Why You Need to Set Goals for Reading Week

My students will be on reading week soon, although we term it “Engagement Week” at my college. Some will be fortunate enough to travel for pleasure and others will put in more hours at their jobs while they have extra time. Unfortunately, I expect that some will do nothing (I was going to write “veg out”, but I’m afraid that makes me sound old) – and even worse, a few of these students will not even enjoy indulging in such nothingness! Enjoying downtime is essential to productivity, assuming that one actually enjoys downtime instead of whiling away the hours and days. We all know what it feels like to think if only I had the time to workout at the gym, binge-watch Netflix, cook healthy food or read for interest. Even if your plan is to do nothing, make sure that your version of doing nothing will recharge your mental batteries – don’t let your precious time off go to waste.

Achieve things that you put off during the semester so far

Some of the students I teach are preparing to become licensed paralegals. In Ontario the same body that governs lawyers administers the formal licensing process for paralegals, which includes a 7-hour exam. Researching the necessary procedural requirements is something that all my students will have to do at some point, but it is exactly the type of thing that some might put off until later if their attention is focused on more near-term goals like coursework and grades. Reading week is the perfect time to cross items like this off of your to-do list. You can ensure that you will cover all your bases for the future, and lessen your workload (and worries) through the rest of the academic term.

Get organized

Achieve inbox zero. Sort your bookmarks. Tidy your files. Backup your computer. In the midst of daily life for college students it’s easy to ignore details that may seem inconsequential until disaster strikes. Imagine how you would feel if you missed an important email, found an ideal job posting too late, couldn’t find a useful PDF you read last term or LOST ALL OF YOUR DATA, then take steps to prevent any of these things from happening. Better yet, while you have the time, design workflow processes to mitigate all of these harms. If you don’t know what “the cloud” means in computer-speak, take time to research it. If you’re hesitant to use cloud services because you don’t understand the privacy implications, when else would you have sufficient time to look into the details?

Photo by sung ming whang (CC BY)