students stress
Student life might seem carefree and fun to everyone, but students. In reality, there are so many things for young people to worry about. Future career, assignments, exams, money, part-time jobs, internship, and love life – all these can get pretty overwhelming. Ironically, straight-A students are usually more vulnerable to stress than others. It's like the harder you try and the better you get, the more stressful your life becomes. To maintain peace of mind and prevent burnout, you should learn how to deal with stress. We offer you some effective and simple tips to help you stay on the positive side of life.

Physical Exercises

Regular physical exercises help to reduce stress and improve the quality of your life in general. When you train, your body produces hormones: endorphin and serotonin. These hormones are responsible for the feeling of happiness and satisfaction. For your body to start producing them, the intensity of exercises should slightly exceed the average level. In other words, they should be challenging. An hour of such exercises two or three times a week can significantly elevate your mood. But avoid overtraining. If you exhaust yourself, your body will protest by weakening the immune system. Select a sport that best suits your temper and physical condition. If you feel like you need to blow off some steam, you may opt for boxing or martial arts. If you're looking for something relaxing, try yoga, Pilates or swimming. For those who want to free their minds and burn calories in the meantime, running is the best option. Team sports will help you dive into a different world and forget about problems for a period of your training. If you're not sure what to choose, hit the gym and work out on machines.

Prioritizing and Time Management

Obviously, you cannot grasp all the opportunities that life offers you. You have only a limited amount of time at hand. Your success depends on the way you manage it. Proper time management starts with prioritizing your goals and tasks. Here is a nice instrument that can help you plan your time. All the assignments can be divided into four categories:
  1. important and urgent;
  2. important and not urgent;
  3. urgent and unimportant;
  4. unimportant and not urgent.
Tasks from the first category are sources of stress. You should minimize their amount. Tasks from the fourth group are time killers. You should avoid them or manage them last. The third category is the tricky one. Due to their urgency, some things might seem crucial, but after a close inspection, you will see that they are not. Thus, when it comes to prioritizing, make sure they do not divert you from the second category tasks. It is a group you need to pay close attention to. Plan your time based on thorough management of important and not urgent tasks. Writing research papers, studying for exams, planning your career, working on your CV are examples of such tasks. Make sure you devote enough time to them. Otherwise, they will shift to the first category and get you into trouble!
students stress

Manage Your Workload

It is the continuation of the previous tip. You should not take on more responsibilities than you can handle. You don't have to participate in every conference, take on all the extra credit work or join every club. But even if you prioritize your tasks wisely, you can still get overwhelmed. Sometimes you might discover yourself unable to cope with all the pending tasks. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Your parents, friends, teachers, and mentors can assist you if needed. Moreover, numerous professional services can help you with various assignments. For instance, you may find some useful tips on how to write a popular academic paper called a case study in this post.

Loosen the Grip of Perfectionism

This advice sounds the simplest, but indeed is the hardest to follow. Perfectionism can be good and useful. It stimulates you to do your best and achieve outstanding results. On the other hand, if you take it too seriously, it can ruin your life. Constantly striving for excellence results in stress and deep frustration in case of failures. You should accept the fact that you don't have to be perfect. Focus on several fundamental aspects of your life and let go of the others. Allow yourself little innocent imperfections and weaknesses. Forgive your mistakes and failures. You will see how much more enjoyable your life can be.

Meditation

It is a rather complicated practice that takes years to master. But you can always try a simplified version of it, which is rather effective. All you need is 10 to 20 minutes of spare time, a quiet place and relaxing music. Assume a comfortable position, close your eyes and try to free your mind. Let your thoughts flow through your head, but don't dwell on them. Concentrate on your breath and relax your muscles. Breathe deeply so that your body gets oxygenated properly. Good meditation has both emotional and physical effects. On the one hand, silence and relaxation help you calm down. On the contrary, more oxygen makes your body and brain work efficiently.  It is worth trying!

Stop Multitasking

Multitasking has recently become a synonym of effectiveness. If you can complete several tasks simultaneously, you seem very productive and almost all-powerful. In spite of the allurement of such a perspective, there is the other side of the medal. Multitasking generates stress. You might not notice it at once, but it will keep growing inside of you. At some point in time, you will discover tiredness, lack of concentration and loss of enthusiasm. Then you should revise your habits. In fact, multitasking is not always conditioned by the need. Very often we do it just because we are used to it, or because everybody is doing so, and we don't want to seem lazy by contrast. Therefore, try focusing on one job in a single period and see how your life improves. And last, but not least, have fun without feeling guilty. We all need to relax both physically and emotionally. Sometimes you might find it hard to do because you have so many things to worry about. But the youth is the time for us to live our lives to the fullest. Remember, all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Excuse yourself from responsibilities every once in a while and just have fun. After all, this is how you are going to remember your student life!