Written by Mikhael Sianturi, Content Writer Intern of Project Child Indonesia
Academic burnout. A period where every college student, or highschooler for that matter, does not want to experience. It is a state where students feel unmotivated and tired either physically or mentally, or both, while still having the need to meet the demands that the university has given to them.
The reasons
Why does this happen? Like always, life is full of demands, and so is university. But if we are to list it to several points, here they are:
- Physical or mental issues. Everybody is unique and has their own flaws, unfortunately. One may feel okay keeping up with schedules outside of college study, but another may not. One may also feel like they can keep their chin up and focus on the lecture well from the beginning to the end, but another may not since their head is messing with them.
- Lack of motivation. This one is pretty self-explanatory. When a student sees no purpose behind doing something, it gets in their way to accomplishment, or in other words, reaching the moment where they submit their task. To submit and get good grades is often not enough of a good reason for students to do their tasks.
- Outside influences. University life is not the only life people will go through. Family, financial stability, time management; these may very well affect one another.
- Assignment overload. It is no secret that university lecturers give too much homework sometimes. Add that with the large amount of hours students put into following the lecturing session itself and the very possible amount of hours needed for things outside of study, where would they put their time to do homework?
Some of these, if not, all of these factors may lead a student to the topic of the article, which is academic burnout. It is always better to be safe than sorry. So, if you feel that you are making steps closer to being burnout in your college life, take it seriously.
Tips
Here are four things you can do to prevent academic burnout from happening:
- At the beginning of a semester, all university students are to organize the subjects that they want to take. A lot of people say that taking huge portions each semester will give a breathing room near graduation, and it is not entirely false. However, put everything into account when you’re about to take a big portion of subjects. There is nothing wrong with being a little slow progress wise since it will provide us breathing rooms every now and then, not just near graduation.
- Organize. List the upcoming deadlines, take notes during lectures, ask for materials that you might have missed from other students, or even just clean your room since it really does represent your own mind. An organized life will ease the mind by a mile.
- You’re a human being with limited energy, so do take a break. Make sure you’re taking breaks that will really reward you the energy and the capability to be back at 100% to continue your daily student life. Either it’s a ten hours worth of sleep to catch up with your late night shifts, a walk to the park, or a bonding with your friends, make sure to do it properly.
- It’s more than okay to ask for help. As from whom, the options vary. If there’s a psychologist on stand-by hired by the university, take it into consideration since professionalism is guaranteed. A talk with your parents or sibling(s) is also an alternative. Finally, one can never go wrong with talking to your own friends, as they are most likely brother or sister in arms.
