What to do When You’re Stressed about School

Feeling some angst as you try to muck your way through the rest of your school year? Here are 5 of the best ways to deal with the stress…and ensure success.

As I write this, my husband stows away in his office, poring over thickly written, tedious textbook. This, alternated with keystrokes pounded at a furious rate on his Mac, in an effort to meet the newest stringent deadline.

His jaw tightens, his headache expands…voluminous aching to ooze over and cover massive workload, like a slab of bread dough rising on the counter, perhaps.

He is among the many employed full time while working on a college degree. Specifically a master’s degree, for him.

The combination is enough to yield a bakery’s worth of headaches.

Whether you’re working on your master’s degree or on your very first post-secondary degree, it’s undeniable the level of stress exacted on you.

You need some ways to cope and thrive in the midst of the struggle.

Here are 5 of the best ways to deal with the stress that overwhelms you…

What to Do When You’re Stressed about School:

1. Lean on your closest relationships

There can be a temptation to hole yourself in some silent room and furiously pen your academic assignments until you waste away into an exhaustive oblivion.

This is not a pretty picture. But the temptation is there, especially if you feel you’re short on time or aren’t performing to your (or your professor’s) desired expectations.

When you want to pull out your hair or you feel you can barely drag your weary soul off the floor of your room –

Remember you are loved.

Don’t neglect those people in your life who have been your closest companions.

Pick up the phone, send a help me text, walk into the next room for a hug –

Whatever it takes –

Unburden your soul upon another. Or take some time just to catch up. Laugh together.

You are created to need a source upon which to lay your burdens (Gal 6:2).

2. Bridge Communication with teacher and classmates

Make sure to keep up good lines of communication with your professor and other classmates, as needed.

Beware the danger of trying to go it alone, a one-man act on a deserted island.

Professors like to see that their students are putting forth effort. Don’t hesitate to clarify exactly what it is your teacher wants on a project, how they recommend you study for an exam, etc. The more you open up a conversation, the more comfortable you’ll feel with the syllabus, the better you’ll understand what’s expected of you, and the more you’ll feel supported.

And what about your classmates? if you’re really having a time of it and know of someone doing exceptionally well, how valuable could it be to get some hints on how they’re studying?

3. Don’t procrastinate. Instead, cultivate the Habit of Attention.

Can’t stress enough the need to not procrastinate.

So tempting to do… when you’d rather watch a fun movie, go on a walk, spend time with friends –

And your schoolwork beckons, “Come here. Stay awhile. Spend the next 3 hours pounding your books, your head…”

The prospect of working on your studies is anything but alluring.

We’ve all done it, though, and we all know it. And what happens?

What starts as dread continues as dread.

The more you put off what you don’t want to do,
the more the dread of it grows.

None of us like the gnawing feeling of something pertinent left undone in our schedule.

But the feeling when we finally finish the thing we shrunk from?

Better.

We feel a load lifted, a burden shorn away.

We feel the stress reduced.

Rather than always trying to avoid the inevitable, we need to cultivate the habit of attention.

Habits, in essence, are intended to make life easier. We are creatures of habit. Put in the effort to discipline yourself. Train yourself to focus your attention on the studies at hand, to do this regularly, and your work times will be concentrated fruitfulness, allowing for more rest/free time.

Perseverance is key.

Maintaining a habit of attention is better in shorter bits – especially when you’re first starting off. Make your times of study shorter (only when you can) and gradually lengthen them over time as you see success.

4. Take needed breaks.

Especially when you’re in a long stretch of studying, pushing to finish a project or prep for a test, be wary of a familiar school enemy –

Burnout.

Take breaks when you need them and as you need them. You’re not some kind of Energizer bunny that can just keep going, going, going. You’re going to hit the best potential for success and lower your stress when you take breaks now and then to recharge, refuel…you gain the energy and stamina to then keep on going.

5. Take care of yourself – sleep, nutrition, exercise

You don’t have a lot of time.

I get it.

Imagine being the parent of 4 – going on 5 – kids, and working a full time job in conjunction with school.

Life is busy!

But it cannot be so busy that you scrap self-care.

Once you do that, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak.

Think of yourself as a machine – not in the sense that you’re going to produce massive amounts of work in robotic fashion (though you may already feel that) – but in the sense that you need to be maintained well in order to function well.

You need to be that well-oiled machine. The shiny car whose owner upkeeps regularly in repairs and maintenance.

Not the one who developed an oil leak, resulting in an empty tank and a seized engine.

Not a pretty sight.

How many hours of precious sleep are you savoring each night?

When you get the rest you need (most need 7-8 hours, HSP’s need more), many crucial things take place: your cells have had time to repair and enable healing, the body restores it’s energy and releases necessary molecules, nerve cells reset, and the brain rids itself of toxic waste.

Studies show getting the necessary amount of sleep helps you perform at your peak and feel alert and awake. A student who gets less than 6 hours for two weeks is akin to someone who hasn’t slept for 48 hours and perform worse on memory and motor tasks than those students who did get enough sleep.

Adequate sleep is crucial to your health and well-being,
as well as how you feel and perform in school.

When you pump your body full of vitamins and minerals via fresh veggies and fruits, and seek out protein and good fats everyday, you’ll notice a difference in your productivity, the way you feel, your energy level, and even a disappearance of mental fog/confusion.

In fact, big time positive changes begin occurring as early as 20 minutes after eating healthy.

When you take time each week to get your body going and your blood pumping, you release feel-good endorphins that affect your mood and energy significantly.

Exercise is an amazing stress reducer.

There are always caveats to these guidelines. Sometimes you’ll find you need to pull an all-nighter or take a week off of exercise or want to reward yourself with a sugary glazed doughnut.

What’s important is that these are exceptions and not norms.

Follow this wise path to be on top of your schooling and take good care of yourself – and your school stress will be eons below where it was.

Enough said.