Recently, Tarleton has decided to allow Saturday finals. While some are angry about it-with reason; after all, who would want to cut hours studying for Monday’s finals while taking one final? But on the other hand, you get done with your exams that much faster and get to go home to that sweet tasting Egg Nog or whatever you drink during the holiday season.

But instead of complaining openly about the end of the semester among other things so openly, I suggest another way to put that anger to good use. Instead, please attempt to use the anger towards some motivation. What is something you really want besides failing this semester? Good Holidays, someone you admire to notice you, maybe land a great gig – I don’t know you, but that’s just a few guesses.

Don’t get me wrong, I voted against having a Saturday final myself-only for it to turn into a Saturday final to popular vote. But I am not one to complain – to talk openly at all for that matter, so I just drop it. But, with that said, I offer some kind of studying advice that I’ve come across recently.

Lately, I came across this article that introduced the Pomodoro effect. It was basically a tomato timer that after 25 minutes of studying the timer would go off and you get a 15-minute break of either mindless task, or a video on YouTube that didn’t require you to think. When 15 minutes goes off, you go back to work for another 25 minutes. After 4 sessions of this, you get to take a 30-minute break.

I tried this recently, and it helped some also gave me incentive to tackle some boring tasks, but I digress – get the studying finished and you get rewarded with something more enjoyable. Another part of the Pomodoro effect was if you think of something during the 25-minute session that is unrelated to what you’re focused on it, you write it down on something else and then when you are done, you can go do that thing or something else.

It probably is not the first of its kind, but it’s a start. Instead of being obnoxious and complaining a lot, get it over with – one Pomodoro at a time.