A lot of people learn what stress is once they come to college. Deadlines are shorter, assignments are more difficult, and your time is more limited. It’s important that you learn how to handle this stress so your college experience stays enjoyable. Not everybody deals with stress the same so it’s important to find the way that works best for you.
The best way to avoid stress in general is to stay organized. Stress usually comes from being overwhelmed and not knowing what needs to be accomplished. You have to have some way to record what you have to get done. This can be on a planner, a cork or whiteboard, an electronic device, or anything you know that you will be looking at a lot. Your mind won’t be buzzing around everywhere once you know exactly what needs to be done.
Academic stress will most likely be your biggest challenge in college. If you are a freshman, you have just come out of high school where teachers babied you and always made sure you knew every deadline and you also received constant warnings and reminders. In college, professors give you deadlines and expect you to keep those deadlines in mind without reminder. This means assignments can creep up on you easily. This is why it’s important to write down dates as soon as you learn them and keep reminding yourself of them. A lot of students save things until the last minute. This mostly works out fine unless you didn’t take into account that you had 5 million other things due that day or week. If you know you have a lot of things due at one time, at least tackle one of those things earlier. It’s also helpful to take care of subjects that you don’t understand first. You won’t be dealing with constant dread if you tackle the hardest things first. Use your friends, teachers, and tutors as much as possible! I know when I work with a productive friend I end up being more productive because I see them doing work as well.
You’ll also get your share of social stress in school as well. You are trying to keep your life at home together while also creating a new social life at school. Many times just talking to your friends who are away can make you feel a lot better because you’re hearing a familiar voice. It’s hard to focus on academics when your boyfriend or girlfriend just broke up with you or you’re in a fight with a friend. You need to keep your emotions in check and not let your social life interfere with other things. My favorite thing to remove emotional stress is to talk it out with a close friend. My friend and I even started a weekly coffee date during the week to get a break from all the stress of school and get everything off our chests.
Financial stress is also a huge problem for students. College mean adulthood and adulthood means you can’t always rely on your parents to take care of all your money issues. In order to keep these stresses low, stay on top of everything financial. Don’t just rely on your parents or the school to inform you on what to do. It’s more stressful to have a financial problem spring up on you than to know about it in advance. Their are many people at Benedictine that can help you with your account and with scholarships. Use them!
All in all, if you’re not stressed in college, you’re probably doing something wrong :). But it’s still important to manage your stress because it can effect you severely in the long run physically and mentally. I’ll end with a website that gives you a free foods that relieve stress!