Finish Your Semester Strong

By Regan Barr of The Lukeion Project

Students: your semester is finally coming to an end! It’s been a marathon, not a sprint, as most of life’s proudest accomplishments will be. With the finish line in sight, there are three possible outcomes. You could stumble, fall, and fail miserably, wasting all of your effort up to this point. You could also begin to ease up and stagger across the line, finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack, but happy to be done with it. Or you can use your last burst of energy to finish strong, perhaps even crossing the finish line first, an achievement you can be proud of!

The internet is awash in examples of all three. There’s the runner who had it in the bag, but in one fatal, disastrous miscalculation, lost it all. There’s the competitor who started to celebrate too early, easing up when she should have pressed on. She completed the race, which in itself is no small accomplishment, but she secretly knows that she didn’t give it her all and could have done better. And finally, there’s the racer who fixed his eyes on the prize, summoned all his remaining strength and made that final heroic effort that ensured him the top spot on the podium. Maybe it’s second or third place, but he can hold his head up high, knowing that he gave it his best effort.

There’s no question that ability is part of the equation, but it’s not the whole story. Determination and strategy also play a big part in how you cross the finish line.

Determination is a mindset that considers all of the alternatives and concludes that perseverance is worth the pain. It realizes that even if this is not your favorite class, it charts a course for future classes. It understands that you’re not just getting a grade, you’re charting a trajectory. You’re building habits for life, and finishing strong is often the difference between the adventurer who gives up and the entrepreneur who makes it big. This is the “grit” that Angela Lee Duckworth describes in her Ted Talk that’s now been viewed by nearly 6 million people.

Success is rarely the result of a series of fortuitous accidents. It is more often the reward for determination: an unwillingness to give up until the job is done. Determination says “if I give up now, all my hard work up to this point was for naught.” It doesn’t just see the finish line; it aims for it. How can I finish strong? Sometimes the finish line is completing that research paper, studying for that exam, completing a project, or doing your best on that last presentation. Success is being able to say at the end of your day “I’m proud of what I accomplished today and how I spent my time.”

Where do you find the motivation and the determination when it’s lacking? Determination is a matter of perspective. Travel in your mind to 5 years in the future. Looking back on your now-self, what would you like to see? Will this be the instructor who recommends you for that plum internship because you demonstrated a relentless resolve? Will this be the moment you push through that mental barrier and learn that you really can endure instead of quitting when the going gets tough? If you can do this, what else might be within your reach?

Determination must be paired with strategy. A determined mindset is nothing without action, and not all actions are equally beneficial. What will move you forward in the most productive way? Here are a few suggestions for finishing strong:

1. List your next steps.
Why waste valuable time wallowing about in a quagmire of self-pity and desperation? Instead, quantify what you have to do! Progress requires defining your target. When it comes to finishing the semester, that means listing what remains to be done. This might be an obvious starting point, but many students never actually confront their to-do list realistically. They begin with the task they find most comfortable, spend way too much time on it, only to discover that they have sabotaged their own efforts on other more challenging tasks.
Quantifying what remains to be done provides two benefits. First, it allows the student to create a plan (step number 2), a path forward toward the real finish line. But the second benefit is just as important: it allows to students to measure progress, an important motivator that boosts determination!

2. Create a realistic plan. 
Working from your to-do list, determine what to do and when to do it. It’s important to actually plan your time, so plot your time on a calendar. This provides your best metric for determining when and how you’ll finish.
If you want to create a realistic plan, you must recognize what motivates you best. Do you benefit from tackling the big job first, getting that big victory under your belt, and then speeding up as you move to the less challenging projects? Or do you need the smaller victories to help you build toward the most daunting task? What will help you build momentum that will carry you toward the finish line? And don’t forget to break up your study and review times for the best retention. It’s better to spend one hour in review on two different days than to spend two uninterrupted hours in review.

3. Include breaks and rewards.
Most of us aren’t built to focus on our most intense challenges for hours on end. We need to take regular breaks and celebrate milestones along the way. Perhaps when you’re writing that paper, you reserve the last 10 minutes of every hour to get up and move a bit. When you finish it, reward yourself with a snack, half an hour of your favorite game, or some time to just chill with the dog.
Finishing strong isn’t easy, but it’s worth the effort.

With determination and the right strategy, you can be proud of your accomplishment and really enjoy the rewards that await you, just across the finish line.