By Puteri An Nur
The semester break has just started which means that students will have plenty of time to relax after having faced a hectic semester. However, instead of laying around and becoming a couch potato, students can use their time fully and usefully to do some of the activities as listed below during the break.
- Updating your resume
Many of us have heard of the app ‘LinkedIn’. It is one of the top networking site which enables people to search for jobs or internships, create professional relationships and improve their skills for career advancement.
On LinkedIn, users are able to update their profile, which acts like an online resume as users are able to include their academic/non-academic achievements in their profile. This will help users to market themselves to other companies or organisations which may be interested in hiring them.
So, if you have never heard of LinkedIn, I suggest that you create an account and update your resume now!
- Organising
If you have been putting off the idea of organising due to your busy schedule, this is the time for you to start organising.
Instead of hoarding your unused items such as your clothes and books, donate them to your local thrift store or orphanage so they can be reused. (A reminder to myself as well…) After all, you would be surprised to experience the beautiful feeling after organising your closet or bookshelf.
According to a study carried in Personality and Psychology Bulletin, our environment has an impact on our mood and health. When our environment is not tidy, it increases our stress hormones which leads to stress and even worse, depression.
Therefore, it is important that we take some time to declutter our unwanted items and be more organised.
“At the end of the day, being organised is about having more time for yourself, and enabling you to live a more balanced life,” says Eva Selhub, M.D., author of “Your Health Destiny: How to Unlock Your Natural Ability to Overcome Illness, Feel Better, and Live Longer”.
- Do some reading
You must be wondering, “Why should I read more books during my semester break after having to read a lot of university required textbooks during the previous semester?”
Before you fall into the loophole of thinking that it is a bad idea, you should think about the benefits that you can get from cultivating the habit of reading.
Firstly, it is found that reading helps to strengthen your brain. Using functional MRI scans, researches found that reading activities are part of the brain that respond to physical sensations like movement and pain. As reading increases, more parts of the brain will be activated.
Furthermore, reading will help you build your vocabulary, which will help you when it comes to writing and communicating with others. Considering the fact that having “soft skills” and being able to communicate efficiently are the requirements to land you a job these days. Reading and improving your vocabulary input for long run does not sound bad after all!
- Exercising
The idea of exercising may already seem like a chore but you cannot deny the fact that exercising does have plenty of benefits. As a student, it is important for us to take good care of physical health as well.
By exercising, it will help to promote our brain development which enables us to retain information easily when studying.
Next, exercising also allows us to concentrate better in class. Researchers found that a 20 minutes of exercise before classes begin will help us focus better as it allows blood to flow to the brain, which then fires up the neurones and promotes cell growth, especially in the hippocampus, which is the most critical part of learning.
Last but not least, exercising will help boost your mood. Having lots of assignments can put a strain to your mental health, so exercising can be a short escape for your mind to relax and unwind. As the professor of psychology and psychiatrist, Richard Davidson once said, “The key to a healthy life is having a healthy mind.”
So, these are some of the activities that you can opt for if you are looking forward to be more active and to keep yourself busy during this semester break. Take care of yourself and have a pleasant semester break! ***