9 Ways to Solve Your Academic Burnout & Ace Your Exams

Academic burnout will have you feeling physically and emotionally hungover without the benefit of any fun memories that led to it all. Rest assured, you’re not the first person struggling with academic burnout and you won’t be the last. Thanks to these tips and tricks, the road to regaining your motivation and peace of mind is a short one. 

Academic burnout doesn’t discriminate, and it’s afflicted even the most dedicated students. From never-ending exhaustion to brain fog and malaise, burnout can wreak havoc not only on your academic career but also on your personal life. And when you’re in the thick of it, it feels like your burnout might last forever.

Thankfully, there are many ways you can take academic burnout out at the knees, and these are some of our favorites.

Part of the difficulty with academic burnout is the vicious cycle you can fall into. You start struggling to perform all your tasks, then get behind on all your work, leading to an out-of-control schedule. Tidying up your day may help you feel more prepared to take on those tasks you were struggling with before.

Giving yourself ample time to finish your work and manage the rest of your day-to-day responsibilities is important! Most people tend to perform better on a regular routine, and implementing a routine surrounding your schoolwork might be the external impetus you need to power through your backlog.

Once you’ve tackled those unfinished tasks, you can work towards getting ahead (a heady accomplishment for anyone dealing with academic burnout).

It’s a great idea to take breaks when you’re working on anything long-term. While some people are the "hunker down and power through" kind of students, you might be holding your brain to a standard it can’t meet. Instead of forcing yourself to belabor over finishing a task you can’t muster the energy to, get up and take a break.

Make sure you fully step away from the work for at least 10-15 minutes. Grab a snack, rest your eyes for a bit, or fold some laundry you've been meaning to get to. Once you’ve given your brain a second to cool down, revisit your work. Hopefully, you’ll feel up to it now that you’ve taken some of the pressure off.

Getting fresh air has so many benefits. The most significant for people suffering from burnout is that it can have a calming effect on your mind and “boost your creativity and problem-solving abilities,” according to UC Davis Health.

Feeling stuck in the burnout spiral and not sure how to escape it? Open a window and let the fresh air wash over you. Or, put on some shoes and step outside. The outdoors is so powerful, in fact, that you don’t even have to do anything. Just stand there, bask, and you’ll get all the benefits Mother Nature has to offer.

Related: 6 Science-Backed Studying Hacks for Acing Exams

When you're experiencing academic burnout, the stress of completing assignments on time and keeping up with your studies can lead to increased isolation. The more time you spend struggling to perform, the more time you have to spend later catching up on your work. This doesn’t leave much room for hanging out with your friends.

But, that isolation may be a contributing factor to feeling overwhelmed. Commiserating with your friends and getting their feedback can be extremely refreshing.

An extremely important thing to do once you admit that you’re really struggling with academic burnout is to reach out to each of your professors or teachers. Visit them during office hours or see if you can set up a time to meet with them and discuss your workload. Generally, professors want to see you succeed and will work to get you up to speed. But they can’t help out with a situation they don’t know is happening.

Not sure what to advocate for? Here are some potential interventions you might want to discuss with your professor:

• Reviewing material after class with your professor
• Sending paper drafts to your professor to have them reviewed
• Asking for extensions on past work
• Asking to rewrite or redo past assignments that weren’t up to par for extra credit
• Seeing if they know of any previous students who could tutor you

Sometimes, the source of your academic burnout is being bogged down on one subject for too long. Some of us just need to be free to jump to and from our interests, and the academic setting doesn’t support that lifestyle. If your creative light feels dim, give it some juice by immersing yourself in a passion project.

If you’re low on time, think of projects or endeavors you could do that benefit your overall major/career path. Thinking of being an elementary school teacher? Plan and host an activity at the local library for kids in the community to participate in.

Related: 11 Fresh Places to Study to Switch Up Your Routine

There’s a reason that people say home is where the heart is. Many young students fight academic burnout and homesickness simultaneously. Petting the family dog and eating a home-cooked meal can work wonders on the soul, and removing yourself from the physical space and all its stressful reminders may be just what you need.

Of course, not everyone has the luxury of being able to drive home on the weekends. If you can’t, find other avenues to explore the comforts of home like cooking yourself a family recipe or watching a movie from your childhood.

One of academic burnout’s worst bedfellows is the overwhelming fear of failure. Naturally, suggesting that you drop a class doesn’t exactly jive with allaying those fears. However, if you’ve tried several other avenues for alleviating your burnout and nothing’s working, then maybe it’s a capacity problem.

Think of yourself like a rubber band. Physics proves that you can only stretch so far before breaking. So, maybe you’ve stretched yourself beyond your limits.

Lightening your load by dropping a class does seem like a drastic step. But sacrificing one class might give you the extra bandwidth you need to ace all of your other ones.

The pressure, stress, sleepless nights, and physical drain that can come from academic burnout isn’t something to just power through. It can be a serious mental load, and you may benefit from talking things out with a mental health professional. Therapists can help you with managing your time and expectations, as well as letting you explore your feelings in a safe space.

There may be other contributing mental health factors that are worsening your academic burnout that need to be addressed, and a mental health professional can get you on the road to diagnosing and treating them.

Academic burnout can rage out of control in just a few weeks. But there’s hope that you can overcome it! Now that you have the tools to fight back, you’ll be able to snuff out its flames in no time.