“In The Cart”: Coping With End-of-Semester Stress
(Written by Luke Wink-Moran. Photo Credit: energepic.com)
“En Charette” is a French phrase coined by architecture students at the École de Beaux-Arts. It means “in the cart” and refers to the stress of putting finishing touches on architecture projects as the cart to collect them rolled past students’ work stations. As the final few weeks of the semester roll towards us—packed with deadlines, exams, and end-of-semester pressures—it’s not unusual for graduate students to feel like we’re “in the cart.”
But there are ways to avoid being completely overwhelmed. This article outlines strategies and perspectives that graduate students might find helpful as they finish their final assignments before the holiday break. Included are tips and practices that both faculty and students have found helpful during their academic careers.
“When I was a graduate student,” said Dr. Amanda Wilson, a University Fellow and a former doctoral student in environmental health sciences, “the last few weeks of the semester often felt like I was running towards a mirage finish line. Once I was in the heavy research phase of my graduate studies and was done with classes, the end of the semester often felt alienating, like an episode of the Twilight Zone.”
Dr. Wilson, now an Assistant Professor in environmental health sciences, discovered several strategies to finish the semester strong. As an undergraduate, she would deny herself Chick-fil-A until the end of the semester—so that she had something to look forward to when her finals were over. During graduate school, her rewards focused more on self-care, like “disconnecting from email for a while, listening to music and watching the trees rustle in my backyard, starting a new art project, or simply catching up on sleep.”
She also found that it helped to get started early—to plan out how and when to tackle big projects.
Dr. Jenny Hoit, creator of the graduate course, “Survival Skills and Ethics,” shared some detailed strategies on exactly how to tackle numerous projects. First, she recommended that students “identify inefficient uses of time and do something about them! Then, figure out when and where you’re at your most productive; it could be early morning, late at night, or in specific places that make you feel at your best. Once you’ve eliminated distractions and decided where you want to work, rank the items on your to-do list in order of priority from A-level (top priority) to C-level (low priority.)”
“Then – and here is the critical part – be sure to do your A-level tasks when and where you feel at the top of your game. For some people, that may be early in the morning at a coffee shop; for others, it may be late at night at home. And be sure you are making progress on your A-level tasks every day! Save the C-level (easy, mindless) tasks for when you’re tired or distracted.”
According to Dr. Hoit, most of us tend to check off our C-level tasks first, which leaves the more stressful, A-level tasks incomplete and liable to cause us more anxiety. By taking care of your A-level tasks first, you’ll reduce stress in your life, and the work you produce will probably be of a higher quality. “When you finish something, your stress automatically lowers because you no longer have it on your to-do list.” And once your most stressful tasks are out of the way, you’ll be able to focus on your B and C-level tasks more fully.
While it may seem like there’s always another deadline, that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the progress you’ve made in your work so far.
“I’ve recently tried not only to celebrate the little wins but also to really focus on the bigger picture,” said Dr. Wilson. “No matter how this semester went, what’s the big picture? Where am I going? What is all of this effort for? Even writing it down on a piece of paper and revisiting it will help get you through the vicissitudes of grad school and beyond, because even beyond the graduate degree, there will be more projects, more deadlines, that hopefully are all part of a pursuit of something greater.”