How to: Ward Off Midterm Malaise

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But when an academically challenging degree gives you academic challenges…? No matter how transformative of a college experience you’re having, nonstop working and class-ing and extracurricular-ing will eventually drain you. Unfortunately, the draining sometimes happens during exam season. We can’t promise we’ve got you totally covered this time, but we’re definitely going to try. Here are our tips on how to ward off that midterm malaise.

Disclaimer: I am not a therapist. Malaise and burnout can be symptoms of mental/physical illness. If you believe this applies to you, please contact a medical professional ASAP. You are not alone. <3

Bribe yourself

Get yourself a smoothie because you finished that pset. Take yourself out to dinner because you finished your paper. On a hard and tiring day, promise yourself that after classes are over, you’re going to crawl into bed and watch a comedy special. Set reasonable goals and NEVER deprive yourself of nice things as self-punishment! Reward yourself for all the hard work you do!!

Delete those mindless-scrolling apps

After a few bleary days without funny TikToks or juicy AITA posts, your dopamine-desperate brain will even be excited about a pset. Yeah, maybe that’s bleak, but you gotta do what it takes.

Make pretty notes

You don’t even need to go out and buy pastel highlighters. Grab a pen and a highlighter, or Google “copy paste symbols” for free little icons to spice up your typed notes. It doesn’t need to look like the aesthetic pictures online — what matters is that you’re enjoying it. Studying is way less boring when it’s basically an art project.

Pay attention in lecture and section

This may seem painful, but trust me, you are saving yourself time later. Close your laptop and whip out a notebook if you have to. It’s okay (and normal!) to not get everything even when you’re distraction-free. It’s also okay and normal to not remember an ounce of it when assignments come around. Just do your best! Reviewing material you’ve heard before is a lot easier and quicker than learning all of it for the first time. Might as well get the learning and attendance down at the same time, and spend that saved time before your exams getting good sleep and having a nice meal or doing a face mask or something.

Study with a buddy

And by buddy, I mean a friend that looks like they have it all together. Oftentimes, their energy will rub off on you and you’ll be super productive. Also, That Friend probably doesn’t actually have it all together, so they’ll be really glad to have your company.

Get out when the sun is out

Sunshine totally changes your mood. If it’s too cold outside, make sure you study by a nice big window :)

Every night, lay out the coolest possible outfit for tomorrow

And then your alarm will ring tomorrow, and your first thought will be that this is horrible and you are exhausted and you should go back to bed. Your second thought will be, “Wait a second… Skip lecture? And let all of Chem 27 miss out on this FIT I was gonna THROW?” Then you’d have to get up and put on that outfit and go to lecture, or else you would be depriving all your classmates of the most beautiful sight they will see that day, and that would be mean.

If none of these resonated with you, that’s okay! Motivation is not one size fits all. These are the things that have helped me, and I hope they can help you too. If they didn’t, I hope you’ve at least been inspired to think about how to brighten up your day instead of just dragging yourself along. Because let’s be honest: no one knows you better than you. So no one is going to be able to treat you better than you! Let’s treat ourselves and get through this semester together.