How to Stay Focused: End of Semester Fatigue

                                         

         It’s week 12 out of 15, and I just want this semester to be done. I don’t like it when I get to the point in the semester where I am bored with my classes. After 5, I’ve realized it’s nigh inevitable. They all seemed fresh and interesting at the beginning. They always do. By the end of the semester, I generally am able to find something I don’t like about each and every one of them, even if they were some of my favorite classes at the beginning of the semester. I’m not exactly sure why that is.  Contemplating this, I believe after a bit my brain can only take so much of the same approach towards a topic. Maybe that’s it. Theoretically, my brain can take how I want to approach a topic, because that’s how I think, but I can only take so much of a single instructor’s approach to a topic. While I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t enjoy instructors’ thinking or that the way they think isn’t complex, my brain can only take so much.

For an example, in my comparative literature class, originally, I enjoyed the idea of looking at films and comparing them to books. It sounds so cool and it is. But at this point in the semester, I want to do that with books I like or actually have an interest in. I want to be in charge of it. When looking over classes, I come to the conclusion that it always seems to come back to my desire for personal control. Therefore, if I like a class it takes longer for my brain say, “Cool, but I want to look into the topic the way I want to,” which makes sense. This is also probably is why lesson planning and unit planning are taking the longest for me to wish they were over. I’m getting to that point, but I still have a lot of choice with that and can order them how I want. Another part of why I want this semester to end now, is because fatigue. I’m just tired. I need a break from working and classes and walking in the rain and not being able to read all the books I want when I want to. I sound like a toddler but it’s true.

So how am I going to make it? How can you make it to the end of the semester?

1.     Start Counting Down

Start counting down the days, the weeks, the # of class periods of that class that you hate, whichever way makes it seem faster and makes you feel like the break is getting closer every day.

2.     Start Counting Up

Start counting all the days that have passed already in order to encourage yourself to persevere. If you survived those weeks, and you thought those were difficult, then you can make it through.

3.     Make Lists

Make lists of what you need to accomplish and also importantly what you have already accomplished. This way you give yourself credit for what you have done and so you don’t forget what you still need to do.

What else has worked for you? How do you stay focused? 



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Image Credit: CJ Sorg "Focus...on the blur."