Take a break; go on a field trip

As Princeton students, we have access to an amazing education. There are also countless social opportunities. But at a school that studies hard and parties hard, there is little down time.

My first reaction to the field trip was that it was unfortunate timing because I had an organic chemistry exam the following day and I needed to study for it. But I came back from the field trip with a clear head, feeling reinvigorated. I was much more productive when I finally got to the library to study. I also was in a much better mood than I usually am when studying, and I felt much calmer and more in control.

Though I was taking measurements, the field trip gave me an excuse to not worry about school more generally. Getting out of my normal academic environment and walking around, rather than sitting in a chair all day, shifted me out of my normal mental regime. And knowing that I couldn’t work on orgo for those nine hours allowed me to stop thinking about it without guilt.

Constantly worrying about school is stressful and exhausting. Often, I think, we end up procrastinating because we need a break but are unwilling to give ourselves permission. But a “break” that consists of surfing the Web with a constant nagging feeling that you should be doing work isn’t very effective. Other times we head to the Street to release our stress, but hangovers don’t help us clear our heads or be productive the next morning.

We are all busy — my friends can attest that I am always “too busy” to do this or that — but my experience last Sunday suggests that taking an afternoon or a day off may benefit not only our sanity but also our productivity. This may be the key to avoiding feeling overwhelmed, overextended and burnt out.

A friend of mine recently explained to me that knowing she will do no work on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, enables her to work harder the rest of the week. Having a specified time every week when she does not think about school allows her to be more productive and focused Sunday through Friday, because she has a break to look forward to. Most of us are not Jewish, and not all Jews refrain from working on the Sabbath, but we can all take a lesson from this. Sometimes we need to take a break from worrying, reading, doing problem sets, writing essays and checking e-mail. Sometimes we need to turn off and tune out. This can mean taking a trip like I did. Or it can mean reading a novel for pleasure, watching a movie, talking to friends, meditating or exercising.

Scheduling time when you will ignore your obligations creates a sort of “time outside of time” when you have permission not to worry and to choose something else to do guilt-free. I often find myself rationalizing that I am too busy to take breaks. But the truth is, breaks are necessary. If we don’t allow ourselves to take breaks, our bodies will make us. This can result in illness or, more often, procrastination. The problem is, when you turn to your e-mail or Facebook for a short 15-minute break, it often turns into several hours of procrastination. For me, at least, I continue to pretend that I’m only taking a 15-minute break, leading me to feel more anxious and guilty as the hours wear on. In the end, those hours feel like wasted time and I feel even more stressed and overwhelmed.

By scheduling breaks, we can provide ourselves with a safe zone in which to stop thinking about school when we do other activities. We can allow ourselves to relax. This also provides a built-in end time to the break, removing the temptation to continuously extend the break by a few minutes.

I am not advising reading for eight hours straight or never lifting an eye from your problem set until you’ve finished it. Obviously, small breaks throughout the day are necessary or your mind will start to wander. But hopefully the knowledge that you have a planned longer break in a few days will allow you to keep your other breaks short while making your long breaks more effective. There is a lot to learn and a lot to do at Princeton. We all want to make the most of our time here. But sometimes the best way to do that is by taking a step back and relaxing.

Miriam Geronimus is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from Ann Arbor, Mich. She can be reached at mgeronim@princeton.edu.