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October 22, 2023

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE STRESS OF BEING A STUDENT

Stress at school is inevitable and therefore you are not an exception. Your success can be measured on how you are going to respond to the many different pressures that will come your way as your learning in school progresses

In addition to school stresses are peer pressures and high expectations of your family. Get all the info you need here.

This is true for all students; the only difference is the individual responses of students in coping with complete stress. To reduce the instances of being stressed at school, follow the steps below and see how they will benefit you.

The Basics

You may want to develop different approaches out of these guidelines to come up with a more effective solution.

  1. Stay organized. This is one big factor that can help you to stay in control of your time and activities. Customary tasks will allow you to adjust your time in advance if a certain situation happens right before the scheduled tasks. Therefore, the stress of cramming can be avoided.
  2. One way of eliminating stress is by exercising daily. There’s no other way to stay fit above all the stresses than proper exercise and complete rest. Give at least 15 to 20 minutes daily for a good exercise and you will surely feel the difference.
  3. No matter how frenzied your schedule is, be sure to get enough sleep daily. This can help you combat illnesses including all types of worries and tensions.
  4. Strive to stay calm even on frantic situations. Giving at least one hour of relaxation per day is enough to allow stress to get out from your system. Try to listen to your favorite music or watch a good movie to release stress. A long steamy bath can also be a good option if possible.
  5. Have fun! It is not a big loss of your time to allow yourself to blend with your friends for a fun breather.

What Causes Stress At School

Basically, what causes stress at school is the threat of getting a failing grade. This is true to all students regardless of their age. Yes, stress is not just a thing for adults. Even grade school kids may experience stress at school because they also undergo the same phases as those in college.

Stressors

There are some other causes of stress at school aside from maintaining good grades. It normally comes in different forms per individual but the signs and effects are quite the same.

Social issues and peer pressure

A lot of students find it difficult to cope with peer pressure. Some are very concerned about how others perceive them to be and therefore they would like to project themselves as someone they know is more pleasant to others. The main reason is that they don’t want to be judged negatively by other people. This is also the reason why a lot of teenagers resort to many different vices like drugs, sex, alcohol and more, because by not doing these things they may lose their friends.

Parent’s expectations

One of the greatest stresses of students is the fear of not meeting their parents’ expectations. There are parents who do not give enough freedom, flexibility and support to their children in terms of school matters. They are the ones who will decide what course and what school their children must enroll in without asking their opinion and considering their interests.

Appearance

In school, especially in high school level, appearance does matter. Your hairstyle as well as your fashion sense will certainly build your social image. Therefore, if you can’t afford such clothing and unable to wear that cool hairstyle you’re not in. Deprived students will then feel awkward and ignored which will eventually lead to low confidence and depression.

Hormonal change due to Puberty

This is pertinent to teens that are going through puberty stage. In this phase, they will feel a lot of changes in their bodies. The thing is that some teens will develop quicker than the others and those that are left behind may feel insecure and unhappy in the presence of good looking kids. This is also the stage where some kids will come to know their gender preferences which will eventually become their greatest stress if the society is not that warm in accepting their sexual preferences.

Stay Organized

In school, you have to stay organized in both your scholastic and extra-curricular activities in order to not miss a single thing. Being organized will help you become a well-rounded person. It is one of the essential skills that you need to develop in order for you to succeed in school and life in general.

Keep Things Neat

If you are well organized you will be able to see things clearly and widely, giving you a good control over your time. Therefore, you can manage all your responsibilities, meet deadlines, and satisfy your social life. Here are the things that you can do to stay organized despite your crazy schedules.

Use a handy planner. It is best to use a planner where you can write all your activities, assignments, schedules, important contacts, phone numbers and addresses. Your planner should come in handy so that you can easily check and update it, just make sure though that you have it with you all the time.

In addition, if you want to show up in your classes well prepared and ready for a good class discussion, you have to buy your books before your classes starts. This will help you to have advance learning and therefore you can avoid juggling of schedules to accommodate one activity and the other. Also, being prepared will help you to gain confidence and gives you a sense of having control over complicated things which is expected to happen as the semester progresses.

Develop a beneficial routine. For instance, assign a specific study time every day and make sure to stick with it. It will be hard in the beginning but you will surely be able to adjust. Apparently, it is for your own benefit and therefore there is no reason why you won’t be able to do it. However, while academic activities are important, don’t forget to have regular quality time for physical health, pleasure and personal relationships with friends and family. Remember, successful people are well rounded people.

Lastly, be sure to organize your stuff as it would benefit you sooner or later, especially in the moments of panic because of an upcoming exam or deadlines. You may want to use color coded marks and folders to arrange your notes and papers. Also, make sure to have a clean and distraction free study table if you want to do things as efficient and as fast as possible.

Keep A Planner

In any situation, a poor organizational skill is one of the reasons why people fail to achieve their goals. This is because when you are not organized in thoughts and in action, it is very likely of you to mess up because you fail to do one thing before you move on to the next significant task.

Organization Is Key!

One way to stay organized at all times is to use a practical planner. It will not only remind you of your assignments, but it will also let you work in an orderly way because you will be compelled to work on a schedule. This is the reason why it has become a vital tool for many people who want to succeed in achieving their goals, whether or not it is personal or professional goals. As a student, you also have your own share of workloads. Therefore, keep your planner with you as your guide for more organized activities.

Of course, planners are made to be followed daily or else it wouldn’t be called a planner if it will not function as your daily guide. Hence, it is very important that you choose a planner that will suit to your needs and requirements. On that note, make sure to take time in finding the most fitting planner for you. One thing that you may want to consider is the size and the form of the planner. Avoid huge planners because you may not be able to bring it at all times, thus its purpose will be defeated. A simple and handy planner works best.

Make sure to use the planner regularly both in morning and at night. Fill it will clear to do’s with corresponding timeframes for you to follow and at the end of the day, remember to update it and make some notes when necessary.

For your to-do list, make it a habit to create a reminder either a day or a week before the deadline, whichever works best for you. To do that, you can make use of colored stickers that you can stick on the right page of your planner to warn you of an upcoming deadlines. It is also best to assign a special color for extremely important due dates.

Do not tear a single page from your planner, even those that have been completed. You can use it as reference, as for sure you have written important information such as names, contact numbers and more. Most importantly, you can reuse effective ways and means for your future undertakings.

Use Journaling

Journaling is the simplest way to record and assess your personal development at school. By simply putting your thoughts into writing, you will have a clear grasp of your visions, which are not likely visible to you if you did not record.

Keep A Record

For a student like you, it is best that you will make use of personal journals to record your understanding about your experiences, subject matters and other activities that contribute to your professional and personal growth.

Some would say that journaling is the most complex method of recording changes and insights because it involves a lot of precise details, aside from the fact that it should be maintained regularly to see significant changes in your personal and academic life. However, while this is true to some students, many have said that journaling helped them become more organized and at the same time focused on the things they considered important for their development.

Furthermore, in a student’s perspective journaling is important because it will allow them to understand what they really want. Unless you know who you are and what you want to achieve, you will not be able to understand why exactly you are doing what you are doing or why are you studying public health instead of literature.

Another benefit of using a journal is that you will be able to see the areas that you need to improve. Basically, you will know which subject needs more of your comprehension and whether or not you need to improve your confidence. Your journal will work hand in hand with you in your journey towards achieving your goals.

Intensive journals will allow students to reach their full capacity at their own pace and time. It systematically induces inner power that allows them to unleash their full potential even without them knowing it. It just comes out naturally.

Don’t Get Behind In Your Work

For students, it is best to never get behind in any work to be able to focus more on studies instead of troubleshooting messy schedules and beating series of deadlines. In most cases, the reason why most students are unable to keep up with their workloads is because they work according to their mood and interest.

Stay On Track

The secret is that, once you start working your energy will flow naturally and when you let it flow, you are unstoppable. However, it also works in the same way when you choose to slouch and do nothing. Once you start postponing things and become idle, your energy will decrease and adapt to your current state. Unless you push yourself back to the working state, you will remain idle and unproductive.

There are things that you can do to avoid being trapped in the middle of nowhere and become unproductive. Make use of these guidelines to avoid getting behind with your work. It is only hard at the beginning but eventually when you keep on keeping on, you will find the courage and the will to get going. Here’s what you can do:

  1. Start a routine. It is effective when you want to discipline yourself to work in harmony with your schedule. If you will not establish a routine, chances are you will give in to the lure of different distractions and eventually fail.
  2. Do not try to do something else before doing your scheduled task. There is a big possibility that you will get distracted, especially if what you are going to do is infuriatingly difficult. To avoid this from happening, stick on your routine and plan and you’re good to go.
  3. Stay active. Remember, an object at rest will remain at rest unless an external force acts upon it. Therefore, you need to stay in motion in order to finish what you have started because if you will let your mood get in the way you will probably stop and stay at rest until something will stir your interest to start working again.
  4. Don’t give up. Every one of us has our own story of failure and success. You are not an exemption. Therefore, if you ever fail don’t stop there. Pick up your pieces and move again. Transform your greatest failure into a big time success. The key is, Never Give Up!

Make Sure To Prioritize

In college, things are getting more complicated compared to high school. Therefore, prioritizing things is very important in order to know which task needs to be attended first and which one should be the last. By doing this, you are likely to beat important deadlines without losing control of your time.

Know What’s First

Furthermore, the skill of arranging and ranking things according to their importance is what sets some successful students apart from the average. Student who know how to prioritize are likely to excel on their respective classes because they take full responsibility of their tasks and thus they have a good control over it.

Compared to students who are not thinking about taking full responsibility over their studies, you will observe that they are more inclined to skip classes or go to the bar instead of studying. On that note, to help these students achieve their goals in school, they have to learn how to prioritize things and stick to it. Here are some guidelines on how to prioritize things effectively.

It is best to prioritize your health as without it, you will never become effective on anything that you do. Take time to exercise daily and avoid stressing yourself out especially on insignificant things. Remember that successful people take care of themselves above all things.

Prioritize your studies first before partying and socializing. In order for you not to give in to merriment, whoop and grooving you have to create a concrete plan with specific goals that you need to meet daily so that you will feel more obligated to complete it prior to any sort of entertainment and fun.

You may want to categorize your activities to rank your tasks according to their importance. This method will not deprive you of having a life; instead it will help you manage your time properly so that you will have more spare time for your personal development including socialization. There are two general categories that you can use.

Category 1 – Those that are Important and urgent

List down all your tasks and since everything seems to be important, choose the most urgent. Common sense will tell you what those things are and be sure to rank them accordingly. Once you’re done categorizing, make sure to assign proper scheduling.

Category 2 – Those that are important but not that urgent

From your list, identify which one are equally important but not that urgent. While these tasks are definitely not the most urgent, you still need to allocate a chunk of time to gradually complete the task in order to ensure to hit the deadline.

Speak To School Mentors If Needed

In big universities, it is very unlikely for the professors to recognize your needs and go to you to ask if you need some mentoring. It is your responsibility as a student to seek professional help from your mentors and professors if you think that you need it. Speak to them so that you will be given proper academic advice.

Don’t Be Shy

For graduate students, a number of academic advising is given in different ways within the duration of the degree program and the format may vary according to the curriculum. However, a lot of students are reluctant to speak to their professor especially when the school year has just started. If you believe that you need mentoring, don’t hesitate to approach a member of the faculty to help you with your studies. To guide you with the selection of mentor whom you can study well, here are the things that you can do.

You may begin with self-assessment for you to be able to recognize what you need. This process will let you spot the weak areas of your studies that need some improvement. Consequently, you will then be able to identify who is the best person/mentor who can meet your requirements. You may use the following questions in assessing yourself to come up with a good evaluation. Ask yourself with these questions:

  1. What do I want to achieve in school?
  2. What kind of profession I would really love to pursue?
  3. What are my strengths and my weaknesses?
  4. What are the skills that I need to improve?
  5. What are the trainings that can best support my requirements?
  6. Do I like doing things on my own or with a team?

The next step would be identifying the right person/mentor that can help you with your academic needs. You may want to explore both the familiar and the unfamiliar mentors. If you are not familiar with the professor, you can check his background like his past works, current practices and interest. Also, one best source of information is to speak to advanced graduate students regarding their mentors.

Moreover, take time to attend in different departmental activities to have a grasp of how the members of the faculty interact with the students. If by chance a certain faculty caught your interest after observing the others, get to know them by attending their public presentations. Avoid limitations in selecting a mentor, if you think that they can be of great help to you, enroll in their classes.

Take Healthy Time For Yourself

No matter how busy you are at school or at work, it is imperative that you take time to relax and consider your health before you set yourself into doing more complicated things. As much as you would like to play superman, your body cannot cope up with too many stresses when not properly nurtured. Thus, take time to stay healthy and develop a more responsive body.

Remain Fit

There are few essential things that you must consider if you are serious in keeping yourself as healthy as possible. Number one in the list is eating nutritious and healthy food especially during breakfast. Experts said that a good and healthy breakfast can give you a more stable energy throughout your morning. As a result, the instances of craving for unhealthy food can be reduced.

Drinking enough water daily can also help you stay fit. The best way to refill water loss from the body is to drink half glass of water per hour. This will help your body parts to function properly and your blood to circulate well. Also, taking good quality vitamins will complete the package.

Do not underestimate the power of good sleep. Allowing your body to rest for at least 6-8 hours daily will help you maintain standard weight, healthy heart, alert mind and many more. Combine it with proper exercise; you will see that your body will likely to response effectively against sickness.

Engaging yourself into any physical activity that suits you will help you to stay active and alert the whole day. Therefore, if you want to be productive and effective in what you do, maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising daily.

Lastly, make it a habit to visit your doctor regularly as you will not know when nasty diseases attacks you especially if there is no signs and symptoms. You must see your doctor even before sickness strikes, after all prevention is always better than cure.

The Benefits Of Cutting Down School Stress

Who else in this world would be happy being stressed? Apparently, all of us would like to stay away from any stress as much as possible. But that ambition is next to hopeless. While we are alive, stress can be everywhere and whether we like it or not, we will deal with it.

The Benefits

The same way works in a school setting. A lot of students decided to quit college because of too much stress. Others even commit suicide because they are desperate and unable to cope up with their darkest pressures.

Good thing there are many self-help tools that can be used to eliminate stress while you are striving hard to succeed. Coping effectively with school stress will benefit you so much. Here are a few significant benefits of cutting down school stress.

  1. You will have a good, happier and healthier life.
  2. You will be able to spend more time with your family and friends.
  3. You will be able to have a long and good night sleep.
  4. You will likely to have a better resolution to an existing and forthcoming problem.
  5. Any pain related to being stress will simply go away.
  6. You will feel that you are more motivated to learn new things.
  7. You will be able to notice wonderful small things that you don’t notice when you are stress.
  8. You will surely enjoy life even more and you’ll laugh often than before.
  9. Instances of being irritated to small things can be eliminated because stress and anxiety is no longer felt.
  10. Personal issues and other concerns at school will become more manageable.

Living a stress free life will give you the feeling of serenity in both mind and spirit. Therefore, things become more lighter and easy going. You are more productive and effective when you are not stressed. So take all the necessary steps to get out from a life that is full of pressures and anxiety.

Wrapping Up

School can be quite stressful to attend with all the pressure and deadlines that there are on a daily basis. It can be quite a task to juggle your personal life and your education. Just remember to put the important things first. Although it may seem terrifying to go to college, it is a task that is more than accomplishable if you approach it the right way. Try some of the tips you have just learned and you will be surprised in how quickly your stress levels subside. Enjoy your new stress free life and good luck!

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