Combating senior burnout early

Senior year in college is a bustling time for every student in this category. Internships, final portfolios, entrance exams and thinking about life after college. And don’t even get me started on cap and gown pictures (why are they so expensive??). All of this comes with the cost of heavy anxieties for both the present and future endeavors. 

Taking into consideration that we have been in school for upwards of 16 or so years now takes a toll on one’s mental capabilities, especially when the finish line is in sight.

As a senior at the University of Kentucky, going into my final semester (ever) is daunting. Of course, I have the typical stressors of finding a job and deciding where I want to be in a year or two or three, but on top of that I am thinking about how I will get through the next week. In typical college fashion, I work a part-time job, I’m a full-time student, and I have an internship that I have to dedicate 10-15 hours of my time to every week. This doesn’t include time dedicated to outside activities, such as writing for the KRNL blog or creating content for their social media or seeing my friends and loved ones. I constantly feel like not only am I struggling to keep up the motivation to finish out my college experience strong, but also maintain all of these other parts of my life. Am I wasting my youth by not going out every week? Am I losing out on forever friendships because I don’t have the money for a sorority or the time for other extracurriculars? Do I risk my already low motivation for school on these activities? It’s a double-edged sword sometimes.

All this being said, there are ways to try and reduce the looming presence of burnout before it fully sinks in. 

If you are one of those people who works well with setting structure, I recommend giving yourself “business hours” and mini-due dates – instead of feeling like you have to be doing something school-related between every break, give yourself a set time to work on homework and whatnot. For example, if you don’t work on Tuesdays, pencil in time either after class or block off a “9-5” period on that day. Giving myself mini-due dates has also helped me structurally, as telling myself I have to have a set number of things done by a date that’s not the actual due date helps me plan ahead.

Reward systems can also be beneficial. If you are bad at procrastinating because you constantly get stuck in the cycle of scrolling on social media instead of doing homework, see if you can set goals for yourself. Once I’ve completed 2 assignments or 30 minutes of studying, I can have 10 minutes of TikTok time. Sometimes it can be difficult to stop the distraction once you’ve started, but having those vices be used as an incentive can help train your brain to view these tasks as helpful instead of dreadful.

Ultimately, there are a wide variety of ways you can attempt in order to get yourself on the right track and not feel the weight of everything at once, but most importantly you should find methods that fit your lifestyle and don’t overwhelm your mental health. Looking at the tasks that cause you to be overwhelmingly burnt out from a wider view helps put everything into perspective, too. Doing what you can either before the semester starts or at the beginning is the best thing you can do to set yourself up for success.