Avoid spending your holiday stressing over school….

December, oh lovely month. Im so excited about christmas. Aren’t you? The atmosphere is changing, candles are burning, the smell of cinnamon and gingerbread cookies make an entrance in our everyday lives. I do not want these wonderful things to end up in stress -“JULSTRESS”.

The thought of vacation is so appealing. Christmas gifts, decorations in our home, baking “lussebulla and pepparkakor”…. The every day routines are loosing track and at this time the procrastinating behavior easily occurs “don’t worry about school, I´ll have time for that later”. I am right there, on the edge balancing.. I go to class but my mind is set after class when I can go home and work on my christmas spirit.

I don’t want to end up ruining my christmas break and spend all that my time off studying for the exams in January. More easily said than done… Therefore i need to take action. So what to do? -A checklist of course!  Bring up a word document and start…

School checklist

• Overview what is included in the course, thereby know what you need to learn before the exam.
• Write down all deadlines and make a plan on how much time you need to spend on each task per day.
• Plan how much you want to have read before your christmas holiday and put a finished by date. Again, plan how much time you need to spend on your reading/day.

Christmas holidays checklist 

• Plan what days you want to have 100% off. Have those days as your motivation to avoid stressing about all studying you should be doing, all the pages you should have read and all the task you should have finished.
• Make a plan for presents. Who to buy presents for and what you want to give. First of all, don’t forget to add a budget! Second of all, don’t forget it is the thought that counts!
• Plan what weekend/day you will go hunting for these presents.
• Book your trip home.

The hard work from now on is to actually stick to the plan. See it from the bright side. When you have ticked off the boxes that was needed to be finished that day you can relax and spend the time you have left on whatever you feel like! :)

Conclusion: There is time to work on your christmas spirit and still have time for studies! 

Make your holiday a time for recovery, a time for family and joy. PLAN to avoid our first world luxury problem; feeling stressed over christmas.

/Ellen