How To Stay On Top Of Grades With the Upcoming Holiday Season

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Libby Schott Leave a comment

With Halloween this past weekend, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and many other holidays/days off, it’s easy to let your

schoolwork slide while partaking in festive activities. When we push our responsibilities back to make room for all of

the fun things in life, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when you circle back to get things done. Thankfully we are now in an

age where we have many resources and methods to stay on top of our work. Personally, I find it important to plan out

each month in my calendar. First I start with the concrete things (ex:sports, extracurriculars, work, vacations), then I

see all of my empty/ partially empty days to first pencil in time to do my homework and study, and then any extra days

are meant for going out and doing fun things with my friends and family. If you are planning on doing some traveling

this holiday season, please make sure to talk to your teachers about any work you might be missing in advance.

Study tips and methods:

Pomodoro Method – This method of studying helps you break your time into five sections to avoid getting bored and

burnt out while still staying on task.

Step 1 – Decide how much work you need to do and estimate how long it will take you.

Step 2 – Get your space set up with everything you’ll need to limit distractions.

Step 3 – Start a timer for twenty-five minutes and get to work!

Step 4 – when the timer ends, take a five-ten minute break to grab a snack or go for a walk, typically something relaxing.

Step 5 – Repeat! If you are studying for four intervals or longer, lengthen your breaks to twenty-thirty minutes.

Other tips:

Alway plan your time ahead. As I mentioned earlier, I like to plan by month to make sure that I have time to get everything done.
If there are things you don’t understand, write them down and move on; that way when they come across again you can easily remember what you need to ask your teacher/look up.
Change up your setting every now and then.
Color code your notes to keep things more organized and stay more engaged.

How to avoid burnout:

Burnout is a term that refers to emotional/work exhaustion. Some signs of burnout are headaches, always feeling

tired,detachment, procrastination, taking your frustration out on others and skipping/avoiding class.A big part of

preventing burnout is taking lots and lots of little breaks; this is where planning out your time really comes in to help.

Getting lots of sleep, eating a few more fruits and vegetables, spending time doing things you love and having a good

support system are the top four things you can do to help prevent and get over burnout.

Overall, this is my best advice from student to student. Manage your time in a physical way (on a piece of paper, in a planner, ect.), take breaks and take care of your mind and body. Without these you can’t do a whole lot. I hope some of these tips help with midterms and other things coming up!

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