College Focus

How to Crush Your Stress

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How to Crush your Stress

Reach out to your campus counseling center. If you are feeling hopeless, please know you can get help. You can call 800-273-8255 24 hours a day. If you know of someone who feels hopeless, please ask him or her to call this number. Stay with them while they call and then bring them personally to your campus counseling center, or call 911.

 

We are devoting this episode to discussing the best methods of reducing your stress as a college student. We are specifically focusing today on your stress from your classes and your workload. There are other sources of stress – relationships, money. We are focused today on your academic work.

 

What happens when you feel overwhelmed by your classes? Maybe you shut down and find it hard to drag yourself out of bed. Maybe you find it hard to focus and concentrate.

 

We have 15 ways to turn this around. These are based on my personal experience and some wonderful research on how the brain responds to stress.

 

So, you have too much to do and too few days left. Perhaps you have a big test, maybe a difficult paper, maybe deadlines for some important work, and then you have other obligations, too. What can you do? Let’s look at 15 practical and effective things you can do now.

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  1. Look at the next 2-5 days. Lay everything that needs to happen on the table. Write it out. Face why you are feeling overwhelmed. Then think carefully about which items are mission critical. Not everything is equally critical.
  • Buy time. Move something off your plate. Switch shifts at work. Petition for an extra 24 hours.
  • Focus on your mind and body. Start with your mind. Avoid the coulda, woulda, shoulda thoughts. Focus on what you can control – your present and your future. Don’t focus on what you did wrong that landed you in this situation. Add a ten minute ritual to your start and end of your day. Begin and end your day with this time of quiet reflection. Call it mindfulness, centering, or prayer. Connect to the infinite and the eternal. Remind yourself that in ten years you won’t care or even remember the events of this week. Get perspective. Think of this time as tuning your instrument.

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    Now, let me tell you what you already know about caring for your body during this stressful time. Get sleep. Sleep is the fuel your brain needs. You brain also needs water and good nutrition. Don’t eat or caffeinate your way out of this crisis. I know what you are thinking – I’m just going to stay up all night and get stuff done. There is a law of diminishing returns. Yes, you will stay up all night. But the truth is you will get little done and what you study will largely not stick in your mind. Instead, protect your sleep. Use exercise, not pizza, as a study break. Eat simply. Wake up and go to bed at the same time each day.

     

    1. Get assistance. Don’t try to do everything on your own. Meet with the TA, convene a study group. One good conversation about what you are dreading is time well spent.   You are speeding up the process of getting stuff done by involving others.
  • Give yourself boundaries. Need to study chapters of chemistry? Confine your notes for all the chapters to one page as you read. Set timers for each task, including the steps of writing.
  • Clear the desks. Have nothing on your work surface except what is needed at that moment.
  • Silence your phone. Try one of the apps, or if you are studying with a friend, switch phones with your friend. Your friend can let you know if there is an emergency.
  • Boost your focus. Use even small amounts of time. Ideally, study in bursts of 45 minutes then take a planned break. Borrow noise cancelling headphones. Choose study music that does not distract you (no lyrics, no fun music). Here’s a link to my favorite study music. No bed studying. Face a blank wall. Use your phone alarm or timer to remind yourself to take a break. See how long you can keep your eyes on the page without lifting them to look around. Bring only the materials with you that you need for that study task.
  • Silence your self-pity.
  • Avoid the temptation to merge studying or writing with entertainment. Know that you will be tempted, even plan for it. You cannot study and do any of the following: watch tv, play games, listen to fun music, do laundry, have comfy surroundings.
  • How to study with a partner. Face the same way, not across the table. Put at least one table between you. Set a time for silent study, then quiz each other also with a time limit.
  • Constantly quiz yourself. Turn headings of chapters into questions, Anki decks, Quizlets, Vocabulary.com.
  • Know your own avoidance habits and bypass them. What do you do when you are avoiding difficult work? Do you do laundry or clean? Leave. Do you check in with friends? Silence your phone. Can’t start until it’s late at night? Find a quiet place or get up and study from 6 to 8 a.m. It will be quiet. Waiting until late night means you are wasting the hours leading up to the late night hours, and still doing damage to your sleep cycle.
  • If you can’t study in your dorm room, where else can you go? Study in your car, find an empty classroom (but be mindful of your personal security), library, café/coffee shop, go where you want to mimic others.
  • Work with a counselor – gain perspective, learn and be accountable for your coping skills. You wouldn’t hesitate to work with a trainer to build muscle or run faster. Why not work with a counselor to build your emotional strength? You will be stronger and better for it.

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