Bracing Yourself for Reading Period

Step one: Stock up at CVS. By Bridget R Irvine

Couple this advice with our other tips about self care, and you can set yourself up well for this next week.

CVS Runs

Chances are you’ll be cooped up in your dorm room (or a library) for a long time, and it pays to be prepared with snacks. Grocery shopping is also a great way to feel like a mature and responsible adult—without doing any of your actual work.

Social Media & Netflix

Spend an exorbitant amount of time tagging your friends in memes on Facebook or stalking people on Instagram, purely in order to compensate for your virtual disappearance next week. Alternatively, don’t forget to catch up on every TV show you used to watch, and begin watching several new ones. This may be the last opportunity you have to relax for a few weeks.

Packing for Summer

Unless you’re sticking around Cambridge, you’re probably going to need to get on a bus/train/plane soon after your last final ends. Save future you some leaving last-minute stress, and get to laundryin’, donatin’, tossin’, cleanin’, packin’, and storin’ before you’re in full study mode.

Make a Plan

Figure out exactly what you’ll do over reading period, exactly when you’ll do it (down to the minute), and exactly how to color-code all of your assignments in your planner/Google Calendar for maximum aesthetic impact. Will you end up following this comprehensive schedule? Definitely not. Will you convince your friends that you have your life together, in a particularly artsy way? Maybe.

Nap Often

Let’s be real, you got more than enough sleep over Spring Break. But it’s convenient to use the week before reading period as an excuse to catch up on the sleep you will be missing in the future. Bears hibernate. You can, too.

What did you say? The best way to prepare for reading period is to get a head start on your work rather than procrastinating? Nah.