WEST LIBERTY- We have officially made it past mid-terms and are onto the end of the fall semester! These upcoming weeks in the academic calendar may seem easy at first with all of the breaks coming up and the possibility of snow days. However, a lot of students tend to get tired of going to classes and doing their work during this time and are just ready to get the semester over with, me included.

This feeling of restlessness leads to potential procrastination in your work and burnout. I wanted to dive further into what this actually was, and I came across an article from the National Library of Medicine that cites something called “End-of-semester syndrome.”

In the article, it says “we suggest that the end of the semester induces a situational prevention focus (i.e., sensitive to losses) unlike the beginning of the semester, which may induce a situational promotion focus (i.e., sensitive to gains).” This essentially means that during the beginning of the semester, you are more motivated because there is more focus on your classes vs. the end of the semester, where you become less motivated because you aren’t as focused on classes and want to be finished with them.

So how do you fix this? Well ,here are my three tips that aren’t entirely scientifically-based (but still work) on how to lock-in during this restless time:

• First, you need to focus on the “now” part of the semester and not all of those glorious breaks that are coming up soon. Take more time than ever to sit down and study.
• Second, if you’re feeling that “End-of-semester syndrome,” what I find helpful is setting times to actually finish my work early in the day so that later in the day, I can relax and not have to worry about my academics.
• Finally, be proud that you have made it this far into the semester and realize that if you can do this half, there is a good chance you can do the second.