Four healthy habits to get you through exams, essays, and assessments.

University of Leeds
3 min readJun 8, 2023

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Assessment season can be a difficult time. One way to make it a little bit easier is to establish a set of healthy habits to help you power through. Here are four healthy habits that you can add to your routine to help make this time just a little less stressful.

Student sat at their laptop, writing and smiling.

Have days off

As much as it’s important to work hard, it’s even more important to look after yourself and take regular breaks and have days off. Having time to rest, away from work and away from a computer screen can do wonders for you. It will help decrease your stress levels, and increase your energy levels and motivation.

Without breaks, it is very easy to experience burnout. To avoid this, schedule in days off from doing any work or revision. Two days off a week would enable a perfect work-rest balance.

Additionally, it’s important to schedule regular breaks into your working days. For example, every 45 minutes of working, take a 15 minute break to rest and refresh your brain in order to help you stay productive, motivated and healthy. At this time, it’s best to try and limit screen time as much as possible. Instead, maybe chat to your friends, go for a walk or get some fresh air.

Exercise

A person out running.
Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash

Another great habit to add to your routine during assessment time is exercise. Exercise helps to improve brain health, as well as increasing motivation and productivity. Additionally, it boosts energy levels, enhances your mood, reduces stress and improves sleep quality.

Exercise doesn’t have to be excessive, even a 20 minute walk a day will benefit you. Instead of grabbing the bus to the library, why not walk! Or, when you take your breaks from work, schedule in a walk or quick yoga session.

Have a balanced diet

A bowl of healthy food: salad, egg, avacado, tomato.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

When you’re busy with exams, it can be easy to live off snacks and energy drinks. This is okay every once in a while. But, maintaining a healthy balanced diet will ensure you remain focused, productive and healthy throughout the assessment season.

To make this a little easier for you, you could try meal prepping! Having an hour every few days where you prepare balanced meals will not only save you time, it will save you money and will increase your mental stamina throughout revision sessions. Some great brain foods to eat consist of eggs, berries, vegetables, fruit and fish. All these foods will elevate brain stimulation. Additionally, while you may feel you need an energy drink or a coffee every now and again, make sure you don’t overdo it with caffeine. Stay hydrated and drink lots of water.

Develop a support system

Group of students sat socialising.

We all know this can be a difficult and overwhelming time. It’s essential that you surround yourself with people who can support you. Confide in friends who are in similar situations, speak to family members about your ups and downs, and check in with others.

Spend time with friends or family on your days off or during your breaks. It’s easy to forget about socialising during assessment time and to neglect the people around you because you are so focused on revising. But, investing time into the people around you will make you feel better mentally and improve your mood.

Remember, you’re not alone. You can always seek support through the University counselling and wellbeing services and LUU help and support services.

Written by Holly Phillips

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University of Leeds
University of Leeds

Written by University of Leeds

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