I have always been someone that has to get things done right away. If there is an assignment due in 2 weeks I will starts it the day it is announced and proceed to try and perfect it until I can’t anymore. I hate leaving things to the last minute or “feeling behind” even if I still have a significant amount of time to complete said task. I think many of you can resonate with this as it tends to be a natural teacher motto. It is also probably the reason we are 20 mins early to all of our classes.
With that being said, I often find myself completely burnt before the end of the semester. With the desire to have everything completed and perfected, it means that I am constantly working from one assignment to the next. Last year this caused a major increase in problems relating to my mental health to the point where it was unmanageable. The problem was that I was not allowing myself anytime to relax or take a break from my work. Luckily this year I have been more aware of when I am getting overwhelmed but I still have to physically schedule breaks into my days.
Taking breaks can be a challenging to do, especially for university students. Many of you may have jobs that you work on as soon as your classes are done which leaves little time for working on homework and other assignments let alone free time. Taking breaks is not only good to alone your body time to relax but is also proven to help you improve your studying and working abilities. According to Cornell Health, taking a break from anywhere to 5-60 minutes will help you regain focus and increase your efficiency and productivity. This does not mean go on your phone, but doing something productive that allows you to step back from whatever you were currently doing.
This past week, I decided to take an entire day off from doing any work. This is something I almost never do so the thought of taking an entire day off honestly kind of terrified me. I felt like I would fall behind or that I would be wasting my time that I could be using working on a future project. However, I could sense that I was starting to feel the same burnt out energy that I had previously and knew that I had to make sure that I was taking care of myself. To make sure that I wasn’t too anxious about taking a day off, I purposely schedule a day that I would do this. I decided that Saturday, October 15 would be the best day to do this. I made sure that I had completed all work that had to be done so I wouldn’t be worried about that when trying to relax.
I researched a bit about taking breaks to make sure that this would be a good idea for me and not cause me too much stress. I was surprised to find how many sources stated that taking a day break (or a significant portion of time) at least once a week was actually needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and mindset. One blog I read from Barton Goldsmith who has his PHD in Psychology explained that if one does not make time to take a break, they may be forced to at an unscheduled time when their body and brain can no longer keep up. I know that for many of you, the idea of taking a break let alone an entire day break may seem unrealistic or maybe impossible but it is so so important.
Overall my experience taking a day break was so rewarding. I won’t lie, at first I wasn’t looking forward to it and wanted to get it over with so I could get back to working on other things as soon as possible. However, by the end of the day I could tell I felt way more rejuvenated than I would have from just a 15 min brain break. I went crabbing with some friends, watched the sunset, and spent time connecting with some friends I hadn’t seem in awhile. The following day I found myself way more productive in my work because I had taken the time to clear my head.
I know taking a break is harder said than done but I do want to emphasis the importance of prioritizing your mental health as much as your busy schedule. You don’t want to be forced to take a break when it’s least convenient. Make sure you take time to schedule time in your week for you too 🙂
Sources:
Featured Image: Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash
“Study Breaks & Stress-Busters.” Cornell Health, https://health.cornell.edu/about/news/study-breaks-stress-busters.
Goldsmith, Barton. “The Importance of Allowing Yourself to Relax.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 20 Nov. 2013, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-fitness/201311/the-importance-allowing-yourself-relax#:~:text=That’s%20fine.,long%20as%20it’s%20not%20destructive.
October 24, 2022 at 9:04 pm
Kari!
I love your inquiry on methods to manage mental health. I am still sifting through our class’s blogs and there are a lot of great topics but my goodness, I love yours. It is one I will definitely need to follow. It is so incredibly important to talk about mental health and the findings are so valuable to know and take with you through your life. As you talked about in this post, breaks are important. I am also one to tackle assignments right away. I am always ahead not necessarily because I am an “overachiever” but simply because when I leave it for even a day I get very anxious. In the busy schedule we have I have found it very difficult to take breaks, so I will definitely be following your blog in hopes to find methods to integrate into my own life!
October 25, 2022 at 11:12 am
Aww thank you Anna,
I definitely understand the feeling of getting anxious if I don’t do something right away. Not being the first one to complete something or feeling behind even if I’m not close to behind is something that I am continually working on. We need to remind ourselves, and others, that it’s okay to take a break especially when we start to feel overwhelmed. I’m glad you were able to find some use in this blog, I definitely don’t have it figure out, but hopefully some of these strategies that worked for me could also benefit you!