Reading week is here. How can you make this week one that not only lets you enjoy some well-deserved rest, but also a week that sets you up to finish the second half of the fall term, strong and healthy? Let’s take a look at some areas you can focus on over the week.
Take care of your physical health
Caring for our bodies becomes an afterthought when we’re spending every waking moment attending lectures and cramming for midterms worth 30 per cent of our final grade. With reading week here, it’s the ideal time to invest in your physical health. Remember, if you’re not healthy or become ill, you won’t be able to perform your best academically.
The PAC gym will be closed on Sunday and Thanksgiving day, with regular hours resuming on Tuesday, Oct. 14. If you’re not a fan of the gym or won’t be in Waterloo, consider heading outdoors for a daily walk and enjoying the autumn weather. At-home workout videos, or yoga channels, like my favourite Yoga with Adriene, can be excellent ways to move your body mindfully over the week. Another key aspect of our physical health is diet. If you’ve been living off noodles and chips while grinding to get through midterms, consider testing out easy, healthy recipes over the week you could continue making over the term (like this one from our June issue).
Catching up on coursework (or working ahead!)
Have you fallen behind on a course? Maybe it’s a paper you should have begun drafting a week ago or an online course where you got busy and missed some online lectures. Reading week is the time to catch up on courses or assignments you’ve put off. If getting started is tough, experiment with new study techniques. The Pomodoro technique can boost your productivity: you’ll work in 25-minute increments, then take a short break before the next work block. Sipping a warm cup of tea (or perhaps seasonal apple cider), or listening to classical music (consider checking out the Piano Guys, another favourite of mine) can be effective means of making work sessions cozier, and more motivating.
If you’re not falling behind on any courses, you can make your life easier post-reading week by getting started on lengthy or tough assignments ahead of time, especially if you have an idea of what they look like. Sometimes, drafting an outline for a major paper or making flashcards early can make your life significantly less stressful when you get back to the grind.
Set meaningful goals
It can be as simple as aiming to eat two extra servings of fruits and vegetables a day or as specific as aiming for a certain grade in a course. The aim here is to set specific, measurable, achievable realistic, and timely (SMART) goals that can give you a little added motivation and purpose heading into the term’s final stretch.
Writing down goals can also help you achieve them, according to this article by Forbes. When we create a mental image of our goal and then write it down, we activate what neuropsychologists coin the “generation effect”, in which the brain develops better memory for self-generated material than something you simply read. The cognitive processing that occurs while writing your goals activates your mental vision of the goal and solidifies its importance. Posting those written goals somewhere visible can ensure you’re reminded of what you’re striving towards.
