COLUMN: Finals will kill you
The weather is finally starting to get warmer, and you're talking to friends back home and making plans for the summer, but there's one thing in your way: finals.
It's nothing new. We've all taken finals before, and we all know they come that first week of May every year without fail.
Despite this, every year, the majority of students, including myself, find themselves scrambling and stressing at the last minute like that cranky old man who refuses to take his medication.
Once-vacant coffee shops and the quiet, desolate upper floors of the library become crammed to the max with students who are just now realizing you can't skip class 15 weeks straight and ace the final overnight.
All of a sudden, that to-do list that has been staring you in the face for the past three weeks is a nightmare from hell as you realize you have two ten-page papers and a 30-page final project all due within the next week and a half.
Not trying to point any fingers here; I'm the worst offender of eternally putting off things on my to-do list.
If you find yourself in my company, having too much to do in not enough time, try to relax and take a deep breath. While, yes, our situation isn't the most favorable, it certainly could be a lot worse.
At this point in my junior year, it appears everyone I meet has their own strategy to battle the demon that is final exams.
Whatever your plan is for finals week, just make sure you have one.
Personally, I like to make daily – sometimes hourly – productivity goals for myself and reward myself with anything from a Jolly Rancher to a trip to the always delicious Doozies Ice Cream Place, 1310 E. Pickard Road.
If you find you don't have a plan for getting all of the stuff you've put off until now done, maybe try that for starters.
Log off Facebook, have a friend you trust change your password for you if it's going to be that big of a distraction and sit down and set goals. Make sure they are challenging enough to force you to be productive, but, at the same time, not out of reach.
If you sit down at a computer for one hour, all distractions aside, with the possible exception of some comforting background music from Pandora, and truly give an effort at rubbing two brain cells together, you'll be amazed at just how much of that final paper you can knock out in just 60 minutes.
At the end of the day, just have a plan for finishing the semester strong.
Finals will kill you, but only if you let them. Now, stop reading this and go study.
