You started studying with all energy and motivation for your exams. You planned everything and were all geared up to make it happen this time.
Let me ask you - How are things going for you?
There's a good chance that your answer is: 'Not great.'
As soon as you started working - it all went off pretty quick.
Unfinished to-dos have piled up. Your focus feels lost. Goals that just a month ago seemed easy, now seem insurmountable.
You feel like you need a one more chance to make it right. You're right, you need one.
You need a reset day.
What is a reset day?
Sometimes howsoever hard you may try, everything falls out of the road anyway. You are not able to concentrate on your studies, not able to make it up to scheduled plans or revise the whole syllabus on time. It happens with all of us.
Enter the reset day.
A reset day is a weekday that you take off from studies and work, dedicated to getting your life in order. Yes, you'll have to take a day to fully implement it.
It might seem like a short-term loss, but the improvements it will make to your life will create a long-term gain.
It gives you a clean slate upon which you can start your new goals; it completely wipes your mind of all the distracted thoughts made by unfinished to-dos, and useless distractions.
Below I share some of the things that you should do on your reset day.
Clean your Room:
Jordan Peterson says cleaning your room and making your bed can be the first step to get the rest of your life in order.
Your environment matters a lot - At least when you're trying to study and focus on your studies. When it's chaotic and messy, so are your thoughts. Once you organize the space you stand in, then you'll be in a position to sort out everything else.
Here's a good minimum that you can aim for:
- Clean all your books and notebooks from your study books
- Rearrange all your books in their right order on the bookshelf
- Fold any clean, but unfolded clothes and put away
- Make your bed
- Take out trash if it's full
- Clean any areas of the room with visible dust
- Sort through stacks of loose papers
Do a Brain Dump:
Sometimes we get off track with our plans because we have so many 'open loops.' These are unfinished tasks or adamant questions that trouble our minds each day.
While you're studying Taxation for Final Examinations, you start thinking about the Interesting Movie that you have to watch after your exams. Ten minutes later, you're making plans for your own action movie.
Take a notebook and think about all the areas of life - work, studies, entertainment, relationship, friends etc. and what tasks need to be done in each of them.
Make a list of those ideas.
Also, make a list of subjects that you feel you're lacking behind in. List of topics that you feel you need to revise before exams.
Prioritize the To-Dos:
The next thing that we need to do is Prioritize the above to do in a manner that the most important of the all the tasks gets done at first.
Start with the subjects - you're weakest at.
If there are things that need to be urgently at any cost - like filling your exam form etc. do it now.
Make Long-Term Plans:
Now that your mind is unburdened from those troublesome little things, you're in a much better mood to review your long term goals.
If you don't have any big macro goals, use this hour to establish some.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- How is my progress on this goal?
- When my revision of all subjects will be completed?
- When I'll start attempting my mock tests for exams?
Change of Routine:
One of the biggest reasons that you need this reset day, was any one of your routine habits or tasks. It was the culprit of this situation.
One of the biggest factors in life feeling lost, restless, and unproductive is not having a set daily routine.
I wish this wasn't true; I wish you could just do what you wanted, when you wanted, and feel great. But, it isn't the case here. You need to have a set routine at any cost. So if you haven't set a daily schedule for yourself yet, now's the time to do it.
Concentrate on the parts of your day that you have full control over - Your Morning and Late Evenings.
Start early at around 5:30-6:00 and complete most of the study plan by the 9-10 in the morning.
If you already have a routine, but it doesn't seem to be working for you, it may be that your routine no longer meshes with your reality, and the way your schedule and responsibilities have shifted over time. Despite these changes, you keep trying to fit your old routine into your new life, and that's a recipe for frustration.
Tie up any Loose Ends:
If there's anything left important that you have left undone. Do that. It's your reset day, don't leave anything on tomorrow. Now's your chance to tie-up those loose ends.
The Next Day - Hit the ground running
When your house in order, you're ready to take on the world.
The decks are clear. A foundation for future has been set. Use the you built up during your reset day to crush goals.
You got this.
If I have missed out anything important - Please share it in the comments below.
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