13 Things to Do Instead of Preparing for Finals

Getting in the “finals” mode

Finals? What is she? Reading Period at Harvard is technically supposed to be about studying for finals, but since we're here for a good time (and not a long time), here's a list of things to do instead of catching up on those five lectures you missed before taking your three-hour final: 

1. Spend three hours making your “semester recap" Instagram post (yes, I'm looking at all of you aspiring influencers).  

2. Go on a Harvard Outing Club or self-planned hike to temporarily escape from your final Gov papers and random Gened exam.

3. Attend free student arts productions.

4. Spend the whole day making a list of where to spend your $130 in BoardPlus that you haven’t used all year.

5. Daydream about your summer. Oh, the possibility to travel. How am I going to decorate my summer room on campus? What is my crush doing this summer? Should I text them?

6. Adopt a bad habit. Is it too late to catch up if I reinstall TikTok?

7. Become a coffee addict. It’s been a whole semester of healthy habits. Why continue now?

8. Confidently invite yourself to another House's study break or Open House and eat all their food. Tutors are exhausting their semester-ly budgets, so the food options are abundant.

9. Tidy up. This includes deep-cleaning your dorm room, dumping out all expired food, doing ALL of your laundries from 3 weeks ago, and folding it properly. 

10. Catch up with that friend you promised to “let's grab a meal” 100+ times in passing since the beginning of the semester.

11. Binge-watch a whole series on Netflix.

12. Scramble to finish all your late comp assignments (for The Crimson, in my case *cough cough*).

13. Conclude that you will wake up early tomorrow to write that Gov paper or study for the GenEd exam (good luck! I believe in you!).

We see that you have a packed agenda of things to do. But don't beat yourself up for being horrible procrastinators. We’ve all been there! After all, there needs to be a balance between studying for exams and having any form of life, am I right? If you struggle to deal with the horrific final exams mentally, reframing them as your ___ week (with blanks being the only activities that you do, e.g. sleeping, formals, eating, or not showering). There is only one more week, and you will never see those finals again! Good luck and see you all on the flip side.