This is the seventh blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow three real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Halfway though the semester we will stage a study habits intervention to overhaul their student experience. Click here for the full series archive.
A Time for Celebration, Not So Much for Work…
As for last week, it was hectic. My birthday was on the 9th. I had it setup so that Saturday was empty and I could get some hardcore studying done (my friends demanded a party on Sunday.) Instead, it turned out my family had planned a huge surprise for me — my mom flew out from California and arrived Saturday morning. I ended up hanging out with her all of Saturday and most of Sunday. Sunday evening I came home with every intention to work, but my friends had baked me a really awesome cake and we had an impromptu dance party.
Then Reality Sets In…
I didn’t really get any work done over that weekend. This proved to be unfortunate. I had a lot of work to do and it seemed so overwhelming that I started skimping on sleep. Soon I was in the classic sleep deprivation cycle — you’re tired, so you’re stupider and take longer to finish your work, so you wind up even more sleep deprived the next day, and so on.
Once Nyquil Enters the Scene, Things Can Only Go Downhill…
I tend to oversleep, so towards the end of the week I started missing class. I was so tired and felt so overwhelmed, that I ended up procrastinating all day and only working super late at night. This went on until Friday, when I fell sick and then started sleeping constantly. I discovered Nyquil, and ended up being concious for only about 10 hours that weekend.
Today, I woke up and basically feel well enough that I think that the rest of the cold should be gone in maybe 2 days and I can get back to my normal life. This is good because this week is sort of brutal — I have to start producing things at my new UROP [ed: undergraduate research internship] and I haven’t even learned C++ yet. I also have 3 psets and a research project proposal due.
Lessons Learned…
In summary, what I learned over the last week: I can’t skimp on sleep. Studying in my room is not effective; people keep wanting to talk or get medicine [ed: everybody loves Nyquil] from me. I have to eat right and excercise. (I actually started taking pilates and yoga and excercising in the morning with my friend last week). And, attend all of my classes! Which should be facilitated by going to bed on time.
A Brave Concession…
And yes, I will even attend probability lecture, which, for all intensive purposes, seems completely worthless.
Your link for the full series archive is giving a 404.