By Tristen Kade
It’s that time of the year again! You just got back from Thanksgiving break and suddenly realized that there are only a couple of weeks left in the semester. Upon your return to campus, you may find your self freaking out and wondering where all of those “tomorrows” went while you procrastinated. We end up kicking ourselves because if we would have *only* started that literature review or final project instead of *just* watching one more Netflix Original season, we wouldn’t be hyperventilating and continuously pacing the library in search of relevant citations right now. But fear not, even though we put off these projects or only worked on them sporadically throughout the semester, we can still finish strong… ish. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with the magic secret of getting stuff done in a short amount of time. Yet, what I can do is give you some advice on maintaining self-care during the anxiety-driven warrior week.
Over the years my advisor has provided me with self-care tips to avoid sleep deprivation crashing and how to not expose your immune system to the stress induced from warrior week. As a second year graduate student who has experienced this week at least 10 times, I can safely say that these tips are helpful. Without further procrastination, here are the tips:
For those of us who are not fully ready to get back to work, fear not. I have two more list to show you. This next list has applications of self-care from a social psychological perspective, along with random suggestions of what my advisor would tell me to do (or not to do). I suggest doing a few things on this list once you have completed a task.
It is important for us to acknowledge the completion of our small tasks that lay the foundation for the overall bigger task to take place (aka the final paper and/or project). Show yourself appreciation for each task you have finished, whether it be something small (such as an amazing sentence or coming up with a witty title) or the larger tasks(like turning in the 25 page term paper).
Lastly, I want to provide you with a list that will help reduce the anxiety you may experience during warrior week.
Alright, I have procrastinated too much now — but doing something fun and productive — as such I must get back to write. I hope these tips will be handy for you during crunch time. The important message is that we are more efficient when we take care of ourselves. In doing so, we will perform our best during the pressures of warrior week.
