Stress week is April 14-21 of this year and the goal of this is to inform people about the effects of stress and how to deal with it. One of the major factors of stress is time management and not feeling like you’ve got it all done or even have enough time. I know that stress is a big part of our lives and it can be hard figuring it out.
When I first started college last year, I was unsure of what the following months would bring. I had always been good with school, so I came to college with an overly confident attitude. It wasn’t until the end of my first semester during finals week that it all hit me.
I was pretty good in all my classes, and I understood most of the material. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was the fact that there was so much homework. I had heard that college was a time to meet new people, to find out who you are and what you want to do with your life. That took up most of my time and when I finally got around to homework, it was last minute and not as well done as it could have been. This was the start of the problem.
I wasn’t sure how to manage my time properly when I was out in the world alone. In high school, it was all planned out for me. I had friends in some of the same classes I was in so it was a lot easier to keep track of the homework. In college, my friends had different classes and different schedules so it was up to me to account for myself and that was hard for me.
When I finally figured out how to keep up with time, it was too late to turn things around. I was staying up till 4 in the morning, and the stress was killing me. Some nights I couldn’t even sleep because I was worried about tests. I was drinking coffee and energy drinks, anything that was supposed to make me stay awake. The stress was eating me alive so much, I couldn’t even concentrate on what I was reading and so I ended up not doing as well as I could have in the final exams.
I am now in the second semester of my Sophomore year and I am still working on how to schedule things out. I am not perfect. I still stress about little things, like if I have a test every day for three days. I have become more aware of when to study for each class so that I can do as well as I possibly can. I’m figuring out how to carve out enough time to still have a social life and join different clubs and have a job.
I am not saying that my life is not stressful; there are points where I do not think I can do anymore. But I have learned to deal with it better. I just take a couple deep breaths, go for a walk, or watch a show on Netflix for 30 minutes just to clear my head. Sometimes I will play a game on my phone to give myself some time to breathe and not feel as stressed as I was. I really hope that I do not get back to that point where I am staying up all night, not knowing how to handle my stress or my time.