<p>How do you avoid from having an academic burnout? [you work so much that at one point you eventually lose motivation]. How do you avoid this if you are an engr, pre-med, pre-law, or just wanna go to grad school? The thing is you gotta put in the hours for school, but when midterms/papers/finals coincide it makes life super ultra hectic. You eventually survive it, but afterwards you don't have the desire you had before.</p>
<p>This happened to me twice last quarter and I honestly felt like the world was gonna implode. I felt overwhelmed and super stressed, IDK how I survived it. I was a workaholic and it was miserable, at one point I felt depressed too.</p>
<p>How do you avoid this? Better time management ? Better stress relief (talking to others/exercise/music/etc)?</p>
<p>Time management, and some acceptance of the fact that getting a B+ won’t mean you’re relegated to work as an Assistant Manager at the Golden Arches the rest of your life.</p>
<p>Exercise is also a good stress reliever. Just take 30 minutes out of the day to ride a stationary bike or something at a leisurely pace (if you’re just looking to relax).</p>
<p>honestly, unless your major is ridiculous (like engineering/architecture double major) you shouldn’t be working so much that you feel depressed or like a workaholic. some tips:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>don’t overdo the EC’s - you don’t need to be in a bunch of clubs to impress grad schools, so join 1-3 activities, tops. you don’t need to play 4 sports and do community service and do research and lead the clarinet club and whatever.</p></li>
<li><p>schedule at least 1 fun thing to do everyday, and do it. the social aspect of college is important too…fun for you might be going to a party, catching a movie, playing sports, going out to eat, having sex, playing your trombone…whatever the hell it is you like to do, have some fun everyday. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t spend 5 hours writing a paper/doing hw because you got up every 10 mins to check your facebook or make a phone call. Don’t think, Ok, I have all afternoon to do the paper and problem set, because then you’ll waste time. Instead, make little (doable) deadlines for yourself, and give yourself stuff to look forward to inbetween. Just be like, Ok, I’ll get the math hw done in 1 hour. Then I’m playing tennis with ___ at 5, and then I’ll come back and finish my history paper by 8 so i can have dinner and go to that party afterwards. just be more efficient, but don’t schedule every minute of your life either. </p></li>
<li><p>cramming is ok but shouldn’t be a regular habit, especially if you’re planning on grad/med school or a career where you’ll need to remember stuff in the long run. It’s ok to cram now and then for unimportant stuff, but not all the time. if you’re a freshmen taking an irrelevant gen ed, it’s ok to not pay attention and cram. if you’re in med school and it’s the class where they teach you how the kidney works, pay attention. </p></li>
<li><p>exercise, try to eat well, and don’t dress like a slob.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>When I start to feel overwhelmed, I pick one day that nothing seriously crucial is going on (exams the next day, etc) and just don’t do ANYTHING. Sometimes I don’t get out of my pajamas and watch movies all day, last weekend I went on a picnic with my boyfriend and then out to the movie theater, whatever. That one day of shirking my studying responsibilities usually rejuvenates me–it just has to be picked strategically so I don’t actually miss anything important. What will cure the burnout for you really just depends on you. There’s already some good advice on this thread to help you get started.</p>
<p>sit still for one day. Do something useless.
Then go on. That was me today and yesterday.</p>
<p>I have a double major + a minor so I’m thinking of getting rid of the minor. My majors would be ok by themselves but not together… and I’m working on a senior thesis film so… sigh. Let’s survive!</p>
<p><---- senior here. and man, let me tell you. total burnout. these are great tips i’m hearing from everyone. but anything for people who’ve tried these little things and it -still- doesn’t work. i’ve taken a break from feeling the GPA pressure, and i take a day off semi-frequently, but i just don’t know what can snap me out of this funk. for crying out loud, i’m not even going to grad school…</p>
<p>anyways, BUMP! i’m interested in hearing from others, even if its just to see more people going through this. it helps!</p>
<p>Yes, I’m going through the exact same situation that you’re in right now. I’m a freshman, engineering major and I can’t believe the amount of work I already have in my FIRST semester. I can’t imagine how bad its going to get in around my junior year. I mean, I took only 13 credits and easy classes because I wanted first semester to be a breeze but wow this is overwhelming. I’m bordering 70% in most of my classes and I’m having those burnouts too.
But I manage to “enjoy” myself, in the non-academic part of college here. A lot, actually.</p>
<p>General tips:
When someone asks you if you wanna hang out/watch a movie/grab some food, go for it. Don’t make excuses and deny it because you have to do a research paper. You can stay up till 3:00 AM doing that in the quiet silence of the night…also, our age group doesn’t need much sleep. Moreover, you’ll find it that you’ll enjoy doing the paper because you just had a lot of fun before it.
Procrastinate smart. I do procrastinate. A lot. But be smart about it - I tell myself, “Ok I’ll do this at 8:00 PM tonight, then watch that movie I downloaded, then read a bit of chemistry uptil 12:00 and then go to bed.”
If you ACTUALLY manage to get things done in your assigned time slots, you won’t believe how effective of a time manager you are.
Don’t work on weekends. Yes, you have an exam on Tuesday evening. Great. Worry about it on Monday night and Tuesday morning. You simply will not be able to study on Fri/Sat knowing that there’s four days to go (atleast I can’t, which should explain why I’m online at 3:20 AM in the morning).
Watch your favorite TV show, go for a walk, swim, bike or something. Do something “fun” for atleast 1-2 hrs a day. You’ll find yourself enjoying the quality of life. I admit, I’m sucking at my classes but I’m having fun here, unlike a lot of people I know (who aren’t liking college and are failing classes). It takes a bit of adjustment and experimentation to get the best out of both worlds. We all take our time to get there, but when we do, its totally worth it. :P</p>
<p>I’m an engr, BTW. I work part time, and I really should take the 1-2 hours of free time advice! </p>
<p>The problem with me right now, is that I put off tasks until I really need to do them, so I feel like I am in a constant state of “catch-up”. By this, I mean, I will do HW for physics since its due the next day. But I will not do any physics until the following week’s due date for it…I guesss I gotta force myself to do a little bit each day, which is hard esp when you come home from work already tired.</p>
<p>I am just trying to work through it. I thought I wanted to do a PhD right after in History, not anymore. My goal is still to be a professor/writer, but I want to wait a few years to see if I want to do it, because school is not really fun this year for me like it usually is. The funny part is that I have my best grades ever.</p>
<p>One word: focus. At least for me, once I get focused on something and not distracted, inertia takes over and I get it done regardless of how I felt about it beforehand. Then again, I can’t multitask, so maybe that explains it.</p>
<p>i break things up by day and take one day off to myself, provided i don’t have an exam coming up.
maybe try finding some inspiration to keep going to, i’m getting more into architecture so i read a lot about it to keep myself pumped.</p>