For some of us, finals are coming. For others, they’ve arrived and we’re struggling. There’s about two weeks of school left, and time management is going to be vital for maintaining our mental health in the upcoming weeks.
This time of the semester is infamous for its packed tests, papers and final projects as well as keeping up with other assignments and our stress levels along the way. It can feel like there’s never-ending work and not enough time to get to everything. But there are ways and resources to manage your time and schoolwork along with your mental health.
Our UT community has lots of resources designed to help students through periods when we’re stressed and busy. The Counseling and Mental Health Center offers classes students can sign up for that address a variety of topics, such as stress. There are also short-term individual counseling sessions available where students can discuss their issues and talk through how to work toward their goals.
CMHC also has Stress Recess, a website designed to address a variety of issues one might be going through and tips to deal with stress. It has modules to help with different ways of thinking and prioritizing work, along with a page of links to more resources that might be helpful. Students should also take advantage of the CMHC’s regular website to explore all the potential options available to them.
One of the major sources of stress is inadequate time management skills, which can come from both overcommitment or poor planning and execution. Trying to do everything at once will often result in burning out or not finishing what you needed to get done. It’s important to prioritize work in order of what needs to be turned in first and tackle assignments one at a time until you’ve accomplished what you’ve set out to do.
Maintaining motivation can be one of the most challenging aspects of accomplishing our goals. It’s easy to get bursts of motivation, but one can burn out and suddenly not feel like doing any more work. As students, we need to learn to use motivation as a resource but also learn to be disciplined. When we control our own behavior and set out to do something, regardless of whether or not we feel motivated to, we can accomplish a lot.
The most important thing to remember is that everyone is different. We all have our own ways of managing time, stress and schoolwork that best suit us. Using the resources available to us, such as what the CMHC has to offer, will help us find what works for us. Maintaining our time and stress well is just as important as schoolwork. If we do that, we will get through these next few weeks of the semester, and ace those finals.
Rose is an English sophomore from The Woodlands.
