Opinion | Remember to keep your mental health a top priority this school year

During the school year, sometimes our mental health is put aside. We can get far too focused on our classes — especially the homework, exams and papers that get assigned throughout the semester. It can be overwhelming sometimes, which is why it’s good to take mental breaks. If we don’t give ourselves mental breaks, things can get worse. 

Sometimes we think it’s better to continuously do work for hours on end. I believe this is not true. Our brains get tired as time goes on, which leads to a decline in our work. 

Mental breaks we give ourselves can come in the form of going out with friends, watching a movie or show, reading a book, listening to music and more. We all have different ways to give ourselves a “brain break.” So for the upcoming school year, here’s a reminder to prioritize those brain breaks. You deserve it.

If you’re taking a break from an essay or studying, for example, remember it’s not a bad thing as long as you don’t overuse breaks. Something that I learned about with a friend during my spring semester of sophomore year was the Pomodoro studying technique. The technique involves doing your work for a certain amount of time, then taking a short break. It helps you focus even more. Before I knew about this, I’d get distracted super easily. Once I started using this technique, it made me feel less stressed. I’d do something for 30 minutes, take a 5 minute break, then do something for another 30 minutes and take a 5 minute break. So on, so forth — you get the point.

What I’m trying to explain is that if you overwork your brain too much by continuously working or studying for hours on end, it’s not going to be good for your mental health. You need breaks in between or you’re going to feel insanely burnt out. There have been times where I would not give myself a break and I’d do worse on exams or assignments. When I give myself a break, I’ve noticed that I do better. I don’t feel as burnt out. If I do work for eight hours on end — which I have before — I get more and more exhausted as time goes on. I feel unmotivated. If I take my breaks, as with the Pomodoro technique, I feel refreshed. I feel like I want to do more. 

Students feel the most stressed during times like midterms and finals. You don’t know how to set up your study schedule. When you end up figuring out a schedule, it gets messed up because the main studying areas are packed. So you decide to just do work in your apartment or dorm, but find it boring because you don’t want to be in the same space every time you have to study for a final, write an essay or put together a final project. So not only are you stressed about finals, you also become stressed with your environment. There are many factors that tie into stress, which then leads to overthinking, which can then impact our mental health. 

Another factor that can affect students’ mental health is having a job during the school year. A lot of college students need to make money to pay for rent, groceries and other miscellaneous items while staying on top of their course work. Not only that, but college students like to go out as well when they have free time with friends. I would like to think that most places that hire college students know that we have our limits on how much we can work, especially with our classes and other extracurriculars. If you find yourself dealing with a work schedule that doesn’t work with your classes, mention it to your boss. It’s okay to switch around your schedule a little bit. 

Having a switch in your schedule might take a little bit to adjust to, but once you adjust to it, you may feel more relief. For myself, I need a good schedule throughout the week when I work and take my classes as well. Once I adjust to that schedule, I feel a lot less stressed. 

Overall, we all need mental breaks. During this school year, please give yourself those moments of reprive. We all deserve them. College assignments, exams and more can bring us down. Keep your mental health a priority this school year. Help your friends out and others too. You never know when someone could use a shoulder to lean on. 

Have thoughts on mental health during the school year? You can email Irene at inm24@pitt.edu.