One of the worst feelings in life is that deep tired, almost an ache in your chest that sets in after pulling an all-nighter and watching the sun come up. The last few weeks of the semester used to be such a grind for me, and now I watch as my students endure the same experience.
It took me 11 years to learn that my semester didn’t have to end that way. Projects and exams? Yep, they’re coming due. But it didn’t occur to me that the workload wasn’t the problem. I was.
Hi. I’m Tony and I spent 12 years in college. 11 of them were pretty stressful. The last one is when I finally figured it out. In this post I’m going to share 3 mindsets that helped me beat stress, focus on what matters most, and actually enjoy the end of the semester.
I went from pulling all-nighters to being home for dinner and actually relaxing on the weekends by following this advice. But I’m not the model, just the prototype. I’ve coached dozens of students (and faculty) to do the same with equally exciting results.
Mindset 1: Don’t do syllabus math
Reality is that we have to face trade offs. We spend a lot of mental energy calculating grades, trying to predict how our GPA will turn out, and trying to figure out if we can improve things in the last few weeks.
Instead of wasting mental energy on outcomes that are out of your control (YOU don’t actually decide your grade or the outcome of your performance review), invest that energy in learning the course content (doing the actual job well). After all, grades are supposed to be a measurement of that. Double down on what you actually came for (understanding) and let the grades land where they may.
Mindset 2: Do syllabus math
All tasks are not created equal. We do have to navigate trade offs. Have you ever spent an entire day working on a low-point-value homework assignment while putting off studying for an exam? That’s bad math.
The trick is to front-load your todo list with the most important things. Do them first. If you’re going to be up late doing school work, do it for a low-value assignment and protect your most productive time for the things that actually matter.
What I’ve discovered is that tasks like “studying” are hard to define. How do you know when you’re done getting ready for an exam? I think we run from the hard work of defining “done” by working on more discrete tasks (such as solving these 6 homework questions, cut and dry).
By the way faculty, you can help your students here by defining clear objectives. Telling your students they should “understand” a topic is vague and unhelpful. What does it look like to understand a topic? Write a test question that uses the word “understand” as the verb. It can’t be done. Instead, complete this sentence for every topic that will be on the exam: “After studying this material you should be able to…”
Mindset 3: Don’t hide from the hard work by doing meaningless work that tricks you into feeling productive.
When faced with the hard work of learning a new topic, finishing a class project, or studying for an exam we are challenged to define what it means to be done. This is a huge mental task for someone encountering an idea for the first time. Our brains hate discomfort and will run from this experience.
The problem is that being “unproductive” is also stressful. Have you ever decided to take a break, only to end up zoned out in front of the TV running through a list of everything you should be doing in your brain? Not helpful.
In moments like these, we find ways to pretend like we’re being productive. The only time I ever check my email is when I don’t want to do hard work. This is when we decide to go Marie Kondo on our lives, do the dishes, clean out a desk drawer, and sort the files on our laptops. We mistake “activity” for “progress.”
Conclusion
The mindsets above revolve around one key idea: thinking about what you’ll do before you start doing it. We often make unconscious decisions about how we’ll spend our time – decisions based on conventional wisdom that may not actually be serving our best interests. Hang in there, you’ll make it!!
Last semester I created an online workshop called “Final Focus.” It’s a quick set of videos and a workbook to help you get in the right mental space to finish crunch time with less stress and more effective action. It teaches 3 key tactics for focusing your efforts on what matters most.
I’m considering opening Final Focus for Spring 2019. Before I go to the trouble, I’d like to gauge interest:
Type your name and email into this form if you’re interested. It’s not an email subscription, and I won’t spam you. It’s a quick feedback form to let me know you’d like to participate in Final Focus for Spring 2019. Thanks!
