Best case scenario:
Finals week has always been a time of duality for me: One half feels totally worn out from all of the arduous work the prior ten weeks, while the the other prevails a beacon of hope that earnestly tries to motion me toward finishing strong. Both sides play ping-pong in my mind, making it hard to capitalize on what I should actually be doing — studying. But when my resolve to do well supersedes my laziness, I tend to do much better on my exams.
Isolation has always been key to ensuring I maintain focus. I have the attention span of a squirrel, so detaching myself from my worldly possessions and going to a place that has a “studious” ambiance always helps. For instance, going to Starbucks and seeing everyone else studying their hearts out motivates me to do the same. It reminds me that there’s a bulk of my peers who spend countless hours studying to ensure they get a grade that’s satisfactory to them. And when I see such dedication, something innate in me follows that same course of action. But instead of studying for hours on end, I usually study for a few hours, never more than three at a time.
Absorbing modest amounts of information is always more useful than massive information dumps on an already tired brain. Keeping the mantra, “slow and steady wins the race,” closely nestled in my mind gives me some assurance to maintain my own status quo.
Worst case scenario:
Netflix and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp end up consuming my life to the point where I forsake studying until the last day of each of my exams. This is quite possible since I’m currently binging quite a few shows, while Animal Crossing is simply addictive.
There’s this inherent desire to wait until I feel desperate enough so that when I eventually do study, I take a very surface level approach that accounts for the little time I have. Although, I’ve found that this method hardly works when trying to earn a score remotely better than decent. Cramming can work, but it’s not wise and definitely not for everyone.
I hope for my sake that my laziness does not get the best of me. But it’s December, and my default mood as of now is laying in bed and listening to both of Mariah Carey’s Christmas albums on loop. With that unshakable fact in mind, I may be in trouble.
