I am in the process of recovering from burnout from college and my job. Over the past month, I had fallen so behind in both class-work and work-work. It was time for me to get out of the rut and take back control of my life as a working student.
If you’ve fallen behind in classes or your job, this post is for you. You’ll find ways to get out of the rut and catch up. It will be hard at first, but you will feel so much better!
Sit down and make a list
This is so important. As I was going through my day, I found that there were so many tasks flowing through my brain. Writing them down is like catching them and throwing them onto paper where they can’t move or be easily forgotten.
In order to know my most important tasks, I allowed myself to think about what I had been procrastinating on. Compare this with trying to escape with social media.
Here’s what I mean:
Accounting I is one of my classes this semester. In my previous classes online, all I had to do was read the study guides the professor gave, and write a paper with external sources. Understanding the topic with just these steps came easy to me.
I did not need to study, and I became spoiled with the amount of time I saved with this method.
However, this Accounting class has so many new concepts. It would be one thing if I could fake it. But, this is a prerequisite for more advanced Accounting classes in future semesters.
I was not understanding what I needed to know, or how to gain that knowledge easily. I realized that I needed to take the time to read the textbook, take good notes, and study.
Get started ASAP
After attending an Accounting class lecture where the professor emphasized the importance of understanding chapters 1 and 2 for future, I took the evening to pull out my dusty Samsung tablet (with the stylus).
I had to charge it up, and somehow remember my study methods that helped me ace my classes 5 years ago.
Eventually I got into the groove! Funny enough, it replenished my energy to take notes. I felt my neurons click with understanding.
Compare this to procrastination: It drains energy. Which is why it’s so bad.
I am a strong believer in energy management to survive as a working student, and for more ways to maximize your time and energy reserves, check out this post after.
Anyways, get started on what you need to do as soon as you can. There’s no point in adding yet another thing to your procrastination list. Once you see you’re making progress, you’ll find motivation to keep going.
Plus, you’ll finally know how much time it will take to complete that assignment!
Get up earlier
As I was (and still kind of am) recovering from burnout, I had built habits of waking up 10 minutes before I had to leave for work.
My life was basically waking up, going to work, coming home, and doing whatever I could fit at the end of the day. As a result, this made me feel like I had lost control, and life was dragging me along.
Getting started on my accounting studying the night before gave me a cliffhanger. I was ready to learn more about the topic and keep progressing in the textbook.
I believe that was one of the reasons I had a teeny bit of a drive to wake up so early.
It was so hard on day 1, but I got up at 5:30am (My alarm was set for 5). I was so proud of myself, and I felt that I had power to conquer the day since I had accomplished something this difficult.
Just take the plunge and set an alarm for 1-2 hours earlier than when you get up. The kicker is that you actually have to get up. Even if you sit around for a half-hour, half-asleep, you can count that towards yourself as an accomplishment.
Romanticize the catch-up process
My husband is incredible…he had hot coffee waiting for me and the room heat blasting when I woke up. My thing is, if I’m forcing myself to get up this early, being awake needs to be a pleasant experience.
For you this could be having a comfortable temperature when you wake up, wearing your favorite fluffy socks, hot coffee or tea, a comfortable chair, or a nice candle.
In other words, whatever brings you joy.
Make note taking fun
I used to be totally against making pretty notes because I thought it was a waste of time and I didn’t learn anything. But, my mind has been changed.
Using Samsung Notes on my tablet allows me to make notes pretty and fast. (Not an ad, I promise…it’s just that good).
I change the paper background color, use some kind of fountain pen preset that makes my handwriting look incredible. Plus, I’m able to fix mistakes easily. Even more, I can print my notes if I need to.
The best part is, it’s fun to learn and catch up to where I need to be in my classes. Romanticizing my note taking process has oddly made this enjoyable.
If you don’t have a tablet, you can most definitely use a notebook and paper. I strongly recommend manually writing out your notes, though, since it helps you to connect the dots and remember key takeaways better.
The key is to not make the artsy part so complicated (if you take those kinds of notes). The main thing is to make it fun to learn.
Return to your planner or bullet journal
Back in the day, I had a simple bullet journal with my to-dos and journal entries for the day. I had gotten away from writing down my tasks over the past few months.
Yesterday, I wrote down what I ideally wanted to complete for the day. I did not get to everything, however, I know I still accomplished a lot.
Going back to my bullet journal also gave me an excuse to buy some more gel pens haha.
Set goals on what I need to complete and when it needs to be done
This one was huge. At the bottom left of my bullet journal, I put a box of what exactly I needed to catch up on this semester. I knew I needed to have it completed by next Friday so that I could be caught up for the next unit.
Since I got started on catching up on my Accounting class the same night that I realized I had the problem, I was able to come up with a little formula on my note-taking speed.
I could take notes on roughly 10 pages in an hour.
That meant I could estimate how long it would take me to complete one chapter. Chapter 1 has 40 pages, so it would ideally take 4 days if I did 10 pages a day…and I’d still have some time to get through chapter 2.
The key with goal estimation is to not focus on the future. Just focus on chipping away at what you can do now in order to accomplish the goal.
Chip away
You can do all the planning and all the goal setting in the world. It’s useless if you don’t actually do the plans.
If you struggle with keeping commitments to yourself, it’s important to start small. Say that you will take notes on 1 textbook page rather than 10. And do it. This will build confidence in yourself that you’ll do what you say you’ll do.
Chipping away is like what the term suggests: Keep chiseling the rock (whatever you need to get done) until it’s done.
Chipped away to catch up on my job
My rut was so bad, I was barely hanging on at my full-time job, not just college.
There were so many unread emails in my inbox from weeks ago because I just had no energy or desire to work on them.
I was somehow barely getting by without catching up. This was fine, except my mind in the background would be freaking out because I was procrastinating. I also felt so disorganized.
What I had to do was set a small goal: I’ll resolve the emails from last Thursday.
And I did it. Then I had more confidence to start on Friday’s emails. And I kept doing that over the course of the week. Yesterday, I resolved all of my emails just by chipping away.
And, by the end, it was so much easier than I thought.
Conclusion
If you’re feeling behind in your job duties or classwork, the important thing to remember is that you’ll have to force yourself to do the hard stuff. For me this is especially true when recovering from burnout. However, once you get started, I promise, it gets so much easier.
For some reason, our brains like to make little things sound big, which is why I like to tackle my problems head on. This allows me to see the true magnitude of the issue, and I can figure out how to resolve it.
My mind shuts up after it sees that I can totally accomplish it.
Just do what you can, and manage your energy so that you have the capacity to work on what you need to do. I think the act of taking back control of my life has helped me re-discover motivation. I’m sure it will help you as well.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope it helped you! Check out this post to see how you can stay motivated in online classes .
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