How do you get through the end of semester lazies?

I just finished my first semester & felt like I was getting anxious for break. When I'd feel lazy, I'd tell myself that I didn't work hard for nothing & get to it, do my best, etc. I felt like I could really enjoy break more having known that I gave it 100%. I also told my hubby to step in & advise me when I appear to have lost focus (in case I chose to be in denial). It all worked.

I don't know how to beat the semester end lazies. I suffered from it big time this past semester!!

I'll be following this thread for ideas!

oh boy did I have this issue this weekend! I just finished up yesterday and I didn't even take my AP final (we can drop 1 grade, either a test or the final, and instead of studying for it I just accepted a low B/high C (its right on the line, not sure how he will go).

But I did get in about 12 hours of studying for my Med Surg final. Two things that work for me are 1) planning out the right study environment by putting a set time down that I am going to start, making sure to clear my schedule and let everyone know, and doing it somewhere that minimizes distractions... I have difficulty studying at home because family/tv/internet are always distractions and this is a hundredfold when I'm feeling end of semester lazyness. I generally do well if I study in the library, the classroom outside of class time (as long as other students dont have the same idea), at the cafeteria at work, ect, and 2) doing something energetic beforehand to get rid of some of that desire to do something else. Taking time out to be lazy doesn't work for me. It just makes me lazy-er. Things I do are take a walk around the block, run some errands and take the stairs at work (I study during downtime), basically all of the "head clearing" activities work for me.

The same thing happened to me but I didn't have a name for it. I settled for a lower grade because I did not prepare for the final properly. It was worth 25%. These tips are great and I will follow them next semsester.

Well for me I work as a Nursing Assistant, so all I had to do was go to work and that motivated me to keep pushing myself to study. It also helps to have structured study time and breaks.

I call it "hitting the wall" because you just can't read or write another sentence. It's burn out. I'm looking for suggestions as well. I also refer to it as wanting the Staples Easy button.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

I was slammed with this laziness myself. I was not worried because I had high grades throughout the semester so getting a low final grade was not going to hurt me. I ended up up doing bad in 3 of my finals(Bs to be exact my usual test grades are A's).

I still passed the classes with A-'s. If I studied I could have passed with an A.....oh well.

tell me about it. just finished my first semester yesterday with last exam - pharm - and crammed in all of a couple of hours of studying before the exam. of course i did not do as well as i would have liked and i have noone to blame but myself but i just couldn't find it in me. i work full time days, go full time at night and am single parent, there's just so much to go around. BUT i must also admit that i am not the most disciplined person. i realize that if i don't get my s**t together for next semester when the workload increases i am going to be steamrolled flatter than a cartoon character. i guess we have to be our own best motivators, and it doesn't take much analysis to see that i did not make the best use of my time consistently all semester. cramming at the last minute always worked before but it's not going to cut it in nursing school. i think a great deal of my burnout is simply because of all the stress i put on myself at the end because i didn't do what i should have done when i should have done it! and i didn't play enough when i had the chance. too much rabbit, not enough turtle. lesson learned.

play hard, work harder, carry on!!!

I don't know how to do it. I suffered big time this semester from being overall burned out. I ended up with a C in my peds class and I just couldnt stand the material. I would study for a test 1-2 days prior to the actual test date, and would constantly pull 75's, which I didnt care because it was passing.

I've never been that way. If I got anything less than an 85, I was highly upset. This C is my first C in nursing school and I graduate in May.

I always try to start the semester off strong, then end up relaxing towards the end. With this Peds class, I had to constantly be striving for just passing, which was stressful itself.

It's only so much studying you can do before you hit a brick wall and your brain can't hold another sentence. I get like this at the end of every semester.