Typical College Stress
Imagine that you are a college student. More specifically you are a college student in the Communication Studies major at West Chester University. Like most college students, you like to go out with your friends whenever you happen to have free time. You probably like going shopping, going for walks into the borough, watching videos on the internet, posting to your social media accounts, and…most importantly, going to parties on the weekend. And again, like most students, you are too stressed to do any of those things. But don’t worry, I am here to help. In this blog, I am going to offer a few tips and strategies to help you make it through college without ripping out every last strand of hair on your head.
Get Your Work Done.
Procrastination. It may seem incredibly obvious at first, but is probably the most important tip I can give you: stop procrastinating. If you’re anything like me, you wait until the night before to do all of your assignments. By waiting until the last minute, you end up having to read 200 mind-numbing pages, a bunch of take-home quizzes, and probably a 10-page paper or two. So, hopefully, by now you have figured out what tip number 1 is going to be.
Do NOT wait until the last second to do all of your school work. Make an effort to do a little bit of work each night. By the end of the week, you won’t stress out about everything that you have due at once. Think about it for a second, would you rather write a page each night of your final paper and having free time on Friday night? Or would you prefer typing up all 10 to 15 pages and frantically attempt to submit the paper at 11:58 pm? Not waiting until the last minute will save you a ton of stress and time as well. A good idea to prevent yourself from procrastinating is to set a weekly schedule in order to allow time each day to get school work done. Don’t forget to put some time in there for things you enjoy too.
Get Sleep.
Sleep is one of the most important tools in any college students utility belt. Have you ever been up till 3 am finishing a paper only to have to wake up for your 8 am class? I have and let me tell you, it is absolutely brutal. By doing this, you’ll be dragging your feet all day or you might fall asleep at some point in one of your classes. That was pretty much my entire high school experience and most of my early college years. So, long story short, try to get as much sleep as possible, ideally between 7 to 9 hours.
Find a hobby or activity
Another important tip I will give you is to do things you enjoy to wind down. Although it’s important to get your work done, it’s also important to involve yourself in a hobby or activity. Try to find something that helps you relax. This could include listening to music, hiking, going into town or binge-watching a show on Netflix. It doesn’t matter what you enjoy doing; the important thing is that you’re relaxing.
How other stressed students cope
When asked, most students said listening to music helped them calm down and made them feel less stressed out. Exercise is also a good stress reducer. They told me after exercising they felt good and ready to complete the work they needed to get done so they don’t feel as overwhelmed.
One thing to know is that there is no absolutely correct way to reduce your stress levels. Everyone functions differently and some techniques may work for some and not work for others. Given the fact there are many ways to reduce stress, we obviously didn’t touch on every single one. For those of you that don’t know which would work for you and which wouldn’t, try out one by one and see which fits best for you!
