Have a Relaxing Yet Productive Winter Break

According to the New York Times article Relax! You’ll Be More Productive, “the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less.” That is why, this winter, I plan to have a relaxing, yet hopefully productive, break from classes.

During the semester, so much to do in so little time often leads to sleep deprivation, an all-too-common condition among college students. The NYT article cited Stanford researcher Cheri D. Mah, who found that when she had men basketball players sleep ten hours a night, their performance improved dramatically: “free-throw and three-point shooting each increased by an average of 9 percent.” Well, I am by nature a person who needs my ‘beauty’ sleep, so over the next few weeks, I will unabashedly catching up on the dozens of hours of sleep I lost during the semester, replicating Dr. Mah’s 10-hour per night “sleep therapy” technique in order to become  a more efficient person.

Additionally, I have been making attempts to land a seasonal job at the mall and will probably need to hit the pavement since I missed the normal interview season, which is usually before Black Friday. Many of my friends have said they will be working again over the break as well. We all can use some extra spending money. Committing to a job will also keep us from staying in bed all day and watching the same Gossip Girl episodes for the tenth time, which I wouldn’t mind, but that probably isn’t the best way to spend my time.

On those occasions when I happen to be feeling extra-motivated, I may get a head start on next semester’s readings. One of my friends, who is a biology major,told me thatthey will use the same textbook for the entire year, thus reading ahead will lighten her workload next semester. Likewise, it would certainly be a smart strategic move for me to jump the gun on my Honors books,a painless way to avoid becoming overwhelmed once classes begin again in January.

 

 

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