We are well into the semester and with midterms approaching, students are starting to get antsy. Sure, the weather was nice for a while, but we know that good weather can’t last forever.

It’s still only February after all. Before you go stir-crazy in your room waiting for winter to be over, here are some small tips you can use to maintain your sanity until spring break.

Countdown the days – literally.

Make a gigantic calendar for the next couple months leading up until spring break on March 12. Get creative with it and use a lot of color, because there’s no doubt you’re going to be staring at it every day and night until break.

When you’re done making it appealing, write in all of your important dates (tests, papers, projects etc). When you’re done with that, stop thinking about class for a minute and write down all the fun campus activities that are surely going on the next few weeks.

As each day comes to an end, you will be able to cross off the day on the calendar (obviously). But what you don’t realize is how much quicker the weeks will seem to go when you can physically cross them off. If you don’t believe me, try it for the rest of February; you will be surprised.

Stay ahead

It’s so easy for college students with the winter-blahs to use their free time for napping instead of hitting the books. My advice? Don’t. When you start getting behind, the days will only seem to last longer, and your work will pile up so high you’ll feel you won’t ever get it done. Do your work; do extra work. Do work ahead of time and it will be Spring Break before you know it.

Use your weekends

This one I probably won’t have to tell you twice – but take advantage of your weekends. There’s only two nights of the week where you can slack off completely and get away with it. Hang out with friends, see a movie, go to Des Moines – you can do a variety of exciting things that just aren’t suitable for a Wednesday night.

Use your weekends to the fullest because Monday morning rolls around much too quickly these days. Besides, with all that extra studying you’ve surely been doing outside the classroom, you might just need these last two weekends to ‘practice’ for all the laziness/partying you’ll take on over break.

Minimize the stress

Stress is a common part of being a college student, and if it gets out of hand it will take over your life. The key to lasting until spring break means minimizing the stress load as much as you can. Whether this means taking a 20-minute walk around campus in the fresh air or indulging in some retail therapy, the methods are up to you. Just make sure you take that well deserved relaxation time every couple of days to keep your head above water.