There are only 4 days (well, more like 3 days, 22 hours and 12 minutes) until your flight takes off for Cancun. You’ve got 6 lectures and 2 discussion sections between you and the smell of SPF 30/sweet, sweet freedom, but your brain has been checked out for days.

While your professor drones on and on about about the feminist’s criticism of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” you’re having a mid-day dream about strawberry daiquiris and that adorable new tankini you just picked up at Target. Instead of taking notes in History of the Civil War, you work on your packing list, adding necessities like “dangly earrings,” “push-up bra,” and “Listerine bottle full of Absolut.” And when you should be in the library brushing up on Physics, you’re off at the campus drug store stocking up on tanning oil (and aloe for when said tanning oil inevitably fails…3 hours into the trip).

And you’re not the only one. Come on, it’s SPRING BREAK. It’s been months since your last break from school and between midterms and the gloomy, gray weeks, every student on campus has been on a mental vacation for days. And that would be fine with everyone if it weren’t for that hard ass professor who always likes to prove a point. The eternal party pooper who returns home to his 12 cats every night and can’t handle the idea of college students having fun.

The professor who interrupts you as you’re busy building the perfect Spring Break playlist during class to, what else, assign a giant reading assignment with a 3-page reaction paper due the day you return from your trip.

Awesome. Wonderful.
Thanks a lot, Sir Fun Sucker.

First you grumble. Then you bitch about it on Facebook. Then you grumble some more. Then, after someone else in your class gets an embarrassingly long lecture for having the audacity to “use Spring Break as an excuse to stop learning or forget why you’re in college in the first place,” you thank god you were too busy updating your Facebook status to raise your hand to make the exact same argument first. Then you go home, bitch about it to your friends, and spend the next 45 minutes trying to figure out a way to squeeze your stupid textbook into your suitcase that is already 6 pounds over the airline’s weight limit.

You calculate your grade in the class to see if you can skip the assignment without totally bombing the course, then curse your teacher some more when you realize you can’t. So you suck it up, throw that stupid text book into your carry-on and pray to god you have at least an hour of sober time to get the reading done before you’re forced back to reality.

—-

Yup, we’ve all been there. Unfortunately, there are disgruntled professors like this on every campus. So much for Spring “Break,” right?

So normally, I try to keep the Weekly Ten a positive place. Best kisses. Best boys. Best ways to spend your winter break. But this week, well, that’s just not happening.

I’m not sure if it’s the bad weather or the senioritis or my inability to focus on any one task for more than five minutes at a time, but I’ve been in quite the mood these past few days. And I’m taking my anger out on February, this too short, unproductive, cold, depressing, and generally annoying month.

So here’s why I am officially hating on February.

10. Groundhog Day is a bogus holiday. Yes, okay. So it’s cute to watch a little groundhog crawl out of a whole and get scared by its own shadow. But is this holiday ever actually accurate? I mean, I’m crossing my frozen fingers that this year it will be; there’s nothing I’d love more this year than an early spring….especially after Snowmaggedon 2011.

9. One month closer to midterms. What comes after February? March.  The month of midterms. The month of study sessions and papers and cramming and procrastinating.  The two week long process of trying to relearn everything you’ve already forgotten. February is cruel even as it leaves us.

8. That whole leap year thing. 28 days? 29 days? Make up your mind already! I don’t have time to deal with your identity crisis, February!

7. At the end of this month, my thesis is due.  Like due, due. It has to be done. Finished. Never to be touched by my hands again. And I’m nowhere near ready for that to happen. So for me, February is going to be thesis month, which you know, just completely sucks.

6. Valentine’s Day is horrible. For single girls, married girls, engaged girls and girls in relationships. For the couples of the world Valentine’s Day is an enormous amount of pressure. Do you do the big dinner? The night in? Do you ignore the holiday all together and hope it passes without incident? That’s probably what most single girls are going to do, because for them Valentine’s Day is just the greeting card company’s way of  saying “Sorry you don’t have anyone to buy you chocolate….so spend the next 72 hours gorging on the stuff while watching Lifetime movies and wallowing in your misery.”

5. The Wardrobe sucks. All of the stores are releasing their new spring lines. Floral dresses. Jean skirts. Espadrilles. Wedges. So many cute outfit ideas. But can we wear those outfits? Nope. We’re stuck in baggy coats and layer upon layer of clothing, rain boots and snow boats and hats and scarves that are already standing on their last leg. It was cute once upon a time, way back in December when the winter weather was just beginning, but now I’m sick of it.

4. New Year’s resolutions start to fall apart. They were going strong in January. You were hitting the gym regularly, writing down all your assignments, and totally embracing that whole new year, new you thing. But then February comes along. It’s cold. It’s depressing and it’s overwhelming. Suddenly you have more important things to focus on than your plans to never eat fried food again….like your plans to drink beer and mozzarella sticks, wings and french fries at the Super Bowl party.

3. It’s depressing. You’re upset that you can’t keep your new year’s resolutions. There are no holidays to look forward to. It’s too cold to even consider going out. So all you do is sit home watching reality TV marathons and eating your weight in cookie dough. Which you know, could be fun every once in a while but not for an entire month. And not because you have nothing better to do. February cramps my style. And that’s depressing.

2. It’s winter break month for high schools. Remember in high school, when you used to have a whole week off for President’s Day instead of just the Monday? That was so much fun, wasn’t it? No holidays to take part in. No familial obligations. Just a week home to relax and catch up on some sleep. Yeah, well now we’re in college so we don’t get that anymore. At least, not until March.

1. It’s too cold. It’s icy. It’s raining. It’s freezing. It’s slushy. And I can’t take it anymore. Since January the  temperatures have already dipped below freezing more times than I care to recall. And February will not see the end of this. No, it will see the continuation of this. A very long, very unnecessary continuation that forces me to wear puffer coats and unattractive scarfs and lined rain boots in an attempt to stay warm and dry. And I hate it.

I hate it all.
Is February over yet?

[Check out Jenn's other musings-in-the-form-of-a-list here.]

With study sessions fueled by Hot Pockets and Monster energy drinks, Thanksgiving has been the light at the end of this dark tunnel. Seeing family and friends, eating a hearty home-cooked meal, and doing absolutely nothing but sleeping and shopping for days in a row… it’s almost too good to be true.

But it’s not! It’s real. And I’m so thankful for this refreshing calm before the storm that is finals that it almost makes me want to stay home in a cranberry sauce-induced food coma forever. Because as great as college life is and as grateful as I am to be here, there are a few aspects of it that I am oh so NOT thankful for.

[Click on any image to view the gallery!]

[For this week's Body Blog, we're turning to our friend and college nutritionist Melanie Jatsek to help a reader in need. Though we're pretty sure the girl who wrote in isn't the only one with this problem....]

Dear College Candy,

Thank you so much for your topics on health and fitness. As a college student, I feel very self-conscious about my body, and it causes a great deal of self-esteem issues. Especially around midterms, eating binges for me are fairly common.  What is the best way to prevent this?  Also, I live with two boys who eat WHATEVER they want… how do I avoid eating what they eat??

Thank You,
Binging Betty

Dear Binging Betty,

When you’re tired, you sleep.  When you’re thirsty, you drink.  When you’re hungry, stressed, sad, or bored…you eat!  Get the picture?

Food is medicine for the body, but often times we eat it to self-medicate.  We aren’t self-medicating with carrots sticks either – it’s more like M&M’s, chips and ice cream.  This doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you human!  When it occurs too often, however, it can lead to food binges.  Depression, guilt, name-calling and a zap in your energy level are usually the result.

The two best ways to stop your food binge:  Plan your plate and follow the 80-20 rule.

Plan your plate:

Skipping meals and eating foods loaded with fat, salt and sugar will set you up for failure.  More recent studies have shown these types of foods to be addicting in nature.  In other words, they’re absolutely irresistible and compel you to eat more!  Think about the last time you opened up a bag of potato chips – did you eat just one or several handfuls?

If you want to put an end to your food binges, you have to start by eating three well-balanced meals and snacks throughout the day.  Visualize your plate like one of those 3-compartment Styrofoam plates you see at your family parties.  The biggest compartment is your “carbohydrates,” the medium compartment is your “proteins” and the smallest compartment is your “healthy fats.”

Carbohydrates = beans and legumes, grains, fruits, vegetables, yogurt

Proteins = beans and legumes, cheese, eggs, fish/seafood, meats/poultry, milk, protein powder, soy, yogurt

Healthy Fats = oils, nuts, seeds, nut and seed butters, avocados, olives

When planning your meals, it’s important to include all three because they each serve a purpose.  Carbohydrates give you energy, protein helps you stay alert and focused, and fat keeps you feeling satisfied after your meal so that you won’t find yourself wandering over to the fridge to see what else you can munch on.  Don’t forget to drink plenty of water throughout the day too.  Dehydration can make you feel hungry, when all you really need is a few sips of water.

An example of a well-balanced meal to keep you focused, energized and satisfied during a busy, stressful week would be:

* 3 ounces of baked chicken or salmon (protein)
* 1 cup of cooked brown rice (carbohydrate) and ½ cup of black beans (protein/carbohydrate)
* 1 cup of steamed broccoli (carbohydrate) drizzled with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing (fat) and sprinkled with a small handful of crushed peanuts or walnuts (fat)
* 16 ounces of water to drink

The 80-20 rule:

What if you’re just dying for some chocolate or potato chips? Do you ignore the craving and hope it goes away?  NO!  You make room for it.  The 80-20 rule means that 80% of the time you eat well-balanced meals and snacks and 20% of the time you have a little fun!  All foods fit in a healthy diet.  Trying to live an “all or nothing” lifestyle is the fastest way to failure.  Besides, your brain doesn’t like to be told it can’t have something.  Have you ever tried giving up your favorite “sinfully delicious” food?  You wind up obsessing over it, don’t you?  By removing the words “can’t have” from your vocabulary, you render those M&M’s powerless!

To stop you from polishing off that whole bag of chips or M&M’s, follow these two simple rules:

1. Never eat them when you’re hungry or as a snack.  This spells D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!

2. If you really have a taste for them, eat them with or directly after a well-balanced meal to weaken their addictiveness.  For example: a handful of chips with a chicken breast sandwich on whole grain bread or a small snack pack of M&M’s afterward.

You’ll find that when you build your diet around a solid base of healthy carbohydrates, proteins and fats 80% of the time, your taste buds will change a bit and you’ll slowly start to prefer more of these foods and less of the salty and sweet ones.  In other words, you lose taste for them.

If you happen to have a craving for your favorite “sinfully delicious” foods, remember there’s room for them – 20% of the time.  Don’t be surprised though if you find yourself less tempted by them.  When you start making positive changes in your eating habits you’ll begin to view food a little differently.  That once absolutely irresistible ooey gooey chocolate chip cookie will now just be…well…. a cookie.

Get more healthy tips and tricks from Melanie right here.

[Melanie Jatsek is an author, speaker and registered dietitian who teaches college students how to eat to look better, feel better, think better and stress less!  Send her an email at melanie@melaniejatsek.com or connect with her on her new Facebook page for college students: “The Healthy Campus Project.”]

The following is a guest post by our (nerdy yet totally helpful) friends at Hack College. Check ‘em out for all your techy needs. They’re like the nerdy boyfriend you never had but always needed.

When the hell did November get here? That is what I want to know. Seriously, just yesterday I was telling y’all how to prepare your brains for August and get back into the school mode. And now it’s November. How did that happen and how can I make it stop?

Well, okay, so I can’t stop the furious, oncoming train that is November. I also can’t stop December, with all of its final papers and exams and projects, from hurtling right after it. You might be thinking, “Don’t be silly. December is an entire month away! I have a whole other month before I have to start worrying about things like that. I’m not gonna worry about that ’til after Thanksgiving.”

That is where you are wrong. Let me break this down for you. Including this week, there are two more weeks until Thanksgiving. Exams start a week and a half after Thanksgiving break. Can you study for all of your exams, write multiple 15-page papers, and put together various end-of-the-semester projects in a week in a half?

Answer: no.

The solution to this post-Thanksgiving crunch is to use these two weeks that we are given to start planning ahead for finals season. I know, it may seem excessive. But if you put off preparation for your end -of-the-year work until right before or even after Thanksgiving break, you will have wished you used that two week grace period to do some of that work. Trying to organize the next month of your academic life is daunting to say the least. But with a few tips, you should at least create yourself a nice cushion of accomplished work to allow you to not completely lose your mind in the post-Thanksgiving crunch.

Make Lists of Exams/Projects/Papers

I like lists. Okay, okay, I love lists. They are the best organization tool in the entire world. If you don’t already carry around a notepad or a digital version to keep track of to-do lists and the like, you really should start. It makes it less likely that you will forget to do a small (or big) assignment or task if you keep track of everything you must do throughout the day.

For November though, you should start by making a list of all of your major assignments that will be due in the time between now and the end of the semester. Make note of which tasks are going to take more time and which are simply minor assignments. Making a list like this will not only help you prioritize all of the things that you need to do but it will also help you get a realistic idea of how much you really have to do by the end of the semester.

Look through all of your classes’ syllabuses to make sure you have listed every assignment and to ensure that some unexpected assignment doesn’t sneak up on you. There is nothing worse than feeling you have a good handle on all of your work and then realizing that you forgot about a graded portion of the course that was only mentioned on the first day of class. Don’t panic if your list is massively bigger than you expected it to be. If you use efficient time management skills and schedule your next few weeks to accommodate your list (see the next item), you should be able to finish everything on your list.

Schedule Your Calendar

It’s reasonable to panic while looking at the massive list you’ve just created. You have to do all of this end-of-the-semester work plus the day to day work that is still piling on? Oh, yes. After you’ve made your list of assignments and exams, take out your calendar. I still prefer my Outlook Calendar but many people prefer Google Calendars or even physical, handwritten calendars. Like a notebook to keep track of to-do lists, if you don’t already have a calendar you use consistently, you should get into the habit immediately. Scheduling due dates and other tasks on a calendar helps you visually gauge and organize your life.

Take the items on your list and place them all on your calendar, if they aren’t already. That, unfortunately, is the easy part. Now that you can see when all of your assignments are due and exams are scheduled, you should start to set aside blocks of times to do prepare for these assignments. Because you still have to do your day-to-day work, you will have to play around with designating certain parts of days to certain projects while still leaving space for your daily work. It’s a tricky balancing act. I like to designate certain weekends or weeks to different projects and color code them accordingly. That way I know that next week I will have to work on my Greek religions paper while next weekend I will have to start on my project for my Communication class.

By sitting down with your calendar and list of assignments and specifically scheduling blocks of time to do major assignments, you have locked it into place in your life. You can know for certain when you will have time to do all of the things on your list instead of just trying to randomly find spare time to work on various projects. If you don’t schedule it in, it’s much easier for you to procrastinate and never get around to it. Scheduling things also gives you a deadline for when you should be done with your assignment. Deadlines will motivate you to get your work done in the period you have set aside for it. Additionally, self-set deadlines is an important skill to acquire before you venture out in to the real world.

Be the Early Bird

All of these steps may seem like taking very early steps in preparing for finals season, but I want to suggest that you take this idea a step further, especially with papers and projects. If you know that you have a paper due at the end of the semester, begin brainstorming for topics, ideas, and sources now, early in the month, so that when you actually sit down to write the paper, you have already saved yourself time.

Schedule meetings with your professors about paper and project topics early so that you already have the go-ahead. Additionally, if you ask for help from professors early in the month, you will have more time to track down the hints and helpful information that they may give you during your meeting with them. Your professors want you to make a good grade. Asking for help or a point in the right direction early will not only let them know that you’re on the ball but it will give you more time to use these suggestions in your final assignment.

Ultimately, starting projects and papers early will both help you stay organized and on top of your other things to do and will give you more time to produce a better final project or paper. And eat lots and lots of stuffing/sweet potatoes/everything else your mom makes.

Do you find any of these tips useful? What do you do during November to help you prepare for the end-of-the-year rush of finals? Let us know in the comments!

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But um…well…actually, it’s probably a little bit more than mild amusement. But it’s not my fault, honest. You see I have tutoring hours in the library and when no one shows up desperately asking me to explain what the Bard was rambling on about (All they really need to do is watch 10 Things I Hate You.) I’m left with nothing to do but catch up on my reading…or you know, listen in on other people’s conversation. And I can’t help it if the freshman sitting in the library basement at the table opposite me talk, really, really, loudly. And really, who wouldn’t be intrigued about “OMG. The most perfect schedule. EVER,” or how one particular girl was so thrown off by midterms week that she gave up brushing her teeth because she just didn’t have the time. Or about how one professor “totally mentions sex in every one of his lectures.”

No I am not making this stuff up. I am not that creative or gross. So yeah, as I said. These conversations are a lot more entertaining than Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Frankly, the guy liked to ramble on, and his writing can get a little stale.  But the freshman, they never steer me wrong. Their life altering college experience is my reality tv.

Here are just a few of my favorite freshmanism. (Yes I made that word up. It totally works though, don’t you think?)

1. The way they wear their id cards around their necks on a lanyard for the first three weeks of school. I don’t know. This could just be my college campus. But the first few weeks of school, it’s always really easy to spot the freshman because they are the ones who walk around campus wearing their id cards around their neck. Its stops after a while though, it gets thrown in your bag, you put it in your wallet, you leave it in your car. In your dorm room. Before senior year you’ve had to replace it three times already. By senior year, you’re not even sure you have an id card at all anymore.
2. The way they travel in packs. That’s the second best way to spot the freshman. They walk to class together. They go to lunch together. Of course your roommate doesn’t mind stopping by the library with you, then can you just swing by the business office with her? Don’t get me wrong, hanging with your friends is great. But by senior year, you’re lucky if you wake up in time for class, never mind waking up early enough for a group breakfast  followed by that core class you’re taking together followed by a coffee break. Followed by…you get the idea.
3. The look of pure and absolute horror that graces their faces for the entirety of midterms’ week. Now I’m the first to admit I’ve had my fair share of midterm induced panic attacks. And as a freshman, I remember the entire process being ridiculously overwhelming. But by senior year (read: when there’s so much else going on that you forget you have a midterm during the next class until your professor mentions it.) it’s not quite as stressful. You’ve survived before, and you’ll survive again
4. Their shock at how quickly the classes they want manage to fill up during registration week. The registration process is not a fun one. For anyone. But if you’re a freshman it’s particularly brutal. You’re the last register, but yet your advisers warn you of picking the perfect schedule and core requirements and classes you need to take. So you plan, and pick and you fantasize about how amazing it will be to only have class three days a week. And then you go to register. And all the classes you want are gone. And your left with the teacher ratemyprofessor.com warns against taking at all costs. Ah, memories. Cheer up, by senior year, you’ll get first pick. I promise.

So what do you think ladies? How much has changed since you were a freshman? Are you a freshman now?  Do you wish you could speed it up to senior year, or are you happy where you are?

With school pressures up the wazoo paired with the changing of the seasons, it’s understandable that my peers and I might not be as happy as we could be.  So, the fact that my school is so demanding and does have such a high rate of suicide brings me to the topic of this article: how to obtain a whopping dose of happiness the natural way.

1)   Light in the morning and darkness in the evening is just the best for saying sayonara to the blues. Make sure to get some rays of sunshiny goodness in the morning (as close to dawn as possible) to prevent depression and to treat depression if you’ve got it.  It is now known that light therapy is wondrous for treating all types of mood disorders, not just Seasonal Affective Disorder.  A 2005 metanalysis (a study which combines the results of multiple independent studies) of bright light therapy for depression found that “bright light treatments are efficacious, with effects equivalent to those in most antidepressant pharmacotherapy trials.”  Woot! That means bright morning light works just as well as antidepressant medications, but with no side effects!

On the same note, don’t go all Edward Cullen on yourself  (sorry Twilight haters) and not get any sleep.  Staying up late or pulling an all-nighter is pretty much equivalent to just asking moodiness to come find you.   Not only this, but studies show that staying up late makes you more inclined to eat late at night, thus increasing the odds of gaining weight, thus making you more inclined to dislike the way you look, thus making you more likely to become unhappy.

2)   Socialize, socialize, socialize. Being around friends is so important for well-being (and maybe even your GPA!).  If you are feeling extra stressed, put down that textbook and take a coffee break with a friend.  You will be surprised how good it feels to have a therapeutic venting session with your girls (or guys) and you will be able to get back to studying in a good mood, which can improve concentration and might just increase your test score.

3)   Eat foods that are naturally bright and colorful. For your brain to adapt and respond to stress, you need to fuel it with foods high in antioxidants, like the always awesome vegetables and fruits.  Without enough antioxidants, our brains literally become “toxic or rancid.”  Ewwww. I am not kidding.  Our brains are made up of fat and lipid peroxidation is a chemical reaction that occurs as fats become rancid.  Free radicals are highly reactive particles that accumulate in the cells of our brain and when that happens, byproducts of peroxidation build up and our brains really do begin to decay.  These byproducts have been linked to depression, heart disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s and more. So, arm yourself with antioxidants and fight those free radical bitches.

4)   Move those limbs. Run. Walk. Climb a tree.  Put on some music and dance around your room in your underwear a la Cameron Diaz in Charlie’s Angels (a personal favorite). Just move. It is simply not healthy to study for hours on end in a chair.  When you exercise, your body releases feel good endorphins, which are opiate-like substances, secreted by the brain.  They have the same painkilling mechanism as morphine, so they can produce a sense of euphoria when the endorphins bind with the brain’s receptor sites.  Better yet, exercise with a friend and get a double dose of happiness.

5)  Ingest some fatty-acids.  Scientific research overwhelmingly supports the notion that fatty acid balance plays a role in mental well-being.  Scientists who study diet and its relationship to depression have consistently found that patients with mood disorders have reduced levels of omega-3 fatty acids.   Omega-3 fats are found in fish, but fish on the market can be highly polluted. Take a DHA supplement or purified fish oil to get a clean, non-polluted helping of those omega-3s.

6)   Put things in perspective! This one might be the most important thing you can do.  When you are old and your hair is a lovely shade of gray (gasp!), are you going to give a Twinkie what your score was on a silly little biology exam? Or even the GPA you graduated college with? I don’t know about you, but my answer to this question is hell no.  While I am an advocate of trying your hardest, don’t freak if your best isn’t the score you had hoped for.  And don’t judge yourself, attempt to analyze your overall intelligence level or compare your test scores to classmates. Just work hard, do your best, and say C’est la vie to that exam.

7)   If all else fails, just Google pictures of cute puppies and kittens. Works every time.

Need more tips health tips? We got you covered...and toned…and healthy.

[Meet Margaret, a freshman at Yale. We've been checking in with her every week to see what she's doing, who she's meeting and what new college surprises she's tackling (or freaking out about) as she embarks on the journey we call college. Or as I like to call it, the best thing since Trader Joe's Honey Greek Yogurt. That is, until midterms season hits, of course.]

So I’m new at this whole midterms thing. The idea that I’ve been more or less lounging around for the past 6 weeks and then – wham! – I’m hit with a test that’s worth 40% of my grade…that’s kind of crazy.

Needless to say, this past week has been an acne-inducing, sleep-lacking, chocolate-eating cram week. But, terrible as it was for my complexion and caloric intake, I have to say that this week has definitely taught me some things about studying.

First, it’s much easier to not stress about midterms if you actually know what’s going on in class. I’ve been going to class, but this was definitely problematic for a lot of my classmates. In a lecture of 400 people about something as non-stimulating as econ, it’s easy to doze off. But unfortunately, while you are dreaming about your next Halloween costume, your professor is actually saying important things. Even though my professor puts his notes online, so many of his notes are things where you have to fill in graphs and equations that you learn about in class. Bottom line, try your best not to fall asleep in class and then have to teach yourself everything the week before the exam.

Second, if you’re like me, you need to switch up your study places. The library treats me nicely – it’s quiet and there are comfy chairs – but after a while, I start losing focus. I find myself stalking my friend’s older sister on Facebook rather than studying the marginal revenue of labor and that’s when I realize that it’s time for a location change. Colleges have tons of other places to study besides the library and your dorm — common rooms, unused classrooms (the dry erase board makes them perfect for group study sessions), cafes. Sometimes all I need to do is find a place where there is no risk of running into someone that I know.

Third, sleep is actually kind of important, as are pre-sleep rituals. So this only sort of has to do with studying, but you know how you always are able to concentrate better when you feel refreshed? Studying’s the same way. You can’t focus well if you’re not well rested and in the same line of thought… while it’s so tempting to crash without washing your face or brushing your teeth, you feel so gross when you wake up. Push yourself to go spend 10 minutes in the bathroom to get yourself ready for bed.

Fourth, exercise outside, or at least go submerge yourself in nature. After 5 hours holed up in a library staring at a computer screen and your notebook, you are lacking some serious fresh air. There’s even this thing called the “biophilia hypothesis” that speculates that humans need nature and greenery in order to be happy. So tear yourself away from the computer screen, go outside, and take a walk.

And lastly, do the practice tests, problems, essays that your professors give you. Pretend you’re in test taking mode, too. It’ll really show you what you need to study and what you already know. Then, look at your notes. If you look at your notes for too long, there’s a tendency to fall asleep. And then you’re not studying.

Midterm season is a stressful time for all of us, do you have any tips to relieve the suffering?

Fall is in full swing. The pumpkin spice lattes are a part of your daily ritual. You’ve broken in your new fall boots. You’ve given up that whole turning over a new leaf idea – you know, the one that involved getting your homework done on time. And hey, just in time for midterms too.

Mid semester exams are inevitable. And annoying. Just when you’ve started to think you could get away with not doing any of the reading for your classes and getting all of your notes online (from the comfort of your futon), midterms rear their ugly heads.

Essays?
Quotation identifications?

You are not prepared for this. Time for some serious studying, right? Not just yet, there are a few things you really need to do first….

10. Clean up. Wow your keyboard is really filthy. And your screen? How could you even see? This needs to be done now. Or you’ll never clean it. No time like the present, right? Where’s that Windex?

9. Did your phone just ring? Your BlackBerry just buzzed. That could be important. An e-mail from a professor? A question from a friend? You’re still waiting to hear back about that internship.  Just check… really quickly.

8. Check your Facebook. That text Sarah sent you said that McHottie hooked up with that girl from your bio class this weekend. But you’re not sure how reliable of a source she is. There have to be pictures if it happened right? Just scroll through the newsfeed. You won’t be able to concentrate until you know.

7. Make yourself a snack. You’re starving. You should probably eat something. Brain food. Like fish. No. But there’s a vending machine right down the hall. There’s bound to be something full of dark chocolate there. That’s good for you, isn’t it? And while we’re on the topic, wine’s a brain food these days too, right?

6. Visit your favorite websites. You just want to check your daily websites. College Candy. College Fashion. Texts From Last Night. The usual. It’s not your fault there’s so many awesome new articles up. It’s better you read them now before you really get into your work. Plus, you’ve been busy. You could use a break, really.

5. Oops! Forgot to check Twitter!

4. Watch your favorite show. Okay. So you can hear your roommate watching TV from the other room. You look at the clock. Yep. There’s a Kardashian marathon on. And, wait, is that the KHLOE AND LAMAR WEDDING?! What’s another hour (or 3)? It’s the wedding…and you’ve been PMSing…you could use a good cry. Let it all out, girlfriend.

3. Take up a new hobby. What’s that? Your boyfriend is watching baseball? Well, you’ve never really been a fan before, but these are the important games aren’t they? And it’s important to take an interest in things he enjoys. Maybe he could explain to you what’ going on as you watch…

2. Change your scenery. You know, with all these distractions, you really need to get out of the house. You’ll really get more done if you’re at the library. Just pack up your things and go…

1. Talk to a friend. Is that Melissa sitting over there by the computer? You haven’t seen her in days. It won’t hurt to say a quick hello. I mean, you don’t wanna be rude. It’s common courtesy, people. Just a little holler and then you’re on your way…

If you can find an empty table, that is.

What are your favorite ways to put off studying for midterms? Are you a professional procrastinator or do you get things done quickly?

….I think my preferred method is pretty obvious.

Got a special place in your heart for top 10 lists? We do and we’ve got some doozies.  Get ‘em all out right here.