Prioritizing your work before the weather brings you outside

This article is your formal warning. 

You should be proud of yourself. You’ve almost made it through the cold grip of yet another Canadian winter, with the sun starting to peak its little head out from the heavens and melt away the snow. 

It’s almost time to “yeet” your coat to the back of the closet and throw on that spring jacket. 

Your forearms are soon to be toasted in the warmth of the sunlight, a feeling that you’ve forgotten existed.

And what’s this? Summer plans are finally being made! Your friends are emerging from their winter hibernations to offer promises of cottage trips, camping weekends and bonfires. You’re thirsting for these plans as if they’re cool drops of rain and you’ve been trapped in the desert for days.

You need to indulge these summer plans. 

After all, you’ve worked hard all winter. The last few months were spent shacked up in your room under 35 pounds of blankets with your frozen, boney finger being the only bare skin exposed as it followed along the words of your textbook while you crammed what you could before that upcoming midterm.

“It’s almost here” you whispered aloud, your breath visible even in your room. “Summer is coming.”

Wrong. I’m here to set you straight, friend. Summer isn’t here yet.

I know what it’s like to indulge in the fantasies of the coming summer months. 

Sometimes having something to look forward to is what’s needed to get through a tough time. 

But at this point in the year when school burnout is most prominent, these dreams make getting your stuff done much more difficult. That’s why you need to start your school work right now.

Summers on its way, but we still have many speed-bumps to break before we get to enjoy it. If you don’t heed this warning, think back to this article as you head to the library to study in mid-April.

You can’t waste any more time. The pre-summer final exam burnout makes the pre-Christmas final exams look like elementary school.

You see, as the weather gets warmer, the difficulty of cracking open a textbook or starting a final essay becomes exponentially higher. 

Yet right now, there’s still snow on the ground. Going outside is highly discouraging. You can’t even take a three-minute walk to 7-Eleven  without doing the splits once or twice on those icy sidewalks. Thus, it’s easy to shut your blinds and get back to work – the choice between smacking your back off the frozen sidewalks of Ontario or staying inside with a textbook and a hot coffee is an easy one to make.

However, soon enough the birds will be chirping and the sidewalks will have an abundance of friction. The people of Waterloo will come out of their hiding places and the outdoors will be alive again, calling on you to join them in their cries of rejoicing at the beautiful and temporary warm Canadian weather. 

How can you stay inside on a sunny April day?

It’s going to be tough when you’re forgoing precious days of the best season to do work you could’ve done when the outdoors were miserable. 

You’re not missing anything out there in early March, so make the most of it and get your studying, final essays or presentations finished now.

We procrastinators need to buckle down this year and avoid the painful burnout that inevitably comes with the end of second semester.

Summers on its way, but we still have many speed-bumps to break before we get to enjoy it. If you don’t heed this warning, think back to this article as you head to the library to study in mid-April. 

Hell, to be honest, I’ll probably be right there suffering with you.