College seniors.

It’s serious and it spread quickly. But the problem is the symptoms can at first appear so subtle that college students may not even notice they have them. Their regular behavior is simply heightened. So when going about their normal, every day lives they don’t even realize that they’re actually struggling with senioritis. That’s why they can’t write that paper or concentrate in class. That’s why everything seems impossible. If  you’re a college senior and this, or any of the signs below sound familiar to you, you may be suffering from senioritis. (And no, we don’t recommend looking up your symptoms on WebMD. Just check out our senioritis bucket list instead.)

1. Oversleeping. Your alarm goes off so you press the snooze button. And then you press again. And then again. And then you glance at the clock and realize your class starts in five minutes…and then you roll over and go back to sleep. 

2. The desire to never do anything productive anything again. The other night, instead of watching the movie I was supposed to watch for class I spent the night watching the entire first season of Brothers and Sisters on Netflix instant play. It seemed like an excellent idea at the time.

3. Asking the question but why does this matter? Before I start an assignment, before I do my reading, before I make the walk across campus to my next class it’s all I’m thinking these days. Why does it matter? It will all be over in a month or so. It won’t matter!

4. Hanging out with your friends even more often than usual. I’ve always been very good about scheduling my time. Work, classes, time for friends. I fit it all in there. But lately I’ve been putting off homework, pushing back plans, and rearranging schedules to allow for even more hang out time than usual. My excuse? We only have ___ days/months/weeks left. Might as well enjoy them

5. The sudden desire to be a joiner. You’ve never been one for those campus wide events like festivals on the oval or midnight breakfasts but now suddenly you find yourself ready and willing to participate in just about anything even the carnival you haven’t gone to since freshman year…

6. Not showing up to classes. Everyone takes mental health days, but when you’re skipping class more often than you’re going that’s when you know somethings up.

Alright, your turn. What are some other signs of senioritis? 

I realized just how gross when I saw a not so charming boy taking part in the same not so charming habit during a lecture and my friends pointed out that:

a) Yes, I look like that too when I pick/bite

b) We are destined to be together because we share the same nasty habit.

Whether it is nail biting, throat clearing, being chronically late, talking too loud on your cell phone etc- we all have that one (or eight) habits we just wish we could break. But sometimes we really can’t help but take part in our bad habits. Kind of like when we couldn’t help but text that guy last Saturday night at 2am, even though we said we were sooo done with that.

Sometimes bad habits are just really hard to break.

So before you make that New Years Resolution to not oversleep or stop cracking your knuckles, here are three steps to actually help you achieve that goal.

3 Easy Steps to Breaking Bad Habits (From WebMD)

1) Make It Conscious. Many times, we do these things without thinking about it. Like when we are bored in class or stressed in the library etc. So figure out when and why you take part in your habit(s) of choice. If you realize when/why you are doing it and can attribute what you are feeling that is driving you to do it, you will have an easier time finding a way to stop.

2) Put It in Writing. Just like most dieticians will suggest you write down what you eat so that you are aware that you “accidentally” ate the large chocolate cheesecake because you were feeling lonely, same goes here. Put down the situation you are in along with the emotions surrounding the nail biting (or other habit). Take notice to what is going through your head when you do it. This will help make you more conscious of it and help you curb how often you do it.

Also, write out a pros/cons list of this behavior to make you more aware of why it’s such a bad habit in the first place!

3) Bait and Switch. After you figure out the root cause of why you are biting your nails/chronically coughing etc try to find a not-so- annoying temporary replacement for it. (Nail biter? Try gum! Knuckle cracker? Try sitting on your hands or doodling in class). Other experts suggest meditation. And if that doesn’t work?

Put a large rubber band around your wrist. Every time you are aware that you are taking part in your bad habit… snap that bad boy against your wrist.

Have any of your own tried and true tips for breaking a bad habit?

Leave them here!