Dealing With Stress at School

[Guest guest]

You have permission to publish this article electronically

or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are

included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be

appreciated - send to td@....

Title: Dealing With Stress at School

Word Count: 956

Author: Trevor Dumbleton

Email: td@...

Article URL:

http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=3461

The article is preformatted to 60CPL.

Dealing With Stress at School

Copyright 2005 Trevor Dumbleton

For all that talk of school being the " best time in your

life " , one of the most difficult results of school is

simple school stress. Of course, school stress is not only

brought on by classes, homework, papers to write, problems

to solve, and the persistent need to keep up with reading.

It is also brought on by the often taxing work of keeping

up with friends, keeping up with life, keeping the parents

happy, and rather onerous task of simply being young and

trying to figure out what the heck you are going to do with

the next, oh, 40 to 50 years of your life. Thus, it may

very well be the best time in your life, but it is also one

of the worst.

The biggest source of school stress if, of course, school

itself. The constant press of classes and schoolwork never

seems to be relieved and trying to keep pace with

everything that is happening is nothing short of a

Herculean task. Teachers are constantly loading you with

piles of work that often seems to be mere busywork and all

of it needs to be done yesterday. On top of that, you need

to switch gears between any one of a number of different

subjects, running the gamut from mathematics to literature

to chemistry to history. And you need to be able to do it

as rapidly as a Formula 1 driver navigating a series of

S-curves. To call it taxing is not quite accurate. I

think a better word would be extortionate.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with school stress is

that there is no way around all this work. It has to be

done whether you like it or not, so at some point you need

to actually sit down and do it. That is the bad news. The

good news is that others have done it before you and it can

be turned into a manageable duty.

Much as you are probably tired of hearing about it, the key

to all of this is to prioritize your tasks. Figure out

what needs to be done first, what needs to be done second,

then third and so on. If you need to make a list of

everything that needs doing so that you can then rate the

priority, by all means do so. It is actually fairly

therapeutic to make a list and it will help to reduce your

school stress simply by putting everything in order. Then,

when you finish a task, you can cross it off.

Once you have your prioritized list of tasks, it is time to

get things done. While you are doing your work, do not

think about your other tasks. Just keep your mind on what

you are doing at the time. If it is physics equations,

just do the equations and don't ponder anything else. Keep

focused and get through until the work is completed. Then,

cross it off your list and move on to the next task.

Also, while you are attempting to concentrate on your work,

remember to take a break every so often. Lean back and

stretch your shoulders and neck every 15 minutes or so.

About every hour, stand up and take a quick walk around the

room. Just take your mind off of your work for a few

minutes, then go back to it. This will give your already

addled brain a rest, allowing you to get back into the

swing full speed.

When studying, remember to study where you study best.

Don't read in bed if you are only going to fall asleep.

Don't sit at a desk where you don't have space to spread

out all the science books you need. Don't sit in a chair

that is so uncomfortable that you think more about the fact

your rear end hurts than the work that is in front of you.

Find a place where you can focus and stay focused until you

are done. That way, your work will get done and you will

have the altogether wonderful relief from school stress

that only comes with having nothing more you need to do for

school that evening.

However, this does not mean that you need to avoid all

forms of entertainment while you are working. In fact, you

can take a break for television or for computer games. Of

course, this is only if you have the willpower to walk away

from it after a set period of time (let's say an hour) and

return to your schoolwork. Though the relaxation breaks

are nice, taking too many of them will just give you more

school stress because you will suddenly realize that it is

midnight and you haven't gotten a thing done. If you need

to avoid the television until after your work is done, then

do it. You know yourself best, so do what works. And only

if it actually gets work done.

As for the other concerns of life, well, it's hard to tell

you what you need to do. Just keep your schoolwork in

front of you and try to make time for other pursuits.

After all, there is more to school that just lessons, exams

and homework and seeing friends is a great way to keep

school stress at bay.

Even if classes are getting you down, school stress does

not need to take over your life. If you learn to manage

stress now, you will be able to manage stress much better

throughout your life. Even if you get nothing else out of

school, one of the most important lessons you can learn

from school is how to handle stress. After all, school

stress is still stress all the same.

About the Author:

LowerYourStress.com: for everything to do with stress. Get

a free ebook to help with your stress levels:

http://www.loweryourstress.com/stress-book.html