How to Manage Study Stress
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my academic friends, clients and even my own experience, it’s that academia is very stressful. Studies are showing that rates of stress, anxiety and depression are higher among students than other populations, and some universities, but not all, are responding to this by offering funded counselling to students. But counselling isn’t for everyone and waiting lists are long. And sometimes stress management can be as effective when we do it on our own. So in this piece I’m going to talk about what I have learned about stress management.
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I learned long ago that anxiety shouldn’t hold me back from being ambitious, but if allowed to get out of control, stress can be debilitating. My own stress management involves a combination of exercise, self-care, structure and, sometimes, plain old fun.
In this article I outline some basic ways to deal with stress. These are intended as coping mechanisms for ‘study stress’ only. If you find yourself dealing with stress or anxiety to an unmanageable degree, it is important to see a doctor or a therapist. To find out how you rate on a basic anxiety inventory, take this test.
1. Let’s Consider Shame
When we talk about stress and anxiety, along with really any other mental health matter, one topic that has to be mentioned is shame. There is a culture of misunderstanding around mental health and the stigma is only just beginning to be addressed. What is important to clarify here is that mental health refers to everyone and almost none of us is 100% mentally healthy. Needing to take care of your mental health does not mean you are weak or insane or whatever self-criticism you might be levelling your way. It means you are human.
Everybody gets stressed and particularly in response to stressful moments like essay hand-ins. It is natural and it is nothing to be ashamed of. One thing I’ve come across a lot over the years is people/articles/institutions that try to make us feel guilty about being stressed. This then often boils down to becoming stressed because you’re stressed, because people or institutions don’t want to take responsibility for that stress.
If you’ve got to the point that you are stressed, try not to listen to either the outside voices or the voices in your head telling you this is something to be ashamed of (I know this isn’t as easy as it sounds). Stress is natural and sometimes — in the highly fast-paced and stressful world we live in — it is unavoidable. I find it best to accept that I’m stressed, ask those around me to also accept that I’m stressed, and then attempt to deal with it.
2. Time Management: Plan to Avoid Stress
Time management is key, but it’s something that some people naturally manage better than others. Being bad at time management is nothing to be ashamed of. But, you will feel better if you learn it and, indeed, it can be learned. When I was a student I was one of those people who worked through the night to get essays done. But in the last 12 years I have successfully run two businesses that have depended on deadlines. I rarely work past my allocated work hours nowadays.
Time management is about setting goals and achieving them. In order for goals to be achieved they need to be achievable. So, if you know you can write 2,000 words in a day, don’t set a target to write 3,000 a day. In fact, possibly set your target at 1,800 a day and if you go over this can be a bonus. Remember to schedule the non-writing stages; proofreading and editing and redrafting are just as important as the first writing stage.
Work hours, whenever these may be for you, should be achievable as well. 8am to 10pm is not sensible. The human brain won’t be able to work efficiently with that. Try to develop a realistic understanding of when your brain is at its best. Most of us work best in the morning. So in that case, writing could be done in the morning. We tend to dip in the afternoon, so perhaps you could do supplementary research in the afternoon.
For me, time management is about rewards. I do my work and then at the end of the day, I go out, meet friends, do an exercise class. I find that these set times when I need to leave the house help motivate me to achieve. If I don’t have anything planned for that evening I may find I dawdle and prevaricate. But me-time is also valuable time and it should be protected. Plan to watch a film or have dinner with flatmates. Set end times to the day. And be strict about ending then.
Allow a buffer in your plan so that if you haven’t achieved what you needed to, it can be caught up on with no great strain. There’s no shame in having an off-day. It happens to everyone.
3. Stand on Top of a Hill: Find Your Safe Place
For me, my stress-free place is standing on top of a hill on a windy day (the wind isn’t essential) so far from any humans that I can’t even hear the sound of cars. It is here that I find my silence and my peace. If you haven’t tried this, I’d definitely recommend it. But, of course, this isn’t everybody’s safe place.
The places we feel safe depend on our pasts and on the people we are. Not everybody will be like me. Indeed, if you’re severely scared of heights and isolation, standing alone on top of a hill could be the exact opposite of a safe space. You need to work out what is good for you.
When I was a student I remember listening to a group of students tell one another that they just ‘needed’ a mini-break. This may have been so, but for me the mini-break was a quick bus trip and a two hour walk up some hills. I agree that distance and a change of scenery can be really important to mental health and de-stressing, but I also think that a safe place that involves getting on an aeroplane isn’t the most useful. Safe places should by definition be accessible, whether this is a nook in a book shop, on top of a hill or in the middle of a crowd at a gig. We’re all different, but we all deserve to feel safe whenever we need it.
If ever the time management isn’t going so well, the work isn’t getting done and the stress is building, perhaps stop and go to this place. So often we seem to hold out the good things as rewards for when a certain project or task is completed, but in fact the time that they are most needed is right in the middle of the task or project. A complete break, a clear head will, of course, leave you refreshed and far more productive.
4. Stimulants: When Restraint is your Friend
Ever woken up from a big night out feeling guilty, even when you’re pretty sure you didn’t actually do anything particularly embarrassing? I was 25 when a friend told me this is a natural reaction in the body to over-consumption of alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant as well as a stimulant, meaning that although we will feel an initial high, we later, particularly the morning after a big one, may feel low, depressed and anxious. High alcohol consumption can also impact the immune system, making you more likely to develop that cold your friends have all come down with.
The good news is, I’m not suggesting not drinking; in fact I’m suggesting day-drinking. The best advice I ever read about this was in a book about managing anxiety. The author points out that evening drinking will impact our sleep, both due to the late night and the come-down from the alcohol. According to her, we deal with this come-down from drinking much better while we are still awake, so why not have those few Saturday drinks with your lunch rather than your dinner?
The other big one here is caffeine. Caffeine has a different effect on everyone and some people are much more susceptible to it. But one thing to keep in mind is that while it may wake you up, a cup of coffee may also lead to mood swings, thereby affecting your emotional health; it can also impact sleep if drunk in the afternoon to evening and poor sleep is one of the quickest ways to leave your body feeling stressed.
Tea and coffee can both be good for us, but if you are feeling very stressed and looking for solutions, it is important to consider what your relationship is with caffeine and whether this is benefitting your mental health.
5. Meditation/Mindfulness/Yoga: The Divisive Ones
When I was 18, I scoffed at the idea of yoga and pilates. Now I do yoga several times a week before going to bed, I have tried meditation and I have bought books about mindfulness. Practicing yoga, meditation and mindfulness is still very gender- and class-based, but I think this is a shame because all they essentially teach is self-care.
- Mindfulness
Mindfulness in particular can be subject to misunderstanding. As I understand it, mindfulness is the practice of accepting and being aware of your own state of mind. It is not about pushing yourself to be happy or content, but simply being content with what you are, even if that what-you-are is sad or stressed. It is about introspection and in that way it can also help your behaviours to be less harmful to others. We all know people who have a poor understanding of their own mental health and so they lash out, making their upset everybody else’s problem. These people are not mindful.
However, when I read a book about mindfulness it told me to eat a raisin very slowly and appreciate its taste. And this, for me, is where mindfulness gets its bad rep. I don’t like raisins. Paying attention to your own mental health, accepting and being aware of how you are and when you need to take greater care of yourself is a positive thing. Eating a raisin at a predefined pace is nonsense. So when I say be mindful, I mean take the good from mindfulness. And, indeed, some people may enjoy a full raisin experience.
Meditation is and has always been something I struggle with. If I try to clear my mind I often get distracted by making lists of things to do, having ideas, or I simply start planning my next meal. Headspace is nice, and there are videos online; Insight Timer also has free elements. I was meant to do three minutes guided meditation a day. I often forgot, but I did eventually manage my ten free sessions. I didn’t keep going because, for me, I find it easier to meditate in a yoga situation when my body is tired and focussed. Every yoga session will end with a three minute or so meditation session.
I would certainly suggest trying meditation and seeing if it is for you though. There are a lot of these apps now in existence. What I did was use my ten free goes when I was feeling particularly stressed and busy. After all, three minutes is nothing out of the day. Perhaps even pick a set time and do it at this time every day for a week. See how you feel after the week.
Far from the 18-year-old who scoffed at yoga, I now have my own yoga room. I started practicing once a week when I was about 26 and almost as soon as I began the classes became a point in my week that I would look forward to as the moment I could de-stress. Now I can either make up my own sets or very comfortably use videos on YouTube (see a link here for my favourite pro yoga lady, or these classes for something a little different) to guide me in new ideas for sets.
Although I now mainly only practice yoga at home, in the early stages I think classes are best because a proper instructor can correct your postures and explain the fundamentals of practice to avoid injuries. However, the important thing to consider from yoga is that it is a series of poses, and sometimes just one or two will do.
To Sum Up
The thing with yoga, meditation and mindfulness is that you don’t have to be 100% sold on every element to get something from them. When I go to a restaurant I don’t need to like everything on the menu. Dip in and out, do some research. See what works for you. And it is this finding what works for you that is key to addressing stress.
Everything discussed above is a suggestion based on my own experience. Every human body is different and it is up to you to work out what works and doesn’t work for your body. But keep in mind that you are entitled to try these things. Give yoga a go; try not going out on a Saturday night before a big hand-in; search out that safe place. Explore what you need and what helps your body manage stress best. And, most important of all, don’t let anybody shame you about what your body needs.
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University Tutoring UK offers comprehensive academic tutoring, writing coaching and editing and proofreading services for students, academics and writers. These services are entirely offered remotely and Laura works with clients living all over the world. Taking clients straight to the tutor makes the service affordable as it cuts out the middle man and extra costs all round. All tutoring and writing coaching is provided remotely via Zoom, Google Hangouts, in combination with phone and email.