Posted on by kimberleightommy

The final stretch fatigue

Can you believe we are in the last quarter? We are on the verge of saying goodbye to 2019 and welcoming 2020. This is it, the final stretch, but many people (including myself) are dragging themselves toward the finish line. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, fatigue is a noun defined as ‘weariness or exhaustion from labour, exertion, or stress’ does this sound like you? There is a phenomenon known as ‘end-of-year-fatigue’ where many people have described a feeling of lethargy and a lack of focus as the year comes to a close.

downloadEarlier this year I wrote a blog post on mental health, “We need a break, it’s both of us (but more you than me)”, and I revisited it when writing this post because exhaustion does not suddenly happen, it is usually a slow build-up, a tower of anxieties built on a foundation of stress before your mind and your body tell you ‘enough is enough’. I thought that I was suffering alone until, in typical Kim style, I took to Twitter to share a few funny gifs about my lack of energy and to my surprise, many other academics and students related. Fatigue can be especially tricky as a postgraduate student as we often work throughout the year with little to no breaks, we do not have set semesters or holidays and often work over weekends and during the evening. So, although many people feel this ‘end-of-year-fatigue’ toward November, mine kicked in toward the end of August.

There are many articles which outline how to deal with this fatigue and survive the final push, here are a few of the top tips!

Focus on how far you’ve come

Sometimes in the rush to achieve all our goals, we tend to forget how much we have already accomplished. Everything that has been marked off a checklist is a small victory! Take stock of your year and all you have achieved, you may be surprised at how productive you truly were. This is a good reminder of your progress and helps to motivate you to continue crossing items off your ‘To do’ list

Create a schedule and manage your time

download (1)If you are anything like me, you start the year off as the most organized person and then slowly but surely that turns to chaos somewhere around the middle of the year. This is a good time to fix that, create a schedule and make use of your calendar, set aside time for your work and include breaks as well. Time management is crucial to your success as a postgraduate student and can often help avoid burning out. There are many great apps that can help with this as well, my personal favourite is Trello which helps me keep tabs on what I have done, what I’m currently doing and what I still have to do.

Revisit your goals and set targets for the last push

At the start of the year, we are often ambitious but as I have discovered, life happens and many unexpected obstacles arise. This may have thrown off your initial set of goals and targets, some may have been put on the back burner and some may have been discarded. This is a great time to reassess your goals and targets, be mindful of your time and what you would still like to achieve for the year, there is no shame in shifting things around! We tend to think we are superhuman and that we have to do it all before the clock strikes midnight on 31 December, this often creates even more anxiety.

Take care of your health

Exercising and eating well can sometimes go out the window when you are tired and have UberEats. I am guilty of this too, I am often tired and do not want to cook a healthy meal, instead, I want to eat several chocolates and lay in my bed. This can contribute to your feelings of lethargy, get up and move about, even if it is a short walk or a 30-minute yoga session, it will help you clear your mind and often makes you feel energized.

Create healthy habits

Do you check your emails at midnight? Do you work every weekend? These are all unhealthy habits that contribute to that feeling of being consistently busy and in the end, result in fatigue. Be firm with your time. I will repeat that. Be firm with your time. We all love what we are doing but your time is precious, you cannot and should not devote every waking hour to working! It takes a long time but start breaking these bad habits and replace them with healthier ones. Stick to your working hours, no matter what they are.

Allocate ‘me’ time

This does not need much of an explanation, self-maintenance is important! Take some time to do something for yourself, this could be a day of Netflix in bed or a laptop free day. Allocate time, put it in your calendar so that you do not feel bad because it is a scheduled appointment but with yourself!

Visualise your break!

My wonderful editor added this one in and I am so glad she did! Plan and schedule when your holidays will begin and every now and then look at photos, or make some plans. This might give you something to look forward to and boost your spirits to get you through the last stretch. Please, leave your laptop at home when the day finally comes- do not feel guilted into working on your break!

Seek help if it is needed

If your fatigue is overwhelming and you feel like you are drowning and struggling to come up for air, please seek help. There are many services offered by universities to support student mental health. There is a list of health care providers on the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) that is particularly useful!  

almostthereIt is okay to be tired after a long and productive year, you are not alone and you are not lazy. Sometimes that’s all you need to hear to make the finish line seem just a little closer. You can do it, we will do it together.

 

Posted on by Joyful Mdhluli

Giving back to our communities

The same way we find and feel that mentors are important to us just like Munira discussed in her August blog, I believe that we should do the same for others. Like I also mentioned in my August blog about the importance of finding a support system that will motivate and support us, I also said that after we have found that support system, we should go out there and be someone else’s support system.

I didn’t realize how much of a difference I could make to young kids’ lives until this year when I was more involved in community work. All the previous years I always dedicated some of my time to volunteer work in terms of mentorship programs or open days for high school learners but none of these ever required me to interact with these learners after that one event. This year I made a conscious decision to participate in the efforts of Nka’Thuto EduPropeller, and was actively involved in some of their expos.

Nkathutho

Nka’Thuto is a non-profit organization that was established in 2016 with the objective to spark interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers amongst learners. There is a 7 tier process that is followed that the learners are involved in, the first process is the Activation stage. During this stage, the organization goes to various schools and encourage learners to find problems in their communities. The second process in the programme is the workshop stage. This stage teaches the learners about how to go about conducting research and finding solutions to the problems they have identified in their community. The third is the consultation stage, the learners are giving an opportunity to consult with mentors about their ideas. Thereafter, the internal school level Innovation Expo happens where learners compete amongst their peers. A computer skills workshop is also offered to the learners. The winners of the school level expo then compete in the final innovation expo with other learners from different schools and provinces. The winners from the final expo then proceed to the Entrepreneurship expo pitching competition.

I was involved in the internal school level and the final innovation expos. The feeling that comes with being part of such initiatives is beyond satisfying. Getting the opportunity to interact with the learners, not only about their science projects but also their future plans are just remarkable. Leading up to the final expo round, they invited me to a mentorship session to help the learners prepare for the finals. I was happy to see a whole lot of familiar faces from the previous expos. I was especially ecstatic to have two learners who insisted on having a consultation with me since I was their judge during their school level expo. They were happy to show me that they have implemented my suggestions and wanted to know if there was more I could suggest from what they have done. On the day of the final expo, I made it a point of mine to go have a look at their board and I was truly impressed with the effort they made in improving from their last expo. This was clearly an indication that they were there to learn.

What I am trying to say is that I really believe it is important that us as postgraduate students should be the mentors that we would like for ourselves. The same way we would like mentors to guide and support us, we should also pass this on to others younger than us. Not everyone has the opportunity to meet people who are in the same career path they would like to follow. Take me for example, I did not know that one can have a career in Physics when I was still in High School. So now I make it a point to let the younger learners know that it is possible to have a career apart from the typical careers that they are aware of. During the expo sessions I judged in, I asked most of them what they wanted to do when they finished school. It was interesting because I got a variety of answers ranging from software engineering to being doctors. What gave them hope was that I would even tell them that I knew a couple of people who were in the same career field as their interests.

Nkathutho1

We have a whole generation of young people who are smart that just need mentors to guide them in the right direction. We are part of this generation that needs mentors but let us not forget those younger than us.  We are the mentors that they need, want and should have. We should give more of our time to encourage, motivate and mentor these learners. Let us be their role models, someone for them to look up to and aspire to become.

I am not saying that everyone should start a foundation or organization that helps learners from our communities, from what I have heard, it’s a lot of work. What I am however saying is that if you do come across a foundation or organization that is looking for volunteers, volunteer your time. There is more to giving back to the community than volunteering at a soup kitchen or visiting old age homes and orphanages. Sometimes sharing our knowledge and skills can go a long way in making a difference in someone else’s life. The learners are really looking for someone to inspire and give them hope, be that light at the end of their High School tunnel.