Leila Durmaz is a journalism freshman and Mustang Daily freshman columnist.
When you think about it, Thanksgiving break is such a tease.
We spend a few beautifully relaxing days at home, enjoying good — to say the least — homemade food, family and friends, and some Black Friday shopping (yes, I was one of those people).
And just when we get used to spending time at home and enjoying company, we have to leave for San Luis Obispo.
Throughout Thanksgiving break, we knew in the back of our minds that in just a few days we would need to return to our second home (is it too early to call San Luis Obispo that?) and go back to our daily routines of slowly waking up in the mornings realizing we have classes to walk or bike to.
It might just be me, but going back to the old routine of waking up early and going to classes does not sound too appealing. Especially this week.
With that said: Welcome to dead week.
The week before finals. The week the Robert E. Kennedy Library becomes our home, and the week an eerie silence falls over the campus. Dead week is the week of preparing for finals and finishing the work we all know we should have started, or finished, long ago.
I haven’t gone through dead week yet since I am just a freshman, like the majority of you who are reading this column, so I’m expecting dead week to be the week where we all turn into walking zombies due to stress and little to no sleep. This might not actually be the case, but I can already feel it happening despite it only being Monday. I’m just getting those zombie vibes, you know?
But being a zombie isn’t attractive at all, so here’s a few tips to liven yourself this week when you feel like dying.
Probably the most important thing that you need to know is where you study best and where you can keep your focus so that you don’t suddenly get an itch in your fingers that can only be cured by logging on to Facebook to check your notifications or, let’s be honest, Facebook-stalk people.
Deactivate your Facebook for the week. Stop tweeting nonstop about how stressed you are. Have your roommate hide your computer in your room somewhere to prevent you from using the computer when you don’t have to, although that might not work because it seems like everything’s done on the computer nowadays. But if you do choose to go the hiding-the-computer route, make sure your roommate knows where he or she hid the computer once the week is over.
Make a list so you can prioritize your tasks. This might seem daunting, but I personally love it because I love making lists. It’s also extremely helpful, believe it or not. This way, you won’t forget that you have that one exam to study for or that one paper that you need to finish writing by that one day.
Once you’ve done that, find the place where you study best. Whether it’s in your dorm room, the library or outside, everyone focuses and studies well in their own environment, so you have to experiment and find yours. Just because everyone else chooses to live in the library this week, doesn’t mean you have to. If you can’t study well in there, find somewhere else.
After you’ve knocked off a few things from your to-do list, take a break unless you want to go the insomniac zombie route. If you do, continue powering through your to-do list, pulling an all-nighter for maybe a few days straight and sipping on that Red Bull. Who knows, it might actually give you wings at some point.
If that doesn’t sound alluring to you, do invest in a break. Get some food with some friends or go on a run. Do whatever you want to reward yourself for the hard work you’ve done. It’s important to spend some time relaxing and unwinding from your work so you’re good to go come finals week.
So good luck with preparing for finals — I’m looking forward to not seeing any zombies wobbling around on my way to class this week.