The mid-semester slump is a reality familiar to college students and it comes around the end of midterms. With little over a month left in the semester and an upcoming break, you may find yourself struggling to find the motivation to keep up with the increasing demands of your schoolwork.

As the days roll by it is becoming more desirable to evade your responsibilities as a college student. While you could choose to continue placing fun before responsibility, the slump can be detrimental if not handled appropriately. It’s time to buckle down and get your priorities straight.

If you find yourself lacking the motivation to keep going, you may want to consider the following tips for a successful end to the fall semester.

Prioritize:

Now that we are a few months into the semester, you should be familiar with your schedule and daily routine. Consider which of your assignments are due the earliest and make them your top concerns. Once you’ve outlined your responsibilities, make a to-do list specifying what you’ll do each day. Be sure to include break time to ensure you don’t stretch yourself too thin.

Study with friends:

If you are a very social person and find that you need to focus more on your schoolwork, don’t think you need to say goodbye to your friends until the semester finishes. Talk to your friends and see who might be interested in studying with you. Even if they are not in the same major and do not have the same workload as you, try going to the library together and just do your work at the same time.

Adjust your schedule:

If you tend to fill up gaps in your class schedule by socializing, watching Netflix or listening to music, consider using the time to finish your schoolwork.

“If you have let’s say a class at 9:30 in the morning and then not again until later in the day, I would try to get as much homework done in that chunk of time,” freshman Kate Adriani said. “That’s what I tend to do when work picks up in my classes.”

This way, if you manage to finish your work early, you can enjoy yourself for the rest of day.

Reward yourself:

If you need that extra push to get yourself working, try planning out rewards for yourself after you finish some bigger tasks. This reward can be something as simple as going out with your friends or buying yourself one of your favorite snacks. In doing this, you are giving yourself a more immediate rewarding experience for putting in the effort for your grades.

Know the consequences:

Don’t think your professors haven’t noticed their students losing interest, because they have and there will be consequences.

“I think giving more quizzes will avoid it, because when you wait and give them a chapter exam they procrastinate,” Marie-Michelle Moneréau-Merry of the Speech Communication department said. “If they have a pop quiz, they know they have to keep up with the reading. It’s about social cohesion on the campus, the students are getting to know one another freshman year or people are bonding, things like that. But it impacts the grade, and that’s not good.”

The mid-semester slump may seem too much for you, but you can overcome it. You are not alone. Just keep your eyes on the prize, because everything counts.