What are your secret survival strategies?

Outside of, you know, breathing and eating food, I survive by taking breaks. I’ll start something, get tired of it, go do something else, then come back to that original thing. It keeps me sane. Even just now, I wrote the first half of the introduction sentence, went and tried out some other prompts, and now I’m back here continuing this prompt. If I hadn’t done so, I would be sitting here frustrated with a blank page. But since I did, I now know what to write about and this essay is taking shape.

Breaks are great. They keep you from burning out. Rather than going nonstop on your project and working when not motivated to, breaks give you freedom. They’re a time to stretch and think about something else. When you come back, you’ll be energized and ready to be productive.

The main experiences coming to mind are the breaks we take in the middle of our block class periods. I find these moments to be amazing. After listening to a long lecture, working diligently on an assignment, or taking a test, leaving the room to walk around is refreshing. Physically too, my legs get restless and my mind starts to wander. Breaks just make sense. Why be forced to work if the work you’re doing isn’t even quality? I would much rather do something slowly but have a good end-result rather than quickly finishing something but ending up with trash.

However, sometimes breaks can become too much. If all you do is break, when will you run? Wow, I just made an exercising analogy. Anyway, I remember one Sunday in 4th grade when I basically took a mini-vacation the day before a big book project was due. I was less than halfway done with it, but I thought that spending the whole day at my friend’s house was a great idea! I slept over the night before, and for the whole day, we played and had fun. We went swimming and even went out for dinner. The whole time I was thinking about needing to finish the project, but I kept telling myself that I have plenty of time. It’s 1 pm now? Just one more hour and then I’ll go home and finish it. That one hour got pushed back all the way to 8 pm. I freaked out. How would I finish by my bedtime of 8:30?

Let me tell you a secret: I didn’t finish by 8:30. I vividly recall seeing the huge numbers on my laptop reading “9:50 PM.” I stayed up late on a school night, something that was unthinkable for my 9-year-old self. But I finished it. Yay. I remember feeling so tired after finishing. Weirdly, I became more restless after taking a huge ‘break’ from working. I couldn’t wait for me to be done and go to sleep. I remember my final result not even being that good. But I didn’t care. I was done and that was it.

Looking back, I realize this wasn’t that big of a deal. I now laugh at thinking 9:50 was late. Still, since that day, I haven’t left anything until the night before. I try to get most of an assignment done earlier and leave final touches for the night before. Don’t get me wrong, I still take plenty of breaks, but I try to keep them in moderation. Nothing like what happened that Sunday. The lesson to learn here is to make sure you let yourself relax, but not so much that you are left with everything last minute. Alright, well, time to go on my phone before uploading this blog!