what do you do when you feel physically drained but really need to get on with your work/studying?
So there’s two types of responses to this, and which one works depends on how long you have left on your work/studying until you can relax.
Option 1 – to be used if you have a firm deadline coming up (eg you have a test in a week, your essay is due in 4 days, those kind of times): smash through. Grab yourself some coffee or a pack of red bulls and whatever delicious snacks you like – don’t worry about health right now. Just set yourself down, caffeinate, and bust it out. Listen to some beyonce or whatever motivates you, take a break every two hours to do some star jumps, you’ve got this, last push, just knock it out.
Option 2 – there’s no end in sight, the grind is really getting you down, you’ve got a slog to get through. First, take stock and see if you can take a day or two. If there is time, it can be really restorative to just give yourself a day off to watch netflix or read for fun and do nothing important and take a break. If that’s not an option, you need to make work into a routine. Everything’s easier when you’re used to it. Make yourself get up at the same time every day, make yourself a pot of tea, get out of your house and study in a cafe or a library, bring snacks, take a 30 minute break for lunch and then a 15 minute every 2 hours, head home at around the same time every night, etc. Making your life consistent will help make work less daunting.
In terms of little breaks, I really like playing something like candy crush – I run through all my lives really quickly, and then you get a new one every 30 minutes. So it means every 30 minutes you get ~3 min break. Something like that, where it schedules in little, digestible breaks that – crucially – are really hard to cheat or spiral into longer breaks, that can help keep your brain fresh when it’s running out of steam. If your brain is totally shot, take five minutes to do something physical; walk around the building, shake out your arms, stretch in the bathroom, whatever. Just get away from your books/screens, release the tension you’re probably carrying, and let some blood flow wake you back up again. Good luck!
