So finals week is closing in on us, crunching our work into huge balls of stress that overload our bodies, and kill every motivation to study, and to apply what we learned in class. We’re dying, aware that we’re becoming living corpses, yet so scared of becoming zombies that we’re looking at articles like these in order to stave off that state.
Don’t be scared; with these tips, you’ll only be half a zombie, as opposed to the full zombie that you will become if you didn’t read any such articles. You’ll still be exhausted—if you study hard, that’s a given—but you’ll be less tired, and more confident about your results. That being said, onto the first tip!
Tip Number One—always break up your work. Let’s say it’s Sunday, and you know you have a final essay due Friday. You also know that you won’t have time to devote the full day to writing it—at least, not without skipping classes, or spending money on energy drinks. In order to make yourself less stressed about it, break up the work. Work on it an hour on two on Sunday, an hour or two on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; that way, you can edit your work on Thursday, and submit it on Friday, with the full confidence that you have given it your all. Not only will you have more time to edit your work, and make it better, but you would also be less stressed. If you make the work smaller, you’re far less bound to see the essay as this big intimidating monster, and more of a manageable pet; therefore, you’re less likely to be stressed.
Tip Number Two—Plan realistically. Planning to sit and learn for three hours, while knowing that you can only study for an hour before your attention span wanders off, is not going to be effective. It doesn’t take into account who you are, and what is best for you as a student; you’re more likely to become stressed this way, as you’re stretching yourself past your limit. Therefore, if you plan to study for an hour, take a half hour break, and then study for another hour, it would be much more effective, as you would utilize your study strengths, and challenge yourself, without going too far, and stretching yourself too thin; also, you’re recharging your battery this way, and you always study better on a recharged battery, than on an empty one.
Lastly, Tip Number Three—Try to divide time between assignments. You’re much more likely to feel overwhelmed if you see each assignment as a big monster that needs to be conquered on its own, and that clash with each other. If you try and break down each assignment, devoting equal amounts of time to both—let’s say, one hour for that essay, and another hour for that exam, and a third for that portion of a group project—you’re going to be less intimidated by the amount of work that you have. They’ll be less like the Hydra, less like giant worms, where the minute you cut off one part, another, taller head grows in its place. Instead, they’ll all be different levels of done, and you’ll be less stressed, because you won’t see them as such big chunks.
All in all, everything depends on mindset. If you don’t see the work as stressful, or as big, you won’t treat it as big, and thus, you’ll get less stressed about it. You’ll be able to complete your assignments with a clear head, sleep better, and maybe even feel better about the quality of the work that you put out. And even if you don’t do well this time around, you’ll still have an invaluable tool for managing stress, and workloads that you can bring to whatever workplace you are at.