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How to Hopefully Avoid Burnout 101

There’s a project due Wednesday. Then a paper due the next day. And of course you should have already started studying for your midterm on Friday. College and grades are important. But mental health should be your higher priority. With all the deadlines on top of midterms, the amount of stress you feel can be overwhelming to the point of suffocation. It may sound counterintuitive, but it is important to spend a few moments away from studying and homework in order to practice self care.

Everyone has their own methods to de-stress. But I would start with making sure you complete a few simple tasks, such as drinking enough water and getting enough hours of sleep, which can really make a difference in your state of mind. For me personally, when the weight of midterms gets too overbearing I spend time with my family or I exercise. I usually do mud masks with my sister or I will babysit my two month old cousin for a few hours. Getting some fresh air by taking a 30 to 45 minute walk outside also clears my mind. Even before I take a midterm or a final I will walk a couple miles- just circling around Aldrich Park- to burn off any nervous energy. 

Stress is a normal aspect of life. In small amounts, it is just an indicator that you care about something. But like everything else in life, it needs to be taken in moderation. The most important part is that you should occasionally to take a step back and take a breath. Find a balance between studying hard and making time for the activities you enjoy. Go to dinner with a friend. Play video games. Do a face mask. Make your mental health just a high priority as college is. 

 

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How to not be a Zombie in college

At some point, stress will get to you. At some point in college, you will feel overwhelmed. Even if you never really had too much stress in high school, college is different. So how to counterattack stress? It’s called self-care. Throughout college, I heard may students and adults how they never focused on self-care, and how it negatively impacted their life in general. So trust me, focus on self-care as much as you can in college and start early like me.

So even if you heed my advice, what is self-care? Self-care is more than just showering or brushing your teeth. It’s taking care of yourself mentally. How? Each person has their own ways to deal with stress, but here are some things I do:

If it’s something small or minor, I generally push through it and move on. Delaying it too much would not only grow my anxiety but waste my precious time. But then there are day to day things, and to deal with those, I listen to music a lot, and I generally play video games. The game I currently play right now is Fortnite, (add me if you wanna play together). Sometimes I have those days where I feel overwhelmed with many things to do with little time. And to avoid going into my panic mode, I distract myself by watching youtube videos or talking to my friends. One of the best time to talk to my friends is via Fortnite because we can talk and play at the same time. Fortnite is more fun to play with your friends. Other times, I eat, because I generally am moodier on an empty stomach. So make sure you fill your belly. Another self-care I practice is working on my assignments late night (assuming it wasn’t done at midnight or requires logical thinking). For example, for my writing assignments, I work on them around 11 to 2 am, simply because I am too tired to fuss about the little details and my creative juices flow then. Just because of that doesn’t me you don’t sleep at all, because you should. There were times where I stayed up till 6 in the morning (on weekends) and it messed up my sleeping schedule (or circadian rhythm system). Regarding sleep, what matters is not getting that 8 hours, but it’s more about getting the consistent hours of sleep. Every now and then I sleep at 2 am and wake up at 7 and still function as if I got 10 hours of sleep. In fact, getting more hours of sleep makes me less efficient. But keep your hours consistent, that’s what’s important. Going out for a walk and working out is another great way. Making a list of things that need to be done is another good way because it helps to keep track of your priorities.

In college, at some point, you will feel overwhelmed, or stressed, or some issue you physically cannot solve, and it’s okay. It’s normal, but what is important is you take care of yourself, self-care. You may not realize the importance now, but when you have a job, responsibilities, and other activities, the self-care you practiced since the first year of college will pay off.

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Self Care for the Winter Airs

Self care is an important aspect of surviving life. And since college is just a part of your life, proper self care can be used to help you get through the tough times in college. Now, the term self care can be interpreted in many different ways. It varies from person to person. One might think exercising is a great form of self care while another might think that is hard work and determination and is no way relaxing. If you are anything like me, exercising is a special event that is reserved for special occasions, such as running with an old friend that you haven’t seen in years. My type of self care focuses mainly on indoor relaxation, either on the computer or in bed.

Video games offers a nice form of relaxation for me. Simple games like Stardew Valley offers a farm to take care of, letting me control the world and blow off steam. MMO’s like Guild Wars 2 and Black Desert Online is also fun to play casually although it can be frustrating at times. Watching anime also helps as well, but sometimes you could get too into it and binge an entire series, which isn’t too good. This form of self care allows me to take my mind off of my current problems, making it peaceful to a degree. Of course you would still need to finish whatever work is given, but a small break can help boost productivity later. This is a great way for me to mentally unwind after a long day of classes. Keeping a notebook with emotional problems help me get through emotional problems. Starting it at first is difficult, but when you look at the past situations that you have gotten through, it helps boost moral and get you through the problem.

My way to relax in between classes is to play Pokemon Go. There are many Pokestops around campus so getting into the game becomes easier. Also it can be used to familiarize yourself with the area, and even connect with other people who play. Pokemon was part of my childhood so being able to walk around and catch them whenever I want is fun and relaxing. You could also use it to pass time if you have large gaps between classes.

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And We are back for Round 2…

Just when fall quarter finished, I thought college can’t possibly get harder right? Again I was wrong. Week 1 of winter quarter just finished and I am already behind my reading and understanding of classes and content (Yikes! Help me). However, looking back at my fall quarter AFTER final grades came out, I realised I can’t repeat the same negative mistakes I made in fall in winter, otherwise the situation would not be pretty. For example: in fall quarter, besides being a Zot Blogger (it’s a great experience!), I had no other way to spend time productively besides gaming, sleeping, and studying/homework/classes. Unfortunately I never took action and I started to become less interesting compared to fall quarter. So my advice: if you find yourself having more time for other things, look for opportunities. Remember those spam emails you got from giving your email to clubs you never attended? Well now is the time to use them. Ask them if it’s not too late to join. 98% of the time it’s not too late. For my winter quarter, I am looking to some beneficial organizations to join.

Another example: I noticed I had an abundance of time (to certain extent) in fall quarter, and I never made any good use out of it, like learning something fun and useful. I realised this more towards during winter break when I saw I had absolutely (no hw, no classes, no work) during the break, and I decided to learn python. There was another reason that played part in the lesson: taking education in your own hands. I heard those words before, but I never understood what they really meant. You may think spending a mere hour every week isn’t productive to learn something new, but I was surprised. Within a couple of days I was able to knock down the basics of python and started to create programs too. My point is: use your time wisely and take education in your own hands.

Final example I promise. A little bit of history: I took freshmen edge and I saw that I always went to the TA or the professor’s office hours after every quiz or hw when I had questions. Now the example: I noticed in my fall quarter, I rarely stuck around to talk to my professors, or the TAs and never really went to their office hours. During summer I always went (keep in mind I had one class and one university study for summer) for help, which actually helped me greatly as I passed the class with an A. In fall, I had questions, ideas to talk to professors, but something pushed me back, and with that, those questions, ideas all dissolved and that quarter my grades weren’t as good. What I am saying is always go talk to professors and TAs for help of any kind. They are willing to help, plus they can help you for a letter of recommendation your senior year! This winter quarter, I will go to office hours when I need help (and trust me, I need a lot of help).

Those were some of the things I reflected upon my fall quarter and I will make changes to improve my winter quarter. Honestly, it’s going to be hard to change my negative habits, but it’s not impossible right?

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Metamorphosis

Transformation is always a cool thing to observe, but it is even better to be a part of it. Fall quarter was truly a transformation time for me as I was transforming from a high schooler into a college student. And, you know what, it was really fun!

In general, the quarter’s been great for me. I managed to receive three As and one B which I am really proud of. This is definitely a result of a great work and big effort. The only thing that I carry out of this is that since I had four letter grades and not all four of them were As, there is clearly a room for improvement. There is no doubt I would like to keep up with that result this quarter. I will do my best to achieve an even better grades.

College is not only about grades, though. It is also about social life and making new friends. Thanks to the University Studies class I have made several new friends with whom I appear to have same classes this quarter! I am happy that things worked out like that because I was kind of sad when we had our last discussion for University Studies last quarter as I really enjoyed people there. Apart from acquiring some new acquaintances, I also hanged out with my old friends a lot. This really helps sometimes, especially when you fell frustrated and tired of studies.

After a good quarter comes a good break. That is absolutely true about me. I am very thankful to my parents that I have a possibility to travel all around the world and see new wonders that our world has to offer. This time I went to Sicily. Sicily is an island on the south of Italy, which is famous for its volcano called Etna, red oranges and very good vine. I witnessed a volcano eruption in person and this is truly an amazing experience.

Overall, my time at UCI has been great so far. Of course, there are certain things that I should improve in myself in order to become a better version of myself, but I am actively working on this an really looking forward for a new challenges this quarter has to offer.