It's that time of year: Thanksgiving and even Halloween have passed, leaving a long and often bleak stretch of ever-increasing assignments, midterms and final exams to get through before Christmas. At this time of the semester, it's easy for students to become overwhelmed and so stressed out that the situation seems hopeless. Here are some tips for relieving a little of that stress and getting back on track with studying.
Stress Relief
Exercise. Physical activity is good for the body and for mental health. Plus getting out and away from the house, the center of your tension, will ease your stress. Go for a walk, visit the the gym or swim at a nearby rec centre.
Hug your teddy bear. Really. It may sound silly, but squeezing a favourite stuffed animal is guaranteed to make you feel a little better.
Take the time to make a good dinner. Choose a favourite dish or recipe – comfort food – and go to the grocery store to pick up the necessary ingredients. Then take the time to put it together into a proper meal. You might even want to share with your roommate(s) for a little social interaction. This will take you away from your desk and let you focus on something else for a while, resting your eyes and using your hands. It also provides you with a full meal, which will help you to study better and stay healthy.
Be disciplined! It’s hard, but if you don’t manage to strike a balance between study and rest you will find yourself sick, entirely overwhelmed and unable to cope or too far behind on your work to catch up. Remember to take breaks and to take care of yourself, but be sure to leave enough time to do your work. Remember, this will all be over before you know it, and you’ll be home sleeping till noon and stuffing yourself with Christmas goodies.
Study Tips
Take a break. It’s important to clear your mind, give it a chance to rest. Studies show that most people will only absorb information for about 45 minutes at a time. Study for 45 minutes, then take a 15 minute break to do something entirely different: make tea, go for a quick walk, have a snack, listen to part of a podcast, call a friend, call your mom. Then get back to work.
Study away from home. Find a quiet place on campus to study, a corner away from crowds, where you aren’t likely to run into friends and start chatting. Or, look for a coffee shop near school or your house that allows space for customers wishing to read or study. Set a goal that you will reach (X assignments finished, X amount read, X chapters reviewed, etc.) before going home.
Shut down your email. If you use an email client on your computer, close that program. If you use hotmail or another web-based email program, close your internet browser. In fact, close your browser anyway. Set a couple of specific times during the day that you will check your email, Facebook, etc., and afterwards, close your browser again.
Avoid the television. It’s way too easy to say you’ll just watch this one program, and then remain glued to the couch for the next two or three hours. Other study distractions (except for the internet) aren’t nearly so dangerous.
Focus on one thing at a time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do, the number of papers, the volumes of research. Don’t panic. Work on one thing at a time. Your concentration and the quality of your work will improve if you’re not worrying about three or four projects at once.
Remember at all times to eat well, keep hydrated, and get as close to enough hours of sleep as you can. The last thing you need is to get sick in the middle of exam period, and your papers and exams will all go better if you are healthy and well rested.
Natalia Heilke - Natalia Heilke is in her final term of a creative writing degree at the University of Victoria. Her focus is on short fiction, but she ...
