Tips for avoiding stress in the first place:

 

• Don’t take on more than you can handle! If it seems like a lot of time and effort, it probably is.

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• Don’t spread yourself too thin; learn how to say “NO”! It’s great if you want to be involved in lots of different things, but not if it’s at the expense of your physical/emotional health, or at the expense of those counting on you.

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• Give yourself some down time to do what you want to do. It’s ok if there is a moment in time when you are not doing something. In fact, taking time to rest from all that you are doing actually makes you more productive!

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• Don’t get sucked into the last-minute stress created by groups on Facebook or other social media sites. When everyone gets together online at 1am the morning before an assignment is due, last-minute desperate questions that nobody has the answer to pop up, and suddenly everyone gets freaked out. It’s easy for your personal stress to feed off everyone else’s and make you more worried about the assignment then you should be.

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• Go to sleep at a reasonable hour! Staying up until ungodly hours really does not help out your grades.

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• Don’t save up your assignments or studying until the day before they are due or before the big test. Yes, we understand that it is the natural inclination to leave things until you absolutely, positively have to do them, but the most successful and stress-free students are those who overcome the urge to put things off and get them done as soon as possible.

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• Spread your studying out. Large amounts of time spent on a single subject is not only painfully boring, but also doesn’t work. Hitting yourself over the head with the same section of your textbook for 4 hours will only make you frustrated and you won’t be able to actually absorb anything you’re reading.

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• When writing an assignment, take breaks from it. This can give you “fresh eyes” when you come back to continue editing it.

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Don’t rip your hair out just yet! Here’s some advice on how to handle your stress:

 

• Breathe. It’s all going to be ok. And if it’s not, then it’s still going to be ok.

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• Ask for help. You were never meant to do everything on your own, and you don’t have to. There are tons of people who are happy to give you a hand: friends, family, teachers, counsellors…

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• Let it out; don’t hold everything inside until you explode. Whether it means punching your pillow or talking about how you really feel with a trusted friend, letting off steam will keep you from overheating.