Well, Penn State, it was fun while it lasted! Now that we're more than a month into the semester, the fun isn't necessarily over, but there's a lot more work to be done than there was during syllabus week. With busier weeks approaching, some students might find it hard to adjust to the stressful schedules and tasks at hand. I, for one, am the prime culprit of letting my anxiety get to me during crunch time. Below, I've laid out a few tips that you might find useful for an upcoming stressful week.
Write all of your tasks down
It doesn't matter if it’s a chapter you need to look over for your exam or if it’s a phone call to your mom to discuss an apartment payment. Write absolutely everything that you need to accomplish for the day down. If you want to really kick your organization into overdrive, categorize the tasks into groups of most important to least important so that you’re aware of where to begin (obviously preparing for a job interview would be more crucial than an extra credit assignment for a GenEd class). There are few better feelings than being able to physically check off a completed item on a to-do list.
Find someone on the same boat
Surrounding yourself with individuals who don’t have a week that’s as busy as yours is the recipe for accomplishing 0% of your work. We go to a school with 40,000+ people. Find people in your class, your organization, your residence hall, your apartment etc. that have the same workload as you for the week. It’ll keep you motivated the entire week instead of comparing your workload to your friends with no responsibilities.
Make time for coffee dates
Or lunch dates, or anything you normally do with your friends. I call myself a robot the week of tests due to the fact that I lose all necessity for human interactions. DON’T BE LIKE ME. It’s healthy to take one or two hour breaks a day to hang out with your friends. Breaking your work time into smaller increments will also help you to focus more when you’re actually studying.
Sweat it out
When people say that working out helps relieve stress, it’s pretty easy to overlook it and think that it’s just a rumor. We also also have a habit of thinking that a workout only qualifies as stress relief if it's an one or two hour intense process. That isn’t the case, however. If you’re too busy to set aside time for a full work out, do little things like taking the steps instead of the elevator or speed walk to class. Even taking a 20 minute jog around campus could be the stress relief that you need. Anything that gets your blood flowing and muscles moving is a positive activity during a busy week.
As you can see, you can make a stressful week a lot less stressful with the littlest choices. Remember that you attend college: EVERYONE is stressed at some point and what comes up must come down. I advise you to make the most of it when it's your turn to be busy. We all need busy weeks so that we can appreciate the relaxed weeks that much more.
