Miriam George

Let’s set the scene: school just finished, you’re excited to come back home and crawl into bed for a long-overdue nap. You have some work to do––catching up on math homework  and checking your email––but it’s break now. You can always do it later, right? After all, you have ten or so days to relax, not take notes. The days fly by in a blur as you fix your sleep schedule, hang out with friends, solve world hunger; you spend the break doing everything known to man except your work. It might loom at the back of your mind, like a wasp hovering on the fringes of a picnic, but it’s hardly a concern. Suddenly, on the last day before we go back to school, you realize that your MacBook has a layer of dust three feet thick! It felt like you had so much time, but suddenly it appears to have dissipated into thin air.

Oftentimes, it’s easy to get a little too lazy on break. We find ourselves trying to put things off for later, but who could blame you? School can be difficult to manage, and getting away from the homework, tests, and crowded halls of JP can feel like an all-expenses-paid Caribbean vacation. Despite how much you want to exist nowhere but between your comforter and pillow for that week off, it’s important to use the time wisely to mitigate any academic pile-up. And even if you have less work to do, if you want to get a headstart on your work and be well prepared when you return to school, your future self will doubtlessly thank you on hands and knees. But how, might you ask? How do you escape the quicksand of laziness and utter dearth of motivation on a school break? 

One of the easiest ways to balance work and fun is to create a day-to-day schedule. It might seem like even more work to do when you just want to relax, but creating a personal schedule for yourself is one of the best ways you can manage your time. Think about when you are most efficient with your work; are you a morning bird (productive with the help of caffeine between the hours of 3 AM and 6 AM) or a night owl (productive after a quick nap between the hours of 10 PM and 2 AM)? Developing a schedule is made even easier by using apps and websites like Google Calendar. If you want to travel back to the Paleolithic Age for a second, you can even write it down the old-fashioned way with pencil and paper. 

Make sure to also prioritize your tasks. Certain things should come first in your life and be given more effort and focus. For example, if you have a geometry test tomorrow but the newest Mortal Kombat game just came out, it’s probably for the best that you put the controller down for the night and pick up your calculator. 

Studying is probably the last thing you want to do on break, but you have to remember that prioritization is key. To handle distractions, try telling yourself that you can do something fun after you finish your work as a reward. If you have something motivating you, it’ll make your work feel like a breeze. Removing distractions from whatever space you are working in can also help dramatically. The chief distraction in today’s day and age is a small digital rectangle that we use to spend hours scrolling on TikTok; put it in the other room in the interest of passing that geometry test. Once your phone is out of sight, the viselike grip it has on your concentration and focus will wear off and you will magically find yourself with an attention span longer than fifteen seconds. Taking breaks might also help. As long as you can maintain a consistent level of focus and attention, without distractions or procrastination, you should be able to nip your homework in the bud in no time.

Breaks definitely give you a chance to relax, and you should––it is hard work going to classes to play Papa’s Freezeria all day every day. But leaving your work for later will make it even harder to finish it. Try to ignore your impending sense of dread and look at it like this: breaks are probably the best way to figure out the perfect balance of work and fun. Use this time to get used to managing your time in a way that you both finish your work and have fun; after all, your Xbox is waiting for you.