal. You know what your planning preference is, so use it!
Write A Daily To-Do List – This is the busiest time of the semester, so I make a to-do list every day based on what I have due that week. I do the same with study schedules. Doing one chapter per day is much more productive than cramming the entire semester the night before, so turn your schedule into daily to-dos to cross off. Crossing things off on paper always motivates me to do more.

5.//Take Breaks

Don’t just work for six straight hours. Spend an hour or two completely focused on one task and take a ten-minute break. Watch a YouTube video on your phone or take a walk. It will keep your energy up and will allow you to keep a semblance of balance. Taking small breaks in between also helps you consolidate memories. (At least that’s what my biospsych textbook tells me). It’s better for you to study a class lecture then take a short break because it gives your brain time to process the information.

Practical Tips For Taking Breaks

Stretch – This will help you refresh before starting on your next task. See #6 for more info.
Walk To The Bathroom – I’m pretty sure I use going to the bathroom as an excuse to walk and get away from my desk rather than the actual act of using the bathroom. Either way, it helps. I’m usually on my phone for those five minutes anyway.
Watch A YouTube Video Or Read A Blog – Whenever I take longer breaks, I usually either read some blogs or watch YouTube videos. Try to limit this from 15-30 minutes because you don’t want to waste too much time and lose your momentum.

6.//Move Your Body

In my freshman year, a trainer at the gym on campus told me that so many people don’t go to the gym during midterms and finals because they think they don’t have time. She said, “I wish that more people understood that working out makes your day more productive, not less.” I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I go to the gym more during final exam time because it helps clear my head and gives me so much more energy.

I haven’t been able to go to the gym much this semester because I pinched a nerve in my back, and I can feel the difference. I am so much more lethargic and haven’t been sleeping as well. In my April Goals, I added “dance every day” last minute as an afterthought, but I’ve noticed that moving my body in such a small way helps me stay more focused on the task at hand, which is something everyone needs during finals week.

Practical Tips To Move Your Body

Go To The Gym – You’re paying for it through your tuition, so you may as well not waste your money.
Dance In Your Room – Definitely the easiest one of the bunch. No one needs to see you, but cranking up some music and dancing will definitely wake you up and keep you energized.
Take A Walk Outside – The spring weather is causing me a lot of allergy problems, so I try to avoid going outside too much, but make sure you breathe in some fresh air and feel sunlight on your face because sitting at your desk for hours at a time in fluorescent lighting is not good for you.

Related – My Current College Workout Routine

7.//Talk To Your Friends

Social time with my favorite people rejuvenates me in the best way. One of my April goals was to meet up with a friend because I knew that I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t prioritize it. I have a habit of immersing myself in school or work and forgetting to go out. I find that even just venting about all the exams and essays I have to my friends on the phone helps me feel better, and I know they feel the same way. I’m sure talking with friends helps other college students de-stress, as well.

There are also probably a few events going on around campus. When your friend tries to drag you to something, maybe you shouldn’t use the “busy” excuse. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last few years of college and going to a college-level high school is that you can prioritize social time if you put an effort to.

I’m not going to any school social events this month, but I had to make time for an event last weekend. Saturday was Pohela Boishak or Bengali New Year, which is pretty similar to Chinese New Year in that we clean the house and wear red. My mom threw a party, so I had to help clean the house and help host a party in between term papers and exam studying. I enjoyed it and I think it was worth making time for, but I was quite stressed about how I was going to get everything done. In the end, I still had time to finish all my work.

You need to make time with other people because studying alone and staring at your laptop all day is the opposite of taking care of yourself.

Practical Tips To Keep In Contact With Friends

Make Plans To Meet Up For Lunch – If you live on campus and have a meal plan, it’s easier to grab lunch with someone at the dining hall. Since I live at home, I actually have to plan out when to meet up with friends. Instead of eating lunch in front of your computer, try to call up a friend and go out to eat. This doesn’t have to be a regular occurrence. Just do it once or twice in the last few weeks of school so that you have a break from studying.
Call Them – Talking on the phone is slowly becoming extinct, but I’m an old soul. I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting over texting because it’s nice to have an actual conversation with someone rather than texting in between school work. It’s much more refreshing to actually hear their voice and be present in the conversation instead of half-heartedly writing a response.
Make Sure They Know It’s Okay To Call You – My friend recently told me that she feels bad about calling people because she thinks they might be too busy and she’ll end up being a nuisance. I quickly told her that I loved getting her calls and that I’ll tell her if she’s called at a bad time. I realized that I feel the same way about calling my friends sometimes, but to be honest, I think receiving a phone call from a friend is like snail-mail. It’s nice for it not to be a medical call or from your school because you know your friend was thinking of you.

8.//Treat Yourself

I’ve already talked about my hectic schedule this month. I had no idea how I was going to treat myself in between all the chaos, so I wasn’t planning to. I checked Seat Geek, (a third party ticket buying website for sports games and concerts) one day and found tickets to “Something Rotten” (a Broadway show coming to Atlanta this month) for $8.65. That’s almost unheard of. There are tickets for that show for $60 and the fact that I could find one for that low of a price was nothing short of a miracle. The show is on the Saturday before finals week, but I decided that I can afford to spare two hours to enjoy myself.

There is very little time to relax and indulge during finals week with our schedules being so packed. I think it’s smart to treat ourselves. Otherwise, we end up losing a lot of the balance in our lives.

(Here’s an affiliate link to get $20 off the first ticket you buy off of Seat Geek)

Practical ways to treat yourself

Eat Lunch At Your Favorite Restaurant – And order your favorite meal, no matter how unhealthy it is. You don’t need to eat salad every day.
Buy Your Favorite Brand Of Chocolate – Mine is Lindor Dark Chocolate. Or just dark chocolate in general.
Netflix – Sometimes, just vegging in front of the T.V is an act of self-care. As long as you don’t start procrastinating and binge-watching a new show, I don’t see a problem with taking a mental break.

Self-care is usually the first thing to go when it comes to busy weeks, so I hope this guide helps.

Short Update:

Despite how busy I’ve been, I’ve still managed to post every week. I’m sure I can keep this up until May. Once summer break starts, you’ll be getting a lot more content from me.

On a different note, today is my grandparents’ 50th anniversary. That’s a milestone many couples aren’t lucky enough to achieve. They still travel like a young couple. They’re in Bangladesh right now (they left a few months ago, but should be coming back home to Atlanta later this year.)

Anyway, good luck on finals. I’m sure you won’t need it.

Did I miss anything? What is your self-care routine? How do you plan on taking care of yourself during final exams week?

2 thoughts on “8 Ways To Practice Self-Care During Finals Week”

Jennifer says:

April 21, 2018 at 11:47 am

I’m starting finals week really soon and your self care post was so helpful! I definitely have to keep these tips in mind, especially #6 & #8. Thanks for sharing. ?

1. Triasha says:
  
  April 24, 2018 at 10:45 am
  
  I’m glad it helped. I’m in the middle of finals week right now, so I’m trying to keep all these tips in mind as well. Good luck with your finals!