For final year undergraduate students, that all-important (and in some cases – dreaded) dissertation deadline is just around the corner. This project will have occupied your waking thoughts for the best part of a year. By now, you are probably almost at the point of burnout. How do you juggle your academic requirements against your critical stress levels?
Take a Day Off
A change is as good as a rest and the only way you can come back to it stronger is to take a day away from the library, your room, your desk and your dissertation. The best way of dealing with fatigue is to take a break from that which is causing your fatigue. If you’ve worked long and hard on it, you can probably afford to take a day or two rest anyway. Nothing will be achieved by forcing yourself to plough on. Burnout leads to careless mistakes and missed information that could lead to dropped marks. Don’t take that risk – give yourself a break.
Digital Detox
On a similar theme to taking a day off (in fact, you should probably combine both tactics) is to keep away from your technology for a day. Your fellow students will be talking about nothing but their dissertations on social media. The university message boards will be full of academic talk. The aim here is to disconnect for a day or two to take your mind off your work and recharge. While your body will benefit from the change of physical space, for maximum benefit you also need to get your head out of the digital arena too.
Daily Mindfulness
While many people feel that mindfulness is a kooky activity along the lines of homeopathy, this is not strictly true. There are medical uses to benefit low-level mental illness such as stress. Even the NHS recommends mindfulness as a relaxation technique and you don’t need to wrap it up in pseudoscience. Mindfulness is simply being aware of the moment. Breathing exercises, taking a long walk and finding a quiet spot to experience the environment are both simple methods. Is there a quiet area on campus where you like to listen to a stream and birdsong, for example?
Set Goals and Rewards
The final stage of a dissertation is the perfect place for structuring the accomplishment-reward dynamic. It doesn’t matter how small or large the reward, it’s the process of having something to look forward to. A simple reward will do such as playing 1 hour on the console at the weekend or 1 hour in the student bar for every 1,000 words of my dissertation completed. This sort of tactic also helps to tackle procrastination, one of the major problems of getting your work done on time.