This post is all about college stress management.
It’s totally normal to feel the stress caving in on you when you’re in college. You have a lot to juggle and you’ve never had to deal with college stress management before. Figuring out what you’re going to eat, how you’re going to pay for college, and how to balance all of that with having a social life.
Whether you’re handling it smoothly or you’re feeling the pressure, this list of tools is for you. They’ll help you learn what you can do to make your life easier in the future. Every single one of these tools will get you feeling better in the moment once you try them.
This post is all about college stress management.
COLLEGE STRESS MANAGEMENT:
1. Prioritize self-care
Keep self-care in your routine. Do it on a weekly or daily basis and choose the time that works best for you. It can mean watching an hour of your favorite show, putting on a face mask, or practicing deep breathing.
Self-care is the only time when you’re in college that you can focus on yourself. So, take the time to recharge because you’ll burn out if you don’t give yourself a break and schedule time just for you to do whatever you need.
If you don’t like the idea of doing self-care, broaden your definition of it. Maybe you’re not into face masks or you don’t have a tub for a bubble bath, but you can create a time management schedule for yourself or set up a budget for this month.
2. Establish a routine
Set up a routine for yourself. Start by making a list of everything you want to accomplish in two categories: weekly and daily. Weekly means you only need to get something done once a week (like laundry or cleaning the house) and daily means you want to get it done everyday (like eating lunch or waking up in the morning).
Then, break up these things into the days of the week, putting the weekly items on the days you want to get them done. Estimate how long you need for them, what time of day to get them done, and, before you know it, you’ve created a routine with blocks of time to get everything done.
For the unexpected or unpredictable stuff that comes up (like homework), you can either set aside a chunk of time in your day when you only focus on those tasks or you can schedule specific assignments for specific times.
3. Practice time management
Time management is all about overestimating how long it will take you to complete a task. Then, you set aside time for that task in small chunks that lead up to the date it’s due so you have more than enough time to get it done and get it done well.
Of course, time management also includes all of the stuff you put into your routine that you want to get done on a daily or weekly basis. The most important part about setting goals and scheduling time to get your tasks done is to keep it realistic.
So, go ahead and create the to-do list knowing you have the tools to actually get it done.
4. Set realistic goals
When you set goals, keep them realistic. Part of keeping them realistic is making sure that you specific, you develop goals that are measurable, you make your goals attainable, keep them relevant, and time-sensitive.
Instead of saying you want to do well in your classes, you can get specific by saying you want to do well in your literature class. Then, you can make it measurable by saying you want to get an A in your literature course and you can make it attainable by deciding what doing well looks like to you.
Maybe you’d prefer getting a B because that fits with your goals and it’s attainable. Keep the goal relevant by making sure it’s something you’re invested in. Think about why you want to do well in your literature course and how that will benefit you.
Lastly, keep a time limit on it by saying that you want to get a certain grade in the class or on the tests by the end of the semester. Find what works for you, what you’re passionate about, and how you want to improve as a student and a person.
5. Utilize campus resources
Investigate what resources your school has to offer. The odds are they provide tutoring services, academic advisors, and counseling all included within tuition. Take advantage of what the school has to offer.
Tutoring services are often run by other students who want to help with academic writing, learning a language, or any subject that they do well in. So, you can get accessible, relatable help from a student like you.
6. Seek social support
Talk to people. Make friends. Start a conversation with the person next to you in class or join a club to meet new people with similar interests. Find people in your dorm who you want to get to know and spend time with.
The truth is you may not be forever friends with the people you meet in your first semester. But, that means that you don’t have worry about making friends that will last you forever. Instead, focus on finding people you genuinely want to get to know.
7. Communicate with professors
Reach out to your professors. Go to their office hours (because they’re probably pretty lonely during them) and strike up a conversation. You can bring material from the class that you want to clarify or you can just start up a conversation and be friendly.
As intimidating as it can be, talking with a professor is easier than you think. There are certain professors who will make you feel inferior and like a waste of time, so avoid those. But, the ones who make class interesting and seem like cool people probably are.
Not only is it cool to have friends who are older, more educated, and more experienced, but it’s useful for letters of recommendation and reaching out when you’re struggling. Maybe you have no idea how you’re going to pass the test tomorrow or finish that essay in a couple of days. This is when you reach out and have a conversation with your professor because they’re people too.
8. Take breaks
Schedule in break time. Go for a walk, watch a show, or do some deep breathing for five minutes. However you want to spend your break time is up to you, but make sure that you are detaching from social media, school, and other sources of stress in your life.
You can use this time to hang out with a friend or take a nap. Do what you need to do to stay your best self and keep the idea of self-care in mind (because this is a form of self-care!).
The benefit of taking a break when you’re studying or doing homework or stressing out about something is that you can take a quick few minutes to recharge and reset for maximum college stress management.
9. Eat well-balanced meals
It’s hard enough to remember to eat, get food, and make it happen. But, then you have to think about what you’re eating and whether it’s fueling you. This is all part of the college experience: you get to learn how to set yourself up for a strong, energetic day.
Figure out what works for you. Meal prepping can work if you want to eat the same type of a food for lunch every day and appreciate the idea you only have to do it once. Cooking everyday can be useful if you like to change it up and have the time to focus on cooking.
Always reserve some money and time for those days you want to eat out. The important part about eating in college is making sure that you’re setting yourself for success. If you’re too hungry to focus on class, there’s no way you’ll be able to do well.
So, avoid skipping meals by planning ahead. Get yourself some fulfilling snacks for those long study sessions to make sure you’ve mastered college stress management.
10. Get enough sleep
Plan sleep into your day like it’s eating, class, or homework because sleep will be the first thing to go when you’re stressed out about time. Keep yourself alert by going to sleep early enough to get the those hours in before class the next day.
Use naps a way to recharge, but be careful because it’s easy to start relying on naps instead of relying on sleep at night. If you notice yourself struggling to sleep, think through what might causing it. Maybe it’s the amount of light or noise or anxiety.
Get some earplugs, a sleep mask, or consider trying melatonin and invest in a journal. The goal is to get you sleeping your best and keeping that sleep at night instead of during the day.
11. Limit caffeine and alcohol
Along with prioritizing sleep, you’ll want to monitor your caffeine and alcohol intake. It’s normal for college students to overuse both substances, but that doesn’t make any healthier or more necessary.
If you plan on drinking caffeine or alcohol, pay attention to how it affects you and your mental health. Notice any changes to your stress and anxiety levels and if you have a lower quality of sleep or wakefulness.
While caffeine is supposed to replace sleep and alcohol decreases your stress, the odds are neither of those will happen, so make sure you’re doing what’s best for your mind and body when using those substances.
12. Practice assertiveness
This either terrifying or seems completely unnecessary to you. Either way, it’s a good reminder to learn to say no and to advocate for yourself. One of the most painful experiences you’ll go through as you continue college, graduate, and get a job is learning that, at a certain point, no one will advocate for you until you advocate for yourself.
Even then, it may not happen. But, it’s important to remember that you will always know what’s best for you even if you have to learn that you don’t know yourself as well as you thought and you needed to learn the hard way about some of your choices.
Essentially, you have to go out and make friends if you want to meet new people. You have to meet with your advisor and explain to them why you are graduating early. You have to call the financial aid office and get on hold for three hours when you realize your financial aid hasn’t come through yet.
There are lots of people who want to advocate for you including friends, family, and community leaders. But, rarely do those people know everything you need help with and every issue you experience. So, learn to say no to things you don’t want to do and get loud about the things you need to do.
