It can be hard to keep up on life when there is so much to do with so little time. Test these scenarios to find your personal causes of stress and use these tips to help eliminate the problem.
1) It is a Thursday night; you have tests and a project due the following school day. Your friends have invited you to go see a movie. You decide that you will have enough time to finish your project and squeeze in a little studying when you get home from the movie. But when you come home and begin your project, you realize that it won’t be an easy task to finish the project and fit in some studying. You stress about the outcome of your tests when you finally decide to go to bed.
When making your own decisions in these situations, remembering to prioritize is the most important factor. Prioritizing will ensure that important assignments are completed before the less important pastimes, eliminating the stress of last minute work.
2) In class your teacher has assigned a 1,000-word essay due the following week. You think to yourself that you will have plenty of time to complete it and will do it over the weekend. When Sunday night comes around, you still have not started it, but it is only 6 p.m. After dinner you start your essay but quickly become tired and begin to regret not starting it earlier. You feel stressed and the essay doesn’t turn out as well as you had hoped it would.
Procrastination may be one of the biggest causes of stress. As soon as we know of an assignment or duty, we must start it right away and do a little of it each day or every other day until it is completed.
“It is important to do what you have to do ASAP, so the stress won’t pile on later,” said high school student Dawn James.
3) There’s always homework on a typical school night. But instead of really concentrating, you let your mind wander, turn on the TV and think about everything but the assignment. When you look at the clock you realize how much time you’ve wasted. So instead of getting the sleep you wanted, your night turns into a late one.
Catch yourself when your minddeviates and refocus your thoughts. This will help you concentrate and work more efficiently.
“Focus, you must focus. It may be one of the most important factors in efficiently completing your work,” said Steve Reno, chief of branch at NASA.
Other tips to eliminate the stress
Nutritional necessity
When we become stressed, our nutritional choices are poor, which actually raise our stress levels. Eating three balanced meals a day can help reduce stress levels.
Tidy turf
When our surroundings are cluttered it causes our minds to be disorganized, too. When this happens, we do not work as fast, and the stress piles on. Keeping a clean environment keeps anxiety away.
Relief through exercise
If there is ever an extra minute away from work; exercise is a great activity to help with stress relief.
Planning ahead
Keeping a planner and designing a daily schedule can be an immense help. It allows you to write down tasks and make a mental note in your head of everything to expect that day.
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