Winter break on the semester system is SO LONG! I love it, but it’s easy to let it get away from you which is why this break I made a plan to have a balanced vacation and decided to share 4 easy steps you can take to both keep the balance and be relaxed.
Step 1: PLAN AHEAD I made a list of things I wanted to do this break which included: prep for next semester, establish a gym routine, watch all the christmas movies & catch up on shows, and have quality time with friends and family which included a few staycations.
Step 2: Quality Time I organized what I wanted to do at which parts of break. For the first 3 weeks I did a lot of TV watching, reading, and hanging out with my friends and family. For me it was important to focus on just relaxing and spending quality time with people during the holiday season. -I would not have gotten much work done anyway because there were too many good things on TV 🙂
Step 3: School Prep My goal was to not do too much work over break, so first I decided how much prep I would realistically do over break. Winter break is just that-A BREAK! I did not want to spend the entire time reading and working on school stuff, I have all semester for that. My main academic focus this break was to review a class I hadn’t taken since undergrad before I take the next level course in a couple of weeks. So far this is going well and it worked out logistically because I took enough time after finals to not feel burnt out when I started on this. Again, WE ARE ON A BREAK (IYKYK)
Step 4: Life Prep It just so happens that spring semester aligns with the start of the new year which made for a great reset. I still have a few days left until the semester starts (I know, my Winter Break is ages long). I’ve set my intentions for the new year and semester. I’ve been using these two weeks to solidify my gym schedule for the rest of break & the semester (because I will get stir crazy from all of the sitting otherwise), started planning my course due dates, worked on some vacation plans, and organized my book club for 2020.
In the end it really is a lot about balance. I wanted to make sure I made the most of my winter break this year and didn’t fuse with my Netflix account. Separating the break into parts has worked really well for me and will definitely be something I incorporate again next year.
Happy Winter!
Until next time
-T