Scientists have pointed out that it would take no fewer than 28 days to form good habits. It would need a lot of strong motivations and determination for you to form good habits as well. While it takes a lot of time and effort to form good habits, it is even easier to get rid of them.
I have seen many people following strict routines and schedules when they are working or studying. However, when they come back from a long break, they find it super hard to get back to the school mode momentum.
Still, there are a lot of things that you can do to help you quickly recover from a long break and get your mood as well as your study momentum back on track. Take a look at the article below for 4 steps you should do to stay motivated and be more ready for the next term time after your holiday.
1. Keep Up With The Good Habits
The first thing that you should remember when you have a term break is that you should always maintain your good habits, even when you are on your extended break.
For example, if you often exercise, go to the gym or go running every day during term time, keep it up. You don’t have to spend the same amount of time, but at least take a little bit of time to do it. In your term time, you might go to the gym every day for 1 hour. When you take your long break, you can exercise for about 30 minutes every other day. It is important to get your body moving!!!
During your break, remember to maintain a healthy diet as always. Eat right, drink a lot of water and avoid stimulants such as caffeine and energy drinks. This will prevent gaining a lot of weights, which will then be more difficult for you to stay fit and healthy once your semester begins.
2. Go Back To Work And Study Gradually
When you get back to work or study, it will be overwhelming that you go back to the normal pace. In some cases, I have seen many people throw themselves in double time and that does them no good at all. Huge workload will discourage you from being fully focused. In addition, you will surely feel tired both physically and mentally.
Therefore, you don’t need to get back on track with the full speed. Just take everything slowly at first. Taking regular breaks during your study sessions and spending some time organizing your working and studying station are two things you can do to gradually get back to your duty.
It is also worth noting that you should get back to your normal routine, or readjust your routine a few days before you start your term. It will help you and your body to gradually get used to the new routine that you have set.
Keep in mind that in case you start reading books and notes from your lectures from the first days; you don’t have to rush in later and have to deal with a huge amount of reading and studying before the exam.
3. Have Some Goals
After the break, it is important for you to think about what you want to achieve in the next semester. Think about what you like to do and what results you can get if you start working and studying. This will surely help you to be more motivated, more focused and more willing to start the new term.
Write the goals that you want to achieve onto a paper and stick it to the wall where you can easily see it every day. It will help to remind you about your goals in order to keep you stay focused and motivated.
When you plan for your goals for the next semester, keep in mind that you certainly don’t have enough time and effort to do everything that you like. There are some things that are more urgent and more important for you at the moment. Therefore, prioritise your goals and list out what goals that you need to accomplish first.
4. Establish A Routine Again
Make sure that you establish a routine again. It could be the routine that you used to follow before the break. Or it could be the new routine that suits your timetable and your work now.
There are a few things that you need to remember before you have a new routine for your next term time:
- Make sure that you balance your time between studying and working. Plan a certain amount of time per day for exercising and rewarding yourself as well.
- No matter what you plan to do, always stick to your routine. It will be easier for you to follow your new routine if you go with it day by day.
- Fight against procrastination. It is one of the hardest things that you need to get through in order to get back on track quickly. Think about deadlines and the consequences if you continue to procrastinate will surely help you to start doing things that you need to do.
Forming a good habit is not an easy thing to do. And gaining back a good habit proves to be even more difficult. After you get back from an extended break, you will realize how hard it is to get back on track. However, if you try to keep up with the good habits while you are on break, try to go back to work and study gradually as well as establishing a routine and new goals, you will find it easier.
I hope with all of the suggestions above, you will enjoy your break and then be able to focus on your study and work after that in a short amount of time.